Meaning in Action

This accessible book gives academics, graduate students, and researchers a comprehensive overview of the vast, varied, and often confusing landscape of interpretive policy analysis. It is both theoretically informed and clear and jargon-free as it discusses the specific strengths and weaknesses of different interpretive approaches--all with a practical orientation towards doing policy analysis Part 1 Policy Interpretations; Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 The Traditional Approach to Interpretation; Chapter 3 Interlude; Chapter 4 The Three Faces of Meaning; Part 2 Varieties of Interpretation in Policy Analysis; Chapter 5 Hermeneutic Meaning; Chapter 6 Discursive Meaning; Chapter 7 What Does It Mean to Say That Reality Is Socially Constructed?; Chapter 8 Dialogical Meaning; Part 3 Toward a Policy Analysisof Democracy; Chapter 9 Strategies of Interpretive Policy Research; Chapter 10 Toward an Interpretive Policy Analysis;