LIST OF PANELS

This course offers a comprehensive exploration of a critical approach to studying public policy and policy analysis, grounded in postpositivist foundation. Critical policy inquiry draws on Jürgen Habermas’s work on communicative action and deliberation, Michel Foucault’s writings on discourse, and the epistemics of social constructivism. The course advances deliberative policy argumentation and the logic of practical reason, exploring how this can be used as a framework for interpreting the interaction of normative and empirical arguments in policy politics. Participants will learn how to apply this approach to a diverse range of topics, including technocracy, policy expertise, deliberative democratic politics, interpretive policy analysis, post-truth, climate and Covid denialism, participatory governance, local and tacit knowledge, and the role of emotion in policy controversies. This course concludes with a look to transformative policy learning and the future of the field. Connecting social and political theory with empirical research and practical applications, it is beneficial for PhD students and scholars of public policy, politics, governance, public administration, and regulatory policy.

Preconference Course