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

Hendrik Wagenaar is an associate professor of public policy at the Department of Public Administration at Leiden University. He is also Research Director of the Centre for Governance Studies-Urban at the Hague Campus of Leiden University. He publishes in the area of urban governance, citizen participation, prostitution policy, administrative practice, complexity theory, and interpretive policy analysis. His recent publications include Deliberative Policy Analysis: Understanding Governance in the Network Society (Cambridge University Press, 2003) (with Maarten Hajer). His article "Governance, Complexity, and Democratic Participation: How Citizens and Public Officials Harness the Complexities of Neighbourhood Decline" won the best article award in the 2007 volume of the American Review of Public Administration.

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;