Making Policy Move: the problems and possibilities of policy-in-translation

As part of McMaster’s Socrates Project, and the Hooker Distinguished Lecturers series, Professor Emeritus John Clarke of the Open University, United Kingdom will be giving a series five talks on a range of topics including austerity, new politics, policy in transition, contesting citizenship and remaking public service.

In a globalised world, policies move further and faster, connecting people and places in what often feels like an unstoppable tide of change. In this presentation, I will explore the analytical , political and organisational advantages of thinking about policy as a process of translation. I will suggest that policy is always in motion as it moves from place to place, level to level, and from words to practice. As it moves, the possibilities of innovation appear in what Mary Louise Pratt calls ‘contact zones’. Thinking about policy as translation poses several questions: what is policy? When is policy? And where does policy happen? Finally, I will suggest that this view of policy demands that we think of those involved in translating policy as agentic – as active translators, mediators and innovators – even if the conditions of agency are often constrained. To explore this view I will talk about research on the translation of citizenship in ‘advice agencies’ in the UK (agencies that offer peer support and systems navigation).

Please register via Eventbrite.