Understanding barriers to new approaches – a case study from Australian remote indigenous policy

Abstract

ABSTRACT To tackle complex problems, such as Indigenous development, governments are turning to new approaches but struggling to implement them. This paper argues that understanding the complexities of the underlying, well established, policy world is critical to understanding this struggle. Using Logics of Critical Explanation explicates policy actor engagement with inherent tensions in Australian remote Indigenous policy where new ways of working are being tested at a national level. This approach provides important insights into the ongoing resistance to attempts to introduce new norms and into the capacities needed in policy actors asked to implement them.