Taking health into account in public policies: Analysis of a regime of governmentality in Quebec
Smits, Pernelle
Taking health into account in public policies: Analysis of a regime of governmentality in Quebec - 2016.
77
Health is determined by social, economic, and environmental factors and cannot be reduced to curative approaches. A broad range of public administrations—well beyond health ministries or agencies —should be involved in promoting health. Horizontal initiatives cutting across government sectors are essential pillars of health-related interventions. We use the perspective of governmentality proposed by Foucault to understand and draw lessons on how the implementation of health in public policies develops. In this article, we use the term governmentality to refer to the governance of complex interventions, which integrates evidence in decision-making processes. We examine the way health concerns are integrated into public policies in Quebec, Canada. Our study is based on 61 interviews with managers and professionals and on an analysis of related documentation. The analysis is based on four characteristics of governmentality: object, targets, shapes of governmentality, and visibility regime. As part of our results, sub-characteristics could be extracted: accountable actors, type of evidence to be mobilized, direction of evidence sharing, involvement of the first, second, and third circle of a network, specificities and generalities of the visibility regime, frequency and formality of interactions. These sub-characteristics can guide upcoming studies and analysis of a regime of governmentality.
Taking health into account in public policies: Analysis of a regime of governmentality in Quebec - 2016.
77
Health is determined by social, economic, and environmental factors and cannot be reduced to curative approaches. A broad range of public administrations—well beyond health ministries or agencies —should be involved in promoting health. Horizontal initiatives cutting across government sectors are essential pillars of health-related interventions. We use the perspective of governmentality proposed by Foucault to understand and draw lessons on how the implementation of health in public policies develops. In this article, we use the term governmentality to refer to the governance of complex interventions, which integrates evidence in decision-making processes. We examine the way health concerns are integrated into public policies in Quebec, Canada. Our study is based on 61 interviews with managers and professionals and on an analysis of related documentation. The analysis is based on four characteristics of governmentality: object, targets, shapes of governmentality, and visibility regime. As part of our results, sub-characteristics could be extracted: accountable actors, type of evidence to be mobilized, direction of evidence sharing, involvement of the first, second, and third circle of a network, specificities and generalities of the visibility regime, frequency and formality of interactions. These sub-characteristics can guide upcoming studies and analysis of a regime of governmentality.
Réseaux sociaux