Discourse and Policy Practices: Politics – Legitimacy - Power

Interpretive research challenges mainstream positivism and scientism in the name of a methodological pluralism that is sensitive to meaning, historical and social context, and the importance of human subjectivity. Following successful conferences in Birmingham (2006), Amsterdam (2007), Essex (2008) and Kassel (2009), the 5th Conference on Interpretive Policy Analysis in Grenoble will extend the complex investigation of meaning and politics by exploring, in particular, current challenges for discursive politics and policy practices.

Interpretive Policy Analysis entails diverse methodological paths aiming to explain current challenges of politics. Various revisions of policy analysis in its linguistic, argumentative, or discursive turns have been triggering recent research in the field. These concepts and streams have shown to which extent politics and policy practices are governed and shaped by discourse. However, how do we cope with discourse, a phenomenon that has become rather a fashionable term and a notion that comes in many shapes and sizes?

Although manifold discussions have already contributed in considerable ways to the establishment of the tradition of interpretive analysis in politics, many points and questions still remain open. Hence, the upcoming conference addresses both theoretical and methodological research issues in the interpretive tradition which discuss and revise "discourse", "interpretation" and "practice" in their various political dimensions. What ontological and epistemological aspects does analyzing discourses entail? What is the role of public policy in these interpretive traditions? What can the practice of public policy and its analysis reveal to us in terms of concepts, theories or policy designs and policy planning practices?

Against this background, the 5th iteration of IPA stresses in particular the relationships among policy, legitimacy and power. These themes will be particularly evident in the plenary sessions, which are focused on new forms of institutionalization of policy practice, rethinking the theory and practice of legitimacy, and debating different methods of interpretation and critical explanation of public policy in general.

The call for papers is open until January 31 2010. Read more about the call here.