IMPORTING, FAILING, LEARNING.

INTERROGATING THE FAILURE-LEARNING RELATIONSHIP IN CONTEXTS OF POLICY TRANSFER THROUGH THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BUS RAPID TRANSIT (BRT) PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION IN CAPE TOWN AND LAGOS

Abstract

Policy transfers and mobilities literature have tackled several aspects of policy learning and policy failure in contexts of transfer. However, there is still room for more knowledge on the modalities of learning as an aftermath of the imported policy failing in its new context. This article offers answers through the exploration of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects’ implementation in two cities: Cape Town and Lagos. The article puts forth two main lessons about learning from travelling policies. Primarily, it confirms that policy failures occurring in both cities can be attributed to the modalities of policy transfer surrounding BRT, a popular urban traveling model. We affirm that the standardization processes of traveling policies can induce policy myopia once they’re implemented in new contexts and eventually lead to partial or complete policy failure. The second argument is that policymakers learn as they try to readjust the policy. While this new knowledge can be observed through the crafting of new solutions which are more sensitive to local realities, learning can also be hard to notice as the high political stakes surrounding traveling policies tend to prevent policymakers from making abrupt changes that would represent an admission of failure. This contribution is an invitation to explore policy learning resulting from the implementation of travelling policies from a comparative perspective and over the course of longer timeframes.