Nick Turnbull | The University of Manchester (original) (raw)

Books by Nick Turnbull

This book commemorates more than a decade of governance research by Mark Bevir and R.A.W. Rhodes,... more This book commemorates more than a decade of governance research by Mark Bevir and R.A.W. Rhodes, the leading exponents of interpretive political science in the United Kingdom. It explains how insights from the interpretive perspective may be used to advance the study of governance, high politics, and public policy. Featuring contributions from major scholars in the field, both inside and outside the interpretivist fold, the authors critically reflect upon interpretivism and consider how aspects of the interpretive approach apply to their own research. The authors debate the significance of Bevir and Rhodes’s work and develop future directions for interpretive governance research. The chapters link one of the most innovative contemporary perspectives in political science with the latest empirical studies.

Contributing towards setting the governance research agenda, Interpreting Governance, High Politics and Public Policy is an excellent resource for the study of interpretive policy analysis.

The art of rhetoric is central to the practice of politics. It also, however, plays an important ... more The art of rhetoric is central to the practice of politics. It also, however, plays an important role in civic and private life, where it is employed to persuade, negotiate and resolve disputes on a daily basis. Using the Aristotelian categories of ethos (appeals based on the character of the speaker), pathos (appeals to the emotions of an audience) and logos (appeals to reason), the contributors to this collection explore topics ranging from Prime Minister's Questions and Welsh devolution to political satire and the rhetoric of cultural racism.

This collection provides a highly accessible and engaging discussion of a variety of issues, while casting new light on the place and function of rhetoric in contemporary Britain. As such, it will appeal to a wide audience, including scholars and students of rhetoric, political communication, British politics, cultural studies and sociology.

In today’s society, everything is in question. The reflexive questioning of modernity has fundame... more In today’s society, everything is in question. The reflexive questioning of modernity has fundamentally problematized society, including philosophy, which has experienced a crisis of metaphysics. Michel Meyer’s problematology answers this crisis by questioning questioning, unfolding a new way of doing philosophy, with special relevance for the study of society. In this first-ever extended treatment of Meyer’s work, Nick Turnbull examines the main features of problematology, including the principle of questioning and the deduction of an original conception of difference, based on the question-answer relationship. Turnbull shows how these concepts produce new perspectives in the philosophy of the emotions, history, meaning, politics, rhetoric and science. He applies Meyer’s ideas to key questions in the philosophy of social science, showing how problematology offers important insights for understanding contemporary society. The book compares problematology with the work of well-known thinkers, including Bourdieu, Castoriadis, Collingwood, Derrida, Dewey, Gadamer, Heidegger and Lyotard. Turnbull uses problematology and rhetoric to explain how meaning is constructed through practice in the negotiation of social distance.

Papers by Nick Turnbull

Critical Policy Studies, Apr 1, 2013

Policy and Society, Jan 25, 2023

The policy capacity framework offers relevant analytical ideas that can be mobilized for health s... more The policy capacity framework offers relevant analytical ideas that can be mobilized for health system strengthening. However, the employment of this framework in the health field constitutes a relevant interdisciplinary gap in knowledge. This themed issue explores the relationships between the policy capacity framework and health system strengthening, in a multidimensional and interdisciplinary way, in high-income and low-middle-income countries. This introduction unpacks the dynamic interrelationships between the policy capacity framework and health system strengthening, bringing together common and distinct elements from both fields and summarizing possible relationships between them. The analysis shows that both fields together can increase our knowledge on health policies and system's critical themes and reforms. This challenge could be followed by exploring the convergences between them, as far as concepts/themes (types of capacities and other themes) and levels of analysis are concerned. Although in varied ways, papers in this issue (based on European countries, China, Canada, New Zealand, India, Australia, and Brazil) advance the use of the policy capacity framework for health policy or system strengthening. They give two main interdisciplinary contributions. Critical capacities can be incorporated into the policy capacity framework for the analysis of system strengthening-capacity to adapt, contexts of mixed and complex systems, dynamic view of policy capacity, and policy capacity as a relational power. Policy capacity is contextually interpreted (relative to the problem frame) and dynamic and adaptive (processual and relational), in relation to the properties of a health system, particularly with regard to the existing and developing mixed and complex systems.

Revue Internationale de Philosophie, 2010

Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour Association Revue internationale de philosophie. © Asso... more Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour Association Revue internationale de philosophie. © Association Revue internationale de philosophie. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays. La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit.

Public Policy and Administration

Analyses of ‘wicked problems’ often lead to recommendations for collaborative governance as a met... more Analyses of ‘wicked problems’ often lead to recommendations for collaborative governance as a metagovernance solution. The case of deadlocked European Union genetically modified crop authorization processes offers a good example. However, the stalemate is not the result of the inherent ‘wickedness’ of the problem posed by the risk of genetic modification technology applied to agricultural production of food and feed. Rather, the policy lock-in results from the structure and dynamics of the policy network. Rigid interactions between the same institutionalized policy actors sustain instigation and power games interlaced with question–answer or probing games that jointly reproduce a clash between differently structured problems over and over again. This has created a typical wrong-problem problem situation: the EC imposing ‘safety’ and ‘consumer choice’ of GM crops as a structured problem on member states, business interests and anti-GM NGOs that, for different reasons, saw the cultiva...

Jeremy Corbyn has recently been described as a “demagogue”; but his appeal is derived from his ch... more Jeremy Corbyn has recently been described as a “demagogue”; but his appeal is derived from his character rather than from rhetorical strategies, explain Judi Atkins and Nick Turnbull. Here, they discuss the rhetoric of distance deployed by his critics, and the inevitable dilemma Corbyn will face if he is to appeal to an audience beyond Labour grassroot members.

Handbook on Theories of Governance, 2022

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, 2022

Political sociology is the study of power in society. Interpretive political sociology is the stu... more Political sociology is the study of power in society. Interpretive political sociology is the study of how power in society is constructed and distributed through language and other symbols. It emphasizes how power relationships are negotiated through discourse and the subjective interpretations of that discourse by individuals. Rather than accepting institutional rules or political behaviour as the basis of organized power, interpretivists look towards the production of meaning as the key to understanding power in society. As such, interpretive theory in this ﬁeld is grounded in constructivist, idealist, or post-foundational epistemologies. Empirical research brings out how power is embodied in discourse by focusing on the qualitative study of language, symbols, and culture, rather than institutional rules and quantitative accounts of preferences. Interpretive political sociology explains that the meanings produced by linguistic and symbolic exchanges involve power relations which ...

In this paper we analyze five dominant policy frames adopted by governments in their responses to... more In this paper we analyze five dominant policy frames adopted by governments in their responses to children during the COVID-19 pandemic – the institutional, developmental, pathological, normative family and rights-excluding frames. We argue that these frames serve to meet the interests of non-child stakeholders in politically expedient ways, rather than addressing the needs of children and their families. We provide some suggestions for alternative policy approaches that take into account the interests of children, including understanding the ambivalent implications of lockdown, taking into account the social ecologies of children, and a renewed focus on children’s rights, most importantly children’s participation rights.

British Journal of Educational Studies, 2021

Political Studies, 2017

Rhetoric has re-emerged in political analysis. We identify two broad trends in the rhetorical ana... more Rhetoric has re-emerged in political analysis. We identify two broad trends in the rhetorical analysis of politics, ‘thin’ and ‘thick’. Thin conceptions view rhetoric as primarily a matter of oratory. In contrast, the proponents of Rhetorical Political Analysis have developed an emerging thick approach, in which rhetorical concepts are applied more broadly and with more depth. However, this approach is significantly limited in its influence because it does not adequately speak to other sub-disciplines in political science, in which non-rhetorical theories are preferred. This shortcoming is addressed by applying Meyer’s new philosophy of rhetoric. The approach supports methodological extension through a theory of practice, grounded in social distance. An analysis of the Greek episode of the Eurozone crisis shows how rhetoric is used by key actors for the purpose of strategic positioning, in concert with non-rhetorical means of distanciation, namely, economic and political relations.

Public Policy and Administration, 2017

Policy design has re-appeared on the scholarly agenda. This special issue investigates the assump... more Policy design has re-appeared on the scholarly agenda. This special issue investigates the assumptions of the policy design concept, questioning its theoretical coherence and relevance for practitioners. The conventional idea of policy design implies an instrumental-rational theoretical model which is out of place in contemporary governance arrangements. While the concept appeals to academic sensibilities, it has less utility in practice. It can also become caught up in the political aspect of policymaking by being used to generate legitimacy for the actions of public managers via rationalising accounts. Contributors to this issue argue that the design idea should be reconsidered from the ground up. An alternative orientation is put forward, which regards policy design as something that emerges from policymaking practice.

Critical Discourse Studies, 2016

ABSTRACT Political rhetoric is underpinned by its relationship to context. Scholars have struggle... more ABSTRACT Political rhetoric is underpinned by its relationship to context. Scholars have struggled to articulate this relationship by relying upon an ontological perspective of rhetoric and situation. This paper utilizes a new, problematological philosophy of rhetoric in context that overcomes these limitations. This approach employs a logic of question and answer which articulates the contingency of rhetoric as well as the structuring effects of context, conceived as social distance. This paper makes three conceptual innovations; philosophically redefining the rhetorical situation via a social problematology; developing a relational conception of situation; and originating a rhetorical theory of situatedness.

Rhetoric in British Politics and Society, 2014

British society is going through a sustained period of change, which has been accompanied by cont... more British society is going through a sustained period of change, which has been accompanied by controversy and debate. This change was stimulated by major economic shifts, the transformation to a multicultural society, and closer integration with the European Union. In such times of transition, rhetoric comes to the fore as a way for social actors to articulate the shape of problems and to search for solutions by integrating the new with the old. Rhetoric allows individuals to symbolically frame these changes, to adapt to change and to preserve tradition, but always with a political slant because the linguistic representation of the world is a powerful way to define reality and shape conceptions of a possible future. The chapters in this book reveal much about the nature of rhetorical power and how it is used in British politics and society. Through rhetoric, individuals — whether the prime minister, public commentators, journalists or ordinary Britons — cope with change and stake their own claims about what it is to be British, about who should be praised and who vilified, about what makes British culture and about what we should do politically to adapt to social change. The very idea of Britishness is negotiated through rhetoric, although never with a single voice. Rhetoric is a language of multiplicity, of metaphors and metonymy, a world created through implied meaning in which it is necessary for the audience to interpret who is included in the vision of the nation, a vision which is always contested.

Contributing towards setting the governance research agenda, Interpreting Governance, High Politics and Public Policy is an excellent resource for the study of interpretive policy analysis.

Critical Policy Studies, Apr 1, 2013

Policy and Society, Jan 25, 2023

Revue Internationale de Philosophie, 2010

Public Policy and Administration

Handbook on Theories of Governance, 2022

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, 2022

British Journal of Educational Studies, 2021

Political Studies, 2017

Public Policy and Administration, 2017

Critical Discourse Studies, 2016

Rhetoric in British Politics and Society, 2014

In J Mason and T Fattore Editor Children Taken Seriously in Theory Policy and Practice London Jessica Kingsley 2005 P 46 57, 2005

Critical Policy Studies, 2013

ABSTRACT Policy analysis is distinctive in its concern with problems and practice. However, the ‘... more ABSTRACT Policy analysis is distinctive in its concern with problems and practice. However, the ‘problem-solving’ presupposition of rational policy analysis is inadequate, as is the conception of practice. The challenge for policy theory is to retain the problem orientation while rethinking it to include insights about the problematization of governance and the practice of policy work. This article aims to do this through an original application of an innovative theory of questioning that articulates a constructivist logic of question and answer. It operates through distinguishing between two types of answers, strong and weak repressions of questions. Policy work is practical questioning by individuals that distinguishes between what is problematic and what is not. Policy practice involves both the repression of questions through practice and the explication of questions through reflection. This takes a different form across different domains of questioning, each of which contributes to the practical logic of policy practitioners. The various questioning domains involve their own legitimation questions, forces acting to repress or explicate questions, and three general Rhetorical forms of questions expressed as ethos, logos and pathos. This logic synthesizes Rhetoric with the problem orientation, indicating how values, problems and emotions are involved in each questioning domain. It thus integrates a range of governance and policy theories within a single conceptual framework.

Michel Meyer’s Problematology : Questioning and Society, 2014

ABSTRACT In today’s society, everything is in question. The reflexive questioning of modernity ha... more ABSTRACT In today’s society, everything is in question. The reflexive questioning of modernity has fundamentally problematized society, including philosophy, which has experienced a crisis of metaphysics. Michel Meyer’s problematology answers this crisis by questioning questioning, unfolding a new way of doing philosophy, with special relevance for the study of society. In this first-ever extended treatment of Meyer’s work, Nick Turnbull examines the main features of problematology, including the principle of questioning and the deduction of an original conception of difference, based on the question-answer relationship. Turnbull shows how these concepts produce new perspectives in the philosophy of the emotions, history, meaning, politics, rhetoric and science. He applies Meyer’s ideas to key questions in the philosophy of social science, showing how problematology offers important insights for understanding contemporary society. The book compares problematology with the work of well-known thinkers, including Bourdieu, Castoriadis, Collingwood, Derrida, Dewey, Gadamer, Heidegger and Lyotard. Turnbull uses problematology and rhetoric to explain how meaning is constructed through practice in the negotiation of social distance.

Rhetoric in British Politics and Society, 2014

Book Chapter in Rhodes, R. A. W. and Mark Bevir (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Interpretive Politi... more Book Chapter in Rhodes, R. A. W. and Mark Bevir (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Interpretive Political Science, London: Routledge.

Policy design has reappeared on the scholarly agenda. This special issue investigates the assumpt... more Policy design has reappeared on the scholarly agenda. This special issue investigates the assumptions of the policy design concept, questioning its theoretical coherence and relevance for practitioners. The conventional idea of policy design implies an instrumental-rational theoretical model which is out of place in contemporary governance arrangements. While the concept appeals to academic sensibilities, it has less utility in practice. It can also become caught up in the political aspect of policymaking by being used to generate legitimacy for the actions of public managers via rationalising accounts. Contributors to this issue argue that the design idea should be reconsidered from the ground up. An alternative orientation is put forward, which regards policy design as something that emerges from policymaking practice.

Public Policy & Administration: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0952076717709522

The social sciences have long aimed to emulate the success of the natural sciences. Philosophical... more The social sciences have long aimed to emulate the success of the natural sciences. Philosophical naturalism has dominated the mainstream of many social science disciplines, as social scientists have aimed to produce a concrete body of unproblematic theories such as that found in physics.