Getting to 'No': The method of contested exchange

Policy processes frequently fail to reach policy recommendations or the recommendations fail in practice. An ‘antecedent failure’ occurs when a policy problem is not perceived in advance as unstructured and consensus methods ill-equipped to grappling with a lack of structure are used. By contrast, dissensus can be better for structuring policy problems, and a method of ‘contested exchange’ has been developed and evaluated for this purpose. Disputed aspects of aquaculture provide ready examples of antecedent failure and unstructured policy problems. The method of contested exchange is used to provide structure, and a number of virtues of the method are discussed.