Framing policy designs through contradictory emotions: The case of Czech single mothers

Abstract

Abstract:In public policy scholarship on policy design, emotions are still treated as opposed to goals, and their presence is assumed to signal that things have gone wrong. We argue, however, that understanding how and for whom emotions matter is vital to the dynamics of policy designs because emotions are central to the capacity-building of policy intermediaries and, with that, to the success of public policies. We examine the case of Czech single mothers in their role as intermediaries in "alimony policy". Our interpretive survey provided single mothers an opportunity to express the way they experience the policy emotionally. The analysis reveals that the policy goal of the child's well-being is produced at the cost of the mother's emotional tensions and that policy designs defuse these emotional tensions, implicitly. These contradictory emotions expressed by mothers show us a gateway to problematizing policy designs in a novel way, which reconsiders construing policy design as a technical, solution-oriented enterprise to one in which emotional tensions intervene in policy design and are essential for succeeding.http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/PPA Public Policy and Administration In public policy scholarship on policy design, emotions are still treated as opposed to goals, and their presence is assumed to signal that things have gone wrong. We argue, however, that understanding how and for whom emotions matter is vital to the dynamics of policy designs because emotions are central to the capacity-building of policy intermediaries and, with that, to the success of public policies. We examine the case of Czech single mothers in their role as intermediaries in "alimony policy". Our interpretive survey provided single mothers an opportunity to express the way they experience the policy emotionally. The analysis reveals that the policy goal of the child's well-being is produced at the cost of the mother's emotional tensions and that policy designs defuse these emotional tensions, implicitly. These contradictory emotions expressed by mothers show us a gateway to problematizing policy designs in a novel way, which reconsiders construing policy design as a technical, solution-oriented enterprise to one in which emotional tensions intervene in policy design and are essential for succeeding.

COVID-19 and the policy sciences: initial reactions and perspectives

“…National lockdowns, for example, have elevated the necessity of homeschooling, self-care in response to long isolation, and a need for psychological consultation online services, such as those responding to the rise of home violence. 7 These are examples of how policy responses to the pandemic have entered the emotional spheres of the global citizenry and pose novel challenges to short-and long-term government efforts (Jupp et al 2016;Durnová and Hejzlarová 2018).…”

Tempest in a teapot? Toward new collaborations between mainstream policy process studies and interpretive policy studies

“…Additionally, both traditions study political conflict that could be integrated (Weible and Heikkila 2017 ; Dodge and Metze 2017 ). Finally, one omission in the study of human behavior in both traditions has been the role of emotions, herein, interpretive scholars have begun to develop insights (Durnová and Hejzlarová 2018 ; Durnová 2018 ), and this effort could be supplemented with mainstream methodological techniques.…”

Emotional labour: Exploring emotional policy discourses of pregnancy and childbirth in Ontario, Canada

“…There is a growing literature on public policy and emotions. Building on broader multidisciplinary scholarship on emotions, 3 this work has identified the emotional dimensions of activism (Anderson, 2014; Orsini and Wiebe, 2014) and networks (Ingram et al., 2015); policy rhetoric (Gottweis, 2012), framing (Gross, 2008) and debate and deliberation (Martin, 2012; Welch, 1998); public administration (Anderson, 2002, 2017; Husso and Hirvonen, 2012); and governance (Durnova, 2013; Durnova and Hejzlarová, 2018; Newman, 2017). In addition, a number of works seek to examine emotions in particular policy fields, such as international relations and foreign policy (Mercer, 2010), social assistance (Hancock, 2004; Small and Lerner, 2008), and social and employment policy (Cook, 2012; White, 2017).…”