by Sarah Brown and Allegra H. Fullerton
As you plan reading lists for the coming academic year, this collection of recent articles offers fresh insights for units on emotions in public policy, the politics of environmental policy, and governance networks. Each article draws on cutting-edge empirical research combined with conceptual innovation, making them ideal for both undergraduate and postgraduate modules exploring the politics of policymaking.
We hope these suggestions save you time and effort in mining recent articles while ensuring your course materials reflect the latest research from the frontiers of the discipline.
Social identity, emotions, and democratic participation
This first set of articles focuses on how social identities, emotions, and citizen participation shape policy processes. They offer valuable material for modules on political psychology, protest politics, and/or participatory governance, opening new doors for student engagement and deepening understanding of both policy and politics.
In The politics of anger: emotional appraisal mechanisms and the French pension reform protests, Kuhlmann and Starke explore how emotional appraisals fuelled large-scale mobilisation in response to French pension reforms. Their analysis helps students understand how emotions act as mechanisms of political contestation, rather than simply by-products of policy dissatisfaction.
In our next article, Hornung and Bandelow examine how social identity shapes emotional responses to policy decisions in Germany. Their findings illuminate the complex ways in which group affiliation influences not just preferences but also the emotional framing of political issues.
Next, Kilty and Orsini turn to anti-carceral advocacy in Canada to ask how emotions—especially anger—function within marginalised activist communities. Their work challenges students to consider both the empowering and exhausting effects of emotional labour in social movements.
Finally, Kim, Kuk and Kweon assess how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced support for redistribution among the public, particularly in response to the visibility of essential workers. Their findings speak directly to questions of policy legitimacy, deservingness, and shifting social solidarities.
Environmental policy and sustainability
This second section highlights how policy scholars are grappling with the urgent challenges of climate change, environmental justice, and sustainable transformation. These topics that remain central to public policy curricula, and offer an updated perspective for climate, environment, or policy courses.
In our first article on this theme, Sloam and Henn’s article explores how young people are shaping urban environmental policy through civic participation. This is a useful piece for introducing students to generational politics, urban governance, and democratic innovation in environmental policymaking.
Next, Buch-Hansen and Carstensen draw on critical political economy to analyse the forms of political agency that can drive radical ecological transformation. Their argument provides a robust theoretical foundation for teaching students about the possibilities and limits of green reform.
Finally on this theme, Bolognesi, Lieberherr and Fischer explore how different actors form and express policy preferences in the context of Swiss water management. Their findings lend themselves well to discussions about environmental decision-making and stakeholder coordination.
Governance networks, collaboration, and coordination
Our final cluster of articles brings together research on policy networks, collaborative governance, and metagovernance. These are essential readings for students studying how coordination unfolds across fragmented policy systems. Consider including in a management, policy or methods course!
We begin this section with Ansell, Orr and Trein, who explore collaborative governance in the contested field of cannabis legalisation in California. Their article challenges the dominant ‘win–win’ narrative by illustrating how collaboration can also involve the manufacturing of consent—making this a compelling teaching example on the role of power and discourse in network settings.
Next, Becker, Sparf and Petridou examine the roles of proactive and reactive policy entrepreneurs in collaborative settings in the context of flood risk management. This empirical study brings to life key theoretical debates about agency in networks.
In our third article, Acosta and Borrell-Porta investigate how different collaborative arrangements influence policy innovation. Their regression-based study of neighbourhood policy design in Barcelona is useful for teaching about co-creation, collaboration, and methodological approaches to assessing innovation.
And last but not least, Carlier, Aubin and Moyson assess how diversity affects collective learning in local policy networks in Belgium. This article supports teaching on policy learning, deliberation, and network performance.
We hope these articles prove useful in updating your reading lists and supporting your classroom discussions with the latest research insights. All articles in this collection are free to access from July to October, so download them now to review and add to your syllabi!
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Access the full student reading list collection at
Kuhlmann, J., and Starke, P. (2025). The politics of anger: emotional appraisal mechanisms and the French pension reform protests. Policy & Politics 53, 1, 152-177, available from: < https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000027>
Hornung, J., and Bandelow, N. C. (2025). Social identities, emotions and policy preferences. Policy & Politics 53, 1, 178-199, available from: < https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000036>
Kilty, J. M., and Orsini, M. (2024). Emotions and anti-carceral advocacy in Canada: ‘All of the anger this creates in our bodies is also a tool to kill us’. Policy & Politics 52, 2, 219-238, available from: < https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2023D000000024>
Kim, J. H., Kuk, J., and Kweon, Y. (2024). Did low-income essential workers during COVID-19 increase public support for redistribution?. Policy & Politics 52, 3, 430-452, available from: < https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2023D000000008>
Sloam, J., and Henn, M. (2025). How young people can shape environmental policy in urban spaces. Policy & Politics 53, 1, 65-86, available from: < https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000039>
Buch-Hansen, H., and Carstensen, M. B. (2024). What kind of political agency can foster radical transformation towards ecological sustainability?. Policy & Politics 52, 2, 259-277, available from: < https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2023D000000025>
Bolognesi, T., Lieberherr, E., and Fischer, M. (2024). Identifying and explaining policy preferences in Swiss water management. Policy & Politics 52, 3, 384-411, available from: < https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2023D000000004>
Ansell, C. K., Orr, K., and Trein, P. (2025). Between win–win and the manufacturing of consent: collaborative governance as a lightning rod in cannabis policy. Policy & Politics (published online ahead of print 2025), available from: < https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2025D000000068>
Becker, P., Sparf, J., and Petridou, E. (2024). Identifying proactive and reactive policy entrepreneurs in collaborative networks in flood risk management. Policy & Politics 52, 2, 298-320, available from: < https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2023D000000006>
Cordoncillo Acosta, C., and Borrell-Porta, M. (2025). Fostering innovation through collaboration: a comparison of collaborative approaches to policy design. Policy & Politics (published online ahead of print 2025), available from: < https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000058>
Carlier, N., Aubin, D., and Moyson, S. (2024). The relative effects of diversity on collective learning in local collaborative networks in Belgium. Policy & Politics 52, 4, 648-674, available from: < https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2023D000000007>
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