Conclusion: The Consequences of Policy Learning Travelling North
摘要
In this concluding chapter, we reflect on the volume’s key insights, drawn from a curated selection of scholarly voices from the Global South and Global East, examining policy transfers to the Global North, a methodological approach that reverses the usual dominance of innovations in the GS/GE from the perspective of observers from the North. We discuss how the Global North undermines itself by failing to learn from important policy innovations in the GS, thereby missing an opportunity to recognise that, amid challenging circumstances, there may be pathbreaking alternatives. These alternatives, if carefully assessed for transferability, could be of enormous value to the GN. The chapter develops this key insight, drawing on the various contributions to the volume. Continued failure to foster horizontal policy discussions across the South, North, and East will perpetuate global inequalities, to the point that the GN not only misses the chance to learn about models that could serve as best practice in many policy domains but, in the worst case, the GS/GE might begin to doubt its capacity to develop further creative solutions, as the notion of an unfulfillable gap muffles innovation from the outset.