Introduction: Discursive Governance: Operationalization and Applications

Abstract

This book studies the dynamics of political discourse in governance processes. Our starting point is Searle’s key argument—that some rules do not just regulate, but also create the possibility of the very behavior that they regulate (2010). Specifically, this book demonstrates the process in which political discourses become normative mechanisms, first marking socially constructed realities in politics, second playing a role in delineating subsequent policy frames, and third influencing the public sphere. The book traces such discursive processes within a set of key policy contexts, such as European integration, regional development, citizenship, migration, health care, family, gender, and sexuality. It shows how ideas acquire roles in effect to politics and policymaking, and then reverberate in the public sphere. In this effort, our book draws upon frameworks from different empirical and theoretical fields such as policy research, social representations theory, party politics, and citizenship.