Doing Interpretive Research

Koen Bartels is Associate Professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the University of Birmingham. His interdisciplinary research on relationships between citizens and government spans across public policy, urban studies, and public administration. He is author of Communicative Capacity (The Policy Press, 2015) and editor of Action Research in Policy Analysis (Routledge, 2018). He is a leading international scholar in public encounters, social innovation, action research, and interpretive policy analysis.

Hendrik Wagenaar is fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, and adjunct professor at the Center for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. He publishes in the areas of participatory democracy, interpretive/deliberative policy analysis, commons, and practice theory. He is author of Meaning in Action: Interpretation and Dialogue in Policy Analysis (Routledge, 2011), and editor of Deliberative Policy Analysis (Cambridge, 2003, with M. Hajer). His current research centres on practice theory, the commons, and economic democracy. His latest book (with B.Prainsack) is The Pandemic Within: Policy Making for a Better World (Policy Press, 2021).