Anthropology of Policy: Perspectives on Governance and Power

by Shore,Cris; Shore,Cris

• ISBN13: 9780415132206
• ISBN10: 0415132207
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-09-18
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

IAnthropology of Policyargues that policy has become an increasingly central organizing principle in contemporary societies, shaping the way we live, act and think. This book shows how anthropological approaches to policy can provide insights into a range of contemporary issues, from equal opportunities to health care, from AIDS to housing policies. Despite the importance of policy as a key institution of modern society, it remains curiously under-theorized and lacking in critical analysis. In questioning and explaining policy's language and its links with power, the contributors challenge the accepted notion of policy as rational and progressively linear and pave the way for further research.

Table of Contents

Contributors	ix	(4)
Preface and acknowledgements	xiii
Introduction	3	(40)
1 Policy: A new field of anthropology	3	(40)
Cris Shore
Susan Wright
Towards an anthropology of policy	3	(7)
Anthropology and the art of government	10	(2)
Rethinking political anthropology	12	(2)
Reconceptualizing `the field': Methodological implications for anthropology and policy studies	14	(4)
Policy as language: Discourse and power	18	(6)
Policy as cultural agent: Constructing national identity	24	(5)
Policy as political technology: Governmentality and subjectivity	29	(5)
Epilogue	34	(9)
Part I Policy as language and power	43	(64)
2 Writing development policy and policy analysis plain or clear: On language, genre and power	43	(16)
Raymond Apthorpe
The writ of language	44	(2)
Radical realism and ideal ruralism	46	(7)
Institutions and mechanisms	53	(1)
Policy language	54	(5)
3 The implications of `medical', `gender in development' and `culturalist' discourses for HIV/AIDS policy in Africa	59	(29)
Gill Seidel
Laurent Vidal
Introduction	59	(1)
Theoretical frameworks	60	(1)
Medical discourse	61	(3)
Epidemiological discourse about risk groups	64	(2)
Gender and development discourse	66	(5)
Culturalist discourse	71	(2)
Effects of the culturalist discourse in Cote d'Ivoire	73	(4)
Conclusion	77	(11)
4 Patients' bodies and discourses of power	88	(19)
Helle Ploug Hansen
Policy in a hospital setting	88	(2)
The hospital as a negotiated order	90	(1)
The hospital policy document	90	(1)
The clinical praxis	91	(2)
The daily round and its interpretation	93	(6)
Discourses of power	99	(2)
Conclusion	101	(6)
Part II Policy as cultural agent	107	(88)
5 Free to make the right choice? Gender equality policy in post-welfare Sweden	107	(29)
Annika Rabo
Welfare state with a human face	109	(2)
Policies of equality between women and men	111	(5)
Higher education, policies of sexual equality and issues of gender	116	(3)
Reactions to a government bill	119	(4)
A state-commissioned report	123	(3)
`We are all different'	126	(5)
Conclusions: Sexual equality policy, higher education and `free choice'	131	(5)
6 The cultural politics of populism: Celebrating Canadian national identity	136	(29)
Eva Mackey
Multiculturalism, constitutional crisis and celebrations	138	(3)
Key aspects of celebratory policy	141	(2)
Non-political patriotism and civil society as diagnostics of power	143	(2)
Naturalizing imagery, celebratory taboos and invented symbols	145	(2)
Which people?	147	(1)
Coexisting discourses	148	(2)
`The people' at the Wallaceford Pumpkin Festival	150	(4)
Populism and locality at the Brookside Raise-the-Flag day	154	(5)
Legitimacy and common sense	159	(6)
7 Governing Europe: European Union audiovisual policy and the politics of identity	165	(30)
Cris Shore
Anthropology, identity and the politics of communication	165	(2)
Audiovisual policy and European integration	167	(2)
Television without frontiers: From 1984 Green Paper to 1989 Directive	169	(3)
Creating a `Community of Europeans': The politics of media policy	172	(5)
Beyond the nation state? EU audiovisual policy and supranationalism	177	(3)
Using TV as the cultural arm of nation-building: Flaws in EU strategy	180	(6)
Conclusion	186	(9)
Part III Policy as political technology: Governmentality and subjectivity	195	(66)
8 Reform and resistance: A Norwegian illustration	195	(22)
Halvard Vike
Introduction	195	(2)
Moral economy and policy	197	(2)
The plan	199	(3)
The context: A Norwegian industrial community	202	(2)
Decision-making and the labour party ideology	204	(3)
Marx and Weber on modernity	207	(2)
Political resistance	209	(4)
Conclusions	213	(4)
9 Poverty in a `post-welfare' landscape: Tenant management policies, self-governance and the democratization of knowledge in Great Britain	217	(22)
Susan Brin Hyatt
From government of the poor to government by the poor	217	(3)
Subsidized housing and the rise of `the social' in Great Britain	220	(4)
Democratizing knowledge and the policing of communities	224	(7)
Housing policy and poverty under the regimes of advanced liberalism	231	(8)
10 Managing Americans: Policy and changes in the meanings of work and the self	239	(22)
Emily Martin
Kinds of power	241	(3)
Work and life	244	(1)
Persons, groups and their interfaces	245	(3)
Corporate selves	248	(4)
Sane and insane selves: Attention deficit disorder	252	(9)
Epilogue	261	(21)
11 Anthropology and policy research: The view from Northern Ireland	261	(21)
Hastings Donnan
Graham McFarlane
Policy-orientated anthropology seen from above and below	261	(2)
The context for policy research in Northern Ireland	263	(3)
Anthropologists and policy-related research in Northern Ireland	266	(4)
Getting to know Northern Irish farm households: Anthropology marginalized	270	(4)
`Truncated' anthropology and policy research in Northern Ireland	274	(3)
Anthropology, policy and the mutual suspension of disbelief	277	(5)
Index	282