Making Policy Move: Towards a Politics of Translation and Assemblage

by John Clarke, Dave Bainton, Noémi Lendvai, Paul Stubbs

Overview

Responding to increasing interest in the movement of policies between places, sites and settings, this timely book presents a critical alternative to approaches centred on ideas of policy transfer, dissemination or learning. Written by key people in the field, it argues that treating policy’s movement as an active process of ‘translation’, in which policies are interpreted, inflected and re-worked as they change location, is of critical importance for studying policy. The book provides an exciting and accessible analytical and methodological foundation for examining policy in this way and will be a valuable resource for those studying policy processes at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Mixing collectively written chapters with individual case studies of policies and practices, the book provides a powerful and productive introduction to rethinking policy studies through translation. It ends with a commitment to the possibilities of thinking and doing ‘policy otherwise’.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781447313373
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2015
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Dave Bainton is a lecturer in Education at Goldsmiths College, University of London and works on relationships between education and development in the Global South. John Clarke is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Open University. His work stretches across cultural studies, anthropology and policy studies. Noémi Lendvai is a Lecturer in Comparative Social Policy at the University of Bristol and works on post-communist transformations and the Europeanisation of welfare. Paul Stubbs is a UK-born sociologist, currently a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia whose work at the junctions of research, activism and advocacy/consultancy focuses on social policy in South East Europe

Table of Contents

Introduction: policy as translation; Assembling the New Public Management; Intermediaries, Translation and ‘Flexible Agencification’: re-constructing South-East Europe; Translating ‘education’: Displacements and erasures in the Global South; Translating ‘social inclusion’: critical reflections on European policy spaces and their making; Conclusion.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A marvelous achievement, brilliantly theorizing policy as translation and assemblage in order to make visible the constructions, collaborations, contestations and contradictions that are often elided in mainstream accounts.“ Catherine Kingfisher, Professor of Anthropology, University of Lethbridge, Canada

“This remarkable conversation between four policy studies academics shows what happens as policies and practices travel across time and space. Deeply collaborative and intellectually generous, this book exemplifies how we might approach policy otherwise.“ Wendy Larner, Professor of Geography, University of Bristol

“Policies clearly travel; and in today's world, such travel crosses borders-not only geographic, but conceptual, linguistic, and cultural-thereby requiring the hard, social and political work of translation, both literally and figuratively. Making Policy Move moves policy analysis forward theoretically and analytically, making it a thought-provoking book for scholars of public policies.” Dvora Yanow, Visiting Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, Wageningen University.

Editorial Reviews

"This is a highly recommendable read for anyone interested in policy research." Zeitschrift für Volkskunde

From the Publisher

A marvelous achievement, brilliantly theorizing policy as translation and assemblage in order to make visible the constructions, collaborations, contestations, and contradictions that are often elided in mainstream accounts.

Catherine Kingfisher

Policies clearly travel; and in today’s world, such travel crosses borders—not only geographic, but conceptual, linguistic, and cultural—thereby requiring the hard, social and political work of translation, both literally and figuratively. Making Policy Move moves policy analysis forward theoretically and analytically, making it a thought-provoking book for scholars of public policies.

Dvora Yanow

This remarkable conversation between four policy studies academics shows what happens as policies and practices travel across time and space. Deeply collaborative and intellectually generous, this book exemplifies how we might approach policy otherwise.

Wendy Larner