The politicality of problem structuring (original) (raw)

2022, The Politicality of Problem Structuring, IPPA, IWPPA3, Budapest, June

Starting from insights in problem structuring by Hoppe (2011) and Turnbull & Hoppe (2018), this paper addresses the workshop proposers’ questions 2 (different actors and power relations in problem structuring) and 3 (impacts on solution strategies). For the workshop, its intention is to facilitate a reflexive and comparative discussion on cross-paper issues. The first section sets out the basic principles and concepts of problem structuring theory. Problem-structuring impacts on policy action by way of two intertwined, entangled and mutually dependent sub-processes: (1) in probing or puzzling, problem-structuring moves between higher and lower problematicity; and (2) in instigation or powering, problem-structuring reduces or enlarges the political distance between actors. From a depoliticized or epistemized vantage point, problem structuring is about probing or puzzling for a shared perception and appreciation of reality. From a political vantage point, problem structuring is about instigation and powering for sufficient political cooperation or support (not necessarily: agreement) to decide on one course for collective action. Section two briefly explores how these basic insights work out in problem-structuring in the different functions of the policy process (Dunn, 2018), resp. agenda-setting, policy formulation, policy adoption, implementation and evaluation. Also, attention will focus on which (types of) actors or policy workers are involved, in political or depoliticized ways, in the different functions of problem structuring (problem sensing/gestation, problem exploration/categorization, problem diagnosis/ decomposition, problem definition/political choice). A normative concluding section is devoted to the crucial role of modes of problem-structuring for sustainable governance and democratic and right-of-law based politics.