Session Title: Working with Policy Wonks: Undisciplined Perspectives on Health
Policy
Organizers: Sylvia Abonyi (University of Saskatchewan), Janice Graham
(Dalhousie
University), and James B. Waldram (University of Saskatchewan)
Session Abstract:
In the past decade, public citizens and other stake-holders have
gradually made
their way into the policy process, including involvement in decision-making.
Anthropologists, however, hesitant to engage the decision-makers and
frequently
prevented by deeply invested scientific experts and policy gate-keepers from
having access and meaningful input, have come late to studying up the policy
ladder. Professionally trained to recognize the potential of political
interference in the guise of deliberative democratic fora that our
participation in the policy process affords, anthropologists have nonetheless
seized the opportunity to enter sometimes highly contentious fields of health
policy with the goal of providing critical insight and practical input
into the
policy process. While we remain sensitive to the risk that our tools,
including
ourselves, have the potential to be used to gather information over which we
may have no control as evidence is distorted in policy development,
anthropological engagement with health policy affords opportunities for
theoretical and practical contributions that often outweigh these risks.
While generally the processes, practices and patterns of health policy remain
largely obscure, anthropological perspectives and methods provide unique
insights into the multiple rationalities of health policy development and
decision-making. This panel critically addresses the fault-lines within policy
development, implementation and assessment through the presentation of
a series
of critiques and case studies across a variety of health policy environments.
Please forward proposed titles and abstracts by April 1 to: j.waldram@usask.ca
