ABSTRACT
It would seem that one of the more critical features of policy analysis in recent times has been its reflexivity and self-appraisal; that is, its willingness to ponder matters related to its own research activity. In 1990, for example, Ball noted that ‘the field of policy analysis is dominated by commentary and critique rather than by research’ (1990: 9). Yet, becoming ‘too abstract’ was itself a reaction by policy analysts to much atheoretical and apparently objective accounts of policy, particularly that emanating from the empiricism of ‘policy science’ but also from managerialist and technocratic perspectives of the policy process (Ozga 1990). Given this to-ing and fro-ing between theory and data, it is hardly surprising that
methodological issues should more recently occupy the writings of critical policy researchers, particularly since, compared with earlier qualitative inquiry, their research has appeared ‘unsophisticated’ and ‘somewhat naive’ (Maguire and Ball 1994: 281).
