Conducting Interpretive Policy Analysis / Edition 1

by Dvora Yanow

Overview

In this new and timely book in the Qualitative Research Methods series, author Dvora Yanow outlines a more interpretive approach to policy analysis. She begins by describing what interpretive approaches are, and what they can mean to policy analysis. Chapters on symbolic language, symbolic objects, and symbolic acts help shift the frame of reference from thinking about values as costs and benefits to thinking about them more as a set of meanings. Finally, the book concludes with a chapter on how to move from fieldwork to deskwork and textwork.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761908272
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	08/05/1999
Series:	Qualitative Research Methods , #47
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	120
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

I am interested in general in the communication of meaning in organizational and policy settings. Present research includes comparative immigrant and integration policies, Dutch race-ethnic category-making, reflective practice and practice studies, science museums and the idea of 'science,' and US Institutional Review Board and other research regulatory policies and practices.

Table of Contents

Underlying Assumptions of an Interpretive Approach
The Importance of Local Knowledge
Accessing Local Knowledge
Identifying Interpretive Communities and Policy Artifacts
Symbolic Language
Symbolic Objects
Symbolic Acts
Moving from Fieldwork and Deskwork to Textwork and Beyond

Editorial Reviews

Yanow (public administration, California State U., Hayward) adds a qualitative element to the often quantitative study of policy analysis. She moves beyond the costs of a policy to ask about the meanings of a policy. This postmodern analysis of policy making argues that the implications of a policy are not always easy to discern, and that in order to discover them one must investigate the rituals, mythologies, and metaphors embedded in the policy language. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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