What They Talk About When They Talk About Homelessness

Discourse and Knowledge Culture as a Barrier to Integrated Policy Initiatives

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2116327
AutoresMaja Flåto (0000-0002-5259-3771, OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University, autor correspondente)
Ano2023
Volume52
Fascículo4
Páginas923-942
Data de publicação2023-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Social Policy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0047-2794 • E-ISSN: 1469-7823
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047279421001057
OpenAlexW4210274441
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas41

Integrated government initiatives have become a common approach following the institutional fragmentation of New Public Management reforms. Complex societal issues require equally complex solutions, which sectorial units of government cannot attend to alone. However, integrated policy initiatives are prone to a range of obstacles. Using a study of policymaking aimed at homelessness in Norway as a case, this paper discusses how sectorial-shared knowledge creates barriers to a common view of policy problems and solutions. Engaging theories of governmental fragmentation, coordination, discourse, and epistemic cultures enable an exploration of how the involved policy sectors understand and address homelessness. The findings indicate that all policy sectors seem to recognise their responsibility within a social welfare frame, but despite having cooperated for several years, embeddedness in sectorial discourse and epistemic culture causes differing problem definitions. Established terms and categories within homelessness policies are filled with content according to epistemic embeddedness, thereby contributing to obscure the differences, rather than integrate the policy initiatives

Discourse analysis · Economic growth · Economics · Embeddedness · Fragmentation (computing) · Government (linguistics) · Political science · Public policy · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Homelessness and Social Issues · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research