Innovations in Critical Policy Analysis

What's the Problem Represented to Be?
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-4473-7379-7
Verlag: Bristol University Press

Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Public policy is often framed as a response to social problems rather than the cause of them. Carol Bacchi’s influential ‘What’s the Problem Represented to Be?’ (WPR) approach – first published in her 2009 book, Analysing Policy – addresses this contrast and has become an essential methodology for post-structural analysis of public policy.

This edited volume brings together leading international scholars to rethink, extend and reflect on the WPR approach in novel ways, demonstrating its applicability beyond policy documents and across diverse social science disciplines. It presents innovative perspectives on a radical methodology, making it a must-read for research methods scholars and critical policy analysts.

Engaging with multiple theories, concepts and purposes, this book provides cutting-edge insights and real-world applications that make it an essential tool for interrogating policy and power in practice.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Rönnblom, Malin

Edwards, Rosalind

Weitere Mitwirkende

Wu, Jian

Bacchi, Carol

Wilson, Anne

Boswell, John

Kelly, Stephen

Ugwudike, Pamela

Odida, Amelia

Mitander, Tomas

Öjehag Pettersson, Andreas

Paterson, Stephanie

Larios, Lindsay

Rahm, Lina

Behrendtz, Jörgen

Dahl, Hanne Marlene

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Methodenlehre
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Empirische Sozialforschung, Statistik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part 1: Rethinking WPR

1. Thinking with the What’s the Problem Represented to Be? critical approach to research and analysis – Malin Rönnblom and Rosalind Edwards

2. What’s the ‘problem’ of ‘underlying health conditions’ represented to be? Applying WPR to concepts – Carol Bacchi and Anne Wilson

3. Comparing and contrasting WPR and CDA: divergent conceptions of discourse and distinct analytical strategies – Jian Wu

4. Genealogy and WPR: The importance of Bacchi’s questions when evoking a genealogical sensibility – Stephen Kelly

Part 2: Extending WPR

5. WPR and construction of the object as lenses to understand governing families through AI technologies: combining epistemologies – Rosalind Edwards and Pamela Ugwudike

6. When critical hands touch: towards decolonial policy analysis – Amelia Odida

7. Where is the problem represented to be? – Tomas Mitander and Andreas Öjehag Pettersson

8. Emotional problems: post-structural policy analysis and emotional discourses in the case of birth tourism – Stephanie Paterson and Lindsay Larios

9. Winding up the future: the crank radio as policy – Lina Rahm and Jorgen Behrendtz

Part 3: Reflecting on WPR

10. Enabling self-problematising? Strategically choosing re-analysis and co-authorship with an attention to difference – Hanne Marlene Dahl

11. Reflecting on the value of WPR framework as a teaching tool in public policy analysis – John Boswell

12. Doing WPR with practitioners – from emotions to a potential for political change – Malin Rönnblom

13. Concluding conversation on thinking with WPR – Malin Rönnblom and Rosalind Edwards

Über Autor(innen)

Ugwudike, Pamela
Pamela Ugwudike is associate professor in criminology at the University of Southampton. Her research projects have focused on criminal justice practice and they have been funded by the Welsh Government, the Youth Justice Board, the National Probation Service, and the Prison Advice and Care Trust.

Dahl, Hanne Marlene
Hanne Marlene Dahl is a professor at the Department of Social Science and Business at Roskilde University. She works with the state and the governance of care in a context of the Nordic welfare state and care regimes from a feminist perspective.

Edwards, Rosalind
Rosalind Edwards is Professor of Sociology at the University of Southampton, where she is also Social Sciences Director of Research and a Co-Director of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods.

Malin Rönnblom is Professor of Political Science at Karlstad University.

Rosalind Edwards is Professor of Sociology at the University of Southampton.