The IDHUS Institute - IDHUS Institute

The Most Important Knowledge in an Institution May Never Have Been Written Down

Institutions produce enormous quantities of documents. Policies describe what should happen, procedures specify how tasks should be performed, databases preserve records, reports explain what has happened, and guidance attempts…

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What Is Institutional Cognition?

Public institutions are often described through their legal powers, organisational structures or administrative responsibilities. Yet beneath these visible characteristics lies another dimension that is rarely discussed: their capacity to perceive…

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Where Does a Government’s Knowledge Actually Live?

When governments want to preserve what they know, they tend to create places in which knowledge can be stored. They build databases, document procedures, maintain archives, publish guidance, create knowledge-management…

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WP-D-L01-001- Planetary Governance Systems

Planetary governance has traditionally been interpreted through political concepts centred upon international cooperation, multilateral institutions or hypothetical forms of global government. This new Working Paper we are now presenting proposes…

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No One Knows the Whole and That May Be Completely Normal

There is a familiar complaint about large institutions: nobody seems to understand how the whole thing works. Ask one department about a problem and it refers you to another. Speak…

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A Database Is Not a Capability

Public institutions have become very good at acquiring things that promise to make them smarter. They build databases, commission analytical platforms, recruit specialists, purchase decision-support systems and, increasingly, experiment with…

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What Does an Institution Know That Nobody Knows?

Imagine asking a large public institution a relatively simple question: why does a particular process work the way it does? One person may know the legal history behind it. Another…

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