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This thesis comprises eight publications produced between 2000 and 2009 in addition to a critical review of that work. The review considers the contribution made by the author to the perspectives on policy making offered by the framework of policy transfer and its subsequent applications within global social policy and related sub disciplines. It develops to explore the author's use of critical policy sociology and methodological work in social policy, education and political science in order to enhance existing perspectives on policy transfer. In contrast to rational linear models of decision making, alternative recursive deliberate approaches are suggested throughout this work. The review also considers aspects of the author's work on integrated working or trans-professionalism in the public services. Those aspects of his work on policy theory which illuminate professional learning are critically assessed.

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This thesis investigates and analyses the changing configuration of the Thai macroeconomic policy making in Thailand, before, during and after the 1997 financial crisis, in order to understand the dynamics of the interaction among different actors within a country and between a country and the dominant ‘neo-liberal’ perspective of the international financial institutions and other institutions of global governance that have impacts on Thai economic policy. Traditionally, Thai policy making is referred as ‘a bureaucratic polity’ and being ‘bifurcated’ between clientalistic sectoral policy situated in line ministries and autonomous macroeconomic policy located around the Bank of Thailand, Ministry of Finance, National Economic and Social Development Board, and the Bureau of Budget. This thesis argues that these prevailing conceptual frameworks, although having contributed important knowledge in the Thai case, are not adequate in explaining the change in the policy configuration over the period in question due to their inability to capture the dynamic and complex interplay within macroeconomic policy making. To overcome these shortcomings, this thesis builds on Rangsun’s framework by introducing a more dynamic framework and integrating three main theoretical strands on the nature of policy making, namely the state-centred, society-centred, and international perspectives to explain the complex relationship among all actors involved in the Thai policy-making arena. This thesis finds that as Thailand has experienced fundamental changes that have occurred in the domestic politics and socioeconomic landscape since the late 1980s, the roles of new actors in the realm of policy making, including political parties, elected politicians, businessmen, and international actors have been significantly enhanced. As a result, the nature of the economic policy-making process has emerged as being influenced by different forces, both domestic and international, as well as being constrained by the superstructure and institutions such as constitution, political regime, pattern of the world economy and social relations. More importantly, the process of policy making is not static, but dynamic, and is also highly complex, varying according to time and context. Furthermore, this thesis contends that the political economy of policy making is a dialectic process in which the meaning and interpretation of policy are themselves important sites of contestation over the policy-making process between contending power blocs.

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The thesis is a contribution to the literature on policymaking in business and government. By a critical examination of relevant published work in the field and by specific examples it seeks to demonstrate how the system dynamics modelling methodology can contribute to an improvement in the process of corporate and public policy design. It is argued that the relative lack of use of models in the policy process may now be reversed. This is, in part, because of the development of user-friendly interactive modelling software on personal computers together with large screen colour projection facilities. But the most important stimulus to the fulfilment of the potential of modelling work in these areas will come with a realisation by policy makers of the proper role of the model in the overall process. This is a central tenet of the thesis: the model provides a fulcrum for debate and enhanced understanding and should never be viewed as an 'answer generator'. All too often miscasting models in this latter role has, in the author's view, seriously affected their adoption at the strategic policy level. Three specific examples are used to support the above line of argument. These are concerned with: M Technology policy and planning in the steel industry. A model is devised which addresses the crucial role of the blast furnace in an integrated steel works. The pursuit of economies of scale has led to larger and larger furnaces being installed. Given the often cyclical nature of customer demand for steel, together with forced interruptions to production in order to periodically reline the furnaces, it is argued that larger production units are not necessarily advisable. (ii) Public policy considerations arising from the AIDS epidemic. The spread of AIDS and the implications of this for health planning has taxed governments worldwide. A model is presented which captures the spread of HIV disease within the U. K. homosexual population and policy issues arising from model runs are discussed. This is in contrast to some other models which attempt to 9forecast2 the progress of the epidemic. (iii) Financial policy in a firm which failed (Laker Airways). This example differs from the other two in that the policy issues surrounding the firm's financial management are directed at students. They are the 'clients' who would want to use this model in order to explore the implications of alternative strategic policies. System dynamics models of a real-life case study can be usefully harnessed in such a pedagogic role.

Participatory and deliberative democracy have attracted global attention, both as a field of research and practice. This interest reflects ongoing experimentation with ideas and practices of stakeholder governance, collaborative policy-making and citizen participation. The institutionalisation of such practices in Scotland is taking place through local partnership arrangements and public engagement processes. In particular, the Scottish Government’s Community Planning policy mandates local authorities to develop partnerships where various sectors and organisations are summoned to engage in collaborative policy-making. Central to this agenda is the involvement of citizens and communities through an increasing number of official local forums. In this sense, Scotland resembles other countries where public authorities seek working combinations of strategic partnership governance and local citizen participation. Despite burgeoning interest and developments, however, scarce attention has been paid to the role of public engagement officials tasked with turning participatory and deliberative ideals into everyday practices. Indeed, we still know little about the policy work of official ‘public engagers’ who organise participatory processes by negotiating a contested milieu of actors and agendas, while being constrained and enabled by an evolving ecology of participation. Consequently, this thesis presents findings from two years of ethnographic fieldwork shadowing public engagers in a Scottish Local Authority Area. The uniqueness of these policy workers is that their expertise is not on a particular policy area, but on stakeholder and citizen engagement across policy domains. That is, their expertise is on process, and their job is to facilitate deliberative forums to inform local policy-making. The fundamental question addressed here is not whether participatory policy-making works, but rather how does it work, what kind of work does it take, and what kind of work does it do. By foregrounding the ‘how’ question, this thesis provides a new practice-based analytical framework to both understand and inform participation processes. The findings highlight the importance of the engagers’ political work, thus illustrating the disciplinary force of engagement practice and the contested nature of participatory policy-making. Understanding these dimensions offers insight into new political spaces for the renegotiation of the relationship between authorities and citizens. Accordingly, the research shows how public engagers work to open and develop such spaces in order to foster new relationships through a new ‘politics of process’. In addition, it explores the impact that this work has on the engagers’ community of practice, as well as the challenges they face as engagement work gets institutionalised. Therefore, the thesis offers a distinct ethnographic account of the role of agency in developing official local spaces for participatory and deliberative democracy in Scotland.