Evaluate the role and scope of tacit knowledge and personal experience as an important source of knowledge in policy making process.

The Role of Tacit Knowledge and Personal Experience in Policymaking

Tacit knowledge and personal experience, often referred to as "lived experience" in the policy discourse, are crucial for effective policy-making. They provide a nuanced understanding that quantitative data and formal reports alone cannot offer. Their role can be understood through several key aspects:

• Contextual Understanding: Policymakers often operate with a macro-level view. Tacit knowledge, derived from practical engagement and personal experience, provides crucial context, revealing how policies interact with complex social realities and individual lives. This includes understanding informal processes and networks that often shape policy implementation, as highlighted in studies on "Informality in Policymaking" (Garner-Knapp et al., 2025).
• Problem Identification and Definition: Individuals with personal experience of a particular issue can articulate the problem in ways that data alone cannot. They can shed light on the nuances, systemic failures, and unforeseen consequences, helping policymakers to accurately define the problem and identify underlying causes.
• Innovation and Creative Solutions: Engaging with diverse personal experiences can surface novel insights and ideas for policy design. These insights often move beyond conventional solutions, leading to more innovative and effective interventions that address not just what is needed, but also what is aspired to by the affected communities.
• Enhanced Implementation and Adaptability: Policymakers with personal experience or those who have engaged with it can better anticipate implementation challenges and design policies that are more likely to succeed on the ground. This "know-how" allows for greater flexibility and adaptability during the policy implementation phase.
• Building Trust and Legitimacy: Involving people with lived experience in the policy process can build trust in governance and foster a sense of ownership among the populace. When citizens feel listened to and represented, it enhances the legitimacy of policy decisions.
• Ethical and Empathetic Policymaking: Incorporating personal narratives fosters empathy among policymakers, reminding them of the human impact of their decisions. This leads to more ethically sound policies that prioritize human well-being and social justice.

Scope and Complementarity with Explicit Knowledge

The scope of tacit knowledge and personal experience extends across the entire policy cycle, from agenda setting to evaluation. However, it is most impactful when integrated with explicit knowledge:

1. Agenda Setting and Problem Formulation

• Identifying Emerging Issues: Grassroots experiences often signal emerging societal issues before they are formally recognized through data.
• Prioritization: Personal narratives can highlight the urgency and severity of certain problems, influencing policy priorities.

2. Policy Formulation and Design

• Co-design: Involving people with lived experience in co-design workshops can lead to policies that are more relevant and effective for the target beneficiaries. For instance, the UK's Policy Lab emphasizes bringing people with lived experience together with policy decision-makers to maximize the benefits.
• Reality Check: Personal experiences act as a crucial "reality check" against theoretical models or assumptions that might not hold true in practice.

3. Policy Implementation

• Ground-level Insights: Frontline workers' tacit knowledge, gained through daily interaction, is invaluable for understanding barriers to implementation and designing effective delivery mechanisms.
• Adaptive Governance: Policies can be adapted and refined during implementation based on feedback and insights from those directly affected or involved.

4. Policy Evaluation

• Measuring Impact: Personal experiences provide qualitative data on the actual impact of policies on individuals and communities, complementing quantitative evaluation metrics.
• Learning and Future Policy: Lessons learned from personal experiences are crucial for iterative policy improvement and future policy development.

The relationship between tacit and explicit knowledge is not mutually exclusive but complementary. Explicit knowledge provides the theoretical framework, broad data, and general principles, while tacit knowledge provides the contextual richness, practical nuances, and human element. Effective policy-making demands a judicious blend of both.

Challenges and Limitations

Despite its importance, relying solely on tacit knowledge and personal experience presents several challenges:

Challenge	Description
Difficulty in Articulation and Codification	Tacit knowledge is inherently personal, intuitive, and often subconscious, making it difficult to express in words or formal documentation. This hinders its systematic transfer and application (Polanyi, 1958).
Subjectivity and Bias	Personal experiences, while valuable, are subjective and can be influenced by individual biases, limited perspectives, or emotional responses, potentially leading to partial or skewed policy recommendations.
Generalizability	Knowledge derived from specific personal experiences may not be easily generalizable to broader populations or different contexts, limiting its universal applicability.
Lack of Systematic Aggregation	Unlike explicit data, which can be systematically collected and analyzed, aggregating and synthesizing diverse personal experiences into coherent policy insights is challenging.
Risk of Tokenism and Exploitation	Engaging with lived experience can sometimes be tokenistic or extractive if not done ethically and with genuine intent, potentially retraumatizing individuals without meaningful impact on policy.
Power Imbalances	In policymaking circles, voices from marginalized communities, rich in lived experience, may struggle to compete for influence against established professional and social elites (Mintrom, O'Neill, and O'Connor 2021).

Therefore, while integrating tacit knowledge and personal experience is vital, it must be done through structured engagement mechanisms (e.g., participatory workshops, storytelling, and mentorship) to ensure its effective and ethical utilization, while also validating and complementing it with explicit evidence.