A critical explanation of uses of Carol Bacchi’s WPR approach
A critical explanation of uses of Carol Bacchi’s WPR approach
In this short paper, our ambition is to discuss what we regard as the characteristics of the WPR approach in relation to other ways of doing critical policy studies – its affordances but also any drawbacks, as well as to consider the potentials for the approach in the future. Hence, we consider what the WPR approach brings to the analytic field, in contrast to other critical takes on policy analysis, and we ask how WPR’s particular epistemological and methodological perspective illuminate policy and governance in a critical manner beyond somewhat narrower, descriptive interrogations. We also discuss the potential extensions and elaborations of the approach as well as the need for post-structuralist policy research in the current political climate.
Bacchi, the WPR approach, post-structuralist policy studies
518-524
Rőnnblom, Malin
4d583e96-ef02-4734-9634-0a403ff5bee1
Edwards, Rosalind
e43912c0-f149-4457-81a9-9c4e00a4bb42
4 September 2025
Rőnnblom, Malin
4d583e96-ef02-4734-9634-0a403ff5bee1
Edwards, Rosalind
e43912c0-f149-4457-81a9-9c4e00a4bb42
Rőnnblom, Malin and Edwards, Rosalind
(2025)
A critical explanation of uses of Carol Bacchi’s WPR approach.
Critical Policy Studies, 19 (3), .
(doi:10.1080/19460171.2025.2555388).
Abstract
In this short paper, our ambition is to discuss what we regard as the characteristics of the WPR approach in relation to other ways of doing critical policy studies – its affordances but also any drawbacks, as well as to consider the potentials for the approach in the future. Hence, we consider what the WPR approach brings to the analytic field, in contrast to other critical takes on policy analysis, and we ask how WPR’s particular epistemological and methodological perspective illuminate policy and governance in a critical manner beyond somewhat narrower, descriptive interrogations. We also discuss the potential extensions and elaborations of the approach as well as the need for post-structuralist policy research in the current political climate.
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Rönnblom&EdwardsAccepted220825
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A critical explanation of uses of Carol Bacchi s WPR approach
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Accepted/In Press date: 22 August 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 4 September 2025
Published date: 4 September 2025
Keywords:
Bacchi, the WPR approach, post-structuralist policy studies
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 505429
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/505429
ISSN: 1946-0171
PURE UUID: 6ead17a8-b7f9-4194-b33c-c07bb9f83040
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Date deposited: 08 Oct 2025 16:36
Last modified: 09 Oct 2025 01:49
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Author:
Malin Rőnnblom
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