La quête du sens. Repenser la question de l’interprétation dans l’analyse des politiques publiques

Articulo: Journal of Urban Research

关键词: public policies;    meaning;    interpretation;    interpretive approaches;    cognitive approaches;    tourism;   

DOI  :  10.4000/articulo.60

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

This contribution proposes to take an interest in the interpretive dimension of policy analysis. This dimension has been put forward by a current of research which seems to have enjoyed less notoriety in French-speaking circles than in Anglo-Saxon ones. In various forms, this current is defended by influential authors like Frank Fischer, Dvora Yanow, Mark Bevir, and R.A.W. Rhodes. It can be distinguished from French research work which claims to integrate the question of meaning with an approach generally described as “cognitive”. By putting into perspective this research trend, which claims to extend an “interpretive turn”, this contribution aims in particular at seizing the possible nature of analytic research on public policies, by underscoring the possible pitfalls stemming from a lack of interpretive understanding. As a matter of fact, most recent studies concerning what is commonly called “public policy analysis” or “sociology of public action”, show a great sociological refinement in their analyses. Interplay between actors is often thoroughly studied, but lacks are nonetheless manifest insofar as the reader is provided with hardly any elements to seize the meaning of these activities. The question that can thus be asked is that of a different positioning in the way of working out the analysis from the collection of information. Bringing out reasons or causes does not concern the same nature of thought than seizing meaning. An interpretive approach can reduce the risks of limiting research to the sophistication of a micro-analysis. By avoiding to transform the processes that are studied into particular episodes almost independent from their original context, such an approach can help understand the role of institutional interventions in relation to fundamental social evolutions. This analytical fertility can prove all the more necessary since the present period is often described as being one of major changes.

【 授权许可】

Unknown