A critical explanation of uses of Carol Bacchi’s WPR approach
A critical explanation of uses of Carol Bacchi’s WPR approach
In this paper, we build on the focus of our edited collection to consider what the WPR approach brings to the analytic field, in contrast to other critical takes on policy analysis. How does its particular epistemological and methodological perspective illuminate policy and governance in a critical manner beyond somewhat narrower, descriptive interrogations? What are the potential extensions and elaborations of the approach? 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 potential for the approach in the future. Our discussion is informed both by our shared feminist position and by our locations within post-structuralism, where Malin is a longstanding WPR researcher, while Rosalind is drawn more toward the end of the spectrum of post-structuralism that builds links with structuralism and constructivism.
Bacchi, the WPR approach, post-structuralist policy studies, epistemology, post-structuralist, WPR, methodology
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 paper, we build on the focus of our edited collection to consider what the WPR approach brings to the analytic field, in contrast to other critical takes on policy analysis. How does its particular epistemological and methodological perspective illuminate policy and governance in a critical manner beyond somewhat narrower, descriptive interrogations? What are the potential extensions and elaborations of the approach? 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 potential for the approach in the future. Our discussion is informed both by our shared feminist position and by our locations within post-structuralism, where Malin is a longstanding WPR researcher, while Rosalind is drawn more toward the end of the spectrum of post-structuralism that builds links with structuralism and constructivism.
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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, epistemology, post-structuralist, WPR, methodology
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: 26 Nov 2025 02:43
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Author:
Malin Rőnnblom
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