Introduction

The emphasis in this final part of the book is on ways of researching the practices of policy as much as it is about studying policy in practice. Policy studies texts mainly present a juxtaposition between policy and practice where what is laid down in thought (formulation) and what actually happens in deed (implementation) are compared. This type of analysis is useful in revealing the nature and form of implementation ‘gaps’, the trials and tribulations of policy execution at street level and the complexity of politics and ideology as they operate at different levels of organisation. At the same time, however, there is a risk in investigating ‘policy in practice’, that boundaries are respected and linearity assumed (whether from the top down or the bottom up), when these aspects of policy in action also need to become part of the processes being explored. Michael Hill (2005, ch 9) makes a clear case that not only is ‘policy’ a ‘slippery concept’, but that putting it (whatever ‘it’ turns out to be) into practice is an interactive process that requires attention to context. Earlier chapters in this book demonstrate that attention to meanings is also required in order to gain a fuller understanding of policy processes, and the chapters in this section are intended to present examples of ways in which the idea of ‘policy practices’ can be understood in a broader sense than the simple result of implementation.

Within these chapters, three newly emergent frameworks for policy analysis are demonstrated: Cowburn emphasising the centrality of ethics; Boxall, Warren and Chau contextualising the rise of the ‘user’ and Lendvai and Stubbs drawing on the sociology of translation (after Callon). As Cowburn warns, however, we must always bear in mind the origins and bases of all analysis. Any research on policy practices should not only consider how policy gets used, but how research gets used too. In the same way that policy does not simply travel from A to B, from statement to implementation, so research and the outputs of research cannot take a straight route from researcher to policy information. Policy research practices are as questionable as any other aspect of policy-related study and can easily lead to policy structures built on sand rather than the assumed bias-free bedrock.