What do policy makers really do?

an article by Richard Freeman published by Transforming Society

What do policy makers do? The question is important, because making policy engages a great number of people one way or another, and what they do they might do well or badly. Our standard answers are rather hazy, not least because policy making entails such great numbers of people doing a great number of things.

The literature tends to have addressed the question in functional terms, outlining and defining – and endlessly debating – different sets of activities such as advocacy and agenda-setting, formulating and decision making, implementing and evaluating.

But what if we were to begin somewhere else, to explore policy as a set of human actions, as a form of work, as real-time, practical and physical ‘doings and sayings‘? What do policy makers really do? What does their work entail?

The answer is surprisingly simple:

‘The two things that civil servants do is write papers and have meetings. Because that’s what we do. From that, things happen. Extraordinary though it might seem’ (quote from a senior civil servant)

‘When someone asks me what I do at work … I read, write and have meetings, that’s what I do’ (quote from a policy manager)

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Please note that the link to the article in “Policy & Politics” only takes you to the abstract – a lot less information than in the Transforming Society article.

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The social significance of the Facebook Like button

an article by Veikko Eranti (University of Helsinki) and Markku Lonkila (University of Jyväskylä) published in first monday Volume 20 Number 6 (June 2015)

Abstract

In this paper we study social aspects of using the Like button for purposes of impression management, identity construction, and maintenance of social ties online.

On the theoretical level our investigation combines Goffman’s notion of face-work with concepts of social network analysis, shedding light on what we dub ‘nano-level’ interaction and sociality on social networking sites. Our data come from a 2013 classroom survey in which 26 Finnish university students were asked about their motives for and ways of using the Like button.

Our results show that though the Like button was designed to allow users to express their positive evaluations of the contents of Facebook posts, comments, and pictures, it was in actual fact used for a wide variety of purposes, from dating efforts to conversation regulation and maintenance of social ties.

Our results also reveal that the networked Facebook audience affects the users’ liking behavior, and that users reflect their liking based on previous likes.

Full Text: HTML

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