Producing Health Policy: Knowledge and Knowing in Government Policy Work (Palgrave Studies in Science, Knowledge and Policy) - Hardcover

Maybin, Jo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1137583924 ISBN 13: 9781137583925

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Synopsis

In this book Jo Maybin draws on rare access to the inner-workings of England's Department of Health to explore what kinds of knowledge civil servants use when developing policy, how they use it and why. Combining ethnographic data with insights from psychology, socio-linguistics, sociology and philosophy, she demonstrates how civil servants engage in a wide range of knowledge practices in the course of their daily work. These include sharing personal anecdotes, thrashing-out ideas in meetings and creating simplified representations of phenomena, as well as conducting cost-benefit analyses and commissioning academic research. Maybin analyzes the different functions that these various practices serve, from developing personal understandings of issues, to making complex social problems 'thinkable', and meeting the ever-present need to make policies 'happen'. In doing so, she develops an original theory of policy-making as the work of building connections between a policy in developmentand powerful ideas, people, and instruments, and reveals the 'policy know-how' required by civil servants to be effective in their jobs.

About this title

About the Author

Jo Maybin is a Fellow in Health Policy at The King's Fund, UK, where she researches patient and staff experiences of health care in England. She is also training to be a professional coach for NHS staff.

From the Back Cover

In this book Jo Maybin draws on rare access to the inner-workings of England's Department of Health to explore what kinds of knowledge civil servants use when developing policy, how they use it and why. Combining ethnographic data with insights from psychology, socio-linguistics, sociology and philosophy, she demonstrates how civil servants engage in a wide range of knowledge practices in the course of their daily work. These include sharing personal anecdotes, thrashing-out ideas in meetings and creating simplified representations of phenomena, as well as conducting cost-benefit analyses and commissioning academic research. Maybin analyzes the different functions that these various practices serve, from developing personal understandings of issues, to making complex social problems 'thinkable', and meeting the ever-present need to make policies 'happen'. In doing so, she develops an original theory of policy-making as the work of building connections between a policy in developmentand powerful ideas, people, and instruments, and reveals the 'policy know-how' required by civil servants to be effective in their jobs.

Edition details

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1137583924
• ISBN 13: 9781137583925
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 180