Sustainability Policy Analysis and Policy Practice

Poststructuralism, Discource and Problematization: Implications for mainstreaming. This article introduces a methodology, called ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR approach), that facilitates a form of poststructural policy analysis, and applies it to gender analysis procedures in Ireland and the Netherlands. In this methodology policies are understood as discursive practices, imposing specific shapes (called problem representations) on the ‘problems’ they purport to ‘address’. A WPR approach to policy analysis involves identifying the underlying conceptual logics in these problem representations and evaluating them in terms of their implications or effects. It also alerts those involved in designing and implementing gender mainstreaming programs to their location within dominant conceptual frameworks and the subsequent need for a form of reflexive policy practice.

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Frame-critical policy analysis and frame-reflective policy practice

Knowledge Technology & Policy ◽

10.1007/bf02832235 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 85-104 ◽

Cited By ~ 157

Author(s):

Martin Rein ◽

Donald Schön

Keyword(s):

Policy Analysis ◽

Critical Policy Analysis ◽

Policy Practice ◽

Critical Policy

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Same Problem, Different Policies

Advances in Social Work ◽

10.18060/22603 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 39-61

Author(s):

Marietta Anne Barretti

Keyword(s):

Policy Analysis ◽

Social Workers ◽

Policy Making ◽

Social Constructionist ◽

Policy Framework ◽

Context Sensitive ◽

Policy Practice ◽

Policy Responses ◽

Problem Frames ◽

Static Conditions

Educators teaching policy analysis can choose from many available frameworks, varying in purpose and approach. These frameworks typically advise students to view policies as transient and context-sensitive, but to view the problems activating the policies as objective and static conditions. How problems are variably framed in policy relative to how students are advised to analyze them has not captured the profession’s interest. This article presents 1) an overview of policy analysis frameworks; 2) a summary of findings from a recent study investigating how social policy texts advise students to analyze problems and; 3) a social constructionist framework (matrix) that provides an historical and contextual view of social problems and policy responses. This Problem-to-Policy framework corrects the omissions in most frameworks by including the forces that contributed to a problem’s discovery and construction, while also identifying periods of silence when the problem endured yet faded from view. The author argues that this framework bolsters policy practice by 1) emphasizing those problem frames and contexts that historically led to progressive policies and 2) underscores the urgency for social workers to engage with affected populations in the initial (re)claiming and (re)framing of problems, rather than during the later policy-making stages when constructions have already presaged policy responses.

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