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Quite an Experience: Using Ethnography to Study Local Governance

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Abstract

Ethnographic fieldwork brings something special to the study of sense‐making in local governance: the ethnographer's access to the experiences lived by the people under study. In addition, ethnographers not only look for the experiences of the people in and around local government, they also draw on their own experiences. Because the experiences of politicians, administrators, bureaucrats, professionals and citizens are both the result of and the basis for their acts, understanding these experiences helps ethnographers to explain the practice of local governance. This paper sketches the background of interpretive ethnography, gives an idea of the use of ethnographic fieldwork in recent research, and explains the idea behind fieldwork. It also discusses the elements of fieldwork. In particular, the paper looks at the usefulness of ethnographic fieldwork for the study of local governance.

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... It is about observing and participating with them from the inside, as a route towards apprehending their group culture -whether that is the culture of homeless persons in San Francisco (Gowan 2010), sex workers in the favelas of Rio the Janeiro (Silva 2015), or ministers in British government (Rhodes 2011). By immersing oneself in an unfamiliar world, the ethnographer tries to go beyond the fabricated façade of people or organizations and find out what really occurs 'backstage' (Van Hulst 2008;Goffman 1959). Likewise, I have immersed myself in the behavioural state, seeking to understand it from the inside. ...
... Studying them from up close helps to uncover backstage realities (Van Hulst 2008) and provide a sense of the 'everydayness' (for example, typical rituals, routines, discourse and so on) which adds 'thickness' to our understanding of the field. This chapter adopts such an ethnographic approach, and falls within a longer tradition of 'administrative ethnography' (Boll & Rhodes 2015; also see for example, Rhodes et al. 2007;Van Hulst 2008, andeven Kaufman 1960). Following the ethnographic principle of 'being there' (Rhodes et al. 2007), I set out to study behaviour experts 'out there', to see who they are and what they actually do. ...
... Qualitative, ethnographic approaches can help to go beyond the current 'trench warfare' type of debate, and build more empirically grounded accounts of behavioural public policy. These approaches can help to go beyond the fabricated 'frontstage' of behavioural institutions and retrieve insights about what happens 'backstage' in the field (Goffman 1959;Van Hulst 2008). This chapter gathers its data from an overarching study on the emerging behavioural state, divided over four distinct research phases. ...
Article
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... This data is essential in revealing the actual public-private collaboration events and the hospital's value capture. It increases the contextual understanding of the situated interactions, which is needed in building an understanding of the actual practices (Järventie-Thesleff et al., 2016;van Hulst, 2008). ...
... In our application of auto-ethnography, we followed the principles of explicit and reflexive self-observation, narrative visibility of the experiencing researcher, and dialogue with other members of the research team (Anderson, 2006;van Hulst, 2008). Hence, the auto-ethnographic researcher conducted documentation and analyses of the cases in real-time for the purposes of his employer, and retrospectively for the purposes of the research team. ...
Article
Healthcare is a challenging field for innovation: it is characterised by complex regulation and needs for enhanced collaboration between public and private actors who differ in terms of their motivations, innovation needs, and institutional logics. These complexities relate to multiple ways of approaching value capture in terms of securing financial or non-financial benefits from value creation in innovation collaboration. At the same time, existing scholarly knowledge offers limited help to understand or manage value capture practices in public-private collaborations. Exploring the specific practices of value capture is needed not only to understand how the returns from shared value creation activities are secured but also to understand why public and private organisations should invest their limited resources in collaboration in the first place. Applying insights from the innovation management and industrial marketing literatures, the present case study explores value capture practices in public-private collaborations for healthcare technological innovation. Empirically, it draws from twelve collaborations between a public hospital and private firms providing insight into both private firms and a public hospital organization. As a result, the study suggests a categorisation of value capture practices emerging in innovation collaboration in healthcare, thereby explicating how such practices incorporate approaches of both public and private sector participants.
... Acknowledging that technology deployment represents a breakdown in established organizational practices (Sandberg and Tsoukas, 2011), we examine how it may initiate changes in the loci and forms of control (Sewell and Taskin, 2015;Zuboff, 2015) and prompt shifts in trust -including development of suspicion and distrust (Bijlsma-Frankema et al., 2015;Gustafsson et al., 2021;Lines et al., 2005). A close-up ethnographic study (van Hulst, 2008) reporting the experiences of an information security (from here on, InfoSec) expert working at a financial organization (FinCo; a pseudonym) provides insight into the emergence of unintended control practices and shifts in trust. ...
... Our study draws from close-up ethnographic material (Järventie-Thesleff et al., 2016;van Hulst, 2008) collected by one of the authors, a field researcher who worked at the research site, FinCo, as an information security (InfoSec) expert when new technology was being deployed. The materials offer insight into a role of organizational actors who lack direct supervisory authority over employees but yet have a position to exert control, thereby allowing examination of diagonal control (next to its vertical and horizontal forms). ...
Article
In this study, we focus on the unintended consequences of new technology deployment for control‐trust dynamics. When addressing these dynamics, managers and management researchers often focus on consciously designed and implemented controls and management actions that build, repair, or preserve trust. At the same time, unowned processes—processes that have no single source or purpose—easily go unnoticed. These processes may have effects that are inadvertent and sometimes detrimental. A close‐up ethnographic study of a technology deployment provides insight into the emergence of unintended control practices and shifts in trust. Our findings demonstrate how deployment of new technology prompted a shift in the loci and forms of control and how trust, suspicion, and distrust surfaced asymmetrically as organizational members interpreted in different ways how others were using the new technological features. These developments contributed to the emergence of four unintended control practices: incidental monitoring, organizational surveillance, individual concealment, and collective resistance. Our study highlights the role of unowned processes in the control‐trust dynamics and emphasizes that whether or not control and trust are consciously addressed, both play interactive and evolving roles in organizations.
... Vervolgens veronderstelt een interpretatieve benadering een analyse van motivaties, activiteiten en verwachtingen van actoren in de praktijk (Yanow, 2000, 9). Daarom gebruiken wij etnografische methoden die inzicht verschaffen in de dagelijkse praktijken van vrijwilligers en professionals die werken met asielzoekers ( Van Hulst, 2008). Hun narratieven over activiteiten, motivaties en verwachtingen vormen de basis voor het laatste niveau van de beleidsanalyse. ...
... Voor dit onderzoek is negen maanden etnografisch veldwerk uitgevoerd in Nederland en België, tussen oktober 2017 en juni 2018. Om de beleving en ervaringen van vrijwilligers en lokale professionals te kunnen begrijpen ( Van Hulst, 2008) zijn in beide steden diepte-interviews en participerende observaties uitgevoerd. In totaal 21 diepte-interviews geven inzicht in de ervaringen, motivaties en bredere verwachtingen van lokale professionals en vrijwilligers. 1 Respondenten werd gevraagd om te vertellen over hun dagelijkse activiteiten in relatie tot de asielzoekers en tot de betrokken organisaties. ...
Article
Full-text available
The asylum centre as community home? About voluntary work in asylum centres in Amsterdam and Brussels Citizens are being activated to organize activities in asylum centres in both the Netherlands and Belgium. That way, asylum centres are expected to become better integrated in the local context of a municipality or neighbourhood. This ideal of citizenship does not stand on its own. The policy object to integrate asylum centres in the local context has parallels with broader societal and academic discussions about citizen participation and active citizenship. The object, however, is now the asylum seeker. In this article we research how voluntary work in two asylum centres takes shape and how policy could support voluntary activities better. A comparative interpretive policy analysis of two asylum centres in Amsterdam and Brussel shows how voluntary work is stimulated by policy, how these policies are implemented locally, and how they are experienced in daily practices of volunteers and professionals. The cases reveal stark differences, but exactly those contrasts lead to important lessons. We show that because of this policy, the asylum centre is often functioning as a community centre, that integration can be strengthened by volunteers, but we are also critical when voluntary activities are driven by an ideal picture of the ‘good asylum seeker’. There is a risk that the societal responsibility for integrating and engaging asylum seekers in the local context is pushed on the shoulders of unpaid volunteers and that activities are exclusively for one group. That is why we conclude that professional support and financial resources are crucial to implement the policy ideal of active citizenship in asylum centers.
... Some of this work laid the foundation for the school of policy as practice (e.g. Rein, 1983;Lipsky, 1980;Schorr, 1985;Colebatch and Degeling, 1986;Forester, 1988;Healey, 1992;Forester, 1993;Fischer and Forester, 1993;Schon and Rein, 1994;Yanow, 1995b;Forester, 1999;Wagenaar and Cook, 2003;Hajer and Wagenaar, 2003;Wagenaar, 2004;Fischer, 2003Fischer, , 2009Wagenaar, 2007aWagenaar, , 2007bColebatch, 2005bColebatch, , 2005cColebatch and Degeling, 2007;Colebatch, 2009;Duijn et al., 2010;Hulst, 2008bHulst, , 2008aHulst, , 2008cHulst et al., 2009;Hulst, 2010;Bartels, 2009;Bartels, 2010b;Bartels, 2010aBartels, , 2010cLaws and Forester, 2007;Laws and Hajer, 2008;Hendriks and Tops, 2005;Hendriks, 2007) The main criteria for choosing Wyndland, a medium size council with rural and urban areas 5 , were two. Firstly, I wanted a case that was rich but comprehensible. ...
... Ethnographic work (Schatz, 2009;Yanow, 1996Yanow, , 1999Ybema et al., 2009;Hulst, 2008bHulst, , 2008aHulst, , 2008cHulst, , 2010Bourdieu, 1977;Bourdieu, 1990;Nicolini, 2009a) Action research and Participatory inquiry (Reason and Bradbury, 2001;McIntyre, 2008;Whyte, 1991) Qualitative surveys (Maynard-Moody and Musheno, 2003) Quantitative surveys (Francis et al., 1984.;Barr, 1987;Barr, 1991;Brannan et al., 2008;Butcher, 1992) Interviews (Wagenaar, 2004(Wagenaar, , 2007aDurose, 2007Durose, , 2009Durose and Lowndes, 2010;Bartels, 2010a;Maynard-Moody and Musheno, 2003;Forester, 1988Forester, , 1999 Narratives and storytelling (Durose, 2007(Durose, , 2009Durose and Lowndes, 2010;Maynard-Moody and Musheno, 2003;Goldberg, 2009;Schon, 1983;Forester, 1993Forester, , 1999Yanow, 1995aYanow, , 1996Hulst, 2008c) Frame analysis (Schon and Rein, 1995;Yanow, 1996Yanow, , 1999 Profiling practitioners (Forester, 1999;Hulst, 2010;Bang and Sørensen, 1999;Hendriks and Tops, 2005;Bang, 2005) Shadowing (Czarniawska, 2008;Hulst, 2010;Nicolini, 2009a) Appendix 2. Actors the engagers engage with ...
Article
Participatory democracy is undergoing processes of institutionalisation and professionalization all around the world. Yet, we know surprisingly little about those professionals in charge of translating its democratic ideals into practices. Indeed, the literature has often overlooked the role played by public engagement practitioners (in short, the 'engagers'). The engagers inhabit the relational space of local participatory policy making. They negotiate its boundaries, speak and translate its many languages, and render it operational. They are a nodal point in most local processes, as well as a portal to their different dimensions and inhabitants. The pragmatics of citizen participation and deliberation are the engagers' bread and butter. I will argue that it is worth to study a group that seems instrumental to the practice of participatory democracy. This working paper aims at sharing preliminary insights about some of these practitioners. In particular, I focus on their policy work in local communities, as well as on their perspectives and feelings about their trade. My reflections are based on ongoing doctoral research in a local authority area in Scotland.
... Het zit 'm in de details van de interactie. Die details werden zichtbaar door een etnografische blik (Schatz, 2009;Van Hulst, 2008). Etnografie stelt onderzoekers in staat om vanuit verschillende en vaak conflicterende perspectieven naar een situatie te kijken (Verloo, 2020). ...
... La ventaja de la etnografía participante es que permite implementar evaluaciones con carácter emancipatorio de la labor docente: es necesario escuchar la voz de quienes implementan la política (van Hulst, 2008;Levinson, et. al., 2009). ...
Preprint
Una de las instituciones clave para la implementación de reformas curriculares en México son las Escuelas Normales. Sin embargo, no se ha estudiado a profundidad cómo las demandas administrativas de las autoridades políticas centrales a estas instituciones de educación superior afectan la capacidad institucional para implementar los cambios curriculares que también se les requieren. En ese sentido, en este artículo sugiero que las Normales en México tienen impedimentos de capacidades humanas e institucionales para atender demandas de cambio curricular, con la mayor eficacia posible, debido a problemas de cargas administrativas, clima organizacional, coordinación intergubernamental y de múltiples principales. Sostengo esto a partir de los resultados de una observación participante que hice en la Escuela Normal de Ecatepec, Estado de México. Finalmente sugiero una agenda de investigación, desde la perspectiva de los estudios de administración pública, para estudiar a las Normales en México.
... use, or design of urban space and place. Urban ethnography is also used to study policy processes and the ways in which the city is governed, planned, and designed (Schatz, 2013;van Hulst, 2008). By scrutinizing the practices of those responsible for governing the city and juxtaposing them with the perspectives and experiences of clients and citizens, urban ethnography provides welcome insights into the politics of welfare, police, policy, and planning in action. ...
Book
Full-text available
The city is a complex object. Some researchers look at its shape, others at its people, animals, ecology, policy, infrastructures, buildings, history, art, or technical networks. Some researchers analyse processes of in- or exclusion, gentrification, or social mobility; others biological evolution, traffic flows, or spatial development. Many combine these topics or add still more topics beyond this list. Some projects cross the boundaries of research and practice and engage in action research, while others pursue knowledge for the sake of curiosity. This volume embraces this variety of perspectives and provides an essential collection of methodologies for studying the city from multiple, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary perspectives. We start by recognizing that the complexity of the urban environment cannot be understood from a single vantage point. We therefore offer multiple methodologies in order to gather and analyse data about the city, and provide ways to connect and integrate these approaches. The contributors form a talented network of urban scholars and practitioners at the forefront of their fields. They offer hands-on methodological techniques and skills for data collection and analysis. Furthermore, they reveal honest and insightful reflections from behind the scenes. All methodologies are illustrated with examples drawn from the authors own research applying them in the city of Amsterdam. In this way, the volume also offers a rich collection of Amsterdam-based research and outcomes that may inform local urban practitioners and policy makers. Altogether, the volume offers indispensable tools for and aims to educate a new generation of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary-minded urban scholars and practitioners.
... Other analysts who specialise in the study of stories and narratives have used the enticing metaphors of political dramaturgy and stagecraft. In this approach, government leaders tend to focus on managing 'front-stage' impressions (the official messages, as codified in speeches, media statements and policy documents), whereas the 'back-stage' complexities and contradictions experienced by citizens, stakeholders and frontline workers may be very different (Edelman, 1964;Hajer, 2009, p. 55;van Hulst, 2008;Schlenker & Pontari, 2000). ...
Chapter
Full-text available
Wicked problems are shaped through complex system dynamics and involve multiple stakeholders. Public concern about wicked problems is often generated through crises that provoke awareness and intensify a wide sense of urgency. This chapter outlines some key aspects of crises that affect how wicked problems are perceived, debated and managed. Importantly, some ‘creeping’ crises develop gradually over an extended period with slow cumulative impacts, and there is uncertainty about when to accord them high priority. Other crises are immediate and fast-moving, giving rise to general acceptance of the need for rapid responses. In many cases, there will be serious disagreements about policy responses, owing to the complexity of causal factors and the diversity of stakeholder values and opinions. Some crisis-induced challenges can be well managed in the short term, leading to a return towards ‘normal’ life, but most responses do not explicitly tackle the complex underlying causes that generate the crises. Finally, it is suggested that the governance of wicked problems is less about designing elegant science-based solutions and more about implementing ‘coping’ strategies, which manage uncertainties, strengthen community capabilities and build resilience across all sectors—social, economic and environmental.
... Other analysts who specialise in the study of stories and narratives have used the enticing metaphors of political dramaturgy and stagecraft. In this approach, government leaders tend to focus on managing 'front-stage' impressions (the official messages, as codified in speeches, media statements and policy documents), whereas the 'back-stage' complexities and contradictions experienced by citizens, stakeholders and frontline workers may be very different (Edelman, 1964;Hajer, 2009, p. 55;van Hulst, 2008;Schlenker & Pontari, 2000). ...
Chapter
Full-text available
When difficult problems arise in a democratic political system, government leaders have a range of possible responses. This chapter suggests a repertoire or classification of typical responses that can be observed in practice. On some occasions, leaders retreat into various forms of avoidance, denial or symbolic reassurance. Where difficult problems and urgent threats continue to attract significant attention and public debate, several other strategies are found. When the challenges are portrayed as national security threats, policy responses typically involve centrally imposed executive decisions. However, for many difficult social problems, the standard processes for policy development usually work towards incremental adjustments, informed by the contributions of stakeholders, managers and experts. For large emerging issues with high levels of uncertainty, ongoing engagement with diverse stakeholders is valuable for articulating different perspectives, sharing information, and seeking closer agreement on goals, strategies and cooperative action.
... Other analysts who specialise in the study of stories and narratives have used the enticing metaphors of political dramaturgy and stagecraft. In this approach, government leaders tend to focus on managing 'front-stage' impressions (the official messages, as codified in speeches, media statements and policy documents), whereas the 'back-stage' complexities and contradictions experienced by citizens, stakeholders and frontline workers may be very different (Edelman, 1964;Hajer, 2009, p. 55;van Hulst, 2008;Schlenker & Pontari, 2000). ...
Chapter
Full-text available
There are different types of public policy problems. In democratic political systems, policy problems arise in very diverse political and institutional contexts. These influence how the problems are debated and resolved. Policy decision-making is structured through organisational processes that reflect historical institutional arrangements. Complex policy problems often involve conflicting interests and divergent perceptions among various stakeholder groups. Disagreements about problems and policies arise from many factors, including material interests, socio-cultural values and political (dis)trust. The framing of problems and solutions is expressed in different ways, through the language of economic benefits, ideological outlooks, group values and political loyalties. Leaders of political, economic and social organisations argue for the priority of some issues over others, depending on their judgements about threats, rewards and opportunities. Leaders typically offer simplified and persuasive narratives about problems and solutions, in order to attract wide support for their preferred approach. Evidence and expertise are mobilised selectively by policy actors to influence the perceived credibility of their own favoured policy options. However, rigorous evidence is not privileged in everyday politics—policy debates are structured through the interplay of many forms of knowledge, values, emotions and interests. Expertise can assist in managing complex problems but never determines the outcomes.KeywordsPolicy framing Policy agendas Policy debatesSimple and complex problemsExpertiseGun violenceRoad congestionRefugees
... Other analysts who specialise in the study of stories and narratives have used the enticing metaphors of political dramaturgy and stagecraft. In this approach, government leaders tend to focus on managing 'front-stage' impressions (the official messages, as codified in speeches, media statements and policy documents), whereas the 'back-stage' complexities and contradictions experienced by citizens, stakeholders and frontline workers may be very different (Edelman, 1964;Hajer, 2009, p. 55;van Hulst, 2008;Schlenker & Pontari, 2000). ...
... Other analysts who specialise in the study of stories and narratives have used the enticing metaphors of political dramaturgy and stagecraft. In this approach, government leaders tend to focus on managing 'front-stage' impressions (the official messages, as codified in speeches, media statements and policy documents), whereas the 'back-stage' complexities and contradictions experienced by citizens, stakeholders and frontline workers may be very different (Edelman, 1964;Hajer, 2009, p. 55;van Hulst, 2008;Schlenker & Pontari, 2000). ...
Chapter
Full-text available
Protecting and enhancing the well-being of citizens is a central goal of modern governments. The specific social programs adopted in various countries reflect their local political and economic contexts. The range of problems considered is very extensive—such as public health services, education and training, social support services, crime and corrections and issues concerned with discrimination in relation to age, gender, ethnicity and religion. The core pillars of social policy—especially income support, health, education, social services and civil rights—broadly constitute the modern ‘welfare state’. All the social reforms were controversial when first proposed in earlier times. As public expectations gradually increased, so political ambitions correspondingly shifted. In most democracies, the problem of deep and enduring poverty, along with gender-based discrimination, came to be seen as unacceptable features of advanced societies. But many programs have remained controversial. Thus, the key dimensions of wicked problems—complexity, disagreement and uncertainty—have permeated social policy debates. The chapter includes a brief discussion of two case studies of wicked problems in action—policies to tackle homelessness and policies regulating drug use.
... Other analysts who specialise in the study of stories and narratives have used the enticing metaphors of political dramaturgy and stagecraft. In this approach, government leaders tend to focus on managing 'front-stage' impressions (the official messages, as codified in speeches, media statements and policy documents), whereas the 'back-stage' complexities and contradictions experienced by citizens, stakeholders and frontline workers may be very different (Edelman, 1964;Hajer, 2009, p. 55;van Hulst, 2008;Schlenker & Pontari, 2000). ...
Chapter
Full-text available
Wicked problems and robust debates abound in environmental policy at local, national and global levels. Over several decades, governments have responded with policies to mitigate industrial pollution, slow the rapid depletion of scarce natural resources and protect biodiversity and ecological systems. The precautionary principle has been invoked to seek thorough assessment of environmental risks before approving economic development projects and technological innovations that might damage ecological assets and human health. Scientific researchers and community groups have lobbied for strong measures to protect biodiversity and promote resilient eco-systems. Resistance to reform has generally been led by conservative parties, corporate media networks and large business firms in traditional industry sectors. Policies for environmental protection have been developed by most national governments, in conjunction with international agreements that encourage collective action. The toolkit of policy instruments has expanded, including regulatory standards and market-based incentives. The role of scientific expertise in providing policy advice on environmental issues has been vital, but controversial. The chapter explores how science interacts with other sources of knowledge and opinion among practitioners and stakeholders. Climate change policy is analysed as an example of interconnected wicked problems, along with brief references to other environmental issues.
... Other analysts who specialise in the study of stories and narratives have used the enticing metaphors of political dramaturgy and stagecraft. In this approach, government leaders tend to focus on managing 'front-stage' impressions (the official messages, as codified in speeches, media statements and policy documents), whereas the 'back-stage' complexities and contradictions experienced by citizens, stakeholders and frontline workers may be very different (Edelman, 1964;Hajer, 2009, p. 55;van Hulst, 2008;Schlenker & Pontari, 2000). ...
Chapter
Full-text available
Innovative solutions are increasingly recommended because many of the old-style solutions (see Chapter 10.1007/978-3-030-94580-0_3 ) are found to be ineffective. This chapter explores the felt need for greater innovation in tackling social, economic, technological and bio-health issues. Improved knowledge and understanding are required not only to appreciate and foster innovations, but also to identify appropriate ways to regulate new technologies. The chapter considers recent work on design methods for facilitating social innovation. Much of this work is aimed at the local level and place-based contexts, rather than aspiring to design mainstream programs at a national level. The chapter considers the arguments in favour of social experimentation and co-design processes for addressing wicked problems. It concludes with some observations on the contemporary politics of populism and opinion-based policy ideas.
... Other analysts who specialise in the study of stories and narratives have used the enticing metaphors of political dramaturgy and stagecraft. In this approach, government leaders tend to focus on managing 'front-stage' impressions (the official messages, as codified in speeches, media statements and policy documents), whereas the 'back-stage' complexities and contradictions experienced by citizens, stakeholders and frontline workers may be very different (Edelman, 1964;Hajer, 2009, p. 55;van Hulst, 2008;Schlenker & Pontari, 2000). ...
Chapter
Full-text available
Rittel and Webber argued that scientific and technocratic approaches for tackling the difficult issues of social policy and urban planning were bound to be inadequate. A ‘scientific’ approach to understanding the nature of these problems necessarily overlooks the significance of different stakeholder perspectives in the framing or constituting of social problems. Recognising these differences is thus crucial for developing acceptable solutions to the policy challenges. Science and engineering approaches produce reliable knowledge but are appropriate only for technical issues where the key variables are measurable, and optimal solutions can be agreed. These are the ‘tame’ or ‘benign’ problems, with clear boundaries and agreed solutions. By contrast, modern social problems are ‘wicked’ problems, because stakeholders disagree about the nature of these problems, about possible solutions, and about the values or principles that should guide improvements. Hence, policies addressing social problems can never be optimal in the engineering sense, but robust policies could incorporate insights from stakeholder engagement. With the growing popularity of ‘wicked’ terminology, recent scholarly analysts have worried it has become a catchword rather than a critical concept. They have also wished to reconsider the stark contrast between ‘tame’ and ‘wicked’ problems, calling for refinement of the ‘either/or’ dichotomy. And other writers have raised epistemological issues about the respective contributions of scientific, political and stakeholder knowledge for understanding and resolving difficult issues.
... use, or design of urban space and place. Urban ethnography is also used to study policy processes and the ways in which the city is governed, planned, and designed (Schatz, 2013;van Hulst, 2008). By scrutinizing the practices of those responsible for governing the city and juxtaposing them with the perspectives and experiences of clients and citizens, urban ethnography provides welcome insights into the politics of welfare, police, policy, and planning in action. ...
Chapter
Full-text available
With a library account you might be able to download the chapter here: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1b741xh.6
... use, or design of urban space and place. Urban ethnography is also used to study policy processes and the ways in which the city is governed, planned, and designed (Schatz, 2013;van Hulst, 2008). By scrutinizing the practices of those responsible for governing the city and juxtaposing them with the perspectives and experiences of clients and citizens, urban ethnography provides welcome insights into the politics of welfare, police, policy, and planning in action. ...
... use, or design of urban space and place. Urban ethnography is also used to study policy processes and the ways in which the city is governed, planned, and designed (Schatz, 2013;van Hulst, 2008). By scrutinizing the practices of those responsible for governing the city and juxtaposing them with the perspectives and experiences of clients and citizens, urban ethnography provides welcome insights into the politics of welfare, police, policy, and planning in action. ...
Book
Full-text available
The city is a complex object. Some researchers look at its shape, others at its people, animals, ecology, policy, infrastructures, buildings, history, art, or technical networks. Some researchers analyze processes of in- or exclusion, gentrification, or social mobility, others biological evolution, traffic flows or spatial development. Many combine these topics or add things that are not in this list. Some projects cross the boundaries of research and practice and engage in action research while others pursue knowledge for the sake of curiosity. This volume embraces this variety of perspectives and provides an essential collection of methodologies to study the city from multiple, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives. We start from recognizing that the complexity of the urban environment cannot be understood from a single vantage point. We therefore offer multiple methodologies to gather and analyze data about the city, and provide ways to connect and integrate these approaches. The contributors form a talented network of urban scholars and practitioners at the forefront of their fields. They offer hands-on methodological techniques and skills for data collection and analysis. Furthermore, they reveal honest and insightful reflections from behind the scenes. All methodologies are illustrated and applied to the city of Amsterdam. That way, the volume also offers a rich collection of Amsterdam based research and outcomes that may inform local urban practitioners and policy makers. Altogether, the volume offers indispensable tools for and aims to educate a new generation of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary minded urban scholars and practitioners. With a library account, you might be able to download it here: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1b741xh
... Voor deze analyse is het nodig om gedetailleerde observaties te doen van interacties. Politieke etnografie is een uiterst geschikte methode om de geleefde ervaring en het handelen van verschillende partijen tijdens een politiek proces te observeren en te begrijpen (Van Hulst, 2008;Wedeen, 2010). Ik deed participerende observaties om zo dicht mogelijk bij de subjectieve realiteit van de situatie te komen door langdurig mee te lopen met verschillende belangrijke personen, hun handelen te observeren en dat in zo veel mogelijk details te beschrijven (Geertz, 1973). ...
Article
Full-text available
Street-level democracy. Dilemmas and opportunities in government-citizen interactions The goal of citizens participation increases the moments of contact between politicians, policy makers, welfare professionals and citizens. The shared responsibility for local decision making is not an easy task. Often conflicts emerge between parties with opposing needs and interests. Citizens oppose decisions or organize protest. These moments do not only challenge the goal of participation, they also jeopardize the quality of democracy. The democratic value of contentious moments, however, is often neglected. How can public professionals deal with the dilemma’s and chances that emerge during interactions that happen unexpectedly at the street-level? I answer that question by applying the agonistic approach to democracy to the action repertoire of public professionals dealing with conflict. A dramaturgical analysis of contentious interactions provides insights in how we can recognize and acknowledge contentious citizenship.
... Towards this end, this article draws on data collected by way of participatory observation in the Ede municipality between September 2016 and January 2017. Ethnographic fieldwork is not commonly used to study local governance, however it can provide insight into how governance processes are experienced by those in the field (van Hulst, 2008). During the fieldwork period, the lead author attended meetings with civil servants and participated in municipal events related to food and food policy. ...
Article
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Contemporary governance is marked by a participatory turn that sees an active role for non-governmental actors in traditionally governmental activities, such as policy-making. This trend has been prevalent across food policy and reflects a key feature of food democracy. While participation of non-governmental actors has been well researched, in this paper we address a gap in the literature by examining the role of governmental actors. We ask specifically how civil servants frame the participation of non-governmental actors in policy processes. Drawing on ethnographic research we introduce the case of civil servants working on an urban food policy for the municipality of Ede. Our analysis uncovers two competing frames: one highlighting the responsibility of the municipality to take a leading role in food policy making, and one responding reflexively to non-governmental actors through a reactive attitude. The analysis provides insights into how the framing of participation by civil servants serves to shape the conditions for participation of non-governmental actors. It further sheds light on related practices and uncovers existing tensions and contradictions, with important implications for food democracy. We conclude by showing how in the short term, a strong leadership role of civil servants, informed by the responsibility frame, may be effective for advancing policy objectives of the municipality. However, the reactive frame illustrates that civil servants worry this approach is not effective for maintaining meaningful participation of non-governmental actors. This remains a key tension of participatory municipal-led urban food policy making.
... In Play Lab, in conjunction with the ethnographic information, students applied participatory design methods beginning with activities that helped the community members develop a vision for their development. Participatory methods were used in all phases of the process through workshops, as a tool for inclusion and expansion of collective power [12], of support for governance [5], for the generation of social change, as opposed to the centralised production top-down [3], generating more responsible results, from conversation [13] and the most direct relationship between designer, technical knowledge, and user practical knowledge [20], [18]. Participatory methodologies demonstrate the need for recognition of difference, multiplicity and diversity among decision-making power agents, from relationships of solidarity and trust [3]. ...
... Ik heb hen gedurende een relatief langere tijd en in hun professionele omgeving bestudeerd, en niet alleen van buitenaf ('frontstage') bevraagd, maar ook van binnenuit ('backstage') geobserveerd. Deze etnografische werkwijze helpt inzichtelijk te maken hoe het er 'echt' aan toegaat binnen organisaties ( Van Hulst, 2008). Concreet heb ik drie methoden gebruikt: -participatieve observaties op 11 verschillende momenten, in totaal 19 uur: -4 observaties waarin ik een interne educatieve bijeenkomst bijwoonde; -4 observaties waarin ik een intergemeentelijke kennisuitwisselingsbijeenkomst bijwoonde; -1 observatie waarin ik meehielp bij de uitvoering van een veldexperiment; -1 observatie waarin ik bijdroeg aan een gedragsveranderingscursus voor een gemeenteafdeling; -1 observatie waarin ik meedacht met een BIT over de interne organisatie van gedragskennis; -semigestructureerde interviews met 15 lokale actoren, overwegend gedragsexperts: -11 ambtenaren bij 8 verschillende gemeenten (Utrecht, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Enschede, Deventer, Leeuwarden en Hoorn); -2 ambtenaren bij intergemeentelijke koepelorganisaties (Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten (VNG) en Divosa); -1 wethouder; -1 schooldirecteur; -documentenanalyse van memo's, e-mailcorrespondentie en online content. ...
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Making meters: behavioural experts in local government Civil servants at the Dutch authorities increasingly make use of behavioural insights in the policy process. These insights are primarily put on the agenda at the level of the national government in the Netherlands. However, they also seem to be particularly useful at the local level. After all, behaviour-conscious policy focuses on behavioural change through the redesign of the direct environments of citizens, and local authorities have a clear view and control over these environments. In the light of this potential, this article explores the current rise and institutionalization of behavioural expertise in local government. The work practices of local behavioural experts are examined on the basis of three dimensions of local government: positioning, practices and politics. The findings show that local behavioural experts are still in an experimental and start-up phase, but at the same time are already working with a wealth of behavioural assignments. In doing so, they deal tactically with scarce resources, resistance and abrasive institutional logics. The article shows that behavioural insights and designs are also promising in local government, that a local administrative landscape of behavioural expertise is already being developed; and that making meters in the field of behavioural expertise calls for several forms of coordination.
... Qualitative, ethnographic approaches can help to go beyond the current 'trench warfare' type of debate, and build more empirically grounded accounts of behavioral public policy. These approaches can help to go beyond the fabricated 'frontstage' of behavioral institutions and retrieve insights about what happens 'backstage' in the field (Goffman 1959;Van Hulst 2008). ...
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Public policy design takes place in a complex ‘policy swamp’ that is not easily analyzed, let alone controlled. Nonetheless, recent scientific advances in understanding human behavior have led some to believe there is a way out of this swamp. A ‘Behavioural Insights’ movement has emerged, pushing a seemingly neo-rationalist strategy that clashes with the hitherto incrementalist strategy of policy-making. This article investigates how upcoming behavior experts in Dutch government grapple with this clash, based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork. The article points out that these behavior experts, despite their clear-cut rationalist impression, in the backstage take on the challenge of negotiating competing institutional logics.
... The study's goal was to grasp everyday dynamics and work processes, and to that end, data collection by means of ethnographic fieldwork took place (see Van Hulst 2008). Specifically, the researcher shadowed the respondent, entailing that the researcher closely followed a respondent over an extended period of time, which allows observations of the respondent's accounts and opinions (McDonald 2005). ...
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This article further theorizes exemplary practitioners’ roles in neighborhood governance by building on the framework of the four ideal types of practitioners—frontline worker, everyday fixer, social entrepreneur and boundary spanner. An actor-focused approach was applied which delivered data to reconstruct processes in which a single citizen practitioner engaged in an Amsterdam neighborhood. Data were collected through shadowing and interviewing him for 2 months. It is shown how this exemplary practitioner combined and switched between the role characteristics of the four generic types, just like chameleon, during his interactions with other actors in various situations and contexts. During this dynamic role switching, he took on the tasks of a community developer, previously delivered by civil servants. He also facilitated stakeholder collaboration leading to more inclusive and democratic local governance. However, role switching caused him to loose the trust of some citizens on the long term. These findings gain relevance in the context of the reorganization of the Dutch welfare state.
... From this perspective, the behavioural state is a peopled state, and it is these people that should be carefully studied. It is worthwhile to do 'up close and personal' ethnographic type of fieldwork (Rhodes et al. 2007) on these behaviour experts and their practices, to gain a deeper understanding of the behavioural state including its better hidden backstage realities (Van Hulst 2008). While a small body of qualitative studies on the behavioural state exists (e.g. ...
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A ‘Behavioural Insights’ movement has emerged within governments. This movement infuses policymaking with behavioural scientific insights into the rationally bounded nature of human behaviour, hoping to make more effective and cost-efficient policies without being too obtrusive. Alongside sustained admirations of some, others see in Behavioural Insights the threatening revival of technocracy, and more particularly a ‘psychocracy’: a mode of public decision-making that wrongfully reduces the world of policymaking to a rational-instrumental and top-down affair dictated by psychological expertise. This article argues, however, that the claims of technocracy and psychocracy are overgeneralizations, emanating from a frontstage-focused debate that ignores a vast backwater of emerging behavioural policy practices. Grounded in four case studies on behavioural policymaking in Dutch governance, it will be demonstrated that at least part of this backwater is neither so technocratic nor so psychocratic as the critics claim.
... The study's goal was to grasp everyday dynamics and work processes, and to that end, data collection by means of ethnographic fieldwork took place (see Van Hulst [2008]). ...
Research
From exemplary practitioners to urban chameleons? The role of the citizen in the redistribution of tasks in local governance Zsuzsa Kovács This article further theorizes exemplary practitioners' roles in neighborhood governance by building on the framework of the four ideal types of practitioners-frontline worker, everyday fixer, social entrepreneur and boundary spanner. A process-focused approach was applied to which data were collected through shadowing and interviewing a single exemplary practitioner citizen for two months in a disadvantaged neighborhood in Amsterdam. It is shown how an exemplary practitioner citizen combines and switches between the role characteristics and strategies of the four generic types, just like chameleon, during his interactions with other actors in various situations and contexts. During this dynamic role switching, he facilitates stakeholder collaboration leading to more inclusive and democratic local governance. Moreover this practitioner citizen takes on the tasks of a community developer, previously delivered by civil servants. These findings gain relevance in the context of the reorganization of the Dutch welfare state.
... That is, it both implicitly and explicitly makes a number of problematic assumptions about the nature of the policy process and the role of evidence. More specifically, it tends to view the process of embedding behavioural science evidence into existing policy procedures as a rather simplistic matter of 'applying behavioural insights' (for example, Van Bavel et al, 2013;World Bank, 2015;Hallsworth et al, 2016). This rather straightforward, instrumental, and apolitical take on the science-policy relationship has been widely critiqued (for example, Lindblom, 1959;Simon, 1985). ...
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A behavioural insights community has emerged within a growing number of governments. While this community helps to make policies more behavioural science based, its frontstage role models tend to assume a straightforward, instrumental and apolitical view of the science–policy relationship that seems unrealistic. This article therefore examines what goes on backstage in this community, based on an ethnographic study of behaviour experts in Dutch central government. The article argues that their work consists of a complex palette of practices (that is, choice architecture; analysis; capacity building). Because these practices resemble typical knowledge brokerage work, the article pushes for an envisaging of ‘behaviour experts as knowledge brokers’.
... Ethnography is itself a situated practice, one which, through the strategy of immersion, embeds the researcher in the practices that they seek to study. Ethnography has long been used to analyse practices and relationships within organisations and institutions (Yanow, 2012) and, more recently, within local government specifically (Valverde, 2012;Van Hulst, 2008). It has also recently begun to be employed in critical policy research adopting a Foucauldian perspective (Brady, 2011;McDonald & Marston, 2005;McKee, 2009). ...
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This paper seeks to refine the analytical tools available to critical policy scholars for analyzing policy problems by extending upon the popular ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) approach. WPR is highly effective at revealing how policy problems are contingent upon prevailing discourses; however, it is less effective for addressing how this contingency unfolds at the level of practice in particular governance context. Hence, this paper argues for supplementing the WPR approach with an analysis of the situated practices that give rise to particular problematizations. To demonstrate the utility of studying situated practices, a case study is presented wherein this approached is deployed alongside a more standard WPR analysis. The case study is based on research into the adoption of ‘customer focus’ policies by the compliance branch of an Australian city council. The paper makes a contribution to literature on policy problems, policy practice, compliance-oriented services, and customer focus.
... shadowing the mayor 7 (the political head of the municipal organisation) and observing councillors during committee and council meetings. This was supported by informal conversations with ANC councillors and conducting semi-structured one-to-one interviews and focus group interviews and analysis of documentation of council and committee meetings and decisions (Yin 1989;Babbie and Mouton 2001;Ritchies and Lewis 2003;Van Hulst 2008;Brewer 2004;Burawoy 2003;Ybema and Kamsteeg 2009;Thedvall 2006Thedvall , 2013. ...
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Research over the last decade on local government in South Africa has highlighted that some municipal councils under the political leadership of the Africa National Congress (ANC) have shown weak political leadership, coupled with strong patronage systems, rent-seeking and corruption which have had an impact on the institutional functionality of municipalities in South Africa. Although patronage politics have been predominantly used to analyse the dynamics of post-apartheid local government ANC politics and councillor representation, this prevents us from understanding the representational focus of ANC councillors in decision-making processes. This paper offers an ethnographic insight into experiences of ANC councillors and the political complexities involved in council decision-making. Using ethnographic research, this paper will analyse how a political decision by the ANC provincial party, which was supported by the ANC regional party at local level – to erect a statue of Nelson Mandela in one of the municipalities in the Northern Cape – generated tensions amongst ANC councillors who strongly viewed their primary role as promoters of better ‘service delivery’ rather than approving the allocation of scarce municipal resources for erecting a statue. The paper reveals how the dominant presence of ANC sub-regional structures at local level contribute to the complex interaction of both ANC party political and municipal organisational rules and norms that influence and shape councillors’ choices in decision-making.
... What makes the use of these methods stand out is that they ask the ethnographer to be flexible. [23] While, for instance, experimental observations often take a very structured form and qualitative interviewers will often stick to their questions and topics, ethnographers typically follow the lead of informants. They often observe whatever there is to observe, ask their informants "what is going on," and study the artifacts that seem of value to informants. ...
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This entry outlines three aspects of ethnographic research. First, we describe in what way ethnographic research implies a distinct way of knowing. Second, we discuss the use of qualitative methods in ethnographic research. Third, we take up the role of writing, which is both a way of documenting research as well as an analytical tool in the research process. The entry concludes with a summary of the strengths and limitations of ethnographic research in public administration and policy studies.
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Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the music industry was already experiencing uncertainty as musicians experimented with new modes of dissemination and monetization following developments in telecommunications. The arrival of the internet instigated varying, sometimes contradictory, cultural concerns including dispersion, dissipation, preservation, development, homogenization and heterogeneity. Guitar players have traditionally formed local networks and communities in geo-located domains. However, in the twenty-first century, community domains also include virtual spaces. An immersive netnographic study investigated activities in online guitar communities from the perspective of UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Data were analysed using the protocols of Inductive Thematic Analysis generating seven codes, regarding the impact of COVID-19 on virtual guitar communities. Without doubt, the pandemic has had serious negative effects on individual musicians’ and live venues’ income streams. However, it does seem to have acted as a catalyst for fresh vigour within online communities seeking new ways to connect. With more artists sharing and interacting, the result could be a richer environment in the future. However, without a strong recognition of cultural responsibility this richness may result in a homogenous melting pot. Alternatively, it may also bring to light cultural expressions previously suppressed.
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In spite of a clear interest in ethnography and institutions, the method of institutional ethnography has been underexplored in the planning field. This paper looks at its critical potential in the renovation process of the high-rise social housing estate of Peterbos, Brussels. By doing, it sheds light on its transformative capacity. Using multiple approaches of institutional ethnography enabled us not only to develop a better understanding of local communities in planning processes, but also to argue for an increased self-reflexivity and responsiveness of institutions, essential for creating a more critical planning practice. We conclude institutional ethnography can inform planning practice in two ways. First, the approach can help planning scholars reveal power relations and explore grounded collaborative practices, based on everyday concerns of inhabitants and institutions. Second, any actor operating within and beyond the institutional field of planning can strive for ways of knowing that are embedded in everyday life experiences. However, this requires to embrace open-minded perspectives and open-ended inquiries in those locations where institutional policies and practices are being felt.
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Over the past four decades, commuter cycling has become a planning issue in cities that did not have established cycling cultures. This category includes post-Socialist cities with recent and strong automobility systems and limited cycling planning experiences. This article seeks to demonstrate how transfer of policy ideas from other contexts has contributed to the emergence of cycling policies in the largest post-Socialist city, Moscow, Russia, in the mid 2000s - 2016. Policy transfer means the diverse processes of acquiring policy ideas from other planning contexts and adapting this knowledge to shape local policies. The article is based on the results of a study that combined policy transfer questions with policy ethnography methodology that entailed prolonged field work and interviews with diverse policy actors and beneficiaries. This article aims to answer a question: How did policy learning, transfer and translation contribute to the emergence of Moscow's cycling policy? The article concludes that policy transfer facilitated cycling planning in Moscow by providing fast solutions, informing and legitimizing policy decisions, and temporarily leveraging cyclists' advocacy efforts. However, policy learning and transfer do not guarantee acceptance or successful implementation of policies. Integration of cycling into transport policies depends on an interplay of local institutional, political, and socio-spatial factors that influence decision-making. Constraints to implementing cycling policies include a peculiar car-culture, technocratic planning with a significant role of state actors and other elite groups, and insufficient opportunities for Moscow's cycling community to influence policy-making. These findings contribute to the transport policy and geography literature by exploring the role of policy transfer in cycling planning and by focusing on a less known transport policy context: post-Socialist cities outside the European Union.
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Tony Evans and Peter Hupe’s studies of discretion enable a practical analysis of the imaginative improvising required of diverse urban managers. Discretion “as granted” bounds the freedom but does not account for the complexity of context-responsive discretionary “uses.” Such responsive improvisation, no longer romanticized as spontaneous jazz, integrates careful judgments of listening, analysis, and negotiation. A narrative case analysis assesses three urban cases (of school administration, neighborhood controversy, and inter-ethnic conflict) to examine how morally sensitive, contextually responsive, practically crafted improvising takes place through distinct interpretive practices of listening for salience, analysis of relationships, and negotiated problem-solving. These findings suggest further research about accountability and possibilities revealed by this structural analysis of urban improvising.
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Undertaking comparative public policy analysis requires us to think broadly about types of policies we are required to analyse, tools we should use to investigate them and strategies to implement research projects and policy analytical programmes. While there are numerous other approaches to studying and engaging in policy analysis from a comparative perspective, ranging from qualitative to quantitative to spatial, ethnographic research strategies can yield insights we would not be able to gain through other methods. Ethnography enables a researcher to embed him/herself in a specific community in a way that can provide in-depth coverage and analysis of policy issues that are often rendered invisible if we use other methods, even qualitative ones. Frequently, the only way to properly uncover thorny issues with comparative public policy implications is undertaking in-depth ethnographic fieldwork. Thus, it is important to include ethnography in the repertoire of research strategies available to comparative policy analysts. This chapter provides a brief but broad overview of ethnography as a field-based research method for comparative policy analysis. The author argues that comparative ethnographies can provide insights that can be used for policy analytical purposes, and presents a framework for the application of ethnographic research strategies to different comparative policy analysis issues.
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Background Public service practitioners on all levels aim to solve increasingly complex policy problems by making use of different forms of evidence. While there are many complex models of knowledge mobilisation, not enough attention is paid to the types of knowledge that are mobilised for public service reform. Ward (2017) has returned to Aristotle’s knowledge types; empirical, technical and practice wisdom, to address this gap. Aims and objectives This paper applies the theoretical work of Ward (2017) and Flyvbjerg (2001) to the everyday work and practice of frontline public service providers with the aim of identifying core elements of knowledge mobilisation in the practice of public service reform in the context of local governance. Methods The data is from a case study of a Scottish local authority conducted as part of the What Works Scotland research programme. The paper derives insights from 16 qualitative interviews with service providers in housing, waste management, policing and greenspace services, and 12 observations, analysed using thematic analysis. Findings The findings suggest that empirical or technical knowledge is not sufficient on its own for sustainable solutions to localised policy problems. The practice wisdom of service providers, balancing ethical concerns with diverse perspectives, is a form of knowledge that is not fully valued or recognised in public service reform. Discussion and conclusions Future research should aim to understand how the integration of empirical, technical and practice knowledge might be achieved through more co-productive relationships between researchers, knowledge mobilisers and service providers.
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‘Behavioural Insights’ has emerged as an increasingly popular approach to policy making in governments across the globe. Practitioners largely present a frontstage narrative of Behavioural Insights as a coherent concept but this article challenges such a description. We explore how efforts to develop a global Behavioural Insights community are subject to an ongoing process of policy translation. To show how this translation works, we juxtapose findings from two independent ethnographic research projects on Behavioural Insights practitioners: one on practitioners in Australian federal government, the other on practitioners in Dutch local and central government. This exploratory study highlights that Behavioural Insights at one level possesses some consistencies, including a shared use of a family of tools and artefacts. At the same time the field is marked by contingencies, particularly with respect to the methods used. These contingencies raise puzzling questions about the identity of Behavioural Insights and whether its presentation as a coherent whole is of more value in a discursive sense than in a practical one. key messages Consistencies in the Behavioural Insights field are its ‘behavioural science-based policy’ narrative, and the reliance on particular role models and tools. However, areas of contingency exist as well with respect to method and theory use. These methodological contingencies raise questions about the scope, coherence and legitimacy of the field. </ol
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free access: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Fd8vNusaVNUMDetvpDmy/full It is in cities where people are most strongly confronted with diversity in an ‘age of migration’. However, comparisons of local integration contexts usually take ethnic boundaries as given or assume that they are constituted by the nation state. Our analysis of local discourses challenges this methodological nationalism. Departing from the ‘distinctiveness of cities’ approach, we scrutinise how Frankfurt, Dortmund, Birmingham and Glasgow differ in how diversity is discursively constructed. We maintain that the discourses not only reflect different frames in dealing with diversity but also serve as a proxy for debating the self-image of the city. Free fulltext: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/UdRs2FjT26UN8PSiM939/full
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Despite the insistence in interpretive policy analysis that the discursive construction of problems must be understood in terms of their historical and spatial context, it remains an open question how cities provide such a context. We argue that cities as a distinct form of sociation enable certain (discursive) actions, while restricting others. Taking both the interest of interpretive policy analysis in the social construction of political reality and holistic concepts of approaching the distinctiveness of cities as starting points, we scrutinize how the cities of Frankfurt/Main, Dortmund, Birmingham, and Glasgow provide distinct contexts for the construction of local policy problems. Based on an inquiry into urban discourses we ask, first, how problematizations involve locally specific attributions of problem causes and responsibilities for problem solving and, second, how this is related to a locally distinct understanding of the city's past, present, and future. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/juaf.12206/full
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Some actors in the public sphere are excellent at what they do. Even if they could hardly do their work alone, they make a difference. This article presents a search for what are called exemplary practitioners. It describes and compares a group of six practitioners found in the literature: the reflective practitioner, the deliberative practitioner, the street-level bureaucrat, the front-line worker, the everyday maker, and the everyday fixer. It points at differences between the types and changes that occur over time. Also, the article concludes that the more recent types of identified practitioners add crucial skills to the repertoire that practitioners need to make a difference in the public sphere. In the epilogue, the researchers reflect on the research they did on the basis of the ideas in the article.
Article
In order to understand how exemplary work is done in the complex urban environment of disadvantaged neighborhoods, we studied a group of 43 individuals – civil servants, professionals and active citizens – who make a difference. Various so-called ‘exemplary practitioners’ were found in the literature and in the neighborhoods of five cities. The working methods of exemplary practitioners show a mix and a dose of entrepreneurialism, strategic networking and empathic engagement that differ from standard bureaucracy but fit very well with what is needed in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Two striking examples illustrate these working methods.
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This article seeks to broaden the craft of public administration by ‘blurring genres’. First, I explain the phrase ‘blurring genres’. Second, I provide some examples of early work in administrative ethnography. Third, I compare this early, modernist-empiricist ethnography with interpretive ethnography, suggesting researchers confront three choices: naturalism vs. anti-naturalism; intensive vs. hit-and-run fieldwork; and generalisation vs. local knowledge. After this general discussion, and fourth, I discuss the more prosaic issues that confront anyone seeking to use ethnography to study public administration and look at fieldwork roles, relevance, time, evidence and fieldwork relationships. Fifth, I describe and illustrate the several tools students of public administration can use as well as observation and interviews; namely, focus groups, para-ethnography, visual ethnography, and storytelling. Finally, I conclude that ethnographic fieldwork provides texture, depth and nuance, and lets interviewees explain the meaning of their actions. It is an indispensable tool and a graphic example of how to enrich public administration by drawing on the theories and methods of the humanities.
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In this article we elaborate on how we use collaborative event ethnography to study global environmental governance. We discuss how it builds on traditional forms of ethnography, as well as on approaches that use ethnography to study policy-making in multiple institutional and geographical sites. We argue that global environmental meetings and negotiations offer opportunities to study critical historical moments in the making of emergent regimes of global environmental governance, and that collaborative ethnography can capture the day-to-day practices that constitute policy paradigm shifts. In this method, the negotiations themselves are not the object of study, but rather how they reflect and transform relations of power in environmental governance. Finally, we propose a new approach to understanding and examining global environmental governance—one that views the ethnographic field as constituted by relationships across time and space that come together at sites such as meetings.
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The European Commission is typically portrayed as the ‘civil service’ of the European Union. However, its complex combination of executive, legislative, administrative and judicial powers and competencies make it unique among international bureaucracies. Unlike national civil services the Commission has policy-initiating powers and is centrally involved in EU decision-making at all levels. The Commission often defines itself as the ‘heart of the Union’, ‘engine of integration’ and ‘custodian of the Treaties’. Created in the 1950s, it is still a young organisation; multilingual, transnational and ‘supranational’ in character, yet subject to constant change with each new enlargement. Within the EU a key debate hinges on the Commission’s uniqueness as a public administration and how to create a distinctly ‘European’ model of civil service. At the head of the Commission is the ‘college’ of 25 national-government appointed commissioners, each of whom oversees a particular policy area. The Commission’s main headquarters are located in the Belgian capital of Brussels. At the time of fieldwork (1995–7) its staff numbered some 20000 permanent officials spread over 24 Directorate-Generals (‘DGs’) and approximately 40 buildings mostly situated in the aptly named ‘European Quarter’ of the city.
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A powerful feature of Putnam’s social capital framework is the attention it directs towards a critical question for democracies: How is democratic civic engagement created, sustained and expanded (cf Levi, 1996, p. 52) However, Putnam’s investigation into this problem neglects considerations concerning the consequences of the ongoing transition of democratic government into democratic governance. As a result, his evaluation of the state of affairs of Western democracy becomes more gloomy than need be. A study of democratic governance and civic engagement in Denmark draws the contours of a new political identity, the Everyday Maker. The Everyday Maker represents a new form of political engagement, which attempts to combine individuality and commonality in new relations of self-and co-governance. Seen from Putnam’s government perspective there is a serious risk that the researcher comes to ignore the political potential of the Everyday Makers and see them as nothing but individuals “bowling alone.”
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Sinds het begin van het nieuwe millennium is de cultuur van het openbaar bestuur onderwerp van discussie. Door de rampen in Enschede en Volendam, maar ook als gevolg van politieke crises zoals in Den Helder en Delfzijl en naar aanleiding van de dualisering van gemeentebesturen, is het concept bestuurscultuur in de discussie over het lokaal bestuur veel gebruikt (Cachet, et al. 2001; Denters and Pröpper 2002; Bovens, et al. 2006). Aan het einde van het dualiseringsproces stelde de begeleidingscommissie dat bestuurscultuur ‘de echte sleutel is voor verbetering’ en ‘misschien wel de belangrijkste factor […] voor de vernieuwing van het lokaal bestuur’ (Begeleidingscommissie 2006b: 13). In dit proefschrift is het concept bestuurscultuur als een proces van betekenisgeving theoretisch verkend en empirisch onderzocht.
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This paper examines how written research accounts based on ethnography appeal to readers to find them convincing. In particular, it highlights the role of rhetoric in the readers' interaction with and interpretation of the accounts. Extending relevant work in the literatures of organization studies, anthropology and literary criticism, the paper develops three dimensions-authenticity, plausibility and criticality-central to the process of convincing. Further, through the analysis of a sample of ethnographic articles, it discloses the particular writing practices and more general strategies that make claims on readers to engage the texts and to accept that these three dimensions have been achieved. Through authenticity, ethnographic texts appeal to readers to accept that the researcher was indeed present in the field and grasped how the members understood their world. Strategies to achieve authenticity include: particularizing everyday life, delineating the relationship between the researcher and organization members, depicting the disciplined pursuit and analysis of data, and qualifying personal biases. Through plausibility, ethnographic texts make claims on readers to accept that the findings make a distinctive contribution to issues of common concern. Plausibility is accomplished by strategies that normalize unorthodox methodologies, recruit the reader, legitimate atypical situations, smooth contestable assertions, build dramatic anticipation, and differentiate the findings. Finally, through criticality, ethnographic texts endeavor to probe readers to re-examine the taken-for-granted assumptions that underly their work. Strategies to achieve criticality include: carving out room to reflect, provoking the recognition and examination of differences, and enabling readers to imagine new possibilities. The empirical analyses, which highlight both the rhetorical and substantive aspects of convincing, suggest that at a minimum ethnographic texts must achieve both authenticity and plausibility-that is, they must convey the vitality and uniqueness of the field situation and also build their case for the particular contribution of the findings to a disciplinary area of common interest. These analyses also suggest that the most provocative task and promising potential of ethnography is the use of richly-grounded data to not only reflect on the members' world, but more importantly to provoke an examination of the readers' prevailing assumptions and beliefs.
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Large-scale social and political changes have revolutionized policy-making. Traditionally, policy analysis has been state-centered, based on the assumption that central government is self-evidently the locus of government. However, policy-making is often carried out today in loosely organized networks of public authorities, citizen associations and private enterprises. The contributors to this book argue that democratic governance now calls for a new deliberatively-oriented policy analysis. They provide examples from around the world to demonstrate how this would work in practice.
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This is a story of how work gets done. It is also a study of how field service technicians talk about their work and how that talk is instrumental in their success. In his innovative ethnography, Julian E. Orr studies the people who repair photocopiers and shares vignettes from their daily lives. He characterizes their work as a continuous highly skilled improvisation within a triangular relationship of technician, customer, and machine. The work technicians do encompasses elements not contained in the official definition of the job yet vital to its success. Orr's analysis of the way repair people talk about their work reveals that talk is, in fact, a crucial dimension of their practice. Diagnosis happens through a narrative process, the creation of a coherent description of the troubled machine. The descriptions become the basis for technicians' discourse about their experience, and the circulation of stories among the technicians is the principal means by which they stay informed of the developing subtleties of machine behavior. Orr demonstrates that technical knowledge is a socially distributed resource stored and diffused primarily through an oral culture. Based on participant observation with copier repair technicians in the field and strengthened by Orr's own years as a technician, this book explodes numerous myths about technicians and suggests how technical work differs from other kinds of employment.
Book
Book synopsis: `Its strength lies in combining theoretical insights with an impressive range of empirical material. The analysis is subtle and multi-layered.... This is a timely and important book' - Political Studies `Local governance have gained massive attention among scholars and practitioners during the past several years. Peter John's book fills a void in the literature by tracing the historical roots of local governance and by placing his findings in a comparative perspective' - Professor Jon Pierre, University of Gothenburg, Sweden `Peter John has produced a fascinating and stimulating book in which he assesses current developments in urban politics and local government in Europe and suggests how these changes are leading to different patterns of sub-national territorial politics in the EU today. What he has to say is of important interest to all students of local government; comparative politics and of territorial politics more generally' - Michael Goldsmith, University of Salford `this book offers a fascinating comparative analysis... themes such as New Public Management, globalisation, regionalism and privatisation will be relevant to numerous courses in government, politics, public administration and public policy' - West European Politics This text provides a comprehensive introduction to local government and urban politics in contemporary Western Europe. It is the first book to map and explain the change in local political systems and to place these in comparative context. The book introduces students to the traditional structures and institutions of local government and shows how these have been transformed in response to increased economic and political competition, new ideas, institutional reform and the Europeanization of public policy. At the book's core is the perceived transition from local government to local governance. The book traces this key development thematically across a wide range of West European states including: Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Chapter
When we observe public policy managers, much is happening, but not much is happening. Most policy managers have hectic and high-paced working days, but tangible results are hard to see — and they are hard to see daily. Public policy managers work long hours, including evenings and weekends. During these hours, they have many meetings and deal with a wide variety of papers. They attend scheduled meetings, have unscheduled encounters, and do desk-work. They channel a continuous stream of written and spoken texts through these episodes. Policy managers contact people, welcome visitors, sign papers, attend conferences, prepare political debates, watch meetings in Parliament, and organise site visits. They advise ministers, discuss newspaper articles, think of plans, introduce new words, and present formal standpoints. The value of these episodes, however, is difficult to determine. ‘Real’ events in outside worlds are often far away and real change only comes slowly and indirectly. And even when there are ‘real’ results, it is not certain they will be maintained because they may remain contested.
Article
Interpretative policy analysis rests on a long tradition of philosophical argumentation that stands on its own, without reference to positivist argument. Its hallmark is a focus on meaning that is situated in a particular context. The language of ‘interpretative’ policy analysis underscores the extent to which methodological choices, rather than being a disembodied repertoire of tools and techniques, are grounded in a particular set of epistemological and ontological presuppositions – in this case, those associated with interpretative schools of thought (such as hermeneutics, phenomenology, and some critical theory). This chapter elaborates on the importance to policy analysis of ‘local’ knowledge relative to a policy issue and sketches out some interpretative research methods for accessing and analysing it. Policy analysis and communities of meaning The construction of diverse meanings for described political events shapes support for causes and legitimizes value allocations. The literature on the place of symbolism in politics explores the creation of meaning through political language and other actions … The student of symbolism is interested in how meanings are constructed and changed. Inquiry into the evocation of meanings entails seeing observers and the observed as part of the same transaction rather than as subject and object, and it also recognizes that values, theories, and facts are integrally intertwined with each other rather than distinct concepts. Murray Edelman The centrality of communities of meaning to policy analysis becomes evident in what was initially called a ‘cultural’ approach to public policy processes, including those organizational actions subsumed under implementation studies (Yanow 1987, 1990).
Article
How is Britain governed? Have we entered a new era of governance? Can traditional approaches to governance help us to interpret 21st century Britain? This book develops the argument that we can understand political practices only by grasping the beliefs on which people act. It offers a governance narrative as a challenge to the Westminster model of British government and searches for a more accurate and open way of speaking about British government.
Article
Observation is at the heart of political analysis. Observing the behavior of U.S. senators involves watching them in two contexts—at home and in the capital city. It also entails sensitivity to the sequences of events or contexts which impinge upon senatorial behavior. Contexts and sequences of legislative life have not been observed in the rich detail they deserve, because not enough political scientists are presently engaged in observation. © 1986, American Political Science Association. All right reserved.
Article
WHEN EVERETT HUGHES TAUGHT ME at the University of Chicago in the late 1940s, we were trained in Participant Observation (PO), although we also called it fieldwork. We were already aware, however, that PO was an umbrella word covering several combinations of participation and observation and that different combinations were relevant for different studies and study sites. I was attracted to PO because I saw it as a method I could use to understand parts of American society other than the little bit in which I was personally involved. Later, I realized that it was particularly useful for elaborating, explaining, and even debunking the findings of the quick-and-dirty legwork on which journalists must base their feature stories about American society. Perhaps even more important, PO could supply empirical findings about little known or stereotyped populations, particularly those outside the mainstream. Partly because of these virtues, the books and articles using PO are often about topics of general as well as sociological interest. When they are also well written, they are sometimes read by the general public. When favorably received and widely read, they are immensely helpful to sociology’s reputation, which in turn helps us obtain the resources without which we cannot long survive as teachers or researchers. PO is still my preferred method. I also consider it the most scientific, because it is the only one that gets close to people. In addition, it allows researchers to observe what people do, while all the other empirical methods are limited to reporting what people say about what they do.
Article
When they assess competing theories political scientists typically rely exclusively and naively on criteria of empirical performance. They have correspondingly little to say about conceptual problems and seem generally unaware of the extent to which their assessments of empirical performance are parasitic on conceptual commitments. This, in turn, hinders their ability to both persuasively conduct and critically assess substantive research. I use four decades of research on political culture as a vehicle for demonstrating how conceptual problems pose obstacles to progress in political science.
Article
This article argues that political scientists should spend more time observing policy networks, using ethnographic tools to capture the meaning of everyday activities. The first section reviews briefly the literature on policy networks, arguing for an ethnographic approach. To show how individual actors construct networks, the second section looks at the experience of consumers, managers and permanent secretaries of living and working in networks. The final section comments on what the fieldwork tells us about both network theory and ethnographic methods.
Book
Underlying Assumptions of an Interpretive Approach The Importance of Local Knowledge Accessing Local Knowledge Identifying Interpretive Communities and Policy Artifacts Symbolic Language Symbolic Objects Symbolic Acts Moving from Fieldwork and Deskwork to Textwork and Beyond
Book
THIS STUDY of the political culture of democracy had its inspiration some thirty years ago in the Social Science Division of the University of Chicago. Much of what now goes under the name of the behavioral approach to the study of politics originated there in the period between the wars. It is a tribute to the vision of the men who created this leaven that it has taken three or four decades for their conception of political science to become a common possession. In particular, this study owes its inspiration to the work of Charles E. Merriam. His Civic Training series formulated many of the problems with which this study is concerned, and his New Aspects of Politics suggested the methods that have been used in its execution.
Article
The paper reassesses the argument in Understanding Governance (1997). The first section summarizes where we are now in the study of governance, reviewing briefly the key concepts of policy networks, governance, core executive, hollowing out the state and the differentiated polity. The second section engages with my critics with the aim of opening new directions of research. I concentrate on the key issues of: the context of policy networks, explaining change and the role of ideas, the decline of the state, rescuing the core executive, and steering networks. Under each heading, I sketch a decentred answer to the question of where we go from here. I argue the analysis of governance should focus on beliefs, practices, traditions and dilemmas.
Article
In the social sciences, there is renewed attention to political ethnography, a research method that is based on close-up and real-time observation of actors involved in political processes, at times even extending the definition of these processes to move beyond categories of state, civil society, and social movements. This article examines the emergence of political ethnography from a number of disciplinary locations, such as political science, the cultural turn in sociology, and anthropology, and shows the value of this new approach for understanding how politics work in everyday life.
Article
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Article
The term 'governance' is popular but imprecise. It has at least six uses, referring to: the minimal state; corporate governance; the new public management; 'good governance'; socio-cybernetic systems; and self-organizing networks. I stipulate that governance refers to 'self-organizing, interorganizational networks' and argue these networks complement markets and hierarchies as governing structures for authoritatively allocating resources and exercising control and co-ordination. I defend this definition, arguing that it throws new light on recent changes in British government, most notably: hollowing out the state, the new public management, and intergovernmental manage-ment. I conclude that networks are now a pervasive feature of service delivery in Britain; that such networks are characterized by trust and mutual adjustment and undermine management reforms rooted in competition: and that they are a challenge to governability because they become autonomous and resist central guidance.
Article
If the world is non-coherent, then methods that seek and describe it as coherent are making a mess of doing so. This argument is developed empirically and philosophically. After showing that the comment sense realism of standard methods works to other non-coherence, the chapter recommends non-coherent or 'messy' methods.
Article
This book focuses on the everyday life of ministers and senior public servants in different countries, describing the world through their eyes. It explores how their beliefs, practices and traditions create meaning in politics and public policy making. It provides unique data on life of politicians and practical advice on how to conduct fieldwork. © R. A. W. Rhodes, Paul 't Hart and Mirko Noordegraaf 2007. All rights reserved.
Article
In this companion volume John van Maanen's Tales of the Field, three scholars reveal how the ethnographer turns direct experience and observation into written fieldnotes upon which an ethnography is based. Drawing on years of teaching and field research experience, the authors develop a series of guidelines, suggestions, and practical advice about how to write useful fieldnotes in a variety of settings, both cultural and institutional. Using actual unfinished, "working" notes as examples, they illustrate options for composing, reviewing, and working fieldnotes into finished texts. They discuss different organizational and descriptive strategies, including evocation of sensory detail, synthesis of complete scenes, the value of partial versus omniscient perspectives, and of first person versus third person accounts. Of particular interest is the author's discussion of notetaking as a mindset. They show how transforming direct observations into vivid descriptions results not simply from good memory but more crucially from learning to envision scenes as written. A good ethnographer, they demonstrate, must learn to remember dialogue and movement like an actor, to see colors and shapes like a painter, and to sense moods and rhythms like a poet. The authors also emphasize the ethnographer's core interest in presenting the perceptions and meanings which the people studied attach to their own actions. They demonstrate the subtle ways that writers can make the voices of people heard in the texts they produce. Finally, they analyze the "processing" of fieldnotes—the practice of coding notes to identify themes and methods for selecting and weaving together fieldnote excerpts to write a polished ethnography. This book, however, is more than a "how-to" manual. The authors examine writing fieldnotes as an interactive and interpretive process in which the researcher's own commitments and relationships with those in the field inevitably shape the character and content of those fieldnotes. They explore the conscious and unconscious writing choices that produce fieldnote accounts. And they show how the character and content of these fieldnotes inevitably influence the arguments and analyses the ethnographer can make in the final ethnographic tale. This book shows that note-taking is a craft that can be taught. Along with Tales of the Field and George Marcus and Michael Fisher's Anthropology as Cultural Criticism, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes is an essential tool for students and social scientists alike.