Interpreting policy success and failure

Panel Chairs:

Sonja van der Arend, TU Delft, the Netherlands, s.h.vanderarend@tudelft.nl

Bertien Broekhans, TU Delft, the Netherlands,

 Abstract:

Both in policy practice and in policy studies, policy success is generally treated as the clear-cut outcome of simply applying criteria of goal achievement to a policy. From an interpretivist perspective, however, success can only be seen as part of the everyday social construction of meaning that is endemic to any policy process. David Mosse, for instance, finds that "development projects are 'successful' not because they turn design into reality, but because they sustain policy models offering a significant interpretation of events" (2005: 181). In his account, success as much as failure are socially produced, and turn out to be powerful categories in the social art of policy making in development work. In 'Western' interpretive policy analysis, this issue has not yet received the critical attention it gets in anthropology.

Hence, in this session, we will open up the black box of policy success and failure. We feel that scrutiny of this issue is all the more relevant, now that policy making is perceived as a deliberative, participatory, goal-seeking process rather than as a rationalist, goal-oriented project. The primary goal of the session is not to show that claimed policy successes are false; indeed, they often are. Rather, we seek to show the importance of interpretive studies of success and failure for an adequate understanding of policy practices under current political conditions.

Papers are invited that delve into the intricacies of policy success and/or failure. They may cover how success and failure are produced, sustained, negotiated, claimed, used, questioned, etc. in all kinds of regions, levels, phases and domains of policy making or planning. Also the use of success and failure as categories in evaluations and other policy studies could be an issue of interest. Furthermore, papers may go into the effects of success and failure or concern relevant theoretical and methodological issues.