[Tps] TPS/ECPR Policy Network - CfP - Interpretation in Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, Amsterdam 2007

[Navdeep Mathur]

CALL FOR PAPERS

INTERPRETATION IN POLICY ANALYSIS: RESEARCH & PRACTICE

31 May - 2 JUNE 2007
Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

www.fsw.vu.nl/ipa

Co-Organizers:

Dvora Yanow
Maarten Hajer
Culture, Organization, & Management                          Political
Science
Vrije Universiteit-Amsterdam
Universiteit van Amsterdam
d.yanow at fsw.vu.nl
m.a.hajer at uva.nl


Advisory Board:
Frank Fischer, Rutgers University
Steven Griggs, University of Birmingham
Navdeep Mathur, University of Birmingham


Ph.D. Workshop Advisory Board:
Stephen Jeffares, University of Western England
Katharina Paul, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Marleen van der Haar, Utrecht University
Merlijn van Hulst, Erasmus University


Plenary Sessions (bios follow below):

Veronique Mottier, University of Lausanne & Jesus College, Cambridge
University:
"Eugenicists, policymaking, and the formation of identity:  A Foucauldian
discourse analysis'

Herbert Gottweis, University of Vienna:
"Bringing rhetoric back in:  Policy-making between logos, ethos, and pathos"

"The meaning of participation in three fields" -- Dvora Yanow, Vrije
Universiteit-Amsterdam, Chair
  'Participatory design':  Thomas Binder, Copenhagen Design School
  'Participatory policy': Maarten Hajer, Universiteit van Amsterdam
  'Organizational change': Alfons van Marrewijk, Vrije
Universiteit-Amsterdam

Although new labels come and go, the interpretive tradition has by now
established itself in such a way as to inform a broad and growing community
of scholars in fields such as public policy, organizational studies,
political science, conflict resolution, and public administration.
Influenced by the "interpretive turn" in the social sciences during the
latter half of the 20th century, interpretive policy analytic approaches
draw on a broad spectrum of philosophical and analytic inquiries, among them
phenomenology, hermeneutics, critical theory, symbolic interactionism,
pragmatism, and ethnomethodology, plus methods analyzing discourse,
rhetoric, frames, the fact-value distinction, categories, metaphors, and so
on.  They offer an alternative to more positivistically-informed analytic
tools such as survey research, regression and cost-benefit analyses.

Recently, this orientation toward policy analysis has become even more
cross- and inter-disciplinary, as scholars from different fields collaborate
on new problem definitions.  'Deliberative democracy' has met 'dispute
resolution,' for example, and many public policy scholars are also
increasingly drawing on the work of the STS (Science, Technology, and
Society) and Science Studies communities.  These cross-epistemic community
interactions are further evidence of the solidity of interpretive approaches
within the practice-oriented social sciences, and they raise possibilities
for new research agendas.

This creativity in drawing on new concepts (narrative, discourse,
performance, performativity) could also, however, lead to a proliferation of
'fresh starts' with questionable utility.  We might thereby run the risk of
forgetting, first, that the various concepts and approaches under the broad
interpretive umbrella share a set of underlying ontological and
epistemological assumptions, and, second, that the 'added value' of new
concepts needs to be rigorously interrogated.  Arguing from a position of
confidence, these risks can be avoided; we can, and should, be precise about
how new sets of questions emerge and also about how they build upon
established scholarship(s).  Of course, new questions are often informed by
new societal developments that raise our awareness of new ways of thinking;
but this, too, needs to be addressed.  Work in interpretive policy analysis
has drawn explicit attention to the ways in which ontological and
epistemological presuppositions, particularly those of a positivist hue,
have shaped public policy research, public administration, and management,
at times without this influence itself being addressed explicitly in the
research agenda.  Reflexivity on ways of knowing and analyzing is central to
interpretive approaches, and this calls on all researchers and practitioners
to be more reflective in their theorizing and analytic practices.

In the 2007 Amsterdam Conference on Interpretation in Policy Analysis, we
take the solid existence of interpretive scholarship as our foundational
'given,' and from that starting point we wish to explore the advances that
have been made in that scholarship and the possibilities for a research
agenda for the years to come.  This might include, for example, a
consideration of the way in which interpretation in policy analysis now
impacts on social and political developments, the role of the interpretive
policy analyst, or emerging relationships between scholarly and practitioner
communities.  What might all of this mean for our work nowadays?  Is there,
or can we create, a stable set of assumptions that informs our work?  How do
public policy scholars deal with their role in society?  How do we relate to
the political, and what analysis of the context of our research should we
keep in mind while striving for superior scholarship?  Building on the first
conference held in Birmingham, UK in June 2006, the Amsterdam conference is
intended to further establish the parameters of interpretive policy analysis
and its practice, as well as the community of researchers and practitioners
engaged in such analysis.

Conference papers might engage one or more of the following:

$       the contribution of a particular theoretical or philosophical
approach to policy analysis (e.g., pragmatism)

$       clarification of approaches in use (e.g., varieties of discourse
analysis or narrative analyses)

$       case studies from particular policy issue arenas (e.g., local
governance; asylum or immigration policy; food policy)

$       methodological issues in doing interpretive policy analysis (e.g.,
reflexivity in policy analytic practices; getting, and using, feedback from
'informants'; issues in using new recording technologies; evaluating
software programs)

$       the relationship between policy analytic practices and deliberative
democracy and/or other theories of governance

$       interpretive perspectives on key topics (e.g., community conflict
resolution practices; policy evaluation; leadership; network organizations;
other public management questions)

The conference organizers welcome proposals for individual papers; full
panels (with papers); and roundtables focused on discussion of a common
theme (rather than the formal presentation of papers).  Paper, panel, and
roundtable proposals (short abstracts) and inquiries should be sent to Dvora
Yanow <d.yanow at fsw.vu.nl> no later than 15 January 2007.

(Papers from the conference may be considered for a special issue of
Critical Public Policy: Analysis and Practice, General Editor - Steven
Griggs (s.f.griggs at bham.ac.uk); Reviews Editor - Pauline Jas (
p.e.jas at bham.ac.uk); Forums Editor - Navdeep Mathur (n.mathur at bham.ac.uk).)

One or more of the sessions will be devoted to methodological and/or
doctoral student workshops, on the model of a "Master Class" as used in
musical instrument studies.  Please send inquiries or expressions of
interest to Merlijn van Hulst <vanhulst at fsw.eur.nl> by 15 January 2007.

Registration fee (includes 2 lunches):  post-Ph.D.:  160 euros; student:  80
euros.

Venue and Accommodation:  The conference will be held at a location in
Amsterdam.  Hotel and other information is forthcoming through the
conference website, www.fsw.vu.nl/ipa.

Canal boat cruise:  See Amsterdam from a canal boat!  Optional Thursday
night activity (additional cost; information forthcoming).


Plenary speakers' biographies:

Veronique Mottier, University of Lausanne & Jesus College, Cambridge
University

Professor in Sociology at the Institute of Anthropology and Sociology,
University of Lausanne and Fellow in Social and Political Sciences at Jesus
College, Cambridge, Veronique Mottier has published widely in the areas of
discourse and narrative analysis; social and political theory; eugenics,
gender and sexuality. She has taught courses in interpretive methods at the
Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection, the
European Institute in Florence, the University of Cambridge, and numerous
other institutions.  Her most recent book, French Social Theory: From
Merleau-Ponty to Bourdieu, is forthcoming at Polity Press.
http://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/contacts/fellows/profiles/mottier.html

Herbert Gottweis, University of Vienna

Professor at the department of Political Sciences, University of Vienna,
since 1998 and research associate at the BIOS Centre, London School of
Economics (LSE), Herbert Gottweis directs the LIFE-SCIENCE-GOVERNANCE
Research Platform at the former.  Since 2005 he is also vice-president of
the Austrian Research Fund (FWF).  Among his books are Verwaltete Körper:
Strategien der Gesundheitspolitik im internationalen Vergleich
(Administrated Bodies: Health Policy Strategies in International Comparison,
2004, with others); Governing Molecules: The Discursive Politics of Genetic
Engineering in Europe and in the United States (1998); and Biobank
Governance: A Comparative Perspective (forthcoming 2007, with Alan
Petersen). http://www.univie.ac.at/LSG/

Thomas Binder, Copenhagen Design School

Senior researcher at the Danish Center for Design Research within the Royal
Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Thomas Binder has been
involved with participatory design in the contexts of workplace learning,
organizational change, and product design. He is currently engaged with
participatory approaches to workspace design, including empirical studies of
design discourse and situated everyday practices of designers, and
experimental explorations of the relations between designed artefacts, place
and space. He has been conference chair of the Participatory Design
Conference 2002 and holds a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from
Technical University, Copenhagen.
http://www.uiah.fi/page.asp?path=1866,1919,4257,20994,21044,21073

Maarten Hajer, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the Department of
Political Science of the University of Amsterdam, Maarten Hajer holds an M.A.
in Political Science and and M.A. in Urban and Regional Planning from the
University of Amsterdam and a D.Phil. in Politics from the University of
Oxford. He was associate professor at the Institute of Sociology of the
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich and then moved to the Scientific
Council for Government Policy in The Hague (the think tank to the Dutch
Cabinet) before taking up the chair in Amsterdam. Among his publications are
The Politics of Environmental Discourse – Ecological Modernization and the
Policy Process (1995); In Search of New Public Domain (with Arnold
Reijndorp); and Deliberative Policy Analysis – Understanding Governance in
the Network Society (2003, co-edited with Hendrik Wagenaar). In 2005 he
launched the Amsterdam Centre for Conflict Studies (ACS) in the context of
which he investigates the administrative responses to conflicts relating to
diversity and radicalisation. He is currently completing a book on discourse
and performance in politics.  http://www.maartenhajer.nl/

Alfons van Marrewijk, Vrije Universiteit-Amsterdam

Senior lecturer and researcher at the Department of Culture, Organization,
and Management of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Alfons van Marrewijk
received his Ph.D. there in Organizational Anthropology following his
earlier education as a telecommunications engineer. His academic work
centers on cultural change in technology driven organizations. His most
recent book is The Culture of Project Management (2006). Van Marrewijk
combines his academic field research with consultancy work (
www.bureauparadox.nl).
http://www.fsw.vu.nl/Organisatie/index.cfm/home_file.cfm/fileid/F944CC56-FD9D-47DB-BFB25E1500362051/subsectionid/8A533CE6-2A39-47DE-8CA7F859D997BB36
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