A fundamental policy dynamic, though one that involves going beyond taking the policy subsystem as the unit of analysis, occurs when policy fields overlap (i.e. in situations of ambiguous meanings of programs). Corresponding change is a discursive phenomenon, but not an impersonal one. But how to conceptualize agency in processes of this kind? In may paper, I will suggest that the discursive practices bringing about a change of the constitution of policy fields can be conceptualized as discursive policy entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs may transform the set-up of fields, discourse being the crucial lever. Forging new coalitions is an essential activity of policy entrepreneurs. Yet taking the possibly skillful, yet unsuccessful would-be entrepreneurs as a theoretical challenge, I will warn against an overly heroic conception of discursive policy entrepreneurs. There are the luckless, and there are those entrepreneurs who simply benefit from contingency. I will elaborate on this non-heroic conception of agency and entrepreneurship in discursive practice both theoretically and empirically, and with a focus on the making of new coalitions. In the first part of the paper, I will conceptualize policy change resulting from overlapping boundaries by way of a typology of policy fields. Second, I will discuss the theoretical aspects mentioned for conceptualizing agency in this framework for understanding policy change. Third, I will use the institutionalization of integration policies in the German “Länder” as a case for illustrating and debating the conception non-heroic entrepreneurship in discursive action. The focus will be on Northrhine-Westfalia, where the first ministry for integration was founded in 2005.
