Beyond National Policymaking: Conceptions of Myth in Interpretive Policy Analysis and Their Value for IR

Abstract

The ‘interpretive turn’ in policy analysis highlights how language and discourse shape our knowledge of the social world and influence policymaking. In challenging the traditional assumption that problems are part of a pre-given neutral reality to which policymaking responds, authors have started to pay attention to argumentation and persuasion and to elements such as narratives and myths that structure discourse. With the umbrella term interpretive policy analysis uniting interpretive-hermeneutic and poststructuralist approaches, advocates of this kind of research have been very prolific in developing conceptions of myths. As policymaking need not be restricted by national boundaries, this chapter takes stock of the contribution of interpretive policy analysis to the study of myth and how this could be compatible with questions in International Relations.