Logics of Critical Explanation in Policy Analysis: Opportunities, Challenges, and Applications

Panel Chairs:

Jason Glynos, University of Essex, ljglyn@essex.ac.uk

Steve Griggs, De Montfort University , sgriggs@dmu.ac.uk

David Howarth, University of Essex, davidh@essex.ac.uk

Ewen Speed, University of Essex, esspeed@essex.ac.uk

Abstract:

The aim of this panels is to explore the possibilities and limits of a novel approach to practicing policy analysis based on the notion of logics of critical explanation. Logics capture the rules that govern a practice, policy or policy regime, as well as the conditions that make the operation of such rules possible and vulnerable to change. They are distinct not only from causal laws, but also from mechanisms and contextualized self-interpretations.

Drawing upon hermeneutics, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, and post-analytical philosophy, a logics approach presents a three-fold typology of logics -- social, political and fantasmatic logics -- with which to construct critical explanations of practices, policies and policy regimes. It also develops a method of doing discourse analysis in the field of policy studies. Thus a logics approach seeks to furnish answers to questions about the nature and function of the various social practices surrounding the formulation, implementation and evaluation of policy, as well as their overall purposes, meanings and effects.

We invite papers that discuss and evaluate the theoretical and philosophical assumptions of this approach in relation to adjacent and rival approaches, as well as its basic categories and concepts. We also invite papers that investigate the application of this approach to a wide range of policy areas across local, national, and international arenas. These can include immigration, finance, sustainable aviation, community economies, community cohesion, health, defence & security, crime, and so on.

We thus welcome paper-givers who wish to engage critically with the logics approach at a more general, philosophical level, as well as those who are interested in using logics to critically explain different aspects of policymaking, policy change, and policy implementation.