Programme co-ordinator: Dr Patricia Kennett (email: p.kennett@bristol.ac.uk)
The focus of this research programme is on the analysis of policy that is comparative and international. The programme is particularly concerned with exploring the forces which are reshaping the meaning, content and quality of social interaction and daily life. This is a timely and relevant approach as societies have become more diverse and transnational. In addition, the policy arena has extended above and below the boundaries of the state and national governments, and is increasingly exposed to a range of conduits through which policies are made and delivered.
The central element of the activities of the programme is that they involve the explicit comparative and/or multi-level analysis of policy issues across societies. Within a discourse of globalisation and internationalisation, and a comparative analytical framework the programme will seek to provide theoretically and methodologically robust, as well as empirically grounded research around the following four themes:
The overall goal is to generate synergies and activities beyond current Centre/Department boundaries and to stimulate the inter-disciplinary development of comparative and international policy analysis theoretically, methodologically and substantively.