The role of policy narrators during crisis: A micro-level analysis of the sourcing,synthesizing, and sharing of policy narratives in rural Texas |
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Authors: | Mark C Hand Megan Morris Varun Rai |
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Institution: | LBJ School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA |
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Abstract: | How do policymakers respond to crises? The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) answers this question by focusing on the contest over policy narratives. This paper focuses on the individuals constructing those policy narratives, conceptualizing them as policy narrators. Using a case study approach, we analyze seven counties located in a major oil and gas formation in Texas, which in early 2020 faced both an oil bust and the onset of COVID-19. We explore four sets of propositions about how policy narrators source, synthesize, and share their policy narratives. We find that while their narratives vary, the structure of those narratives is similar; their backgrounds shape how they source narratives, and they tailor their levels of narrative breach to the action (or inaction) they hope for. They avoid casting other local actors as villains, place their audience as the hero, and situate themselves as either supporting or a member of that audience, stressing their common ties. From these findings, we put forward a working definition of policy narrators, identify how they fit into the NPF, and discuss how they relate to other types of policy actors, including policy entrepreneurs. |
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Keywords: | crisis policymaking narrative policy framework policy entrepreneurship policy narrator policy process 政策过程 叙事政策框架 政策叙事者 危机决策 政策企业家精神 proceso de políticas marco de políticas narrativas narrador de políticas formulación de políticas de crisis emprendimiento de políticas |
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