This book offers a novel approach to thinking about public policy and a new, distinctive methodology for analysing policy. It introduces a set of six questions that probe how ‘problems’ are represented in policies, followed by an injunction to apply the questions to one’s own policy proposals. This form of analysis, it suggests, is crucial to understanding how policy works, how we are governed, and how the practice of policy-making implicitly constitutes us as subjects. The book mounts a challenge to the problem-solving paradigm currently dominating the intellectual and policy landscape, a paradigm manifest in ‘evidence-based policy’. Arguing that such a paradigm denies the shaping that goes on in the process of problematisation, it offers a ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ approach to policy analysis as a counter-discourse. In this view critical thinking involves putting ‘problems’ into question rather than learning how to ‘solve’ them. Bacchi’s new approach to policy analysis offers exciting insights in a wide array of policy areas, including welfare, drugs/alcohol and gambling, criminal justice, health, education, immigration and population, media and research policy. Invaluable to those involved in policy studies and public administration, it will also appeal to students and academics in sociology, social work, anthropology, cultural studies and human geography.
This book offers a powerful new approach to policy studies. Drawing on recent perspectives from social constructionism, discourse analysis, the sociology of social problems and feminism, Carol Bacchi develops a step-by-step analytical tool for deconstructing policy problems. Her `What's the Problem?' approach encourages students to reflect critically upon the ways in which policy problems get constructed within policy debates and policy proposals.
This book offers a novel approach to thinking about public policy and a distinctive methodology for analysing policy. It introduces a set of six questions that probe how ‘problems’ are represented in policies, followed by an injunction to apply the questions to one’s own policy proposals. This form of analysis, it suggests, is crucial to understanding how policy works, how we are governed, and how the practice of policy-making implicitly constitutes us as subjects. The book mounts a challenge to the problem-solving paradigm currently dominating the intellectual and policy landscape, a paradigm manifest in ‘evidence-based policy’. Arguing that such a paradigm denies the shaping that goes on in the process of problematisation, it offers a ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ approach to policy analysis as a counter-discourse. In this view critical thinking involves putting ‘problems’ into question rather than learning how to ‘solve’ them. Bacchi’s approach to policy analysis offers exciting insights in a wide array of policy areas, including welfare, drugs/alcohol and gambling, criminal justice, health, education, immigration and population, media and research policy. Invaluable to those involved in policy studies and public administration, it will also appeal to students and academics in sociology, social work, anthropology, cultural studies and human geography.
This book makes a major contribution to an issue of central concern to feminists. It is well written, thoroughly researched and thoughtfully argued. Wide-ranging and comprehensive in scope, the book is carefully structured, using different countries to illustrate the specific ways in which affirmative action is co-opted and contained in practice' - Jeanne Gregory, Middlesex University " This timely and incisive book brings a theoretical lens to the debates around affirmative action. It presents a comparative analysis of those countries reputed to be leading the way in policies for women - the United States, Canada, Australia, Sweden, The Netherlands and Norway. Carol Lee Bacchi draws upon current social and feminist theory to present a lucid analysis of the implementation of reform. Taking account of the particular historical context of affirmative action policies, she considers why expressed commitment to affirmative action for women has failed to translate into meaningful reform. She describes how conceptual and identity categories are given meanings and positioned in debate in ways which work to contain the effects of the reform. Bacchi concludes that proponents of affirmative action need to direct more attention to the political uses of categories than to their abstract content, and to concentrate their efforts upon exposing the effects of category politics.
This book offers an innovative rethinking of policy approaches to 'gender equality' and of the process of social change. It brings several new chapters together with a series of previously published articles to reflect on these topics. A particular focus is gender mainstreaming, a relatively recent development in equality policy in many industrialised and some industrialising countries, as well as in large international organisations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the International Labour Organization. The book draws upon poststructuralist organisation and policy theory to argue that it is impossible to 'script' reform initiatives such as gender mainstreaming. As an alternative it recommends thinking about such policy developments as fields of contestation, shaped by on-the-ground political deliberations and practices, including the discursive practices that produce specific ways of understanding the 'problem' of 'gender inequality'. In addition to the new chapters the editors Bacchi and Eveline produce brief introductions for each chapter, tracing the development of their ideas over four years. Through these commentaries the book provides exciting insights into the complex processes of collaboration and theory generation. Mainstreaming Politics is a rich resource for both practitioners in the field and for theorists. In particular it will appeal to those interested in public policy, public administration, organisation studies, sociology, comparative politics and international studies.
This book offers an intellectual history of the English-speaking Canadian woman's suffrage movement. It argues that the motivations of a great many suffragists were affected by their membership in a social elite that saw the need to regulate society's future and hoped the family would remain the foundation of that future.
An account of the first two years of her son's life--battling his rejection of food, encountering dismissive health professionals, struggling with sleep deprivation, alone with uncertainties. Also shows the difficulties of reconciling motherhood, child care and paid work.
This book makes a major contribution to an issue of central concern to feminists. It is well written, thoroughly researched and thoughtfully argued. Wide-ranging and comprehensive in scope, the book is carefully structured, using different countries to illustrate the specific ways in which affirmative action is co-opted and contained in practice' - Jeanne Gregory, Middlesex University " This timely and incisive book brings a theoretical lens to the debates around affirmative action. It presents a comparative analysis of those countries reputed to be leading the way in policies for women - the United States, Canada, Australia, Sweden, The Netherlands and Norway. Carol Lee Bacchi draws upon current social and feminist theory to present a lucid analysis of the implementation of reform. Taking account of the particular historical context of affirmative action policies, she considers why expressed commitment to affirmative action for women has failed to translate into meaningful reform. She describes how conceptual and identity categories are given meanings and positioned in debate in ways which work to contain the effects of the reform. Bacchi concludes that proponents of affirmative action need to direct more attention to the political uses of categories than to their abstract content, and to concentrate their efforts upon exposing the effects of category politics.
This book offers an innovative rethinking of policy approaches to 'gender equality' and of the process of social change. It brings several new chapters together with a series of previously published articles to reflect on these topics. A particular focus is gender mainstreaming, a relatively recent development in equality policy in many industrialised and some industrialising countries, as well as in large international organisations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the International Labour Organization. The book draws upon poststructuralist organisation and policy theory to argue that it is impossible to 'script' reform initiatives such as gender mainstreaming. As an alternative it recommends thinking about such policy developments as fields of contestation, shaped by on-the-ground political deliberations and practices, including the discursive practices that produce specific ways of understanding the 'problem' of 'gender inequality'. In addition to the new chapters the editors Bacchi and Eveline produce brief introductions for each chapter, tracing the development of their ideas over four years. Through these commentaries the book provides exciting insights into the complex processes of collaboration and theory generation. Mainstreaming Politics is a rich resource for both practitioners in the field and for theorists. In particular it will appeal to those interested in public policy, public administration, organisation studies, sociology, comparative politics and international studies.
An account of the first two years of her son's life--battling his rejection of food, encountering dismissive health professionals, struggling with sleep deprivation, alone with uncertainties. Also shows the difficulties of reconciling motherhood, child care and paid work.
This book offers a powerful new approach to policy studies. Drawing on recent perspectives from social constructionism, discourse analysis, the sociology of social problems and feminism, Carol Bacchi develops a step-by-step analytical tool for deconstructing policy problems. Her `What's the Problem?' approach encourages students to reflect critically upon the ways in which policy problems get constructed within policy debates and policy proposals.
Are women the same as or different from men? Should women seek ‘equality’ with men or admit their ‘difference’? First published in 1990, Same Difference explores these highly-charged political questions by examining how the women’s movement has engaged with them over time and in three countries—Australia, Britain, and America. Case studies include disputes about maternity leave, protective legislation, affirmative action, custody, pornography, rape, and women’s supposed metaphysical differences from men—their greater nurturing and caring capacity. Challenging a common view of the women’s movement as perpetually riven into ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’ camps, Same Difference highlights the political conditions which impel some feminists to argue in these terms. The implication of the analysis is that debates about sexual difference divert attention from important social issues such as how society is to reproduce itself and what kind of society we wish to create. This book will be a beneficial read for students and researchers of feminist theory, women’s studies, and sociology.
Framing the West argues that photography was intrinsic to British territorial expansion and settlement on the northwest coast. Williams shows how male and female settlers used photography to establish control over the territory and its indigenous inhabitants, as well as how native peoples eventually turned the technology to their own purposes. Photographs of the region were used to stimulate British immigration and entrepreneuralism, and imagies of babies and children were designed to advertise the population growth of the settlers. Although Indians were taken by Anglos to document their "disappearing" traditions and to show the success of missionary activities, many Indians proved receptive to photography and turned posing for the white man's camera to their own advantage. This book will appeal to those interested in the history of the West, imperialism, gender, photography, and First Nations/Native America. Framing the West was the winner of the Norris and Carol Hundley Prize of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association.
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