Bureaucratic Influence and Knowledge Circulation in Global Cooperation: A Matter of Policy Entrepreneurship

Abstract

This chapter outlines the theoretical, conceptual and methodological considerations of this book and develops an original approach for analysing policy change through policy entrepreneurs. For that purpose, it combines policy transfer theory with the framework of actor-centred institutionalism. The chapter puts in relation the concepts that will be used in the following study—including actors, institutions, frames, diffusion, convergence, international policy transfer, knowledge circulation, salience and epistemic community—and subsequently introduces the phenomenon that is at the centre of this research: transnational policy entrepreneurship. The chapter concludes with a section on methodological considerations, wherein it presents the empirical data from documents, conducted interviews and observations.