New Perspectives in Policy and Politics
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Gender and policy studies needs to face challenges and cross boundaries if the discipline is to develop. This chapter argues that gender and policy studies needs to explicitly foreground the centrality of politics – the analysis of power – in approaching policy. The discipline confronts boundaries in relation to inclusivity, diversity and relevance. Inclusive gender equality demands challenging the hegemonising and marginalising boundaries in the field, which contributes to its relevance by placing politics and power centre stage. Openness to the diversity of gender and policy approaches, a more systematic and thoughtful application of intersectionality, cooperation with LGBTQI•, critical race studies and normative political theory provide opportunities to challenge boundaries and advance knowledge. We argue that explicit reflexivity about power dynamics and knowledge production, employing a plurality of approaches, will better equip the discipline to navigate major challenges and crises, and offer more nuanced democratic and egalitarian societal contributions.
The study of policy design has been of long-standing interest to policy scholars. Recent surveys of policy design scholarship acknowledge two main pathways along which it has developed; one in which the process of policy designing is emphasised and one in which the output of this policy designing process – for example, policy content – is emphasised. As part of a survey of extant research, this chapter discusses how scholars guided by different orientations to studying policy design are addressing and measuring common policy design concepts and themes, and offers future research opportunities. The chapter also provides a platform for considering how insights stemming from different orientations of policy design research can be integrated and mapped within the broader public policy process. Finally, the chapter raises the question of whether a framework that links different conceptualisations of policy design within the policy process might help to advance the field.
Globalisation has helped to intensify the international flow of people, information and policies. Following this process there has been increasing global concern regarding problems in areas such as immigration, health, poverty, among others. Various agents are transnationally engaged in common responses to these issues. The classic definition of public policies is related to actions undertaken by governments to solve the problems within their jurisdictions. However, often problems do not respect national boundaries. Sometimes, policies need to involve other nations. This chapter discusses the main issues, concepts and challenges in the study of global public policies.
First, the chapter presents a review of the existing literature. Second, it introduces the key agents and agendas of global public policy. The discussion section focuses on the latest challenges and opportunities for research in Global Public Policy studies. Finally, new avenues of research are introduced, such as the dimension of power, the impact of the far-right and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Numerous published efforts have compared and contrasted policy process theories. Few assessments, however, have examined the extent to which they are inclusive or diverse. Here we summarise lessons from previous assessments, paying attention to how Paul Sabatier’s science-based criteria have shaped the contours of the field. In looking at these contours, we explore evidence of diversity and inclusivity of policy process approaches in terms of methods, concepts, topics, geography and authors. We conclude with strategies to address challenges revealed by our examination: creating space for conversations among scholars of differing perspectives and approaches; building sustained and meaningful efforts to recruit and train researchers with diverse backgrounds; establishing research coordination networks that focus on policy problems; and creating better metrics to assess our diversity and inclusivity.
Based on a review of citizenship and citizen participation in politics and policy studies, this chapter reveals diverse concepts of citizens and citizenship and their changing roles within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It argues that the pandemic will result in bringing citizens back into the policy process, given that active participation of citizens in solving wicked social problems has been emphasised. Our results suggest that the pandemic will result in a return of public citizens as their voluntary, active participation and coproduction practices are expected to increase.
For 50 years Policy & Politics, under the stewardship of some 19 editors, has engaged with key issues at the interface between public policy, social policy and politics. The journal has published scholarship that has shaped a broad range of debates across disciplines and has built a valued and vibrant community of authors and readers who are integral to what the journal is today. This brief editorial provides a perspective on the journal’s evolution from its origins focusing on local government in Great Britain to its current engagement with an inclusive, pluralist and global policy agenda.
This chapter summarises the main achievements of interpretive approaches to policy analysis and signposts ways to develop them to strengthen inclusivity and diversity. By visualising tangible strategies used in the approach, it demonstrates how we can better understand how policies are made and understood. At the same time, the chapter places a strong focus on emotions and ethnography as a way to strengthen the societal relevance of the approach. Focusing on emotions in policy research goes beyond a simple interest in emotions, using them as a specific critical lens to view the researched phenomenon while considering how policy ideas are framed as relevant or irrelevant through expressive language. Analogously, the chapter describes ethnography as an epistemological lens for analysing policy wherein researchers embrace human bias and the normativity of their research. To illustrate how these two lenses work in practice, the chapter concludes by discussing the research design of an analysis of the role of fathers in the policy debate around birth care in Czechia.
This Special Issue makes a statement about the study of policy and politics, where it has been, how it is done, what it is, and where it is going. When addressing the question ‘who gets to speak for our discipline?’ we respond emphatically – many people, from many places, working in many ways. It comprises scholarship that has rarely been combined to explore some cardinal challenges about our scholarship: (1) How do we conceive of policy and political studies? (2) To what extent should our science be ‘normative’ or ‘objective’ or ‘positive’? (3) Who are our audiences, and how do we engage them? (4) Whose knowledge matters, and how does it accumulate? (5) How should we advance the study of policy and politics? We conclude charging the field to consider different ways of thinking about what we can discover and construct in the world and how we can conduct our science.
How do we conceive of policy and political studies? To what extent should our science be ‘normative’ or ‘objective’ or ‘positive’? Who are our audiences and how do we engage them? Whose knowledge matters and how does it accumulate? How should we advance the study of policy and politics?
First published as a special issue of Policy & Politics, this book makes a statement about the study of policy and politics: what it is, how it is done, where it has been and where it is going. It comprises scholarship that has rarely been combined to explore several fundamental challenges about research in policy and politics. It concludes by challenging the field to consider different ways of thinking about what we can discover and construct in the world and how we can conduct our science.
This chapter has three objectives. The first is to show that while co-production was originally tied to service production, co-creation has broader applications in the field of public governance and involves a broader range of actors and activities. The second objective is to demonstrate how the co-creation concept both builds on and extends the concept of collaborative governance, thus adding new dimensions to an already well-established literature. The final objective is to show how a strategic turn to co-creation introduces a new type of ‘generative governance’ aimed at solving complex problems by constructing platforms enabling the formation of arenas for co-creation that bring together a plethora of public and private actors, including citizens, in creative problem-solving processes. The three objectives are achieved through prospective theoretical analysis aimed at providing a conceptual foundation for analysing cutting-edge societal developments that are not yet commonplace.
