Theoretical approaches to the process through which policy is generated have been brought together and catalogued in a number of ways, notably the successive editions of Paul Sabatier’s Theories of the Policy Process and the periodic survey articles in the Policy Studies Journal. This panel aims not simply to repeat these exercises, but rather, to think about the way in which the policy process is theorised, focusing on the ‘cartography’ of policy: how observers generalise and systematise practice, what are seen as the key phenomena, what evidence is gathered and how is it used, and how do the different analytic approaches relate to one another, and to the inherent tensions in the policy process – between choice and structuring, direction and consensus-building, and between the pursuit of specific goals and the continuing management of the problematic. We are also interested in how practitioners – in government and elsewhere - theorise the process, and how their theorising relates to that of the academic observers.




We invite papers that address any aspect of this problematique, particularly those concerned with
•	how the activity of policy is framed as a process
•	the place of ‘government’ and ‘non-government’ in the framing
•	the tension between choice and structure
•	expertise and the construction of meaning
This panel arises from an invitation from a publisher to put together a handbook on the policy process; many of the chapter authors will be giving papers (and will get priority if choices have to be made), but all interested are invited to submit proposals




Theoretical approaches to the process through which policy is generated have been brought together and catalogued in a number of ways, notably the successive editions of Paul Sabatier’s Theories of the Policy Process and the periodic survey articles in the Policy Studies Journal.  This panel aims not simply to repeat these exercises, but rather, to think about the way in which the policy process is theorised, focusing on the ‘cartography’ of policy: how observers generalise and systematise practice, what are seen as the key phenomena, what evidence is gathered and how is it used, and how do the different analytic approaches relate to one another, and to the inherent tensions in the policy process – between choice and structuring, direction and consensus-building, and between the pursuit of specific goals and the continuing management of the problematic.  We are also interested in how practitioners – in government and elsewhere - theorise the process, and how their theorising relates to that of the academic observers.






We invite papers that address any aspect of this problematique, particularly those concerned with
•	how the activity of policy is framed as a process
•	the place of ‘government’ and ‘non-government’ in the framing
•	the tension between choice and structure
•	expertise and the construction of meaning
This panel arises from an invitation from a publisher to put together a handbook on the policy process; many of the chapter authors will be giving papers (and will get priority if choices have to be made), but all interested are invited to submit proposals