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Beyond Public Policy: A Public Action Languages Approach

Books

10/16/2019

Peter Spink

Authors : Peter Kevin Spink

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Public policy is an expression that has come to dominate the way people talk about doing government and public administration and is seen as a central component of the modern democratic order. Adopting a ‘public action languages approach’, Beyond Public Policy shows how policy is only one of many powerful social languages that are used to get things done in government and public service. These include not only the actions of government and service agencies but also the many other social languages that are used by the public in raising issues, putting pressure on governments and service providers and also, in creating their own responses to public needs. The result is a multiplicity of ways of talking about and doing public affairs: budgeting, planning, rights, directives, policy, governance, protests, philanthropy, charities, community action amongst many others. Sometimes these different social languages get along together, but they can also enter into conflict or, just as easily, go their own way.

 

Beyond Public Policy is focussed on three points. First that although it may seem central and obvious, policy is only one of a number of social languages part professional, part political and part every day, that can be found in and around government action. Some have been in place for a long time before policy, others are more recent or, even, emerging. Take, for example, budgeting, finance, planning, diplomacy, rights, systems, directives, decisions and laws, as well as the many different versions of public administration or management. They  frequently have their own professional roots, are comfortable to work within and can be found in different departments, ministries and branches of government. Some were seen as equally central in their time and others, such as governance, may be vying for centrality. Some can be found linked together, but rarely in a hierarchical manner. Others just seem to go their own way.
 
The second point is the question about centrality. If the first point turns out acceptable and valid, as the analytic chapters that looked at some of the social languages that can be found around government show, then apart from a normative desire to somehow place governing into a logical hierarchical framework, centrality is more of a hindrance than a help.
 
The third point takes this evolving argument on further, to the other side of the street or out into the fields, the rivers or along the coasts and asks if collective life is merely a question of the government or the governed, with some generic addendum to bring in society as context. What happens when the same questions are applied to the way people(s) go about creating and raising issues and, also, solving problems for themselves. Does this happen in a single social language called civil society or are there, equally, a heterogeneity of social languages which may connect or disconnect with one another and equally, connect or disconnect with those to be found from the government side of public affairs? How do the parishes, the friends of the library, the local historical society, the neighbourhood babysitting circles and community associations fit in? What about the many charities, philanthropic bodies and micro-collective soup kitchens, street parties and animal rescue centres? What about the pressure groups and social movements, interfaith networks, community activists and street protests which also have their action languages, and which are just as social in their own ways? 
 
The conclusion is that it is necessary to go beyond public policy and recognise the many other social languages for public action present, not as auxiliaries but as equally active players in and around public affairs. Present in the not necessarily harmonious relationships between governments, representatives and the people they serve; and present in those areas of action where, for varying reasons, the public or public(s) prefer to get on and do it themselves. The challenge is to understand these differences and learn how to create and negotiate possibilities, rather than seeking to impose new centralities.
 
Full details of the contents plus an open access copy of the first chapter containing the detailed arguments are available on line at:
 
https://www.elgaronline.com/view/9781788118743/9781788118743.xml
 
 

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