ABSTRACT
The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) is a comprehensive approach to studying public policy that aspires to capture the policy process at multiple levels of analysis, across time, and within any context. This chapter proceeds by first asking the reader to consider if the NPF is the right approach for them by assessing their research goals in terms of the NPF’s theoretical assumptions. One of the first issues that an NPF researcher will need to consider—usually concurrently with assumption alignment and research question development—is determining the level of analysis. NPF theory specifying the relationships between concepts is the scaffolding of the NPF. Consequently, valid concept operationalization is foundational to any NPF study and also critical to achieving reliability within and between NPF research models. Given the principal aim of the NPF to understand the power of narratives in the policy process, policy narratives lie at the heart of the framework.
