Poststructural Policy Analysis (eBook)

A Guide to Practice

Carol Bacchi, SUSAN GOODWIN (Autoren)

eBook Download: PDF

2016 | 1st ed. 2016
VIII, 149 Seiten
Palgrave Macmillan US (Verlag)
978-1-137-52546-8 (ISBN)

Infos

This book offers a novel, refreshing and politically engaged way to think about public policy. Instead of treating policy as simply the government's best efforts to address problems, it offers a way to question critically how policies produce 'problems' as particular sorts of problems, with important political implications. Governing, it is argued, takes place through these problematizations. According to the authors, interrogating policies and policy proposals as problematizations involves asking questions about the assumptions they rely upon, how they have been made, what their effects are, as well as how they could be unmade. To enable this form of critical analysis, this book introduces an analytic strategy, the 'What's the Problem Represented to be?' (WPR) approach. It features examples of applications of the approach with topics as diverse as obesity, economic policy, migration, drug and alcohol policy, and gender equality to illustrate the growing popularity of this way of thinking and to provide clear and useful examples of poststructural policy analysis in practice.

Carol Bacchi is Professor Emerita of Politics at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Her work over the past forty years has encouraged rethinking of taken-for-granted truths about women's history, equality policy and public policy generally. Major publications include: Same Difference: Feminism and Sexual Difference (1990), Women, Policy and Politics: The Construction of Policy Problems (1999) and Analysing Policy: What's the Problem Represented to Be? (2009). 

Susan Goodwin is Associate Professor of Policy Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her research focuses on social policy and gender, and she contributes to policy processes at local, national and international levels. Recent publications include Markets, Rights and Power in Australian Social Policy (2015), Schools, Communities and Social Inclusion (2011) and Social Policy for Social Change (2010).

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This book offers a novel, refreshing and politically engaged way to think about public policy. Instead of treating policy as simply the government's best efforts to address problems, it offers a way to question critically how policies produce "e;problems"e; as particular sorts of problems, with important political implications. Governing, it is argued, takes place through these problematizations. According to the authors, interrogating policies and policy proposals as problematizations involves asking questions about the assumptions they rely upon, how they have been made, what their effects are, as well as how they could be unmade. To enable this form of critical analysis, this book introduces an analytic strategy, the "e;What's the Problem Represented to be?"e; (WPR) approach. It features examples of applications of the approach with topics as diverse as obesity, economic policy, migration, drug and alcohol policy, and gender equality to illustrate the growing popularity of this way of thinking and to provide clear and useful examples of poststructural policy analysis in practice.

Autor

Carol Bacchi is Professor Emerita of Politics at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Her work over the past forty years has encouraged rethinking of taken-for-granted truths about womenâs history, equality policy and public policy generally. Major publications include: Same Difference: Feminism and Sexual Difference (1990), Women, Policy and Politics: The Construction of Policy Problems (1999) and Analysing Policy: Whatâs the Problem Represented to Be? (2009). Susan Goodwin is Associate Professor of Policy Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her research focuses on social policy and gender, and she contributes to policy processes at local, national and international levels. Recent publications include Markets, Rights and Power in Australian Social Policy (2015), Schools, Communities and Social Inclusion (2011) and Social Policy for Social Change (2010).

Inhalt

Part I  Asking new policy questions1Introduction22Making politics visible: The WPR approach153Key themes and concepts33Power, knowledge and resistance34Practices, events and relations 39Discourses and discursive practices43Problematizing, problematizations, self-problematization47Governmentality: rationalities and technologies52Genealogy and subjugated knowledges58Subjectification, subject positions and dividing practices63Part IIInterrogating policies as constitutive: WPR applications4Making and unmaking âproblemsâ71Understandings of âproblemsâ in policy analysis72Alcohol and other drug âproblemsâ77âGender equalityâ805Making and unmaking âsubjectsâ87Education policy90Health policy92Immigration policy94Economic policy96Transport/environment policy98Disability/equality policy99Family policy6Making and unmaking âobjectsâ104âtrafficâ/âcyclingâ107âpovertyâ/âsocial inclusionâ109âaddictionâ111âliteracyâ114States of being: âwellbeingâ, âdisabilityâ, âdeveloping/developedâ1167Making and unmaking âplacesâ120Making (up) âthe stateâ            123Making (up) âEuropeâ124Making (up) âurbanâ/âruralâ âplacesâ127Making (up) âdevelopedâ and âdevelopingâ âplacesâ130Making (up) âpublic placesâ1328Conclusion135Appendix:     Poststructural Interview Analysis: Politicizing âpersonhoodâ by Carol Bacchi and Jennifer Bonham143Bibliography155Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 24.10.2016
• Zusatzinfo: VIII, 149 p.
• Verlagsort: New York
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Systeme
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Vergleichende Politikwissenschaften
• Schlagworte: Democracy • discourse • Foucault • Governmentality • Policy • Politics • poststructuralism • problematization • US politics
• ISBN-10: 1-137-52546-0 / 1137525460
• ISBN-13: 978-1-137-52546-8 / 9781137525468