narratives – Policy Translation: Guide to Interpretive Approaches to Governance

Oxford Handbook on Water Policy and Politics. NEW PUBLICATION!

Finally the chapter “Transfer, Diffusion, Adaptation, and Translation of Water Policy Models” in the Oxford Handbook on Water Politics and Policy is out online. The book itself will be printed next year.

“Out of Place: A Memoir” by Edward Said — Absolutely Fascinating

It is hard now for me to pinpoint the moment when I became aware of the work of Edward Said and when it entered my personal and intellectual radars so to speak. (If interested in other posts on Edward Said, please see the post on On Being an Academic and a Public Intellectual and on […]

Public Policy Bits: Social Constructivism and Trump

Trump’s presidency proves one point – that social constructivism explains the world much better than realism, positivism or whatever. Propaganda, framing of messages, providing false hopes, marketing messages to a desperate constituency — these all proved to be more important than reasons and facts. With this regard, I want to make 2 smaller points clear, […]

Time for a Bioeconomy? NEW PUBLICATION!

Good news! “Away from fossil-fuels and toward a bioeconomy: Knowledge versatility for public policy?” is finally out

Political and Ethical Aspects of Fieldwork. NEW PUBLICATION!

A new article written by Martin de Jong, Robin Pierce and myself is now out in Environment and Planning A, “Political and ethical aspects in the ethnography of policy translation: Research experiences from Turkey and China”. You can download the author copy here. Abstract A currently burgeoning literature in planning and policy studies engages with […]

Transfer, Diffusion, Adaptation and Translation of Water Policy Model. NEW PUBLICATION!

On Friday July 01, I am giving a talk at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS. The details are in the announcement. The paper is to appear later this year and will be found on Publications page. Synopsis: Intensive cross-border movement of policy models is ubiquitous in the water sector. Examples include Integrated […]

Workshop on “Translation in World Politics” at Kate Hamburger Kolleg, Duisburg, Germany

Last week, on October 08-09, I took part in a workshop at the University of Duisburg’s Kate Hamburger Kolleg (Centre for Global Cooperation Research) named “Translation in World Politics”. It was very pleasing to see the ideas of policy translation making headway in other disciplines, and now also in International Relations and World Politics. I […]

On Being an Academic and a Public Intellectual

Edward Said is primarily known for this views on Palestine and Israel and for this book “Orientalism” which defined and inspired the post-colonial studies, as discussed before on this blog. He, however, also left a dozens if not hundreds of essays and interviews — the goldmine for anyone interested in the issues of politics, literature, […]

Crafting or Designing Socio-Ecological Systems? NEW PUBLICATION!

Finally, our Special Issue of Environmental Science & Policy is online, and you can enjoy the articles. You can read our editorial about the issue here, and the article I wrote with colleagues on water user associations in the region here.

New Article! Ways of Knowing Water: Water Security and Integrated Water Management. NEW PUBLICATION!

After waiting for over a year, finally our article is online! This article is titled “‘Ways of knowing’ water: integrated water resources management and water security as complementary discourses“, Andrea Gerlak and I wrote it for International Negotiations and Environmental Agreements (INEA), a well-respected journal in the area of environmental policy and political science. The […]

ADA University Faculty Debate

On March 13, 2015, ADA University Debate Society hosted a great round of debate with ADA University faculty – Dr. Anar Valiyev, Dr. Kavus Abushov, Dr. Javid Gadirov, Dr. Farhad Mukhtarov on the motion “Freedom of speech is more important than religious sensitivities.” The event followed up with a round of discussion and Q&A panel. […]

Oxford Bibliographies: Great Resource for Students and Researchers!

Energy Security and Water Security Farhad Mukhtarov (ADA University, Azerbaijan) and Aleh Cherp (Central European University, Hungary; Lund University, Sweden), with essential assistance from a graduate ADAU student Richard Sarpong, published 2 articles in Oxford Bibliographies, Oxford University Press. One article is about Energy Security — the concept that commands great policy attention nowadays, from […]

Institutional Design in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. NEW PUBLICATION!

The Journal of Environmental Science & Policy will feature in early 2015 an article co-authored by Farhad Mukhtarov, Svenja Fox, Nozila Mukhamedova and Kai Wegerich. This article is an attempt to resolve the tensions between the need for institutional reform and learning in this process and the paramount importance of the policy context in determining […]

An Ode to Writing: Writing as a Practice of Freedom

What is Freedom? Many philosophers have tried to answer this question. When listening to Brene Brown’s talk on vulnerability, I often think of freedom in a way of breaking through the boundaries of the ‘comfort zone’, by making myself vulnerable and in a way, opening up new avenues for personal growth. And in making oneself […]

Public Policy Bits: Ways of Knowing Public Policy

Farhad Mukhtarov and Andrea Gerlak have just published an article in Policy Sciences, a well-respected political science journal, on Ways of Knowing and Integrated Water Resources Management. In this article, the authorss came up with the argument that there are 3 ways of knowing reality, and public policy for that matter, which they named prescriptive, discursive […]

Policy Translation: Guide to Interpretive Approaches to Governance

Category: narratives