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This thesis analyses narratives associated with the development of public policy in telecommunications from the advent of telegraphy to Australia in 1854 to the end of 2000, with particular emphasis on concepts of universal service. The history of public policy development in telecommunications universal service obligations is analysed to gain an understanding of how different narratives are used to frame policy within particular material contexts. The study demonstrates that narratives in telecommunication development reflect national public policy agendas. In addition the thesis analyses how policy narratives are used to underwrite and legitimise assumptions, values and statements that influence the agendas and expectations of diverse social actors and interpretive communities. Furthermore, the thesis examines the interaction between policy narratives and the barriers and opportunities created by dynamic material environments such as economic, legislative and technological arenas. The study analyses five narratives that influence telecommunication policy and the agendas and expectations of diverse social actors and interpretive communities. National development, technocratic, rights, competition and charity narratives are used to frame different approaches to telecommunication policy, with particular reference to universal service. The study demonstrates how national development and competition narratives compete to dominate policy. Furthermore, diverse technocratic narratives provide scientific reinforcement to underwrite and legitimise the dominant narrative as well as discredit alternative perspectives. In addition, social rights and charity narratives respectively provide moral support to underwrite and legitimise national development and competition policy narratives. A key focus of this study is a narrative analysis of more than a thousand submissions to an independent inquiry in 2000 into telecommunication service levels with particular reference to universal service. The Telecommunications Service Inquiry was a forum that provided examples of the narratives analysed in this study from a cross-section of the Australian community. Submissions came from diverse social actors and institutions that included governments and state bodies, the telecommunication industry, unions, the farming industry, other business groups, community groups and individuals. The research demonstrates that changes in material environments and social expectations of universal service produce tensions within dominant narratives that require greater support from secondary narratives to provide scientific and moral legitimacy. Furthermore the research indicates that, in part, universal service policy functions to stabilise and legitimise the dominant policy narrative. However, the diverse social expectations associated with universal service produce continuing tensions within the dominant narrative that keep the policy in a state of flux. Consequently, government and industry policy makers find telecommunications policy a problematic area to reconcile with expectations of universal service.

This thesis has a twofold aim. It first argues that monetary policy is inherently political because it involves struggles over meaning. It modifies Niebyl’s (1946) conceptual approach with an explicit attention to meaning, advancing a theory/ policy discourse/institutional practices nexus for exploring central banking. It shows that the emergence of leading representations of monetary processes (in Ricardo, Keynes and Friedman) involved discursive struggles during periods of crisis to assign meaning to problems and establish dominant interpretations. Politics and power were not grafted onto policy but were ontologically constitutive of it, shaping specific institutional configurations and practices. Second, this conceptualization is taken to a case study: a critical scrutiny of the role played by the central bank of Romania (NBR) in the reconstitution of the postcommunist Romanian economy as neoliberal economy from 1990 to 2008. The thesis asks what does the central bank do when the state, defined through its central planning legacy, ‘retreats’ from the market? The usual account explains policy success as direct result of commitments to neoliberal (monetarist) principles prescribed by international policy advice. Before 1997, neocommunist governments politically validated a communist legacy: soft budget constraints in the (state) productive sector. Politicized monetary policy decisions produced repeated crises. Afterwards, neoliberal governments gradually institutionalized an autonomous economic sphere, allowing an objective formulation and implementation of stability-orientated monetarist policies. The thesis challenges this orthodoxy. It argues against the attempts to erase politics from monetary policy processes that the above account articulates. Instead, drawing on critical conceptualizations of neoliberalism in its shifting forms, the period under analysis will be (re)interpreted as an ongoing process of neoliberalization, with the central bank an important actor in it. Indeed, the narration of crises identified the NBR as an essential instrument of institutional change and neoliberal ‘policy-making’. Monetarist narratives (ideologically) legitimized neoliberalism and effectively enacted neoliberal principles of monetary governance in the central bank. Thus, before 1997, the central bank functioned as a key vehicle of the neoliberal attack on the state’s capacity to craft economic reform. Since neoliberal institutions (also) take time to build, expanding policy repertoires outside the monetarist range invested the central bank with increasing powers to respond to structural and institutional resistance to neoliberal logics, arising from both communist legacies and ongoing political struggles. After 1997, the central bank’s rationality gradually changed to a constructive phase, normalizing an extralocal mode of economic governance whose distinguishing features will be identified. Institutional practices reconstructed the relationship between money, foreign exchange and treasury markets, subjugating liquidity management to the requirements of financialized accumulation. With financial stability increasingly tied into transnational actors’ choices, the NBR adopted inflation targeting. Nevertheless, inflation-targeting’s promise of stability operated to sideline the destabilizing nature of normalized neoliberal practices of monetary management, clearly evoked by the 2008 crisis. The thesis concludes with policy implications and an agenda for future research.

Esta tese buscou explorar, por meio da análise das narrativas pró-direito ao aborto no Brasil, os níveis meso e macro do narrative policy framework (NPF), bem como testar as possíveis contribuições das técnicas de text mining para as análises de narrativas de políticas públicas. Foram analisados documentos pró-direito ao aborto elaborados por ativistas feministas entre 1976 e 1988 e documentos de organizações feministas, projetos de leis e documentos de políticas públicas sobre aborto referentes ao período de 1989 a 2016. Foi feita uma análise de conteúdo dos dois conjuntos de documentos usando o software OpenLogos. Os resultados da pesquisa revelam que as feministas fizeram uma escolha estratégica por uma narrativa de saúde pública de modo a expandir a coalizão pró-direito ao aborto por meio da inclusão de atores da área da saúde. A aliança com a saúde levou a conquistas para a coalizão, com a criação de serviços de aborto legal e a inclusão da anencefalia entre os casos em que o aborto é permitido. A narrativa de saúde pública foi, assim, institucionalizada, tornando-se tanto a principal narrativa da coalizão quanto a principal narrativa contida nos documentos de políticas públicas. Essa institucionalização é um objetivo da atuação das coalizões de militância, mas também impõe limites (constraints) à sua atuação futura, já que seu abandono pode colocar em risco a coalizão, ao mesmo tempo em que demandas futuras têm de ser elaboradas a partir da estrutura de políticas públicas já existente. A análise da institucionalização de narrativas é uma contribuição ao NPF, explorando seu nível macro, ainda menos desenvolvido. A tese revela ainda que as feministas, em resposta à percepção de derrota, buscaram contrair o escopo da disputa em torno do aborto, restringindo-a às áreas técnicas da saúde e ao Supremo Tribunal Federal, o que contraria as hipóteses do NPF. Por fim, a tese apresenta contribuições possíveis de técnicas de text mining para a análise de narrativas de políticas públicas. / framework (NPF) through an analysis of pro-abortion rights narratives in Brazil. It also sought to test possible applications of text mining techniques to policy narrative analyses. I analyzed pro-abortion rights documents from feminist activists from 1976 to 1988 and documents from feminist organizations, law proposals and policy documents regarding abortion from 1989 to 2016. I carried out a content analysis of these documents using the OpenLogos software. Results show that feminists strategically opted for a public health narrative so as to expand the pro-abortion rights advocacy coalition through the inclusion of actors from the health field. The alliance with health sectors led to victories for the coalition, with the creation of legal abortion services and the inclusion of anencephaly among the exceptions to the abortion ban. The public health narrative thus became institutionalized: it became both the main narrative used by the coalition and the main narrative contained in policy documents. Coalitions seek to have narratives institutionalized, but this also constrains future action: abandoning an institutionalized narrative may threaten the coalition, while any future demands must be formulated within the framework of exiting policies. This dissertation further reveals that feminists, in response to perceived losses, sought to contract the scope of the dispute surrounding abortion, restricting it to technical health areas and to the Supreme Court. This contradicts NPF hypotheses. Finally, the dissertation also presents possible applications of text mining techniques to policy narrative analyses.

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Esta tese buscou explorar, por meio da análise das narrativas pró-direito ao aborto no Brasil, os níveis meso e macro do narrative policy framework (NPF), bem como testar as possíveis contribuições das técnicas de text mining para as análises de narrativas de políticas públicas. Foram analisados documentos pró-direito ao aborto elaborados por ativistas feministas entre 1976 e 1988 e documentos de organizações feministas, projetos de leis e documentos de políticas públicas sobre aborto referentes ao período de 1989 a 2016. Foi feita uma análise de conteúdo dos dois conjuntos de documentos usando o software OpenLogos. Os resultados da pesquisa revelam que as feministas fizeram uma escolha estratégica por uma narrativa de saúde pública de modo a expandir a coalizão pró-direito ao aborto por meio da inclusão de atores da área da saúde. A aliança com a saúde levou a conquistas para a coalizão, com a criação de serviços de aborto legal e a inclusão da anencefalia entre os casos em que o aborto é permitido. A narrativa de saúde pública foi, assim, institucionalizada, tornando-se tanto a principal narrativa da coalizão quanto a principal narrativa contida nos documentos de políticas públicas. Essa institucionalização é um objetivo da atuação das coalizões de militância, mas também impõe limites (constraints) à sua atuação futura, já que seu abandono pode colocar em risco a coalizão, ao mesmo tempo em que demandas futuras têm de ser elaboradas a partir da estrutura de políticas públicas já existente. A análise da institucionalização de narrativas é uma contribuição ao NPF, explorando seu nível macro, ainda menos desenvolvido. A tese revela ainda que as feministas, em resposta à percepção de derrota, buscaram contrair o escopo da disputa em torno do aborto, restringindo-a às áreas técnicas da saúde e ao Supremo Tribunal Federal, o que contraria as hipóteses do NPF. Por fim, a tese apresenta contribuições possíveis de técnicas de text mining para a análise de narrativas de políticas públicas. / framework (NPF) through an analysis of pro-abortion rights narratives in Brazil. It also sought to test possible applications of text mining techniques to policy narrative analyses. I analyzed pro-abortion rights documents from feminist activists from 1976 to 1988 and documents from feminist organizations, law proposals and policy documents regarding abortion from 1989 to 2016. I carried out a content analysis of these documents using the OpenLogos software. Results show that feminists strategically opted for a public health narrative so as to expand the pro-abortion rights advocacy coalition through the inclusion of actors from the health field. The alliance with health sectors led to victories for the coalition, with the creation of legal abortion services and the inclusion of anencephaly among the exceptions to the abortion ban. The public health narrative thus became institutionalized: it became both the main narrative used by the coalition and the main narrative contained in policy documents. Coalitions seek to have narratives institutionalized, but this also constrains future action: abandoning an institutionalized narrative may threaten the coalition, while any future demands must be formulated within the framework of exiting policies. This dissertation further reveals that feminists, in response to perceived losses, sought to contract the scope of the dispute surrounding abortion, restricting it to technical health areas and to the Supreme Court. This contradicts NPF hypotheses. Finally, the dissertation also presents possible applications of text mining techniques to policy narrative analyses.

The thesis contributes to the policy transfer literature through the examination of narratives presented by policy actors engaged in policy transfer. The actors’ policy narratives are analysed through the application of the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF). With the use of the NPF, the research investigates the portrayal of narrative elements, including, setting, character, plot, and moral, by the transfer actors, in depicting their perception of the transfer process and object, and of the other actors involved in the policy transfer. The investigation is aimed at having a better understanding of factors that facilitate the occurrence of policy transfer i.e. transfer mechanisms, such as, conditionality, obligation, and persuasion, and how they manifest and drive the transfer process. To examine how policy narratives may inform the manifestation of transfer mechanisms, the research studies two cases of policy transfer involving international governmental organisations (IGOs) as transfer agents. These are i) the transfer of renewable energy policy by the European Union to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and ii) the transfer of disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy by the United Nations International Strategy for DRR (UNISDR) to ECOWAS. The thesis argues that the mechanisms of conditionality and persuasion were involved in the transfer of renewable energy policy, while the mechanism of obligation can be observed in the transfer of DRR policy. It further argues that the portrayals of the narrative setting, character, plot and moral, in the policy narratives of the transfer agents and recipient, shaped the manifestation of these transfer mechanisms. The application of the NPF to the two case studies enabled the identification and association of different policy narrative elements that will likely characterise specific transfer mechanisms. In addition, the study highlights the opportunity of broadening policy transfer research beyond a limited geographical reach, through covering two instances of policy transfer to a region in sub-Sahara Africa. It also broadens the group of actors that are often studied in the literature by considering policy transfers initiated and led by IGOs.

Despite harm reduction’s social justice roots, the broader understanding of harm reduction is often influenced by morals and values which leaves harm reduction to be conceptualized within a morality policy domain. This study adopts the Qualitative-Narrative Policy Framework (Q-NPF) (Gray & Jones, 2016), to explore the policy beliefs and values that steer current harm reduction policy documents in British Columbia. Four questions guide this study: i) What are the underlying beliefs and values steering harm reduction policy in B.C.? ii) How are these beliefs and values narrated through policy?, iii) In what way do the underlying policy beliefs align with principles of social justice for harm reduction?, and iv) How have policy beliefs shifted since the 2016 public health emergency declaration? The social justice lens for harm reduction (Pauly, 2008) serves as this study’s analytical framework and is supplemented by the Systems Health Equity Lens (Pauly, Shahram, van Roode, Strosher & MacDonald, 2018); both of which emphasize the need for harm reduction to acknowledge and address social and structural conditions that contribute to substance use harms and their inequitable distribution. As this study reveals, there is an ongoing tension between equity-related and non-equity policy beliefs and values characterized within policy documents, thus fueling a policy climate with incongruent and contradictory beliefs. Further, equity-related beliefs are positioned in the confines of equitable access, thus they are not equity-oriented in entirety. Additionally, there have been minimal shifts in policy beliefs since the post-2016 public health emergency declaration yet shifts occur in terms of the specific constructs which form equity-related and non-equity beliefs. Finally, the study outlines potential implications of these beliefs and proposes recommendations to improve harm reduction policy in terms of becoming equity-oriented. This study also outlines methodological contributions to the Q-NPF for future policy narrative and analysis studies. / Graduate / 2022-08-15

Depuis la prise en compte croissante du changement climatique, denombreux commentateurs ont commencé à raconter une histoire : celle des petitsÉtats insulaires du Pacifique sud, entièrement constitués d’atolls, qui risquent dedisparaître en raison de l’élévation du niveau marin. Nous considérons que cettehistoire est un « récit d’action publique » destiné à attirer l’attention et à convaincreles décideurs politiques d’agir pour empêcher la réalisation du problème ou luitrouver une solution. Ces « récits de la disparition » présentent deux particularités :ils ne sont associés à aucune politique publique déjà mise en oeuvre et ils sontmobilisés par des acteurs variés issus des milieux politiques et de la société civile.À partir de la littérature sur l’analyse cognitive des politiques publiques et plusparticulièrement l’analyse des récits de politiques publiques, cette thèse se proposed’étudier la production, la diffusion et les cadrages de ces récits de la disparition àl’aide de méthodes mixtes associant une démarche qualitative d’enquête avec laréalisation d’une analyse statistique textuelle. / In the last 40 years, climate change has been increasingly taken intoaccount. Various observers have started to tell a story: the story of small Pacific atollisland states that might disappear beneath the rising seas. The argument developedin this thesis is that this story is a "public action narative" which aims at drawingattention towards those states and at inciting policy makers to prevent the risk or tofind a solution. Those "sinking island States narratives" display two particularcharacteristics: they are not linked to an existing policy and they are used by variousactors from the political sphere and the civil society.Building on the policy narratives literature, this thesis aims at analysing theproduction, the dissemination and the framing of the sinking island states narratives.It is based on mixed methods and combines a qualitative framework and a statisticalanalysis of textual data.

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