Nick Turnbull

How Should We Theorise Public Policy? Problem Solving and Problematicity

Abstract The concept of policy problem informs the scholarly study of policymaking as well as policy practice. But the problem solving theory of policymaking has many conceptual shortcomings. The problem solving concept is flawed because it defines complex problems univocally, obscuring differences of opinion; focuses on problem solving at the expense of problem setting; and represents the policy process scientifically to disguise and/or suppress the contingent nature of political reasoning. The propositional basis of theories of the policy process excludes problematicity and produces a fragmented theory which misrepresents the political nature of policymaking. By building upon an epistemology of questioning we can address these shortcomings by revising and expanding the problem concept in policy theory. Such a conception implies that policy studies is not distinctive because it is applied and should therefore be integrated with political theory.

Rhetoric in British Politics and Society

The art of rhetoric is central to the practice of politics. It also, however, plays an important role in civic and private life, where it is employed to persuade, negotiate and resolve disputes on a daily basis. Using the Aristotelian categories of ethos (appeals based on the character of the speaker), pathos (appeals to the emotions of an audience) and logos (appeals to reason), the contributors to this collection explore topics ranging from Prime Ministers Questions and Welsh devolution to political satire and the rhetoric of cultural racism. This collection provides a highly accessible and engaging discussion of a variety of issues, while casting new light on the place and function of rhetoric in contemporary Britain. As such, it will appeal to a wide audience, including scholars and students of rhetoric, political communication, British politics, cultural studies and sociology.

The questioning theory of policy practice: Outline of an integrated analytical framework

Policy analysis is distinctive in its concern with problems and practice. However, the ‘problem-solving’ presupposition of rational policy analysis is inadequate, as is the conception of practice. The challenge for policy theory is to retain the problem orientation while rethinking it to include insights about the problematization of governance and the practice of policy work. This article aims to do this through an original application of an innovative theory of questioning that articulates a constructivist logic of question and answer. It operates through distinguishing between two types of answers, strong and weak repressions of questions. Policy work is practical questioning by individuals that distinguishes between what is problematic and what is not. Policy practice involves both the repression of questions through practice and the explication of questions through reflection. This takes a different form across different domains of questioning, each of which contributes to the practical logic of policy practitioners. The various questioning domains involve their own legitimation questions, forces acting to repress or explicate questions, and three general Rhetorical forms of questions expressed as ethos, logos and pathos. This logic synthesizes Rhetoric with the problem orientation, indicating how values, problems and emotions are involved in each questioning domain. It thus integrates a range of governance and policy theories within a single conceptual framework.

Political rhetoric and its relationship to context: a new theory of the rhetorical situation, the rhetorical and the political

ABSTRACT Political rhetoric is underpinned by its relationship to context. Scholars have struggled to articulate this relationship by relying upon an ontological perspective of rhetoric and situation. This paper utilizes a new, problematological philosophy of rhetoric in context that overcomes these limitations. This approach employs a logic of question and answer which articulates the contingency of rhetoric as well as the structuring effects of context, conceived as social distance. This paper makes three conceptual innovations; philosophically redefining the rhetorical situation via a social problematology; developing a relational conception of situation; and originating a rhetorical theory of situatedness.

Policy design: its enduring appeal in a complex world and how to think it differently

Policy design has re-appeared on the scholarly agenda. This special issue investigates the assumptions of the policy design concept, questioning its theoretical coherence and relevance for practitioners. The conventional idea of policy design implies an instrumental-rational theoretical model which is out of place in contemporary governance arrangements. While the concept appeals to academic sensibilities, it has less utility in practice. It can also become caught up in the political aspect of policymaking by being used to generate legitimacy for the actions of public managers via rationalising accounts. Contributors to this issue argue that the design idea should be reconsidered from the ground up. An alternative orientation is put forward, which regards policy design as something that emerges from policymaking practice.

Conclusion: Rhetoric, British Identity and Interdisciplinarity

British society is going through a sustained period of change, which has been accompanied by controversy and debate. This change was stimulated by major economic shifts, the transformation to a multicultural society, and closer integration with the European Union. In such times of transition, rhetoric comes to the fore as a way for social actors to articulate the shape of problems and to search for solutions by integrating the new with the old. Rhetoric allows individuals to symbolically frame these changes, to adapt to change and to preserve tradition, but always with a political slant because the linguistic representation of the world is a powerful way to define reality and shape conceptions of a possible future. The chapters in this book reveal much about the nature of rhetorical power and how it is used in British politics and society. Through rhetoric, individuals — whether the prime minister, public commentators, journalists or ordinary Britons — cope with change and stake their own claims about what it is to be British, about who should be praised and who vilified, about what makes British culture and about what we should do politically to adapt to social change. The very idea of Britishness is negotiated through rhetoric, although never with a single voice. Rhetoric is a language of multiplicity, of metaphors and metonymy, a world created through implied meaning in which it is necessary for the audience to interpret who is included in the vision of the nation, a vision which is always contested.

Thickening Rhetorical Political Analysis with a Theory of Distance: Negotiating the Greek Episode of the Eurozone Crisis

Rhetoric has re-emerged in political analysis. We identify two broad trends in the rhetorical analysis of politics, ‘thin’ and ‘thick’. Thin conceptions view rhetoric as primarily a matter of oratory. In contrast, the proponents of Rhetorical Political Analysis have developed an emerging thick approach, in which rhetorical concepts are applied more broadly and with more depth. However, this approach is significantly limited in its influence because it does not adequately speak to other sub-disciplines in political science, in which non-rhetorical theories are preferred. This shortcoming is addressed by applying Meyer’s new philosophy of rhetoric. The approach supports methodological extension through a theory of practice, grounded in social distance. An analysis of the Greek episode of the Eurozone crisis shows how rhetoric is used by key actors for the purpose of strategic positioning, in concert with non-rhetorical means of distanciation, namely, economic and political relations.

Problematizing ‘wickedness’: a critique of the wicked problems concept, from philosophy to practice

ABSTRACT The concept of ‘wicked problems’ is a major current in the fields of policy analysis and planning. However, the basis of the concept has been insufficiently examined. This re-examination of its conceptual basis explains the origins of the limitations and flaws in the wicked problems concept. This paper analyses and rejects the notion of ‘wicked problems’ on philosophical and practical grounds. We argue instead that the policy sciences already had better conceptualizations of public problems before Rittel and Webber’s flawed formulation. We return to this literature, and build upon it by reframing ‘wickedness’ in terms of higher and lower levels of problematicity in problem structuring efforts. In doing so, we offer an alternative, novel combination of the philosophy of questioning and the policy work approach to policy practice. ‘Wickedness’ is re-conceptualized as problematicity, conceived as the distance between those who question or inquire into a policy problem. This is primarily a political distance, articulated in terms of ideas, interests, institutions and practices. High problematicity arises only when wide political distances are explicitly maintained, such that partial answers cannot be reached. Practitioners deal with problematicity by a dual practical strategy of balancing closing-down and opening-up sub-questions to the problem in order to structure them such that they become amenable to action through partial answers. This simultaneously incorporates a politics of negotiating political distance via partisan adjustment and serial strategic analysis. The argument constitutes a theoretically and practically superior alternative to the ‘wicked problems’ perspective.

Governance and complexity in water management, edited by Hans Bressers and Kris Lulofs Mobilizing science: movements, participation, and the remaking of knowledge, by Sabrina McCormick Translating agency reform: rhetoric and culture in comparative perspective, by Amanda Smullen Rethinking the public: innovations in research, theory and politics, edited by Nick Mahony, Janet Newman and Clive Barnett

This book engages with an oft-neglected but vitally important topic – water management. Water is a critical resource whose security of supply underpins the stability of industrial production, agriculture and even power generation. A serious treatment of the issues involved in water management is long overdue and this Governance and Complexity in Water Management is a welcome contribution to the subject. The book itself is structured in three parts. The first part deals with theory, the second presents a number of fascinating case studies and the third part attempts to offer some advice for practitioners and policymakers based on theory. This review will focus on the first two parts of the text as these are the most substantial. The presentation of theory explores contextual interaction theory (CIT) and demonstrates the relevance of the concept of ‘boundary-spanning’. These issues form the heart of the book’s approach and offer a way into the subject in a manner that will engage academics whilst remaining accessible to practitioners and professionals. It would have been interesting to see how the CIT framework compared to the institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework (see Ostrom et al. 1994, Ostrom 1999). The utility of IAD framework for analyzing the management of resource in complex systems is supported by a considerable volume of empirical evidence. Given the strength of the empirical cases presented in Governance and Complexity in Water Management, a comparative theoretical approach would have added considerable heft to the book and allowed a greater contribution to theory. A somewhat minor oversight is that there is little discussion of the economics of water management and the book would have been greatly improved if there was more discussion of economic issues. It is understandable – given the vast economics literature on the subject – why the authors would feel that there is little to add to this debate. However, some discussion of economics would increase the depth of the argument and would allow for a greater contribution to theory. The second half of the theoretical foundations of the book discusses the concept of boundary-spanning. This discussion seeks to develop a cognitive understanding of boundary-spanning that explains how boundary-spanners act. This approach has considerable potential but remains under-developed and there is an unfortunate tendency to echo to the conclusions of established scholarship. For example, it was Brown (1966) who originally proposed that boundary-spanners filter information to prevent information overload. The treatment of boundary-spanning is also lacking a substantive exploration of networks and the role of networked governance. This is something of a missed opportunity as developing an explicit understanding of the relationship between the cognitive understandings of individuals and their behavior within governance networks would have made a valuable contribution to the literature.