Critical and interpretive approaches to policy research focus on understanding policies and policy processes through the lens of situated meanings, historical contexts, and the social construction of human subjectivity. These approaches emphasize how policies are shaped by communicative practices, underpinned by hegemonic powers and values, and are driven by an overarching aim to advance democracy, social justice, and sustainability. These methodologies form the cornerstone of critical policy research, challenging the positivist and scientistic frameworks that still dominate much of policy analysis.
Assumptions and Focus
Unlike traditional rationalist approaches that assume policies address ‘real’ societal problems in a planned, rational, and coherent manner, critical and interpretive policy research begins with the presupposition that societal issues have different meanings for different groups. Understanding and engaging with these plural and often conflicting meanings is central to improving policy processes and outcomes.
This approach examines how power and knowledge production shape what people see, how they interpret it, and how they act. Critical and interpretive researchers also explore the intended and unintended consequences of these actions, shedding light on hidden dimensions of knowledge, lived experience, and power relations often overlooked by other methodologies. By doing so, these approaches contextualize meaning-making actions within asymmetric and often invisible relationships of power and knowledge production.
In addition to analyzing policies, many critical and interpretive scholars go beyond explanation to intervene directly, co-producing research and action with marginalized groups to address the policy issues they face.
Origins and Historical Development
The roots of critical and interpretive policy research trace back about 40 years, following the disappointing outcomes of the Great Society evaluation programs. Scholars like Donald Schön, Martin Rein, and Aaron Wildavsky questioned the epistemic foundations of positivist policy analysis. Drawing on non-foundational social theory (Fay, 1975; Bernstein, 1978; Hawkesworth, 1988), they highlighted the inadequacy of ‘facts’ to settle policy controversies and foregrounded the role of language in shaping policy debates.
These early scholars recognized that metaphors (Schön, 1993) and narratives (Roe, 1994) were not merely representations but generative forces in shaping policy issues. Over time, interpretive approaches to policy studies have become well-established. Landmark contributions around the turn of the 21st century (Fischer & Forester, 1993; Yanow, 1996, 2000; Bevir & Rhodes, 2003; Hajer & Wagenaar, 2003) articulated how policy is made through argumentative processes infused with political values, meanings, and power relations.
Since then, methods such as discourse analysis, frame analysis, narrative research, metaphor analysis, and practice-based approaches have become integral tools for analyzing a wide array of policy issues. Theories of political power, deliberation, collaborative governance, and practice-based approaches now offer robust frameworks for critical policy research. Landmark texts from scholars like Bevir (2010), Hoppe (2010), Wagenaar (2011), Schwartz-Shea and Yanow (2011), Fischer and Gottweis (2012), and more recent works (Bevir & Rhodes, 2016; Bevir & Blakely, 2018; Boswell, Corbett & Rhodes, 2019) continue to push the field forward.
This growing community is supported by dedicated journals like Critical Policy Studies, regular conferences, and a substantial body of scholarly publications.
Diverse Approaches
One of the strengths of critical and interpretive policy research is its methodological pluralism. Rather than adhering to a single theoretical framework, it embraces multiple approaches. For instance, Wagenaar (2011) distinguishes between hermeneutic, discursive, and dialogical approaches, while Fischer et al. (2015) highlight interpretive, critical, and post-structuralist perspectives. Other approaches include Hugh Miller’s narrative analysis, Vivien Schmidt’s discursive institutionalism, and Ngai-Ling Sum and Bob Jessop’s cultural political economy, an amalgamation of Foucault and Gramsci’s ideas.
This diversity enriches the field, offering multiple lenses through which to analyze policy issues and enabling mutual learning, collaboration, and critical engagement across different perspectives.
Relevance in Today’s World
In today’s world, marked by democratic deficits, climate change, ongoing discrimination, hostility towards refugees and migrants, rising global inequality, and widespread epistemic injustice, critical and interpretive policy research is more important than ever. These approaches help us understand how policies shape—and are shaped by—powerful societal forces, and how they impact marginalized groups.
The Critical and Interpretive Policy Network offers a platform for scholars and practitioners to share knowledge, skills, and experiences. It serves as a communication and support network for those working to advance a more socially just, sustainable, and democratic world.