A multi-methodological combination of the strategic choice approach and the analytic network process: From facts to values and vice versa

The paper proposes a new multi-methodological framework combining a Problem Structuring Method and a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to address the problem of composing facts and values in the decision-making process of policy making. We position our work theoretically in relation to Latour's concept of the “collective” as a potential description of the decision-making process, with its conflicts and negotiations, openings and closures. With Latour, we can say that there are no “separate chambers” in which facts (i.e., the use of public resources, different time horizons) and values (i.e., the values of different stakeholders, the legitimacy of public decisions) are discussed; rather, all these aspects are considered together in a cycle that encompasses them, progressively expanding and contracting to arrive at a tangible result: a decision. In the paper we illustrate the transposition of the concept of this cycle in our multi-methodology, the proposal of the combination of the Strategic Choice Approach (SCA) and the Analytic Network Process (ANP)—which is absent in the literature—and we then empirically test this theoretical contribution with a case study, the repurposing of a former hospital in Italy.