The Critical Policy Studies Network offers a venue for scholars, junior as well as senior, to develop and share their work with other policy scholars both inside and outside the evolving critical/interpretive paradigm. The Critical Policy Studies journal is the central arena for this collective engagement, and this Network can play a supporting role by engaging in additional policy studies activities to enhance theory and practice. Possibilities include conferences, workshops, literature, zoom lectures, courses, support for junior scholars, and whatever else. The Network collaborates closely with the Interpretative Policy Analysis group and with the Critical Policy Studies APSA-related group. The format of this forum eventually will be interactive, enabling virtual meetings as well as static web pages that offer essays, commentaries and teaching related material.

The journal Critical Policy Studies brings contemporary theoretical and methodological discussions, both normative and empirical, to bear on the understanding and analysis of public policy, at local, national and global levels. Like the journal, the network offers a unique forum for researchers, policy-makers and practitioners to challenge established accounts of policy-analytic methods, to explore alternative approaches to policy-making, and to promote democratic governance. To this end, it concentrates on the relation of political and policy theory to specific practices of governance, in particular as they pertain to democratic governance, participatory practices, social justice, and general public welfare. Without neglecting empirical research, the network thus abjures scientism while paying epistemological attention to interpretive, argumentative, and discursive approaches to policy-making.

Advisory Board

Piyapong Boossabong, Chiang Mai University, Thailand

Rosana de Freitas Boullosa, University of Brasilia, Brazil

Kathrin Braun, University of Stuttgart, Germany

Jennifer Dodge, State University of New York, Albany, USA

John Dryzek, University of Canberra, Australia

Anna Durnová, Vienna Institute for Advanced Studies, Austria

Laureen Elgert, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA

Peter H. Feindt, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

Steven Griggs, De Montfort University, UK

Maarten Hajer, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

David Howarth, University of Essex, UK

Bob Jessop, Lancaster University, UK

Alan Mandell, Empire State College, USA

Navdeep Mathur, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India

Michael Orsini, University of Ottawa, Canada

Dieter Plehwe, Social Science Centre Berlin,Germany

Christoph Scherrer, Kassel University,  Germany

Vivien A. Schmidt, Boston University, USA

Paul Stubbs, Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia

Helen Sullivan, Australian National University, Australia

Douglas Torgerson, Trent University, Canada

Philippe Zittoun, University of Lyon, France