Blocked and “Unblocked” Learning: Structural Factors That Impede and Enable Evidence‐Informed Policymaking

ABSTRACT This article addresses a critical issue in evidence‐informed policymaking: the challenge of translating knowledge into policy outputs amidst the complex interplay between research and politics. It discusses the concept of “blocked learning,” where individual‐level learning fails to scale up to organizational and policy levels, thus impeding evidence‐informed policymaking. The analysis identifies three primary factors that obstruct this knowledge transfer: weak organizational capacity characterized by a rigid and fragmented administrative environment, difficulties in data collection, and a lack of policy evaluation culture; the over‐politicization of expertise and public administration; and the absence of collaboration between public sector actors and civil society. Drawing on secondary literature and empirical data from a study of policy learning within European soft law instruments in Greece, Italy, and Spain, the article offers a comparative analysis of these factors. Furthermore, the article discusses solutions to unblock learning and to improve the integration of evidence into policy practices.