ABSTRACT
This brief concluding chapter revisits Chapter 1’s “Opioid Abuse and Waterville” mini-case, presenting the chance to apply what you have learned throughout the entire book this time, as you again learn by doing (and reflect). Chapter 9 recalls: several book themes (the importance of political knowledge, mixed methodologies, and praxis); and many topics (e.g., vaping, GMOs, and the gig economy) and tools (e.g., narrative analysis, cost-benefit analysis, content analysis, stakeholder mapping, and focus group facilitation). It also addresses questions about the view of the authors on the roles of rationality and postmodernism in policy analysis, and suggests the need for analysts to recognize limitations, subjectivity, ambiguity, and public interests. It argues that rather than playing “expert,” analysts need to be educators and facilitators. The chapter closes with a call for renewed emphasis on the importance of politics, bringing politics out into the open, and analysts embracing, rather than denying, politics.
