Abstract
While recent elaborations of policy design have been innovative and intriguing, feminist analysis remains unacknowledged. The exclusion of feminist analysis confounds policy design's goal of increased sensitivity to context, values, and audience. I use feminist standpoint epistemology to illustrate and expand the dialogue of policy design as well as policy analysis generally. Addressing policy analysis from a meta-perspective facilitates a discussion of theory. methodology, and practice. The applicative aspects of the feminist epistemic stance are illustrated via a hypothetical case study addressing the environmental problematique. As such, a feminist standpoint reformulation of policy design is proffered. Overall, the analysis expands the theoretical construction of policy design, providing an increased potential for participatory policy analysis and a bridge between two discourses previously lacking interchange.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acker, Joan, Kate Barry, and Johanna Esseveld (1991). ‘Objectivity and truth: Problems in doing feminist research,’ in Mary Margaret Fonow and Judith A. Cook, eds.,Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, pp. 133–153.
Alcoff, Linda and Elizabeth Potter, eds. (1993).Feminist Epistemologies. New York: Routledge.
Bobrow, Davis B. and John S. Dryzek (1987).Policy Analysis By Design. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Bührs, Ton and Robert V. Bartlett (1993).Environmental Policy in New Zealand: The Politics of Clean and Green? Auckland: Oxford University Press.
Clarke, Susan E. and Lyn Kathlene (1992). ‘Women as political actors and policy analysis,’ a paper presented at the annual meetings of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, Denver, October 29–31.
Code, Lorraine (1993). ‘Taking subjectivity into account,’ in Linda Alcoff and Elizabeth Potter, eds.,Feminist Epistemologies. New York: Routledge, pp. 15–48.
Code, Lorraine (1991).What Can She Know? Feminist Theory and the Construction of Knowledge. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Collins, Patricia Hill (1991a). ‘Learning from the outsider within: The sociological significance of black feminist thought,’ in Mary Margaret Fonow and Judith A. Cook, eds.,Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, pp. 35–59.
Collins, Patricia Hill (1991b).Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Poltics of Empowerment. London: Routledge.
Crosby, Ned, Janey Kelley, and Paul Shaefer (1986). ‘Citizenship panels: A new approach to citizen participation,’Public Administration Review 46: 170–179.
deLeon, Peter (1988–89). ‘The contextual burdens of policy design,’Policy Studies Journal 17: 297–309.
deLeon, Peter (1992). ‘The democratization of the policy sciences.’Public Administration Review 52: 125–129.
Devault, Marjorie L. (1990). ‘Talking and listening from women's standpoint: Feminist strategies for interviewing and analysis,’Social Problems 37: 96–116.
Diesing, Paul (1991).How Does Social Science Work?: Reflections on Practice. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Diesing, Paul (1982).Science and Ideology in the Policy Sciences. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine Publishing Company.
DiSanto, Ronald L. and Thomas J. Steele (1990).Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.
Dryzek, John S. (1983). ‘Don't toss coins into garbage cans: A prologue to policy design,’Journal of Public Policy 3: 345–68.
Flax, Jane (1983). ‘Political philosophy and the patriarchal unconscious: A psychoanalytic perspective on epistemology and metaphisics,’ in Sandra Harding and Merrill Hintikka, eds.,Discovering Reality. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Fonow, Mary Margaret and Judith A. Cook, eds. (1991).Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Grant, Judith (1993).Fundamental Feminism: Contesting the Core Concepts of Feminist Theory. London: Routledge.
Habermas, Jürgen (1984).The Theory of Communicative Action I: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Boston: Beacon.
Habermas, Jürgen (1973a).Legitimation Crisis. Boston: Beacon.
Habermas, Jürgen (1973b).Theory and Practice. Boston: Beacon.
Haraway, Donna J. (1991).Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge.
Harding, Sandra (1992). ‘After the neutrality ideal: Science, politics, and “strong objectivity”,’Social Research. 59 (3): 567–587.
Harding, Sandra (1991).Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?: Thinking From Women's Lives. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Harding, Sandra (1986).The Science Question in Feminism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Hartsock, Nancy (1983). ‘The feminist standpoint: Developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical materialism,’ in Sandra Harding and Merrill Hintikka, eds.,Discovering Reality. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Hawkesworth, M. E. (1988).Theoretical Issues in Policy Analysis. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Hekman, Susan J. (1990).Gender and Knowledge: Elements of a Postmodern Feminism. Boston, MA: Northeaster University Press.
Hood, Christopher (1986).The Tools of Government. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, Inc.
Ingraham, Patricia W. (1987). ‘Toward more systematic consideration of policy design,’Journal of Public Policy 15: 611–628.
Jayaratne, Toby Epstein and Abigail J. Stewart (1991). ‘Quantitative and qualitative methods in the social sciences: Current feminist issues and practical strategies,’ in Mary Margaret Fonow and Judith A. Cook, eds.,Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Kathlene, Lyn and John A. Martin (1993). ‘Enhancing citizen participation: Panel designs, perspectives, and policy formation,’Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 10: 46–63.
Lasswell, Harold (1951). ‘The policy orientation,’ in Daniel Lerner and Harold Lasswell, eds.,The Policy Sciences: Recent Developments in Scope and Methods. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Lasswell, Harold, et al. (1952).The Comparative Study of Symbols. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Lindblom, Charles E. (1980).The Policy Making Process. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Linder, Stephen H. and B. Guy Peters (1989). ‘Instruments of government: Perceptions and contexts,’Journal of Public Policy 9: 35–58.
Linder, Stephen H. and B. Guy Peters (1988). ‘The analysis of design and the design of analysis,’Policy Studies Review 7: 738–750.
Linder, Stephen H. and B. Guy Peters (1987). ‘A design perspective on policy implementation: The fallacies of misplaced prescription,’Policy Studies Review 6: 459–475.
Linder, Stephen and B. Guy Peters (1984). ‘From social theory to policy design,’Journal of Public Policy 4: 237–259.
Majone, Giandomenico (1989).Evidence, Argument, and Persuasion in the Policy Process. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Pirsig, Robert M. (1974).Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values. NY: Bantam Publishing.
Reinharz, Shulamit (1992).Feminist Methods in Social Research. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rose, Hilary (1983). ‘Hand, brain and heart: A feminist epistemology for the natural sciences,’Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 9 (1).
Schneider, Anne and Helen Ingram (1993). ‘Social construction of target populations: Implications for politics and policy,”American Political Science Review 87: 334–347.
Smith, Dorothy (1987).The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Stone, Deborah A. (1988).Policy Paradox and Political Reason. Glenville, IL: Scott, Foresman.
Weimer, David L. (1993). ‘The current state of design craft: Borrowing, tinkering, and problem solving,’Public Administration Review 53: 110–120.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rixecker, S.S. Expanding the discursive context of policy design: A matter of feminist standpoint epistemology. Policy Sci 27, 119–142 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00999884
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00999884