Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Making and Unmaking “problems”

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Poststructural Policy Analysis

Abstract

This chapter pursues a central task in the book, explaining what is accomplished by focusing on how policies produce or constitute “problems”. To begin, it canvasses how “problems” are conceptualized in classic rationalist, and in more recent interpretive and critical realist approaches to policy analysis, and indicates the possible deleterious implications of assuming the existence of problems as objective and uncontroversial states. Second, the chapter draws on WPR applications in two policy areas—alcohol and drugs policy and gender equality policy—to show how the interrogation of problematizations provides important insights into how governing takes place. In this way it illustrates the distinctive contribution of a poststructural questioning of “problems”.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Alexander, S., & Coveney, J. (2013). A critical discourse analysis of Canadian and Australian public health recommendations promoting physical activity to children. Health Sociology Review, 22 (4), 353–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ANCD (2012). 1st Recovery Roundtable Report. Canberra: Australian National Council on Drugs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, E. (2007). Moral panic over meth. Contemporary Justice Review, 10 (4), 427–442.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Australian Public Service Commission (2007). Tackling wicked problems: A public policy perspective. Canberra: Australian Government.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bacchi, C. (1999). Women, policy and politics: The construction of policy problems. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bacchi, C. (2009). Analysing policy: What’s the problem represented to be? Frenchs Forest: Pearson Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bacchi, C. (2015b). Problematizations in alcohol policy: WHO’s “alcohol problems”. Contemporary Drug Problems, 42 (2), 130–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bacchi, C., & Bonham, J. (2014). Reclaiming discursive practices as an analytic focus: Political implications. Foucault Studies, 17, 173–192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bambra, C., Smith, K. E., Garthwaite, K., Joyce, K.D., Hunter, D.J. (2011). A labour of Sisyphus? Public policy and health inequalities research from the Black and Acheson Reports to the Marmot Review. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 65 (5), 399–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bjørnholt, M. (2012). From work-sharing couples to equal parents: Changing perspectives of men and gender equality. In C. Krekula, M. Åberg, M.J. Samuelsson (Eds.), Gender and change: Power, politics and everyday practices. Karlstad: Karlstad University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calvo, D. (2013). What is the problem of gender? Mainstreaming gender in migration and development in the European Union, PhD Thesis, Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carson, L., & Edwards, K. (2011). Prostitution and sex trafficking: What are the problems represented to be? A discursive analysis of law and policy in Sweden and Victoria, Australia. The Australian Feminist Law Journal, 34, 63–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, S. (2002) [1972]. Folk devils and moral panics: The creation of the mods and rockers. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Council of the European Union (2004). EU Drug Strategy 2005–2012. Brussels.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dery, D. (1984). Problem definition in policy analysis. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.

    Google Scholar 

  • du Rose, N. (2015). The governance of female drug users: Women’s experiences of drug policy. Bristol: Policy Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Elsey, H., Tolhurst, R., Theobald, S. (2005). Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in development sectors: Have we learnt the lessons from gender mainstreaming? AIDS Care, 17 (8), 988–998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1994a) [1981]. So is it important to think? In J.D. Faubion, (Ed.), Power: Essential works of Foucault 1954–1984, vol. 3, Hurley, R. and others (trans.). London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, S., & Moore, D. (2011). Governing through problems: The formulation of policy on amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) in Australia. International Journal of Drug Policy, 22, 498–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, R. (2006). The work the document does: Research, policy, and equity in health. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 31 (1), 51–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glynos, J., & Howarth, D. (2007). Logics of critical explanation in social and political theory. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grebe, C. (2009). Reconciliation policy in Germany 1998–2008: Construing the “problem” of the incompatibility of paid employment and care work, PhD Dissertation, University of Nottingham, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Weisbaden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hearn, J., & McKie, L. (2010). Gendered and social hierarchies in problem representation and policy processes: “Domestic violence” in Finland and Scotland, Violence Against Women, 16 (2), 136–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoppe, R. (2002). Cultures of public policy problems. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 4 (3), 305–326.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoppe, R. (2011). The governance of problems: Puzzling, power and participation. Bristol: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jann, W., & Wegrich, K. (2007). Theories of the policy cycle. In F. Fischer, G.J. Miller, M.S. Sidney (Eds.), Handbook of public policy analysis: Theory, politics, and methods. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kingdon, J.W. (2003). Agendas, alternatives, and public policies, 1st edition 1984. New York: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kok, M., & de Coninck, H. (2007). Widening the scope of politics to address climate change: Directions for mainstreaming. Environment Science & Policy, 10 (7–8), 587–599.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster, K. (2014). Social construction and the evidence-based drug policy endeavour. International Journal of Drug Policy, 25, 948–951.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster, K., Duke, K., Ritter, A. (2015). Producing the “problem of drugs”: A cross-national comparison of “recovery” discourse in two Australian and British reports. International Journal of Drug Policy, 26, 617–625.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster, K., Hughes, C.E., Chalmers, J., Ritter, A. (2012). More than problem-solving: Critical reflections on the “problematisation” of alcohol-related violence in Kings Cross. Drug and Alcohol Review, 31, 925–927.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster, K., Ritter, A., Colebatch, H. (2014). Problems, policy and politics: Making sense of Australia’s “ice epidemic”. Policy Studies, 35 (2), 147–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster, K., Seear, K., Treloar, C. (2015). Laws prohibiting peer distribution of injecting equipment in Australia: A critical analysis of their effects. International Journal of Drug Policy, 16 (12), 1198–1206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lasswell, H.D. (1956). The decision process: Seven categories of functional analysis. College Park: University of Maryland Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levine, H.G. (1984). The alcohol problem in America: From temperance to alcoholism. British Journal of Addiction, 79, 109–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindblom, C.E. (1980). The policy-making process, 2nd edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, F., & Aston, S. (2014). A “special population” with “unique treatment needs”: Dominant representations of “womenʼs substance abuse” and their effects. Contemporary Drug Problems, 41, 355–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mohanty, C.T. (1991). Under western eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses. In C.T. Mohanty, A. Russo, L. Torres (Eds.), Third world women and the politics of feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Osborne, T. (1997). Of health and statecraft. In A. Petersen, & R. Bunton (Eds.), Foucault: Health and medicine. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pawson, R., & Tilley, N. (2004). Realist evaluation, funded by British Cabinet Office,www.communitymatters.com.au/RE_chapter.pdf. Accessed 31 December 2015.

  • Payne, S. (2014). Constructing the gendered body? A critical discourse analysis of gender equality schemes in the health sector in England. Current Sociology, 62 (7), 956–974.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pease, B. (2011). Governing men’s violence against women in Australia. In E. Ruspini, J. Hearn, B. Pease, K. Pringle, (Eds.), Men and masculinities around the world: Transforming men’s practices. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poulson, H. (2006). The elusive gender: the International Labour Organization and the construction of gender equality, PhD Thesis, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powell, A., & Murray, S. (2008). Children and domestic violence: Constructing a policy problem in Australia and New Zealand. Social & Legal Studies, 17 (4), 453–473.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rein, M., & Schön, D. (1977). Problem setting in policy research. In C. Weiss (Ed.), Using research in public policy making. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schön, D.A. (1979). Generative metaphor: A perspective on problem-setting in social policy. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seear, K., & Fraser, S. (2014). The addict as victim: Producing the “problem” of addiction in Australian victims of crime compensation laws. International Journal of Drug Policy, 25, 826–835.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shapiro, I. (2002). Problems, methods, and theories in the study of politics, or what’s wrong with political science and what to do about it. Political Theory, 30, 596–619.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simon, H. (1961) [1945]. Administrative behavior: A study of decision-making processes in administrative organization, 2nd edition. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, K.E., Hunter, D.J., Blackman, T., Elliot, E., Green, A., Harrington, B. E., Marks, L., McKee, L., Williams, G.H. (2009). Divergence or convergence? Health inequalities and policy in a devolved Britain. Critical Social Policy, 29 (2), 216–242.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sutton, C. (1998). Swedish alcohol discourse: Constructions of a social problem (Dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy & Sociology), Uppsala, Sweden: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Sociologica Upsaliensia, 45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turnbull, N. (2005). Policy in question: From problem solving to problematology, PhD thesis, School of Social Science and Policy, University of New South Wales, Sydney.

    Google Scholar 

  • UKDPC (2008). The UK Drug Policy Commission Recovery Consensus Group: A vision of recovery. London: UK Drug Policy Commission.

    Google Scholar 

  • WHO (World Health Organization) (1980). Expert Committee Report on Problems Related to Alcohol Consumption (WHO Technical Report Series 650), World Health Organization, Geneva.

    Google Scholar 

  • WHO (World Health Organization) (2010). Global strategy on the harmful use of alcohol. Geneva: WHO.

    Google Scholar 

  • WHO (World Health Organization) (2015). Health in all policies: Training manual. Geneva: World Health Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wildavsky, A. (1979). The art and craft of policy analysis. London: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Politics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

    Carol Bacchi

  2. Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Susan Goodwin

Authors
  1. Carol Bacchi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Susan Goodwin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Bacchi, C., Goodwin, S. (2016). Making and Unmaking “problems”. In: Poststructural Policy Analysis. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52546-8_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation