Interpretive Approaches to British Government and Politics

Abstract

This paper has two aims. First, in contrast to the modernist empiricism of mainstream political science, we provide brief introductions to several interpretive approaches to the study of political science and British government and politics: idealism, social humanism, post-structuralism, and ideational institutionalism. Second, we identify the distinctive research agendas that arise from this family of approaches: namely, critique, decentring governance, ethnographic studies of British politics, and policy analysis as storytelling.

Housing policy in the UK: the importance of spatial nuance

“…Our argument seeks to connect an emphasis on policy context and political differences with the changing role of the British state. In doing so however, we look to interpretive understandings of governance (Bevir and Rhodes 2006), which draw attention to the underpinning narratives, political projects and social constructed nature of policy. This paper therefore connects to the longstanding body of work in Housing Studies influenced by social constructionist perspectives (see for example, Jacobs et al 2004).…”

“…These arguments have international reach given similar debates about sub-state nationalism and self-determination are occurring in other places such as Chile, Spain and Canada. Moreover, by locating our arguments within a wider body of literature on social constructionism and interpretative governance (Jacobs et al 2004;Bevir and Rhodes 2006), we seek to draw attention to the politics of housing, adding to international debates within Housing Studies (Jacobs and Pawson 2015).…”

“…As well as fundamental differences between political parties, the changing economic context and implementation of austerity measures also marks a shift in the wider political context between the early and latter periods of devolution (Danson et al 2012;MacKinnon 2015). This is where the literature on interpretive governance and social constructionism can be insightful (Jacobs et al 2004;Bevir and Rhodes 2006), providing an important theoretical backdrop to understanding tensions and constraints in the UK constitutional settlement; points that will be returned to in section three.…”

Public leadership and the social construction of economic catastrophe

“…This debate comes in many guises and the proponents of the two positions use different labels to describe themselves. The main bone of contention, however, is whether political contests and outcomes are driven first and foremost by the material realities that they purport to shape or by 'ideas' (cognitions, beliefs, norms, tacit knowledge, models) that people have in their heads and that exist quite independently of those material realities (Bevir and Rhodes 2005, 2006a, 2006b, 2006cMarsh and Furlong 2002;Furlong and Marsh 2007;Marsh 2008).…”

Situated bio-regulation: Ethnographic sensibility at the interface of STS, policy studies and the social studies of medicine

“…They have shown how patterns of coordination and choreography between actors or actants can emerge as well as how knowledge production in these settings requires negotiation and interpretation between engaged individuals. In the last two to three decades, ethnographic methodologies have increasingly also helped to illuminate processes of science policy making (Cambrosio et al, 1990), and policymaking in general (Shore and Wright, 1997;Hajer and Wagenaar, 2003;Bevir and Rhodes, 2006;Glynos and Howarth, 2008;Wagenaar, 2011).…”