In the age of mediatisation, network governance, and multi level governance, all public agents, including government officials and academic experts, must now be credible next to being legally legitimated and effective. Therefore, policy work and its evaluation are not only based on formal positions and legal responsibilities but are also negotiated in policy practices by civil organizations, experts, journalists and the general public.

The performative dimension of democracy is increasingly important. This challenges actors involved to cross boundaries, to learn, to transform, to deal with constantly alternating power relations, and to be perceived as authentic or trustworthy. It also challenges interpretive research to study how public actors perform in practice and suggests a need to pay attention to action-oriented and language-oriented dimensions of practice. Moreover, it raises questions about the role of interpretive research in the mediation and transformation of different meanings and creating or supporting policy learning.





The full list of panels is on the conference web site; the following may be of particular interest to RC32 members (convenor’s name in brackets):




1. Policy Work and Professional Practice
Colebatch




2. Policy as design
Colebatch




3. The state in the interpretation of governing
Colebatch




6. The Emotional Turn in Policy Analysis: Theory and Interpretation
Durnova, Orsini




7. The Performance of Public Deliberation
Boswell, Hendriks




10. How Does a Policy Matter? Interpretive Policy Analysis and the 'New Materialities Turn'
Van Veeren




14. Prompters and Curtain-Pullers: Policy advisers in Practice
Beisel, Lippert, Ninan




16. Critical Discourse Analysis in Interpretive Policy Analysis
Farrelly , Mulderrig




17. Globalisation, Discourse and Education Policy
Farrelly, Mulderrig




18. Evidence and meaning in policy practice
Colebatch




20. The King’s Head: making sense with hierarchy (with a special interest in Health care)
Colebatch