Date: 29/1, 13.15-15.00

Room: 303

Lecturer: Damon

SLIDES

In this session we will continue working on policy analysis, this time looking at the kinds of 'policy tools' that are potentially available to affect change in relation to health. For example, if there is a population of people and we want them to do or not do something, what types of law or policy can be used? Importantly, we will look at the role of power and how specific groups are perceived, in terms of how this can affect what kinds of 'policy tools' are chosen, and what gets funded. (We will follow up on this when discussing human rights and global health data).

Reading:

Schneider A., & Ingram H., 'The Social Construction of Target Populations: Implications for Politics and Policy', American Political Science Review, 87(2) (1993), pp. 334-347 (A great article examining power and how populations are perceived in society, and what this means for policy making. Not specific to health, but we'll apply it!)

Bacchi, Carol. (2016) Problematizations in Health Policy: Questioning How “Problems” Are Constituted in Policies, SAGE Open April-June 2016, pp. 1-16 (A critical approach to policy analysis, beginning with 'problematisation', or how problems are represented in policies and what this means for what gets done, not done, focused upon, overlooked etc. This one is a bit more theoretical and difficult, I'd say, but very rewarding if you can get your teeth into it. for this lecture we'll just touch upon idea of problem representations.)

Additional/optional:

Buse et al pp 20-33 (various ways of thinking about power)

Van Hulst, M et al (2024). Discourse, framing and narrative: three ways of doing critical, interpretive policy analysis. Critical Policy Studies, 1–23. (Helpful article I discovered last week that might help connect the dots between qualitative method and policy analysis if you are interested)

Something to watch: Shereen El-Feki: How to fight an epidemic of bad laws (An excellent TED talk from a member of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law)