LIST OF PANELS

How do discourses shape the identification and framing of policy issues, and what implications do they hold for setting policy agendas in various contexts? This panel thoroughly examines this question by exploring the interplay between discourses, policy agenda-setting, and strategies or agencies in contemporary policymaking. Discourses shape agenda-setting and policy outcomes by constructing realities, influencing public perceptions, and guiding how actors frame policy issues (Rein & Schön, 1996). Thus, discourse is intrinsically associated with the saliency of issues and policy agendas and mobilizing coalitions.

This panel’s focus was ushered by the growing dissatisfaction with the techno-oriented, instrumental policy approach, which led scholars to focus on the role of language in policy analysis. The objectivism implied by the rationally mainstreamed policy analysis was criticized as drained of emotion and having deadened moral sensibility (Hajer, 2005). The discursive analysis shaped the landscape of policy studies, where stories people tell are regarded not merely as “raw” data but, per se, the principal subject of investigation. Discourses—defined by Hajer (2005) as the “ensemble of ideas, concepts, and categories through which meaning is given to phenomena”—have now become the focal unit of analysis. Along these lines, pioneering scholars focused on diverse and specific theoretical facets, including, but not limited to, the discourse coalition framework on the formation of coalitions where shared narratives are used to pin specific policy trajectories (Hajer, 2005), the narrative policy framework with emphasis on the mechanisms of storylines and how narratives with moral and emotional resonance drive policy action (Shanahan et al., 2011), the discursive institutionalism on examining how discourse operates within and across institutions and the discourse’s role in how policy ideas are communicated and coordinated among policy actors (Schmidt, 2008), the embeddedness of policy frames with paradoxical values and biases (Stone, 2012), and finally, the discursive approach on advocacy coalition framework, digging into the strategic use of discourse in coalition building where belief systems are resiliently maintained over time (Sabatier, 1998).

From these seminal theories and other scholarly developments on the intersection of discourse and agenda-setting, this panel advances the understanding of how discourse is associated with the salience of public policy agendas in both theoretical and practical dimensions. The panel will specifically:

• Investigate the role of narrative strategies and agencies, discursive coalitions, and framings in shaping public perceptions and policy agenda.
• Explore mechanisms by which discourse constructs policy realities, impacting the selection of problem definitions and solutions.
• Examine comparative and context-specific case studies that highlight the interaction of discourse, institutions, and policy outcomes in different policy domains, including, but not limited to, health, gender, migration, education, social justice, and environmental policies. 

We invite scholars engaging in discourse, agenda-setting, problem identification, and framing in public policy to contribute to the panel, Framing the Future: How Discourses Shape Public Policy Agendas. In an era of increased complexity and global challenges, framing and communicating issues determines their political salience and urgency. Hence, this paper explores the transformative potential of discourse in revealing emotional, moral, and social dimensions that traditional technocratic approaches to agenda-setting often overlook.  

Building on seminal theories of the Discourse Coalition Framework (Hajer, 2005), Discursive Institutionalism (Schmidt, 2008), Narrative Policy Framework (Shanahan et al., 2011), discursive approach in the Advocacy Coalition Framework (Sabatier, 1998), and other related frameworks on discourse analysis that explores agenda-setting, the panel seeks to advance theoretical and empirical understanding on how discourse operates and shapes policy agenda.

We are particularly interested in contributions that:

• Investigate the narratives, storytelling, and framing strategies in shaping public perceptions and policy agenda.
• Explore mechanisms by which discourse constructs policy realities, impacting the political salience of issues, problem definitions, and solutions.
• Focus on how discourse functions in coalitions, within and across institutions, to shape communication and coordination of policy ideas.
• Examine comparative and context-specific case studies that highlight the interaction of discourse, institutions, and agenda-setting in various policy domains, including, but not limited to, health, gender, migration, education, social justice, and environmental policies.

We welcome papers from interdisciplinary perspectives and studies from developing countries or regions with emerging policy frameworks. The selected papers will deepen the understanding of how discourse influences policymaking, offering theoretical insights and practical strategies for advocates, policymakers, scholars, and pracademics.