Introduction

The research I present here uses the embodied–inscribed–enacted framework to interrogate data gathered from a large qualitative research project that has sought to understand the way that knowledge functions in relation to Scottish mental health policy. This formed the first part of the work conducted by the Scottish health team under the KNOWandPOL project, which aimed to understand the different dimensions of knowledge use in relation to policymaking across Europe. My overarching interest in this chapter is on how the new framework might help to answer these questions and add to the analytic toolbox from which policy scholars draw.

In order to assess its utility, I applied the embodied–inscribed–enacted schema retrospectively to data already analysed in order to understand what new perspectives it could offer on the way knowledge functions across this particular policy sphere. The original analysis had been conducted before the framework had been devised and, as we shall see, that initial analysis was productive of further research questions. However, in pursuing that further research, it became apparent that the ideas about knowledge employed for the initial analysis were of limited utility for developing our more detailed case studies. It is therefore interesting to revisit those data to determine what new analytical approaches and insights the embodied–inscribed–enacted schema might open up. In doing so, I ask: how can this framework be applied to an existing set of data? What new insights can it add to previous attempts to understand this field? How might we redescribe the different kinds of knowledge that have come to shape this policy domain?

Scotland, mental health and policy: mapping the field

Previous research on mental health policy in Scotland has characterised it as a knowledge-based community with high levels of interaction between actors and a high degree of consensus over aims and approaches to improving mental health (Smith-Merry et al, 2008). As a policy field, mental health in Scotland underwent a radical reorganisation over a short period of time between 2000 and 2010. Drawing on major reviews of the system, new legislation and new policies for services and population mental health were launched: the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003; and the government's National programme for improving mental health and wellbeing, which began in 2003, and its policy statement Delivering for mental health (2006).