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dc.contributor.advisorHowes, Michael
dc.contributor.authorGrant-Smith, Deanna Chantal Cristina
dc.date.accessioned2018-01-23T02:30:15Z
dc.date.available2018-01-23T02:30:15Z
dc.date.issued2012
dc.identifier.doi10.25904/1912/2626
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10072/366493
dc.description.abstractThe difficulties involved with addressing wicked problems have been acknowledged since the early 1970s. Collaboration, deliberation and communicative rationality have been posited as a way forward on these. Some wicked problems, however, present the additional challenge of high levels of psychosocial sensitivity and verbal proscription. The unspeakable nature of these problems makes them particularly problematic within rational deliberation processes because they are quite literally issues that we can’t or won’t talk about. Through this research I seek to understand how these unspeakable policy problems are dealt with by and can affect policy making processes, participation and outcomes. As a paradigmatic unspeakable policy problem, this research focuses on a case study of the regulation of sewage discharges from recreational boats. Through this case study I explore how governments go about the business of addressing unspeakable policy problems and what happens when they do. Using critical discourse analysis and an interpretive approach to policy analysis, I highlight the discursive strategies used in these policy making debates and consultations, as well as the policy implications of the way the unspeakable object and subject are constructed. These discursive strategies seek to influence the creation and definition of policy problems, to control the range of policy contributions that are considered to be legitimate, and to restrict the range of issues and possible solutions. I argue that each of these acts gains an increased importance due to the unspeakability of the policy problem. Does it matter whether we find excrement abhorrent because we find it disgusting or because it is harmful? Such a distinction provides clues as to why people respond the way they do to certain policies, the potential for behaviour change and the means by which it is most likely to be achieved. Placing the object of policy, excrement, and its sociocultural constructions at the forefront of our enquiry enables us to recognise the implications of its unspeakable presence and, this, the need for a more contextually and culturally situated policy approach. Recognising sewage regulation as an unspeakable problem allows for the design of processes which both acknowledge and accommodate its unspeakability. This thesis demonstrates the value of focussing on the discourses of policy in developing an understanding of the constraints and opportunities for policy making for unspeakable issues. I advocate the need for policy process to accommodate a range of ways of speaking about the unspeakable that accommodates emotional and embodied talk, and not just abstract or technical contributions.
dc.languageEnglish
dc.publisherGriffith University
dc.publisher.placeBrisbane
dc.rights.copyrightThe author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise.
dc.subject.keywordsPolicy making
dc.subject.keywordsPolicy problems
dc.subject.keywordsWicked problems
dc.subject.keywordsPolicy process
dc.titleRegulating the Unspeakable: A Policy Story of Boaters, Floaters, Voters and Matter Out of Place
dc.typeGriffith thesis
gro.facultyScience, Environment, Engineering and Technology
gro.rights.copyrightThe author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise.
gro.hasfulltextFull Text
dc.contributor.otheradvisorHowlett, Catherine
dc.contributor.otheradvisorCameron, Jenny
dc.contributor.otheradvisorMacCallum, Diana
dc.rights.accessRightsPublic
gro.identifier.gurtIDgu1357281736624
gro.source.ADTshelfnoADT0
gro.source.GURTshelfnoGURT1355
gro.thesis.degreelevelThesis (PhD Doctorate)
gro.thesis.degreeprogramDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
gro.departmentGriffith School of Environment
gro.griffith.authorGrant-Smith, Deanna CC.


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