This assignment is to analyse the “Gender Mainstreaming Strategy of Umeå University” (file attached), by using Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ WPR approach to policy analysis, based on the following questions:
· Question 1: What is the problem represented to be in the specific policy (file attached)?
· Question 2: What presuppositions or assumptions underlie this representation of the ‘problem’?
· Question 3: How has this representation of the ‘problem’ come about?
· Question 4: What is left unproblematic in this problem representation? Where are the silences? Can the ‘problem’ be thought differently?
Structure the paper in the following manner:
1. Briefly situate the policy in its socio-political and historical context with references to the course literature (max. 1-2 paragraphs),
2. Briefly situate the theoretical context of the WPR-approach (max. 1-2 paragraphs),
3. The WPR-analysis based on explicit examples from the policy (main body of the paper),
4. Concluding discussion (1-2 paragraphs).
5. References.
This paper requires editing – please include headlines and a more focused structure, as it is now it is far too long and repetitive.
TO BE EDITED/RE-WRITTEN: The theoretical context of Carol Bacchi’s WPR-approach is quite specific and cannot be summarized with the very general fields “feminist scholarship and political science” (which are not theoretical positions). This part is also quite general and does not show understanding of the theoretical setting of this specific methodology (e.g., writing “It also draws from post-structuralist and discourse analysis theories, which examine the role of language and representation in shaping power relations and constructing social reality” is not quite the same as explaining how language and power relate to each other).
TO BE EDITED/RE-WRITTEN: What is the problem represented to be in the University’s Policy on Gender Equality (file attached)? It is missing from this paper. It is a key question that needs to be answered.
This is a methodological exercise, and it is Carol Bacchi’s WPR methodology and theoretical understanding of power and gender that must guide the analysis.
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