This important Handbook brings together preeminent scholars, both from Global South and North, sharing their comparative and international perspectives on the topic. Their original contributions cover the key issues and questions around policy transfer research. Offering a pluralist perspective and focusing on critical areas of research including policy transfer, diffusion, circulation and mobilities, this Handbook overcomes epistemological and methodological cleavages in the field. Opening with a series of discussions on the concepts and advancements in the study of policy transfer, the Handbook moves to an examination of agents and structures involved in the process. The Handbook also sheds light on the role of culture and context, with chapters devoted to Asian, Latin American and European particularities. Altogether, chapters illuminate how rich and provocative the current debate on the interpretation of policies moving across borders is and the vibrancy of the area’s research within the broad planet of public policy analysis. Presenting a ground-breaking and unique contribution to the area of public policy analysis, the Handbook of Policy Transfer, Diffusion and Circulation will be a useful resource for well-established scholars, researchers, policy-makers and both post graduate and undergraduate students in this field.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Foreword xiii Jacint Jordana Acknowledgements xvi 1 A prelude to policy transfer research 1 Osmany Porto de Oliveira PART I CONCEPTS AND METHODS 2 Learning and transfer: who learns what from whom? 26 David P. Dolowitz 3 Mechanisms of policy transfer and policy diffusion 43 Johanna Kuhlmann 4 Translation and translators in policy transfer processes 58 Patrick Hassenteufel and Ulrike Zeigermann 5 Collaborative event ethnography as a strategy for analyzing policy transfers and global summits 80 David Dumoulin Kervran 6 Policy mobilities as comparison: urbanization processes, repeated instances, topologies 100 Jennifer Robinson PART II AGENTS AND STRUCTURES 7 International organizations as complex agents in policy transfer processes 121 Magdaléna Hadjiisky 8 International agencies and urban policy diffusion 155 Richard Stren 9 Private consultants and policy advisory organizations: a blind spot on policy transfer research 173 Diane Stone, Leslie A. Pal and Osmany Porto de Oliveira 10 Instrument constituency and policy transfer: how a collective actor mediates the transnational movement of policy instruments 196 Michael Howlett and Kidjie Saguin 11 Travelling across developing countries: unpacking the role of South– South Cooperation and civil society in policy transfer 214 Laura Trajber Waisbich, Melissa Pomeroy and Iara Costa Leite 12 Defending the realm: knowledge networks, regime maintenance and policy transfer 237 Leslie A. Pal and Jennifer Spence PART III CULTURE, CONTEXT AND DIRECTIONS 13 Understanding the role of culture in policy transfers 258 Giulia C. Romano 14 Circulations of planning ideas and urban policy mobilities in Latin America 278 Camila Saraiva, Guillermo Jajamovich and Gabriel Silvestre 15 Social policies in movement: diffusion and transfer in Latin America 298 Cecilia Osorio Gonnet 16 Policy transfer in Asia 317 Kidjie Saguin and Kritika Sha 17 Policy transfer within the European Union and beyond: Europeanization in times of stability and crises 337 Ramona Coman and Elsa Tulmets PART IV POLICY INSTRUMENTS 18 The diffusion of democratic innovations 365 Gilles Pradeau 19 Policy transfer of environmental policy: where are we now and where are we going? Examples from water, climate, energy, and waste sectors 386 Raul Pacheco-Vega 20 Policy transfer research in the rural sector 406 Eric Sabourin and Carolina Milhorance 21 Policy transfer in the health sector 425 Matthias Brunn 22 The diffusion of regulatory governance innovations: a research synthesis 443 Fabrizio De Francesco Index 463