Researching in Real Time : Ethnography as a methodology for policy research Pam Carter.

Transcription

1 Researching in Real Time : Ethnography as a methodology for policy research Pam Carter PhD candidate Supervisors: Professor Steve Cropper & Professor Paul Willis p.j.carter@hpm.keele.ac.uk Research Institute for Public Policy and Management

2 Structure of the presentation Background to the research Policy context Methods for policy research Research Problematics What is Ethnography? Childcare Policy in implementation some data Questions / comments

3 Paid work experience Who am I? Senior Evaluation North Staffs PCT working on Sure Start Planning Officer (Social Inclusion) Stoke on Trent City Council Childcare experience 3 adult sons Academic background BA,(English & Sociology) M.Soc.Sci.(cultural studies) MRes, now studying for PhD

4 Research Question PhD How Welfare Reform Does and Doesn t Happen Subsidiary RQ How are national / local policy contradictions managed in local implementation?

5 The Policy Context Joined up Government? Modernisation Welfare reform 10 year child care strategy Respect Agenda 2004 Children Act Every Child Matters Children s Centres Children s Trusts Welfare to work Health inequalities Community Learning Partnerships Social Inclusion Child poverty Accord

6 Research problematics (1): Long running social structures, quick policy fixes Is childcare a public good, a private want, a right or a need? Partnership working / market mechanisms from Government to governance (Newman, 2001)

7 Research Problematics (2) National childcare strategy, local delivery Top down / bottom up policy Community empowerment / centralised targets Policy framing - childcare as contributor to abolishing child poverty, linked to tax credits as policy tool & lever for welfare-towork, as social control linked to Respect agenda

8 Policy Research Ex ante modelling & prediction before policy implementation Post hoc evaluation after policy implementation EPPM often adopts positivist assumptions, frequently quantitative.(burton, 2006) Researcher as outsider, disembodied Cartesian subject - Enlightenment rationalism Hypothetico-deductive model does it work or doesn t it?

9 What is ethnography? Studies naturalistic settings Seeks insider perspective how things are done around here Asks process questions looks at the moving picture actions as well as words, change as well as stasis Uses qualitative observation methods with self as research instrument (Hannabuss, 2000)

10 T.I.M.E. Theoretically Informed Methodology for Ethnography (Willis & Trondman, 2000) Conceptual tools : Facticity Institutional Ethnography Dorothy Smith (1990,2005) Situational Analysis Adele Clarke (2005) Foucault s power/knowledge, truth regimes (Nancy Fraser,1981) Policy framing Martin Rein, Donald. Schön (1993) Feminism : Situated, embodied, perspectival knowledge Donna Haraway (1985)

11 Ethics Getting in and getting on COREC Overt / covert research the public domain Spicker,2007 Participation / non-participant observation Situational ethics (Mauthner et al,2002)

12 Ethnographic Data (1) A press of a button / getting it off our chests quant/qual data in practice Subjective interpretations of time & money Freudian slip of the tongue Metaphors & symbols

13 Ethnographic Data (2) A policy-poem A ghost Symbolic game playing Semiotics of architecture How Does a Policy Mean (Yanow,1996) Shopping for policy products fixed menu choices in-house policy-project

14 Ethnographic Data (3) Sense making Weick, (1995) Route 3 The Big Spend

15 Researching attitudes to change Getting beyond the official line (Duke,2002). Cynicism, opportunism and co-operation symbolised in games produced in workshops

16 Victoria s Story

17 Researching in Real Time : Ethnography as a methodology for policy research Reaches the parts studies action & processes of change Accesses insider knowledge useful for studying communities of practice Useful for researching policy implementation Can explore contradictions between what people say & what they do Study cultural aspects of policy rules-inuse (Ostrom,1999) as well as written rules

18 References Burton P. (2006) Modernising the Policy Process Policy Studies, 27(3) Clarke A (2005) Situational Analysis Grounded Theory After the Postmodern Turn Thousand Oaks: Sage Duke K (2002) Getting Beyond the Official Line : Reflections on Dilemmas of Access, Knowledge and Power in Researching Policy Networks Journal of Social Policy 31 (1) Cambridge University Press Fraser N (1981) Foucault on Modern Power : Empirical Insights and Normative Confusions Praxis International accessed 2 /12/08 Hannabuss S (2000) Being there : Ethnographic research and autobiography Library Management 21( 2), Haraway, D. (1985) "A Manifesto for Cyborgs," in Feminism / Postmodernism, L. Nicholson, (ed)., London: Routledge Newman J (2001) Modernising Governance New Labour, Policy and Society London : Sage Publications Ltd. Ostrom, E Institutional Rational Choice: an Assessment of the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework, in Sabatier ( ed.), Theories of the Policy Process. Boulder, CO : Westview Press, pp

19 References Rein, M Schön D. (1993) "Reframing Policy Discourse," in Fischer, F. and Forester, J The Argumentative Turn, (eds.) London : UCL Press Smith D (1990) Texts, Facts and Femininity Exploring the Relations of Ruling London: Routledge Smith D (2005) Institutional Ethnography A Sociology for People Lanham : Altamira Press Spicker, P (2007) The Ethics of Policy Research Evidence and Policy 3(1) Weick, K. E. (1995) Sensemaking in Organizations Thousand Oaks : Sage Publications ltd. Willis P. and Trondman M. (2000) Manifesto for Ethnography Ethnography Yanow, D. (1996) How Does a Policy Mean? Washington: Georgetown University Press

20 Questions? Comments? Pam Carter PhD candidate