Engaging with Carol Bacchi: Strategic Interventions and Exchanges

Carol Bacchis scholarship is both substantial and wide-ranging. Beginning her academic career as a historian in the field of English-Canadian womens suffrage Bacchi has made innovative and insightful contributions to the fields of feminist theory critical policy studies and post-structuralist theory. One of the characteristic traits of her scholarship is her interest in revising and revisiting analytic problems from a range of perspectives...This resolute analytical rigour is undoubtedly evident in Bacchis Whats the Problem Represented to be? (WPR) approach which is perhaps her most crucial contribution to intellectual inquiry and certainly one of the most innovative analytical frameworks developed in recent times...This book illuminates commemorates and builds upon Bacchis WPR approach. It outlines the trajectory of the development of the WPR approach from Bacchis early engagements with feminist thinking as an academic in scholarly environments which were often the preserve of men towards the theoretical sophistication of an approach which requires an ongoing critical assessment of assumptions about the social world social problems policy agendas deemed to respond to those problems and the researchers positioning.This book arose out of a conference organised by the Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender at The University of Adelaide honouring Carol Bacchis work and is intended to make that work accessible to a range of audiences.- from the Introduction by Angeliques Bletsas and Chris Beasley