LIST OF PANELS

This panel proposes to build on the Pragmatist concept of “transaction” to analyze public policy and policy processes.  The concept of a “transaction” was originally introduced by philosopher John Dewey and political scientist Arthur Bentley to describe a dynamic approach to knowledge that did not start with fixed elements.  Applied to policy processes, a transactional perspective stresses the co-constitution of policy actors and the policy field iteratively through time through via the mediation of action and meaning. Rather than starting with the fixed preferences, interests, and belief of independent policy actors, a transactional view assumes that they are fluid and will emerge relationally within a given policy situation.

There is little in the existing policy studies literature that explicitly applies the concept of transaction to policy processes, with the exception of Kuruvilla and Dorstewitz’s (2010) model of “transactive rationality,” which emphasizes that policy inquiry begins with an “indeterminate situation” (or “enigma” in Boltanski’s terms) and depends on a “community of inquiry.” While their approach focuses on policy analysis, this panel applies the idea to the policy process. As such, it does not assume that policy actors will converge on a singular understanding of policy problems.  However, the policy transaction perspective does expect rival interpretations to be progressively articulated with respect to one another—that is, they are co-constituted in the policy situation.

A policy transaction perspective emphasizes how policy problems become structured through processes of communication, valuation and reflexivity. Although policy research on “policy definition,” “framing” and “policy discourse” have already take us a long way toward understanding how policy problems are shaped by communication, the policy transaction approach takes us a step further.  Adopting what communication theorists have called a “triple contingency” view of communication, the policy transaction approach views communication between ego and alter as taking shape through a perspective that transcends either of their initial perspectives and implicitly takes account of third parties. Thus, policy transactions both depend on and create “publics” that shape problem definition.  

The co-constitution of policy actors and policy fields also takes shape through processes of valuation where policy actors develop justifications for the worth of certain actions. A policy transaction perspective stresses that values are constructed through and emerge from engagement with specific policy situations.  In other words, this approach does not start with competing values and subsequently examine policy conflict; rather it emphasizes how values become articulated and structured in the course of policy conflict.

This panel builds on the Pragmatist concept of “transaction” to analyze public policy and policy processes.  The concept of a “transaction” was originally introduced by philosopher John Dewey and political scientist Arthur Bentley to describe a dynamic approach to knowledge that did not start with fixed elements.  Applied to policy processes, a transactional perspective stresses the co-constitution of policy actors and the policy field iteratively through time through via the mediation of action and meaning. Policy transactions are structured through processes of communication, valuation and reflexivity and both depend on and create publics that shape problem definition. 

Papers for this panel should advance the policy transaction perspective through either theoretical or empirical research.  Theoretical papers might deepen our understanding of the Pragmatist concept of transaction and how it applies to policy studies.  Papers might also investigate how a policy transaction perspective intersects with various constructivist approaches to policy studies. We would especially welcome papers that contrast a policy transaction approach with other well-established policy process approaches, such as policy streams, punctuated equilibrium, and advocacy and discourse coalitions. Papers that make connections between a policy transaction approach and core concepts in the public policy literature—such as policy discourse, policy change, coalitions, or policy subsystems—would also be relevant.

Empirically, the policy transaction perspective investigates how actor preferences, interests and beliefs emerge within the policy process and how these emergent outcomes subsequently structure the policy field. The panel would welcome papers that examine this emergent process in detail and that investigate how this structuring occurs through processes of communication, valuation and reflexivity.   A focus on how policy problems are defined transactionally would be particularly useful. The panel is open to papers about any policy sector, subsystem or level but would especially welcome papers that examine cross-sectoral or multi-level dynamics or interactions between subsystems.  

We also invite papers that explore how value is articulated in policy fields and papers that closely investigate how policymakers engage in activities like persuading, convincing, struggling, negotiating, defining, and analyzing would be welcomed.  In addition, papers that point to how individual and collective reflexivity emerges in the course of policy dynamics, particularly in the form of “publics,” would contribute significantly to this project.  Methodologically, the panel is interested in how we can observe and understand emergent policy processes.