Poststructural Policy Analysis: A Guide to Practice

by Carol Bacchi, Susan Goodwin

This book offers a distinctive approach to policy analysis and a refreshing and politically engaged way of thinking about policy. It clearly articulates a Foucault-influenced poststructural perspective on policy and policy analysis for researchers, students and policy makers. As a "guide to practice", the book introduces a critical analytical approach to policy analysis called ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ (WPR). Instead of treating policy as simply the government’s best efforts to address problems, this analytic strategy highlights how policies produce ‘problems’ as particular sorts of problem and how governing takes place through these problematisations. First published in 2016, the book describes the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of the WPR approach to policy analysis in a detailed and accessible manner.  It features examples of application of the approach with topics as diverse as obesity, economic policy, migration, drug and alcohol policy, and gender equality.


 In this second edition, the authors centralise a complementary analytic strategy for poststructural policy analysis—poststructural interview analysis (PIA). This edition integrates this material as a new chapter which sets out PIA as a novel approach to poststructural interview analysis and includes examples of PIA applications. The new chapter provides excellent guidance to undertake interview analysis in a manner congruent with the poststructural precepts set out in the book. 

252 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 12, 2025

Reviews

[Roma Itaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

En overskuelig guide til WPR-analysestrategien.

I bogen finder man også kapitler, der kort og godt forklarer svært håndgribelige poststrukturalistiske begreber fra Michel Foucaults forfatterskab såsom magt, viden, subjektivering, diskurs.

Første del af bogen er det (videnskabs-)teoretiske grundlag for metoden, formålet med strategien samt begrebsafklaringer.
Anden del af bogen er en sammenfatning af forskellige forskningsartikler, der har anvendt WPR til at analysere forskellige former for policy forskellige steder i verden. Her får man eksemplificeret, hvordan man kan analysere eksempelvis "subjekter", "objekter" og "problemer" (anførselstegn indikerer den poststrukturalistiske tilgang til disse begreber som ikke-fastlåste essenser eller entiteter).

Bogen er anbefalelsesværdig til alle der arbejder med policy og studerende, der ønsker en overskuelig poststrukturalistisk metode, der er let at gå til.

[Don Dealga · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent work that presents a framework for using Foucauldian & post-structuralist based analysis in the examination and critique of public policy, plus examples and applications of the framework.
The authors introduce a simple analytical tool: WPR = "What's the Problem Represented to be?" They argue that policies produce problems as particular type of problems, rather than the conventional assumption/assertion that they address extant issues.

Book has an excellent appendix outlining a very useful poststructural approach to (research) interview analysis.

[Lara Duke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hard read, but useful when considering a critical approach to policy analysis.

[Marco · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars. A practical guide to an approach to policy that is informed by Foucault's treatment of discourse.