Policy Practices as Temporal Formations

Abstract

This panel covers papers that address the fundamental question how time and policy relate to one another. The papers approach this relationship from a variety of different theoretical, conceptual, and empirical perspectives. Common to these different perspectives is the premise that time could not be reduced to a natural force that constitutes an objectively given boundary condition of policy practices. Instead, the papers highlight, each in a specific way, that policy practices are to be seen as temporal formations, meaning that policy and time emerge interdependently. The panel thus highlights the analytical value of time-focussed research strategies, and it demonstrates how different conceptions of time allow for innovative insights in political science in general and policy analysis in particular.