Introduction -- 1. Making Social Science Relevant: Policy Inquiry in Critical Perspective -- Public Policy and the Discursive Construction of Reality -- 2. Constructing Policy Theory: Ideas and Discourse -- 3. Public Policy and Discourse Construct: Multiple Realities and Interpretative Understanding -- Public Policy and Discursive Politics -- 4. Public Policy and Discursive Analysis -- 5. Policy Discourse versus Advocacy Coalitions: Interpreting Policy Change and Learning -- Discursive Policy Inquiry: Restituting Empirical Analysis -- 6. Postempiricist Foundations: Social Constructionism and Practical Discourse -- 7. Interpreting Public Policy: Analytical and Methodological Perspectives -- 8. Public Policy as Narrative: Stories, Frames, and Metanarratives -- 9. The Argumentative Turn: Policy Analysis as Discursive Practice -- Deliberative Governance -- 10. Citizens and Experts: Democratizing Policy Deliberations -- 11. The Deliberative Policy Analyst: Theoretical Issues and Practical Challenges
Summary
Fischer critically examines the range of perspectives on policy discourse and discursive policy analysis that have emerged in recent years to challenge the dominant technocratic approaches that have shaped the theory and practices of the field of public policy and policy analyses
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 238-256) and index
