The Discursive Turn in Policy Analysis and the Validation of Policy Stories

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2115368
AutoresL Prior (0000-0001-9903-5841, Queen's University Belfast, autor de correspondencia), David Hughes (0000-0002-7631-7763, Swansea University), Stephen Peckham (0000-0002-7002-2614, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)
Año2012
Volumen41
Número2
Páginas271-289
Fecha de publicación2012-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Social Policy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0047-2794 • E-ISSN: 1469-7823
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047279411000821
OpenAlexW2097845821
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas18
Referencias citadas35

This paper is concerned with the language of policy documents in the field of health care, and how 'readings' of such documents might be validated in the context of a narrative analysis. The substantive focus is on a comparative study of UK health policy documents (N= 20) as produced by the various assemblies, governments and executives of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland during the period 2000-09. Following the identification of some key characteristics of narrative structure the authors indicate how text-mining strategies allied with features of semantic and network analysis can be used to unravel the basic elements of policy stories and to facilitate the presentation of data in such a way that readers can verify the strengths (and weaknesses) of any given analysis - with regard to claims concerning, say, the presence, absence or relative importance of key ideas and concepts. Readers can also 'see' how the different components of any one story might fit together, and to get a sense of what has been excluded from the narrative as well as what has been included, and thereby assess the reliability and validity of interpretations that have been placed upon the data

Context (archaeology) · Field (mathematics) · Focus (optics) · Identification (biology) · Key (lock) · Linguistics · Narrative · Narrative inquiry · Political science · Presentation (obstetrics) · Public relations · Sociology · Strengths and weaknesses · Computer Science · Evaluation and Performance Assessment · History · Medicine · Policy Transfer and Learning · Psychology · Public Policy and Administration Research · Social Psychology