Skip to content

Making Strange

  • Home
  • Biography
  • What is Policy Translation?
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • People
  • Publications
April 10, 2022 / Anthropology

Science Wars: Policy Translation Debated

The debate on the travel of ideas has ignited once again, this time on the pages of the new scientific journal called Global Discourse. Founded in 2010, this journal claims not to have a particular disciplinary audience and to target inter-disciplinary approaches. It managed to raise an interesting discussion with the latest issue.

In one of them, by Maria Elisa Balen and Cristian Leyton “Policy translation: an invitation to revisit the work of Latour, Star and Marres” the authors make a strong case for policy translation as the most fitting approach to study the travel of ideas. They cite the key work on this emerging tradition and then illustrate the point advanced by these scholars with a case study from Latin America. Their argument is within the Actor Network Theory approach of Latour and Michel Callon and its use in understanding policy processes.

Interestingly, the same journal published a reply to this article almost immediately by Professor Paul Spijker. The response claims that the policy translation approach does not really contribute much. The quote below says it all.

The idea of ‘translation’, at least in the terms ably expounded by Freeman (2009), is part policy transfer, part operationalisation and part implementation. What the idea of ‘policy translation’ offer us is, at best, a word that can help us to refer to a process; but it is rather too generic and broad-brush to clarify the steps in that process, or say anything specific or distinctive about them.

This once again shows how futile and interesting is this debate, and how hard it may be to speak across ontologies, disciplines and traditions. But we must persist in having this conversation as this, even if slow and painstaking, it better than having two parallel discourses in distinct communities and journals — one on policy transfer and implementation and another on policy translation. We must talk with each other, not past each other!

And I thank Global Discourse for facilitating this conversation!

Post navigation

Previous Post:

bell hooks on teaching and critical thinking

Next Post:

ADA University Faculty Debate

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Archives

  • December 2022 (1)
  • September 2022 (1)
  • January 2022 (1)
  • July 2021 (2)
  • June 2021 (1)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • September 2020 (2)
  • September 2019 (1)
  • August 2019 (1)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (1)
  • November 2018 (1)
  • September 2018 (1)
  • July 2018 (1)
  • April 2018 (1)
  • March 2018 (1)
  • June 2017 (1)
  • April 2017 (1)
  • November 2016 (1)
  • August 2016 (1)
  • January 2016 (3)
  • December 2015 (1)
  • November 2015 (2)
  • October 2015 (1)
  • September 2015 (1)
  • July 2015 (1)
  • May 2015 (1)
  • April 2015 (1)
  • February 2015 (1)
  • December 2014 (2)
  • November 2014 (1)
  • October 2014 (1)
  • August 2014 (2)
  • June 2014 (1)
  • May 2014 (1)
  • January 2014 (1)
  • December 2013 (2)
  • September 2013 (1)
  • August 2013 (1)
  • July 2013 (3)
  • June 2013 (1)
  • May 2013 (3)
  • March 2013 (4)
  • February 2013 (1)
  • October 2012 (3)
  • August 2012 (1)

Categories

Book an appointment with me

Archives

  • December 2022
  • September 2022
  • January 2022
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • January 2021
  • September 2020
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • June 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • September 2018
  • July 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • June 2017
  • April 2017
  • November 2016
  • August 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • February 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • August 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • October 2012
  • August 2012
©2023 Making Strange - Powered by Simpleasy