1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910988386003321

Autore

Lejano Raul P

Titolo

Interpretive Approaches to Policy Analysis : Hermeneutics for our Times / / by Raul P. Lejano, Wing Shan Kan

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer Nature Switzerland : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2025

ISBN

3-031-83900-5

Edizione

[1st ed. 2025.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (V, 64 p. 3 illus.)

Collana

SpringerBriefs in Political Science, , 2191-5474

Disciplina

320.6

Soggetti

Political planning

Political science

Public administration

Public Policy

Policy Evaluation

Methodology of Political Science

Public Administration

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

-- Why Interpret?.  -- What Does It Mean to Interpret?.  -- How and What to Interpret?.  -- Example: Relational Analysis of Vouchers for Social Service Delivery.  -- Where Do We Go from Here?.

Sommario/riassunto

This Brief provides researchers with an introduction to interpretive approaches for analyzing public policies. It introduces several real-world policy situations where the lack of an interpretive focus limits the analysis and precludes better policy responses. It takes an integrative point of view, with an openness to combining the insights from interpretive and positivist approaches in policy analysis, noting the ability of the interpretive approach to make sense of data while uncovering the otherwise hidden ideological and normative bases of other types of analyses. While not a 'how-to" methods book, this Brief provides sufficient discussion of different ways to find meaning in texts, such as narrative and discourse analysis, or cultural/ethnographic readings of the social and material artifacts found in a place, as well as uncovering meaning from direct engagement with subjects through interviews, action research, and



other strategies. The main intent of the book is to convince policy scholars of the usefulness of interpretive thinking, which entails answering the questions: "what does it mean to interpret?" and "what do we gain from interpreting?" As such, this Brief will be of interest to scholars in public policy, public administration, and political science as well as researchers in applied fields (e.g., environmental studies, race and gender studies, urban planning, sociology) engaged in policy analysis.