ECPR Summer School Budapest, 28 July - 13 August 2016

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Applying the Narrative Policy Framework

Course Dates and Times

Monday 8 to Friday 12 August 2016
Generally classes are either 09:00-12:30 or 14:00-17:30
15 hours over 5 days

Michael Jones

jonemic1@gmail.com

Institution: Oregon State University

The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) is a systematic approach to narrative policy analysis that allows both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. While developed only in 2010, the NPF has seen rapid adoption, appearing in academic journals such as Critical Policy Studies, Policy Sciences, the Policy Studies Journal, as well as being featured in Paul Sabatier’s classic Theories of the Policy Process, 3rd Edition. This course offers a full rendering of the NPF with the aim of providing students both breadth and depth sufficient to apply the framework in their own research. Topics covered include an overview of the framework, experimental NPF applications, content analysis and the NPF, as well as qualitative methods and the NPF. The course culminates in an opportunity for students to explore the NPF within their own work. There are no prerequisites for this course, but a basic background in quantitative and qualitative methodologies is beneficial.

Instructor Bio

Michael Jones is Assistant Professor at Oregon State's School of Public Policy.

He received his PhD in Political Science in 2010 from the University of Oklahoma and holds an MA and BS in Political Science, both from Idaho State University.

His research focuses on the role and influence of narrative in public policy processes, outcomes, and science communication.

This course covers the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF). The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) is a systematic approach to narrative that can be deployed both in policy analysis and research interested in the policy process. While developed in just 2010, the NPF has seen rapid adoption, appearing in many peer-reviewed venues including but not limited to Critical Policy Studies, Policy Sciences, Policy Studies Journal, Political Psychology, Political Studies, and Social Science Quarterly, as well as being featured in Paul Sabatier’s classic Theories of the Policy Process, 3rd Edition. The aim of this course is for participants, upon completion, to be able to apply the NPF in their own research. To this end, each day of the course features a different aspect of the NPF that culminates in the final module, where participants in the course design an NPF study relevant to their own interests.

Day one introduces course participants to the framework. This module begins with the NPF’s interpretive/postmodern origins, traces the framework’s development to its primary scientific orientation, and ends by focusing on the epistemologically flexible aspect of the NPF, that allows both quantitative and qualitative applications that embrace either scientific or interpretive epistemologies. Topics covered include the NPF’s assumptions, ontology and epistemology, constituent theories within the framework, levels of analysis, and introduces the NPF’s model of the individual.

Day two focuses on the NPF’s micro-level of analysis. During this module participants focus on the NPF’s model of the individual: homo narrans. Crucial to the NPF, homo narrans is a model of the individual rooted in social scientific findings from many academic disciplines including but not limited to psychology, communication, economics, and sociology. Homo narrans (unlike dominant economic models in public policy) emphasizes the central role of narrative in managing an individual’s attention, affect, and sense-making within policy processes. Literatures illuminating these origins will be assigned for this module. This section of the course will also take a close look at experimental designs, which are by far the most commonly applied research designs at the micro-level. Major NPF research findings will also be highlighted during this section of the course.

Day three moves the course to the meso-level of analysis. While the micro-level is primarily concerned with the individual—how actors are influenced by and influence with narrative—the meso-level is interested in the deployment of narrative by groups and coalitions within the policy process. Here the course hones in on policy consequential activities at the policy subsystem level, paying close attention to narrative strategies employed by groups and coalitions at the meso-level. Strategies covered will include scope of conflict, heresthetics, and the devil/angel shift, among others. Given that content analysis is the most common NPF methodology applied at the meso-level, this section of the course will also present a brief overview of content analyses methodologies commonly used within NPF meso-level applications. Major meso-level findings will also be highlighted during this section of the course.

While most of the NPF’s applications have been quantitative, an increasing number of applications are qualitative. Day four examines qualitative applications of the NPF, focusing, on the novelty of the NPF’s epistemological flexibility. Referred to as “plug-and-play”, the NPF provides a theoretical platform robust enough to approach research questions through either a scientific or an interpretive epistemology (and the accompanying standards of each approach). Methods covered in this module include interviews, participant observation, and focus groups. Important qualitative research findings will also be emphasized in this section of the course.

Day five culminates in the opportunity for course participants to design their own NPF study. Specifying NPF related research questions, levels of analysis, potential data sources, and appropriate methodologies, course participants will specify and share NPF research designs appropriate to policy areas or questions that interest them with the rest of the class. Students will then participate in a workshop designed to hone their research designs. Students should leave this course with the beginnings of a workable NPF project.

No specific prerequisite knowledge is required. However a basic background in qualitative and quantitative social scientific methodologies is helpful.

Day	Topic	Details
Monday	Overview of the NPF	Includes introduction to the NPF’s theoretical components, levels of analysis, exemplar NPF studies, discussion of NPF’s ontology and epistemology, and framework assumptions (lecture & discussion: 100%).
Tuesday	Micro-Level NPF	This module focuses on micro-level NPF applications. Students will review some basics of experimental design, applications thereof within the NPF, and facilitate exercises where participants produce experimental NPF designs (lecture 50%; workshop 50%).
Wednesday	Meso-Level NPF	This module focuses on meso-level NPF applications. Students will review basics of content analysis, NPF studies applying content analysis, and also participate in a workshop actively content coding several different types of potential narrative texts (lecture 50%; workshop 50%).
Thursday	Qualitative NPF	The fourth module provides an overview of qualitative methods and their usage within the NPF (interviews, focus groups, and historical analysis). Participants will have the opportunity to participate in mock qualitative methods activities (lecture 50%; workshop 50%).
Friday	Designing and NPF Study	The final module focuses on linking workshop participant interests to potential NPF applications. Students will design their own NPF studies (lecture 10%; workshop 90%).

Day	Readings
Monday	Jones, Michael D., and Mark K. McBeth. "A narrative policy framework: Clear enough to be wrong?." Policy Studies Journal 38, no. 2 (2010): 329-353. Jones, Michael D., and Claudio M. Radaelli. "The Narrative Policy Framework: Child or Monster?." Critical Policy Studies 9.3 (2015): 339-355. McBeth, Mark K., Michael D. Jones, and Elizabeth A. Shanahan. "The Narrative Policy Framework." Theories of the Policy Process 3 (2014).
Tuesday	Jones, Michael D. "Cultural characters and climate change: how heroes shape our perception of climate science." Social Science Quarterly 95, no. 1 (2014): 1-39. Jones, Michael D. "Communicating Climate Change: Are Stories Better than “Just the Facts”?." Policy Studies Journal 42, no. 4 (2014): 644-673. Shanahan, Elizabeth A., Stephanie M. Adams, Michael D. Jones, and Mark K. McBeth. "The Blame Game: Narrative Persuasiveness of the Intentional Causal Mechanism." The Science of Stories: Applications of the Narrative Policy Framework in Public Policy Analysis (2014): 69. Jones, Michael D., and Geoboo Song. "Making sense of climate change: how story frames shape cognition." Political Psychology 35, no. 4 (2014): 447-476.
Wednesday	Shanahan, Elizabeth A., Michael D. Jones, Mark K. McBeth, and Ross R. Lane. "An angel on the wind: How heroic policy narratives shape policy realities." Policy Studies Journal 41, no. 3 (2013): 453-483. McBeth, Mark K., Elizabeth A. Shanahan, Paul L. Hathaway, Linda E. Tigert, and Lynette J. Sampson. "Buffalo tales: interest group policy stories in Greater Yellowstone." Policy Sciences 43, no. 4 (2010): 391-409. Merry, Melissa K. (forthcoming). "Constructing Policy Narratives in 140 Characters or Less: The Case of Gun Policy Organizations." Policy Studies Journal. Lybecker, Donna L., Mark K. McBeth, Maria A. Husmann, and Nicholas Pelikan. "Do New Media Support New Policy Narratives? The Social Construction of the US–Mexico Border on YouTube." Policy & Internet (2015): DOI: 10.1002/poi3.94
Thursday	O’Bryan, T., C. A. Dunlop, and C. M. Radaelli. 2014. “Narrating the ‘Arab Spring’: Where Narrative Meets Heuristics in Legislative Hearings.” In The Science of Stories: Applications of the Narrative Policy Framework in Public Policy Analysis, edited by M. D. Jones, E. A. Shanahan, and M. K. McBeth, 107–130. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Ney, S. 2014. “The Governance of Social Innovation: Connecting Meso and Macro Levels of Analysis.” In The Science of Stories: Applications of the Narrative Policy Framework in Public Policy Analysis, edited by M. D. Jones, E. A. Shanahan, and M. K. McBeth, 207–234. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Gray, Garry and Michael D. Jones. (forthcoming) “A Qualitative Narrative Policy Framework?: Examining the Policy Narratives of US Campaign Finance Regulatory Reform,” Public Policy and Administration.
Friday	Shanahan, Elizabeth A., Michael D. Jones, and Mark K. McBeth. "Denouement?." The Science of Stories: Applications of the Narrative Policy Framework in Public Policy Analysis (2014): 247. Weible, Christopher M., and Edella Schlager. "Narrative Policy Framework: Contributions, Limitations, and Recommendations." The Science of Stories: Applications of the Narrative Policy Framework in Public Policy Analysis(2014): 235. Dodge, Jennifer. "Indication and inference: reflections on the challenge of mixing paradigms in the Narrative Policy Framework." Critical Policy Studies 9, no. 3 (2015): 361-367. Jones, Michael D. and Claudio M. Radaelli. (forthcoming). "The Narrative Policy Framework’s Call for Interpretivists.” Critical Policy Studies. Shanahan, Elizabeth, Mark K. McBeth, Michael D. Jones. ”How to Apply the NPF.” Working Paper.

Software Requirements

There are no hardware or software requirements for this course.

Hardware Requirements