WORKSHOP: New Perspectives on Intractable Problems: Informal Institutions as Policy Responses to Global Grand Challenges -Spring

普渡大学的这个研讨会汇集了一个全球跨学科学者小组，他们与普渡大学的教职员工一起，对一系列紧迫的全球挑战进行了分析。研讨会的重点是通过研究社会科学的一个前沿研究领域--被视为一种非正式制度的社会规范在塑造政策设计、采纳和执行中的作用--来寻找关于看似“棘手”的全球政策问题的新视角。研讨会旨在将这些理论见解应用于国际政策制定者面临的多个难题。讲习班涉及一系列实质性问题小组，重点讨论非正式机构在提供解决办法方面的实际和/或潜在作用。它还包括一个综合的、跨问题的小组，在非正式机构涉及多个不同问题的时候，总结出更广泛的经验教训。这项工作的陈述和更广泛的结论将在学术和非学术出版物中传播。就智力价值而言，非正式制度(或规范)越来越被认为是在多个背景和学科中决定人类行为的重要因素。更简单的理性模型曾经主导着我们对人类行为的理解，现在人们认识到，强调规范影响的更复杂的模型正在发挥关键的作用，但人们对此知之甚少。虽然在过去十年中，在多学科研究这些非正式机构方面取得了很大进展，因为它们在许多不同的背景下运作，但在理解这些规范的影响方面的智力挑战仍然令人望而生畏，这项工作的整合仍然有限。通过召集这个跨学科、跨国家的学者小组，组织者旨在促进对政策挑战解决方案的理解，并促进对非正式机构和社会规范影响全球问题的方式的理论理解。对于更广泛的影响，研讨会将为严重问题提供新的解决方案，促进从事影响严重政策问题的重要科学问题的研究生的专业和智力发展，并建立包括来自代表性不足的性别、种族和地理群体的学者和学生的国际、跨学科网络和伙伴关系。

This workshop at Purdue University draws together a global group of interdisciplinary scholars who, together with Purdue faculty, offer analyses of a series of pressing global challenges. The workshop focuses on finding new perspectives on seemingly "intractable" global policy problems by examining a cutting edge area of research in the social sciences: the role of social norms, considered as a kind of informal institution, in shaping policy design, adoption, and implementation. The workshop aims to apply these theoretical insights on multipe difficult problems that have faced policy makers internationally. The workshop involves a series of substantive issue panels focusing on the actual and/or potential role of informal institutions in offering solutions. It also includes an intergrative, cross-issue panel drawing out broader lessons about informal institutions as they relate to multiple diverse issues. The presentations and broader conclusions of this work will be disseminated in both scholarly and non-scholarly outlets.With regards to intellectual merit, informal institutions (or norms) are increasingly recognized as vital determinants of human behavior in multiple contexts and disciplines. Where simpler models of rationality once dominated our understanding of human behavior, more complicated models emphasizing the influence of norms are now recognized as playing a critical, but poorly understood role. While much progress has been made in the past decade in studying these informal institutions in multiple disciplines and as they operate in many different contexts, the intellectual challenges of understanding the impact of these norms remain daunting and the integration of this work remains limited. By convening this interdisciplinary, cross-national group of scholars, the organizers aim to contribute to the understanding of solutions to policy challenges as well as to advance theoretical understanding of the ways that informal institutions and social norms affect global problems.With regards to broader impacts, the workshop will offer new solutions to serious problems, promote the professional and intellectual development of graduate students working on vital scientific questions that affect serious policy problems, and build international, interdisciplinary networks and partnerships that include scholars and students from underrepresented gender, racial, and geographic groups.