Table 1 Bacchi’s WPR approach (Adapted from Bacchi [68])
Question # | Question title | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
WPR Q. #1 | What’s the problem represented to be in a specific policy or policies? | If a government proposes to do something, what is it hoping to change? And, hence, what does it produce as the 'problem'? Here, considering policy ‘objects’ and ‘subjects’ (i.e., people who become problematised) |
WPR Q. #2 | What deep-seated presuppositions or assumptions underlie this representation of the “problem” (problem representation)? | Looking into representation systems embedded in the discourse |
WPR Q. #3 | How has this representation of the “problem” come about? | Analysing power relationships, the role of conflicting ideologies, disrupting the assumption that what is reflects what has to be |
WPR Q. #4 | What is left unproblematic in this problem representation? Where are the silences? Can the “problem” be conceptualised differently? | Identifying what has been overlooked and looking at the implications of these silences |
WPR Q. #5 | What effects (discursive, subjectification, lived) are produced by this representation of the “problem”? | Identifying the perceived effects of the problem representation |
WPR Q. #6 | How and where has this representation of the “problem” been produced, disseminated and defended? How has it been and/or how can it be disrupted and replaced? | Identifying the governing knowledges, sites, institutions, and networks involved in the problem representation |