COORDINATION, CONTROVERSY AND COMPETITION IN POLICY ARENAS:
NEW APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF POLICYMAKING
Practical Information
October 6, 2014. 1-day event. Lunch and coffee/tea will be provided.
University of Warwick - Departments of Sociology and Politics and International Studies
Funded by the ESRC Doctoral Training Centre
Location: F204 Seminar Room, Millburn Hill Road, University of Warwick Science Park, Coventry, CV4 7HS
(Detailed programme to be finalized soon)
Conference Summary
This interdisciplinary conference will explore the implications of conceptualising policymaking as a practical
activity, embedded in hybrid settings, theorised as existing within performative assemblages, affected by
network relations, or informed by ecological boundaries. Policy research has generally assumed that the logics
of either consequences or appropriateness provide researchers with adequate analytic scope to tackle the study
of policymaking. However, recent work suggests that paying greater attention to the micrological aspects of
policymaking practices can allow the destabilization of a pre-social ascription of interests and thus find new ways
of redressing a longstanding impasse for political science, geography, urban studies, sociology and social policy
researchers. To comprehend and analyse policymaking after this practical turn, this workshop will explore ways
that research can attend to policy controversies through practices of coordination and competition in policy
arenas.
The conference will centre on the following three key research questions:
 Is it important to consider the role of competition between different professional groups in the
construction of policy problems, and what evidence should be included to address this?
 Do ‘technocratic solutions’ necessarily lead to an erosion of democratic participation by non-experts,
and what is driving the growing authority of technocrats?
 What kinds of theoretical and methodological innovations provide researchers with the analytic scope
to tackle the questions posed above?
Format
We are aiming for a very hands-on workshop with ample time to discuss the 3,000 word research notes that
participants have submitted. As such, it will be strongly encouraged that participants read all the notes before
the day of the workshop (they will be circulated to participants in the week starting on Monday the 22nd of
September). The specific details of the format will be settled once we have a clearer picture of the number of
participants contributing with a research note. We will break for lunch and coffee, and conclude the day with a
brainstorm session for future collaborative activities.
Organizers
Julian Molina, doctoral student, Sociology, University of Warwick
j.molina@warwick.ac.uk
Jacob Hasselbalch, doctoral student, PAIS, University of Warwick
j.a.hasselbalch@warwick.ac.uk