Handbook of critical policy studies

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction to Critical Policy Studies

PART I ORIGINS AND THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT: FROM LASSWELL TO HABERMAS AND FOUCAULT

2. Harold D. Lasswell and Critical Policy Studies: The Threats and Temptations of Power
3. In Pursuit of Usable Knowledge: Critical Policy Analysis and the Argumentative Turn
4. Habermas, Critical Theory and Public Policy
5. Foucault and Critical Policy Studies

PART II THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES: CRITICAL REFLEXIVITY, HEGEMONY AND POWER

6. Poststructuralist Discourse Theory and Critical Policy Studies: Interests, Identities and Policy Change
7. Cultural Political Economy and Critical Policy Studies: Developing a Critique of Domination
8. The Interpretation of Power

PART III DISCURSIVE POLITICS: DELIBERATION, JUSTICE, PROTEST AND EMOTION

9. Discursive Institutionalism: Understanding Policy in Context
10. Social Justice and Urban Policy Deliberation: Balancing the Discourses of Democracy, Diversity and Equity
11. Deliberation and Protest: Revealing the Deliberative Potential of Protest Movements in Turkey and Brazil
12. Lost in Translation: Expressing Emotion in Policy Deliberation


PART IV. POLICY PROCESSES: PROBLEM DEFINITIONS, EVIDENCE AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION

13. Problem Definition and Agenda-Setting in Critical Perspective
14. Making Distinctions: The Social Construction of Target Populations
15. The Autopoietic Text
16. Co-Production and Public Policy: Evidence, Uncertainty and Socio-materiality

PART V. THE POLITICS OF POLICY EXPERTISE: KNOWLEDGE, THINK TANKS, AND ACTION RESEARCH

17. Politics and Policy Expertise: Towards a Political Epistemology
18. Global Governance and Sustainability Indicators: The Politics of Expert Knowledge
19. The Politics of Policy Think Tanks: Organizing Expertise, Legitimacy, and Counter-Expertise in Policy Networks
20. Critical Action Research and Social Movements: Revitalizing Participation and Deliberation for Democratic Empowerment


PART VI. METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES: INTERPRETATION, FRAMING, AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS

21. Making Sense of Policy Practices: Interpretation and Meaning
22. Transforming Perspectives: The Critical Functions of Interpretive Policy Analysis
23. Between Representation and Narration: Analyzing Policy Frames
24. Critical Policy Ethnography
25. Making Gender Visible: Feminist Perspectives Through the Case of Anti-Smoking Policy

Critical policy studies, as this volume illustrates, challenges conventional approaches to public policy inquiry with its focus on discursive politics, policy argumentation and deliberation, and interpretive modes of analysis. Assembling the voices of established and emerging scholars, the Handbook of Critical Policy Studies fills a major gap in the policy literature.

Moving beyond the false neutrality of empiricism and positivism, this Handbook highlights the responsibility of inquirers to take account of social and political context – including present conditions, past trends and prevailing power relationships – to advance inquiry that relies not only on experts but also on citizens in a manner supporting and encouraging democracy. Not only does this call for a reconsideration of the interplay of qualitative and quantitative methods but also for robust attention to the role of values.

Accessible to scholars, practitioners and students alike, the book offers a compilation of new critical work that both assesses past developments and appraises emerging issues.

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