King Edward VII Avenue
Cardiff CF10 3SN
United Kingdom
Conference website www.ipa-2011.cardiff.ac.uk
Call for Panels Deadline November 30, 2010
Call for Papers Deadline January 31, 2011
Call for Participation in Methodology Workshop Deadline January 31, 2011
Inquiries to IPA-2011@cardiff.ac.uk
Abstract submissions to IPA-2011@cardiff.ac.uk (please see details below)
Interpretive approaches are experiencing renewed interest and revitalisation in the social sciences quite broadly. Their sensitivity to social meaning, historical context, and the importance of human subjectivity has increasingly challenged the empiricist, positivist and scientist mainstream that has been dominant in recent decades. In policy analysis, these characteristics often link interpretive methods to critical approaches which place policy research in its relevant political and historical contexts. This 6th Conference (following the successful Birmingham, Amsterdam, Essex, Kassel and Grenoble conferences) investigates links of the interpretive tradition to new topics, venues and methodological challenges.
Keynote 1: Interpretive Policy Analysis in Practice
Presenter: Maarten Hajer, University of Amsterdam and Environmental Assessment Agency (NL)
Respondent: Patsy Healey, Newcastle University (UK)
Keynote 2: Deliberative Democracy and the Politics of Sustainability
Presenter: James Meadowcroft, Carleton University (CAN)
Respondent: Frank Fischer, Rutgers University (USA) & University of Kassel (Germany)
Keynote 3: Interpretive Policy Analysis: Reflecting on Meaning and Practice
Presenter: Dvora Yanow, University of Amsterdam (NL)
Respondent: Steven Griggs, De Montfort University (UK)
Roundtable 1: Human Agency and Emotions in Policy Analysis
Chris Skelcher, Birmingham University (UK)
Janet Newman, Open University (UK)
Paul Hoggett, UWE, Bristol (UK)
Roundtable 2: Interpretive Policy Analysis in Non-Western Contexts
Fulong Wu, Cardiff University (UK), on China
Stephen Connelly, University of Sheffield (UK), on Egypt
Navdeep Mathur, India Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IND), on India
Jenny Pearce, University of Bradford (UK), on Latin America
Roundtable 3: On “The State as Cultural Practice”: Authors meet their critics
Authors: Mark Bevir, University of California at Berkeley (USA)
Rod Rhodes, University of Tasmania (AUS) tbc
Critics: Fiona Mackay, University of Edinburgh (UK)
Bob Jessop, Lancaster University (UK)
Hendrik Wagenaar, Leiden University (NL)
Tanja Pritzlaff, University of Bremen (Germany)
Introduction and conference themes
The conference will provide a forum to explore long-standing themes in the interpretive tradition, in particular governance, democracy and deliberation, the use of discourse and interpretive methods in critical policy analysis, and the relationship of discourse to power. It will also explore new places and horizons for interpretive policy analysis. This will be particularly evident in the keynote presentations and roundtables which are focussed on the
contribution of interpretive policy analysis to addressing major political and social questions of our times; the use of interpretivist and deliberative methods in non-Western contexts; and the inclusion of non-cognitive perspectives on human agency. The conference will also offer an opportunity to assess how interpretive methods can help to understand new forms of governance, the role of the state, and various modes of policymaking from the local to the global scale. It will provide an opportunity to discuss the theory and practice of democracy, and for debating different methods of interpretation and critical explanation.
Interpretive methods have now been well established in a wide range of research fields, from policy analysis to the sociology of knowledge, science and technology studies, international relations, cultural political economy, urban research, planning, and many others. They often inform policy and practices, in particular in areas like participatory and deliberative policy analysis and planning. Th