ABSTRACT
This chapter has two purposes. Firstly, it outlines the key arguments and theoretical premises associated with the WPR (What's the Problem Represented to be?) approach. Secondly, it provides a guide to how to apply the seven forms of thinking and analysis that constitute a WPR framework. To apply a WPR analytic strategy involves: adequate contextualisation of the selected topic; identification of ‘proposals’ as starting places for the analysis; and application of the WPR questions to these proposals. Through these tasks researchers develop arguments about how policy proposals, and other forms of proposal, work to shape ‘problems’, ‘subjects’, ‘objects’ and ‘places’. The analytical project is to reflect critically on how governing takes place through these practices.
