Discursive Policy Inquiry: A Critical Interpretive Approach

Discursive Policy Inquiry (DPI) is a distinctive theoretical approach to policy research, which endeavours to problematise and critically explain policy-making processes in a wide range of social and political settings. This chapter sets out the core assumptions, concepts and research strategies of this approach, highlighting the primary role of politics in shaping and investigating core societal problems and policy dilemmas. It locates DPI in relation to Poststructuralist Discourse Theory (PDT), which was founded by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, and developed by the Essex School of Discourse Analysis, and alongside the latter’s distinctive methodological orientation – the Logics of Critical Explanation (LCE) – which has been developed by Jason Glynos and David Howarth. In so doing, the chapter elaborates and connects the core notions of discourse, antagonism, power, hegemony and subjectivity to the specific questions and dilemmas that arise in policy analysis. The main elements of the theoretical approach are illustrated and further developed by analysing the changing practices of policymaking in the field of UK aviation policy since 1945, which draws on Steven Griggs and David Howarth’s Contesting Aviation Policy.