The rise of public sector innovation labs: experiments in design thinking for policy.

This paper provides an analytical contribution to policy studies by examining the foundations of PSI labs and by examining their relationships to government, and their approaches and methods. It is based on an empirical analysis of the characteristics of a small number of prominent PSI labs. We also consider the type of policy design work PSI labs engage in by way of addressing their distinctiveness (or not) from other ‘knowledge actors’ (Williamson 2015a, 252). Our focus is not on whether PSI labs are effectively contributing to policy making and public sector innovation, but instead we seek to understand whether they bring to bear a distinct modality (or logic) to policymaking and public sector innovation. Whether the ideas and proposals of PSI labs are ever enacted and implemented by decision-makers, whether they are improving policy effectiveness and whether they are a new type of actor, capable of changing the landscape of the policy process by causing a reconfiguration of policy advice, all remain important questions for future research. We begin by considering the reasons behind the recent emergence of PSI labs before turning our attention to questions about their distinctiveness.