Care policies in practice: how discourse matters for policy implementation

This article puts public policy research in dialogue with gender and politics studies to enhance our understanding of the implementation of care policies. Care policies present interesting problems of implementation because of the multiplicity of aims, values, inequalities, actors and levels of gove...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rossella Ciccia, Emanuela Lombardo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2019-10-01
Series:Policy & Society
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14494035.2019.1702278
Description
Summary:This article puts public policy research in dialogue with gender and politics studies to enhance our understanding of the implementation of care policies. Care policies present interesting problems of implementation because of the multiplicity of aims, values, inequalities, actors and levels of governance involved. Nonetheless, previous research shows two important gaps: 1) the neglect of discursive factors in studies of implementation; and 2) the lack of attention to implementation processes in the analysis of care policies. This article suggests a general framework to address these issues which considers discourse as a transversal factor connecting actors and institutions engaged in policy implementation. The articles in this special issue demonstrate that including discourses in the analysis of care policy implementation makes visible the influence of gender+ norms and the dynamic and contentious processes surrounding them in a variety of institutional arenas, levels, and national contexts.
ISSN:1449-4035
1839-3373