Series introduction
Exploring New Horizons
in Policy Management
KAMO, Tomoki
To think about the future. This is what the Faculty of Policy Management at Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus pursues in its academic studies, and the cornerstone of its education and research activities is "thinking about policy" that will carry us through the future. Through the study of policy management, we have strived to nurture students equipped with the ability to discern the future, the capacities to analyze situations, the dynamism to design policies, the power to persuade others of the significance of policies, the initiative to implement these policies, and the competencies to synthesize these abilities.
In the thirty years since the founding of the Faculty of Policy Management, I have reconfirmed the fact that social order is volatile. Shared values and what was once considered beneficial to society, are in a state of flux. We must recognize that many of the issues we face cannot be solved with existing methods, which constantly require new thinking.
Studies in policy management demand constant change. While being conversant with each advanced academic field, the Faculty of Policy Management seeks to synthesize and make headway into interdisciplinary fields, with one of the appeals of our scholarship being that it equips us with modes of thinking that seek to adapt to changes in the order of society.
Where we find ourselves now is the result of the dynamism of the past thirty years. Through the "Exploring New Horizons in Policy Management" book project, we will look back on the Faculty of Policy Management's path over the past thirty years, reflect on our present state, and offer a direction for policy management studies to carry us through the next thirty years.
If policy is considered a product of society (human activity), then in order to think about policy, we are required to have an accurate understanding of the realities of politics and society. Only when one becomes familiar with the reality of the policy process, the thoughts and actions of the actors who make up society, and the function of systems designed to shape the interaction among actors, as well as have an understanding of the difficulties involved in policy evaluation, can one begin to "think about policy."
In this book series, there are five themes, each featured in its own volume, to approach the reality of policy.
- Global Governance in the Turbulent World Order
- Language, Culture and Communication
- Social Innovation: methods and practices
- Public Policy and Changing Legal Systems
- Methodological Approaches in Policy Management Studies
The word "opening" in the series title "Exploring New Horizons in Policy Management" conveys our desire to evolve constantly through the exploration and pursuit of knowledge. In Yukichi Fukuzawa's "An Outline of a Theory of Civilization*," which is quoted on various occasions, we can find the following passage, "Thus the unorthodox theories of the past become the commonly accepted ideas of the present; yesterday's eccentric notions become today's common knowledge. Therefore the unorthodox views of today will most certainly become the common ideas and theories of the future." I believe to understand knowledge in this way as something that dynamically changes requires us to continue exploration and to never stand still is woven into the word.
The cover art of each volume that makes up this series depicts "people". Hiroshi Kato, the first Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management, stated, "Policy arises from people making choices and decisions in order to take some kind of action," and Hideo Aiso, the first Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, stated, "By studying people and their environment, and the significance of information's strong influence on them, we expect that our students will use their skills to identify and resolve issues and play a central role in the future information society." The people in the cover art represent the prominent role "people" play in our pursuit of learning with a vision toward the future at both the Faculty of Policy Management and the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies.
*Translated by David A. Dillworth and G. Cameron Hurst III, Columbia University Press, 2009.