Going bust two ways? Epistemic communities and the study of urban policy failure

Abstract

ABSTRACT Urban geographers are becoming more concerned with “policy failure”. This raises questions about how “policy failure” should be conceptualized. The public policy literature, with its detailed classifications and categorizations of policy failure, is an obvious potential resource for urban geographers. However, supplementing predominant urban geographical analysis with public policy frameworks presents significant epistemological challenges. The literatures belong to different disciplinary traditions, making a simple combination of the two difficult. To demonstrate, the paper presents two contrasting accounts of a recent case of “policy failure”: the 2008 bankruptcy of the City of Vallejo, California. The accounts are distinguished by their epistemological orientations, one based in theoretical explanation (geography) and the other concerned with practical explanation (public policy). When we acknowledge these epistemological differences, we are forced to assess the limits to synthesizing different types of urban policy failure analysis. In conclusion, the paper discusses the pragmatic approach to epistemological choice.