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Course description

This course provides students with an understanding of the many different forms of knowledge that shape public policies. At a theoretical level students engage in an exploration of different `ways of knowing' (or epistemologies) can affect public policymaking. This exploration is built around a number of big questions about policy and politics: how do rational models of policy knowledge enhance and undermine aspects of the policy process? How can scientific data be factored into policymaking and how does it affect democratic decision making? Is there a place for non-rational knowledge, which respects individuals, emotions, and fallibility, in public policy? And how might indigenous knowledge be used to improve policy outcomes? At a more pragmatic level students are also introduced to the principles and methods of policy analysis and evidence-based learning. Here students will be taught the ways in which the efficacy of public policy can be assessed and improved. Consequentially, those who take this course will be equipped with an analytical skill-set that is now highly sought after across public sector organisations.

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