Paradigms in Public Policy ― Theory and Practice of Paradigm Shifts in the EU

Policy action is driven, shaped and regulated by the ways in which cognitive frames and interests shape and define issues and analyses - and the involvement of particular authorities, experts, problem-definitions and solutions. To understand these processes is particularly important in the realm of democratic policymaking, where agents driven by divergent interests and alternative principles struggle to preserve or reform policy, law, and institutions. This book analyzes continuity and change in EU policy and provides a systematic understanding of the interactions between ideas, organized actors, and institutions in political, administrative and related social processes. The EU policy studies make up a rich empirical territory, ranging from food securityand chemicals to energy, climate change, and gender.

The Editors: Marcus Carson is Associate Professor of Sociology at Stockholm University, exploring the role of conceptual models, institutions, and organized actors in public policy processes.
Tom R. Burns, Professor Emeritus at Uppsala University, Visiting Scholar, Stanford University, and Professor at ISCTE, Lisbon, is a widely recognized social theorist and researcher.
Dolores Calvo, a doctoral student in Sociology at the University of Gothenberg, Sweden, conducts research on gender policymaking in the EU.