Nick Turnbull
Biographic Data
| ID | 3976093 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nick Turnbull |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nick |
| FAMILY NAME | Turnbull |
| SIGNATURE | TURNBULL N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Manchester |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3496-8418 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 99 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Populist by a distance: A Relational Framework for Unifying Ideology, Rhetoric, and Leadership Style in Populism Studies
Theories of populism have been troubled by the problem of essentially contested definitions of its basic properties. It is difficult to distinguish populism from conventional political behavior. This produces the problem of 'degreeism', while other features of populism are expressed in relationships rather than as specific categories of attitudes and behaviors. These problems cannot be eliminated by redefining or excluding aspects of populism in …
Revaluing and devaluing higher education beyond neoliberalism: Elitist, productivist, and populist policy and rhetoric in a field of conflict
The transformation of higher education provision by neoliberal values has been well documented. However, recent criticisms and even attacks upon higher education indicate a new politics extending beyond neoliberalism. This article draws on the sociology of conventions to unpick the distinctions at work in these new criticisms of universities. By distinguishing between values based in the market world, industrial world and civic world, we elaborat…
Problem structuring, wrong-problem problems and metagovernance as the strategic management of intractable positions: The case of the EU GM Crop Regulatory Framework controversy
Analyses of ‘wicked problems’ often lead to recommendations for collaborative governance as a metagovernance solution. The case of deadlocked European Union genetically modified crop authorization processes offers a good example. However, the stalemate is not the result of the inherent ‘wickedness’ of the problem posed by the risk of genetic modification technology applied to agricultural production of food and feed. Rather, the policy lock-in re…
Employing the policy capacity framework for health system strengthening
The policy capacity framework offers relevant analytical ideas that can be mobilized for health system strengthening. However, the employment of this framework in the health field constitutes a relevant interdisciplinary gap in knowledge. This themed issue explores the relationships between the policy capacity framework and health system strengthening, in a multidimensional and interdisciplinary way, in high-income and low–middle-income countries…
Justifying Universities: Conflict and Compromise in Political Forms of Worth in the Uk
Justifying higher education is a political exercise in which representatives of universities advocate for resources from the state while also seeking autonomy to manage their own affairs. This analysis builds upon Collini’s identification of the conflict over the value of higher education in the UK. It sets out the ‘worlds of worth’ typology to explain the basis of conflicting justifications in UK higher education policy debates. It elaborates th…
Bringing the problem home: The anti-slavery and anti-trafficking rhetoric of UK non-government organisations
Rhetoric is a way to explain policy problem framing by recognising the practical necessity to persuade audiences in contextual situations. Modern slavery and human trafficking is a complex and emotive problem, simplified through rhetorical demands to motivate an audience of supporters. This article analyses rhetoric by 212 UK anti-trafficking and anti-slavery non-government organisations (NGOs) to uncover rhetorical practices and their effects on…
Framing children’s lives through policy and public sphere debates on Covid-19: Unequal power and unintended consequences
In this paper we analyze five dominant policy frames adopted by governments in their responses to children during the COVID-19 pandemic–the institutional, developmental, pathological, normative family and rights-excluding frames. We argue that these frames serve to meet the interests of non-child stakeholders in politically expedient ways, rather than addressing the needs of children and their families. We provide some suggestions for alternative…
Relational public administration: A synthesis and heuristic classification of relational approaches
Interest in the relational dimensions of public administration is growing. However, the significance of relationality has not been understood, nor has the diversity of relational approaches been synthesized into a coherent research agenda. Relational public administration developed from the decline of rational policy models and the advent of network governance. We draw on relational sociology to formulate a relational perspective of larger scope,…
Policy problems and policy design
The new book from B. Guy Peters is a review of the latest thinking on public policy design. It will serve as a key resource for scholars researching this topic and also for practitioners seeking a
Problematizing ‘wickedness’: A critique of the wicked problems concept, from philosophy to practice
The concept of ‘wicked problems’ is a major current in the fields of policy analysis and planning. However, the basis of the concept has been insufficiently examined. This re-examination of its conceptual basis explains the origins of the limitations and flaws in the wicked problems concept. This paper analyses and rejects the notion of ‘wicked problems’ on philosophical and practical grounds. We argue instead that the policy sciences already had…
Thickening Rhetorical Political Analysis with a Theory of Distance: Negotiating the Greek Episode of the Eurozone Crisis
Rhetoric has re-emerged in political analysis. We identify two broad trends in the rhetorical analysis of politics, ‘thin’ and ‘thick’. Thin conceptions view rhetoric as primarily a matter of oratory. In contrast, the proponents of Rhetorical Political Analysis have developed an emerging thick approach, in which rhetorical concepts are applied more broadly and with more depth. However, this approach is significantly limited in its influence becau…
Policy design: Its enduring appeal in a complex world and how to think it differently
Policy design has re-appeared on the scholarly agenda. This special issue investigates the assumptions of the policy design concept, questioning its theoretical coherence and relevance for practitioners. The conventional idea of policy design implies an instrumental-rational theoretical model which is out of place in contemporary governance arrangements. While the concept appeals to academic sensibilities, it has less utility in practice. It can …
Political rhetoric and its relationship to context: A new theory of the rhetorical situation, the rhetorical and the political
Political rhetoric is underpinned by its relationship to context. Scholars have struggled to articulate this relationship by relying upon an ontological perspective of rhetoric and situation. This paper utilizes a new, problematological philosophy of rhetoric in context that overcomes these limitations. This approach employs a logic of question and answer which articulates the contingency of rhetoric as well as the structuring effects of context,…
Herbert Gottweis remembered by colleagues
Herbert Gottweis, Professor of Political Science at the University of Vienna, and a member of the Editorial Council of Critical Policy Studies, died on 31 March 2014 at the age of 56. Here, colleag
The questioning theory of policy practice: Outline of an integrated analytical framework
Policy analysis is distinctive in its concern with problems and practice. However, the ‘problem-solving’ presupposition of rational policy analysis is inadequate, as is the conception of practice. The challenge for policy theory is to retain the problem orientation while rethinking it to include insights about the problematization of governance and the practice of policy work. This article aims to do this through an original application of an inn…
Interpretivism and practice in governance studies: The critique of methodological institutionalism
Towards a Study of Human Rights Practitioners
Bourdieu's Distinction between Philosophical and Sociological Approaches to Science Studies
Sociological inquiry into the natural sciences has shown that they are contingent, social constructions. However, Science Studies research has been obstructed by epistemological conflicts about the nature of science and theoretical perspectives upon studying it. Bourdieu's sociology of science is under-utilized in this field, as he addresses these obstructions and offers a way forward. Bourdieu argues that researchers have failed to distinguish b…
Dewey's philosophy of questioning: Science, practical reason and democracy
John Dewey's ideas on politics derive from his epistemology of inquiry as practical problem-solving. Dewey's philosophy is important for democratic theory because it emphasizes deliberation through questioning. However, Dewey's philosophy shares with positivism the same conception of answering as exclusively the dissolution of questions. While Dewey's ideas are distinct from positivism in important respects, he rejects a constitutive role for que…
Harold lasswell's “problem orientation” for the policy sciences
Harold Lasswell's 'problem orientation' is the keystone in his concept of the 'policy sciences'. However, many critics have since rejected his view of policymaking as a problem solving science. I explain and critique Lasswell's problem orientation in a new way, in terms of his scientific conception of problem and solution. Lasswell derived his vision of the policy sciences from Dewey's conception of knowledge as problem solving. Lasswell modified…
The Australian Greens: Party Organisation and Political Processes
The Greens challenge the Australian two-party system by promoting an alternative political agenda and by facilitating democratic processes. Their recent successes in federal and state elections suggest that the party itself deserves closer scrutiny. This paper shows how the Greens are organisationally different from other parties currently active in Australian politics due to both their internal processes and their parliamentary practices. Recent…
How Should We Theorise Public Policy? Problem Solving and Problematicity
The concept of policy problem informs the scholarly study of policymaking as well as policy practice. But the problem solving theory of policymaking has many conceptual shortcomings. The problem solving concept is flawed because it defines complex problems univocally, obscuring differences of opinion; focuses on problem solving at the expense of problem setting; and represents the policy process scientifically to disguise and/or suppress the cont…
Wedge Politics and Welfare Reform in Australia
The election of the Howard Government has marked a paradigm shift in welfare policy with the implementation of far reaching reforms around the concept of mutual obligation. At the same time, there has been media speculation about the Government's use of ‘wedge politics’ to sustain its political agenda with respect to welfare and other policies. Wedge politics, however, is yet to receive detailed analysis in Australian political science. We define…
The Two Faces of Economic Insecurity: Reply to Goot and Watson on One Nation
Goot and Watson’s article on One Nation 1 represents a considerable advance on other studies of One Nation, its electoral support and its social foundations. They correctly identify the importance of conservative social attitudes amongst One Nation supporters. However, we take issue with the strong conclusion reached by the authors, which more or less rejects the argument that One Nation has emerged out of the growing economic insecurity of its s…
Problematizing ‘wickedness’: A critique of the wicked problems concept, from philosophy to practice
The concept of ‘wicked problems’ is a major current in the fields of policy analysis and planning. However, the basis of the concept has been insufficiently examined. This re-examination of its conceptual basis explains the origins of the limitations and flaws in the wicked problems concept. This paper analyses and rejects the notion of ‘wicked problems’ on philosophical and practical grounds. We argue instead that the policy sciences already had…
How Should We Theorise Public Policy? Problem Solving and Problematicity
The concept of policy problem informs the scholarly study of policymaking as well as policy practice. But the problem solving theory of policymaking has many conceptual shortcomings. The problem solving concept is flawed because it defines complex problems univocally, obscuring differences of opinion; focuses on problem solving at the expense of problem setting; and represents the policy process scientifically to disguise and/or suppress the cont…
Harold lasswell's “problem orientation” for the policy sciences
Harold Lasswell's 'problem orientation' is the keystone in his concept of the 'policy sciences'. However, many critics have since rejected his view of policymaking as a problem solving science. I explain and critique Lasswell's problem orientation in a new way, in terms of his scientific conception of problem and solution. Lasswell derived his vision of the policy sciences from Dewey's conception of knowledge as problem solving. Lasswell modified…
The questioning theory of policy practice: Outline of an integrated analytical framework
Policy analysis is distinctive in its concern with problems and practice. However, the ‘problem-solving’ presupposition of rational policy analysis is inadequate, as is the conception of practice. The challenge for policy theory is to retain the problem orientation while rethinking it to include insights about the problematization of governance and the practice of policy work. This article aims to do this through an original application of an inn…
Political rhetoric and its relationship to context: A new theory of the rhetorical situation, the rhetorical and the political
Political rhetoric is underpinned by its relationship to context. Scholars have struggled to articulate this relationship by relying upon an ontological perspective of rhetoric and situation. This paper utilizes a new, problematological philosophy of rhetoric in context that overcomes these limitations. This approach employs a logic of question and answer which articulates the contingency of rhetoric as well as the structuring effects of context,…
Policy design: Its enduring appeal in a complex world and how to think it differently
Policy design has re-appeared on the scholarly agenda. This special issue investigates the assumptions of the policy design concept, questioning its theoretical coherence and relevance for practitioners. The conventional idea of policy design implies an instrumental-rational theoretical model which is out of place in contemporary governance arrangements. While the concept appeals to academic sensibilities, it has less utility in practice. It can …
Employing the policy capacity framework for health system strengthening
The policy capacity framework offers relevant analytical ideas that can be mobilized for health system strengthening. However, the employment of this framework in the health field constitutes a relevant interdisciplinary gap in knowledge. This themed issue explores the relationships between the policy capacity framework and health system strengthening, in a multidimensional and interdisciplinary way, in high-income and low–middle-income countries…
Thickening Rhetorical Political Analysis with a Theory of Distance: Negotiating the Greek Episode of the Eurozone Crisis
Rhetoric has re-emerged in political analysis. We identify two broad trends in the rhetorical analysis of politics, ‘thin’ and ‘thick’. Thin conceptions view rhetoric as primarily a matter of oratory. In contrast, the proponents of Rhetorical Political Analysis have developed an emerging thick approach, in which rhetorical concepts are applied more broadly and with more depth. However, this approach is significantly limited in its influence becau…
Populist by a distance: A Relational Framework for Unifying Ideology, Rhetoric, and Leadership Style in Populism Studies
Theories of populism have been troubled by the problem of essentially contested definitions of its basic properties. It is difficult to distinguish populism from conventional political behavior. This produces the problem of 'degreeism', while other features of populism are expressed in relationships rather than as specific categories of attitudes and behaviors. These problems cannot be eliminated by redefining or excluding aspects of populism in …
Bringing the problem home: The anti-slavery and anti-trafficking rhetoric of UK non-government organisations
Rhetoric is a way to explain policy problem framing by recognising the practical necessity to persuade audiences in contextual situations. Modern slavery and human trafficking is a complex and emotive problem, simplified through rhetorical demands to motivate an audience of supporters. This article analyses rhetoric by 212 UK anti-trafficking and anti-slavery non-government organisations (NGOs) to uncover rhetorical practices and their effects on…
Justifying Universities: Conflict and Compromise in Political Forms of Worth in the Uk
Justifying higher education is a political exercise in which representatives of universities advocate for resources from the state while also seeking autonomy to manage their own affairs. This analysis builds upon Collini’s identification of the conflict over the value of higher education in the UK. It sets out the ‘worlds of worth’ typology to explain the basis of conflicting justifications in UK higher education policy debates. It elaborates th…
Towards a Study of Human Rights Practitioners
Bourdieu's Distinction between Philosophical and Sociological Approaches to Science Studies
Sociological inquiry into the natural sciences has shown that they are contingent, social constructions. However, Science Studies research has been obstructed by epistemological conflicts about the nature of science and theoretical perspectives upon studying it. Bourdieu's sociology of science is under-utilized in this field, as he addresses these obstructions and offers a way forward. Bourdieu argues that researchers have failed to distinguish b…
Dewey's philosophy of questioning: Science, practical reason and democracy
John Dewey's ideas on politics derive from his epistemology of inquiry as practical problem-solving. Dewey's philosophy is important for democratic theory because it emphasizes deliberation through questioning. However, Dewey's philosophy shares with positivism the same conception of answering as exclusively the dissolution of questions. While Dewey's ideas are distinct from positivism in important respects, he rejects a constitutive role for que…
Problem structuring, wrong-problem problems and metagovernance as the strategic management of intractable positions: The case of the EU GM Crop Regulatory Framework controversy
Analyses of ‘wicked problems’ often lead to recommendations for collaborative governance as a metagovernance solution. The case of deadlocked European Union genetically modified crop authorization processes offers a good example. However, the stalemate is not the result of the inherent ‘wickedness’ of the problem posed by the risk of genetic modification technology applied to agricultural production of food and feed. Rather, the policy lock-in re…
Herbert Gottweis remembered by colleagues
Herbert Gottweis, Professor of Political Science at the University of Vienna, and a member of the Editorial Council of Critical Policy Studies, died on 31 March 2014 at the age of 56. Here, colleag
Wedge Politics and Welfare Reform in Australia
The election of the Howard Government has marked a paradigm shift in welfare policy with the implementation of far reaching reforms around the concept of mutual obligation. At the same time, there has been media speculation about the Government's use of ‘wedge politics’ to sustain its political agenda with respect to welfare and other policies. Wedge politics, however, is yet to receive detailed analysis in Australian political science. We define…
The Two Faces of Economic Insecurity: Reply to Goot and Watson on One Nation
Goot and Watson’s article on One Nation 1 represents a considerable advance on other studies of One Nation, its electoral support and its social foundations. They correctly identify the importance of conservative social attitudes amongst One Nation supporters. However, we take issue with the strong conclusion reached by the authors, which more or less rejects the argument that One Nation has emerged out of the growing economic insecurity of its s…
The Australian Greens: Party Organisation and Political Processes
The Greens challenge the Australian two-party system by promoting an alternative political agenda and by facilitating democratic processes. Their recent successes in federal and state elections suggest that the party itself deserves closer scrutiny. This paper shows how the Greens are organisationally different from other parties currently active in Australian politics due to both their internal processes and their parliamentary practices. Recent…
How Should We Theorise Public Policy? Problem Solving and Problematicity
The concept of policy problem informs the scholarly study of policymaking as well as policy practice. But the problem solving theory of policymaking has many conceptual shortcomings. The problem solving concept is flawed because it defines complex problems univocally, obscuring differences of opinion; focuses on problem solving at the expense of problem setting; and represents the policy process scientifically to disguise and/or suppress the cont…
Dewey's philosophy of questioning: Science, practical reason and democracy
John Dewey's ideas on politics derive from his epistemology of inquiry as practical problem-solving. Dewey's philosophy is important for democratic theory because it emphasizes deliberation through questioning. However, Dewey's philosophy shares with positivism the same conception of answering as exclusively the dissolution of questions. While Dewey's ideas are distinct from positivism in important respects, he rejects a constitutive role for que…
Harold lasswell's “problem orientation” for the policy sciences
Harold Lasswell's 'problem orientation' is the keystone in his concept of the 'policy sciences'. However, many critics have since rejected his view of policymaking as a problem solving science. I explain and critique Lasswell's problem orientation in a new way, in terms of his scientific conception of problem and solution. Lasswell derived his vision of the policy sciences from Dewey's conception of knowledge as problem solving. Lasswell modified…
Bourdieu's Distinction between Philosophical and Sociological Approaches to Science Studies
Sociological inquiry into the natural sciences has shown that they are contingent, social constructions. However, Science Studies research has been obstructed by epistemological conflicts about the nature of science and theoretical perspectives upon studying it. Bourdieu's sociology of science is under-utilized in this field, as he addresses these obstructions and offers a way forward. Bourdieu argues that researchers have failed to distinguish b…
Towards a Study of Human Rights Practitioners
Interpretivism and practice in governance studies: The critique of methodological institutionalism
The questioning theory of policy practice: Outline of an integrated analytical framework
Policy analysis is distinctive in its concern with problems and practice. However, the ‘problem-solving’ presupposition of rational policy analysis is inadequate, as is the conception of practice. The challenge for policy theory is to retain the problem orientation while rethinking it to include insights about the problematization of governance and the practice of policy work. This article aims to do this through an original application of an inn…
Herbert Gottweis remembered by colleagues
Herbert Gottweis, Professor of Political Science at the University of Vienna, and a member of the Editorial Council of Critical Policy Studies, died on 31 March 2014 at the age of 56. Here, colleag
Political rhetoric and its relationship to context: A new theory of the rhetorical situation, the rhetorical and the political
Political rhetoric is underpinned by its relationship to context. Scholars have struggled to articulate this relationship by relying upon an ontological perspective of rhetoric and situation. This paper utilizes a new, problematological philosophy of rhetoric in context that overcomes these limitations. This approach employs a logic of question and answer which articulates the contingency of rhetoric as well as the structuring effects of context,…
Problematizing ‘wickedness’: A critique of the wicked problems concept, from philosophy to practice
The concept of ‘wicked problems’ is a major current in the fields of policy analysis and planning. However, the basis of the concept has been insufficiently examined. This re-examination of its conceptual basis explains the origins of the limitations and flaws in the wicked problems concept. This paper analyses and rejects the notion of ‘wicked problems’ on philosophical and practical grounds. We argue instead that the policy sciences already had…
Thickening Rhetorical Political Analysis with a Theory of Distance: Negotiating the Greek Episode of the Eurozone Crisis
Rhetoric has re-emerged in political analysis. We identify two broad trends in the rhetorical analysis of politics, ‘thin’ and ‘thick’. Thin conceptions view rhetoric as primarily a matter of oratory. In contrast, the proponents of Rhetorical Political Analysis have developed an emerging thick approach, in which rhetorical concepts are applied more broadly and with more depth. However, this approach is significantly limited in its influence becau…
Policy design: Its enduring appeal in a complex world and how to think it differently
Policy design has re-appeared on the scholarly agenda. This special issue investigates the assumptions of the policy design concept, questioning its theoretical coherence and relevance for practitioners. The conventional idea of policy design implies an instrumental-rational theoretical model which is out of place in contemporary governance arrangements. While the concept appeals to academic sensibilities, it has less utility in practice. It can …
Policy problems and policy design
The new book from B. Guy Peters is a review of the latest thinking on public policy design. It will serve as a key resource for scholars researching this topic and also for practitioners seeking a
Relational public administration: A synthesis and heuristic classification of relational approaches
Interest in the relational dimensions of public administration is growing. However, the significance of relationality has not been understood, nor has the diversity of relational approaches been synthesized into a coherent research agenda. Relational public administration developed from the decline of rational policy models and the advent of network governance. We draw on relational sociology to formulate a relational perspective of larger scope,…
Framing children’s lives through policy and public sphere debates on Covid-19: Unequal power and unintended consequences
In this paper we analyze five dominant policy frames adopted by governments in their responses to children during the COVID-19 pandemic–the institutional, developmental, pathological, normative family and rights-excluding frames. We argue that these frames serve to meet the interests of non-child stakeholders in politically expedient ways, rather than addressing the needs of children and their families. We provide some suggestions for alternative…
Justifying Universities: Conflict and Compromise in Political Forms of Worth in the Uk
Justifying higher education is a political exercise in which representatives of universities advocate for resources from the state while also seeking autonomy to manage their own affairs. This analysis builds upon Collini’s identification of the conflict over the value of higher education in the UK. It sets out the ‘worlds of worth’ typology to explain the basis of conflicting justifications in UK higher education policy debates. It elaborates th…
Bringing the problem home: The anti-slavery and anti-trafficking rhetoric of UK non-government organisations
Rhetoric is a way to explain policy problem framing by recognising the practical necessity to persuade audiences in contextual situations. Modern slavery and human trafficking is a complex and emotive problem, simplified through rhetorical demands to motivate an audience of supporters. This article analyses rhetoric by 212 UK anti-trafficking and anti-slavery non-government organisations (NGOs) to uncover rhetorical practices and their effects on…
Employing the policy capacity framework for health system strengthening
The policy capacity framework offers relevant analytical ideas that can be mobilized for health system strengthening. However, the employment of this framework in the health field constitutes a relevant interdisciplinary gap in knowledge. This themed issue explores the relationships between the policy capacity framework and health system strengthening, in a multidimensional and interdisciplinary way, in high-income and low–middle-income countries…
Revaluing and devaluing higher education beyond neoliberalism: Elitist, productivist, and populist policy and rhetoric in a field of conflict
The transformation of higher education provision by neoliberal values has been well documented. However, recent criticisms and even attacks upon higher education indicate a new politics extending beyond neoliberalism. This article draws on the sociology of conventions to unpick the distinctions at work in these new criticisms of universities. By distinguishing between values based in the market world, industrial world and civic world, we elaborat…
Problem structuring, wrong-problem problems and metagovernance as the strategic management of intractable positions: The case of the EU GM Crop Regulatory Framework controversy
Analyses of ‘wicked problems’ often lead to recommendations for collaborative governance as a metagovernance solution. The case of deadlocked European Union genetically modified crop authorization processes offers a good example. However, the stalemate is not the result of the inherent ‘wickedness’ of the problem posed by the risk of genetic modification technology applied to agricultural production of food and feed. Rather, the policy lock-in re…
Populist by a distance: A Relational Framework for Unifying Ideology, Rhetoric, and Leadership Style in Populism Studies
Theories of populism have been troubled by the problem of essentially contested definitions of its basic properties. It is difficult to distinguish populism from conventional political behavior. This produces the problem of 'degreeism', while other features of populism are expressed in relationships rather than as specific categories of attitudes and behaviors. These problems cannot be eliminated by redefining or excluding aspects of populism in …
Sociology (23 works) · Political science (22 works) · Law (17 works) · Politics (16 works) · Epistemology (14 works) · Economics (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Management (6 works)