Unit name | Critical Policy Studies and the Internationalisation of Public Policy |
---|---|
Unit code | SPOLM0031 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | M/7 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Lendvai-Bainton |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
none |
Co-requisites |
none |
School/department | School for Policy Studies |
Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
The aim of this unit is to introduce critical policy studies and international public policy as emerging fields within policy studies. The unit will provide a theoretical and methodological overview of critical approaches to policy studies such as post-positivist and post-structuralist approaches, interpretive policy analysis, and anthropology of public policy. The unit will apply those theoretical tools to interrogate key international debates about policy making. The course will offer the opportunity for students to advance their skills in understanding policy processes, policy changes, policy transfers, and the role of policy-makers in an increasingly internationalized and transnationalised policy environment. The course will also offer an interdisciplinary outlook on understanding policy by utilizing approaches and perspectives from critical sociology, critical political geography, anthropology and political economy.
On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:
Lectures, seminars and group exercises
An assessed essay of 4000 words based on an in-depth discussion of the literature as well as a selected policy case study. The assessed essay will require students to demonstrate the ability to apply critical theoretical frameworks to a particular policy area and trace the dynamics of transnationalisation and internationalisation of policy making in diverse policy environments.
Orsini, M. and Smith, M. (2007) Critical Policy Studies, University of British Columbia Press: Vancouver
Bacchi, C., Forest, F. (2009) Analysing Policy: What is the problem represented to be? NSW: Pearson Education.
Fischer, F. (2003) Reframing Public Policy: Discursive Politics and Deliberative Practices. New York: Oxford University Press.
Shore, C., Wright, S. and Pero, D. (2011) Policy Worlds: Anthropology and the Analysis of Contemporary Power, Berghahn Books: New York
Stone, D. (2012) Transfer and Translation of Policy, Policy Studies 33(6):483-499
Yanow, D. (1996) How does a policy mean? Georgetown University Press: Washington DC