Visual Culture and Public Policy Towards a visual polity?

1. Introduction: Living in a World of Images  1.1 Introduction  1.2 The Emergence of a Visual Culture  1.2.1 Characteristics of a Visual Culture  1.2.2 A Contested Concept  1.3 The Experience Economy: Where Does Visual Culture Meet the Consumer?  1.4 The Drama Democracy: Where Does Visual Culture Meet Politics?  1.5 Goal and Outline: Where Does Visual Culture Meet the Policy Process?  2. Visual Events and Visual Technologies: A Brief Historical Overview  2.1 Introduction  2.2 A Short History of Visuality  2.2.1 The Pre Industrial Era  2.2.2 The Industrial Era  2.2.3 The Digital Era  2.3 Technologies for the Visual: A First Categorization  2.4 Conclusion  3. The Power to Visualize  3.1 Introduction  3.2 Functions of Visuality  3.3 Functions of Visual Technology  3.3.1 Technological Instrumentalism  3.3.2 Technological Determinism  3.3.3 Social Construction of Technology  3.3.4 The Ecological Perspective  3.4 Discursive, Access and Resource Power: Between Concentration and Radical Democratization  3.4.1 Distribution of Power  3.4.2 Concentration and Homogenization  3.4.3 Radical Democratization  3.4.4 Real Time  3.4.5 Network Externalities  3.4.6 Coproduction  3.5 Conclusion  4. Visual Events and the Policy Process  4.1 Introduction  4.2 Politics and Policies  4.2.1 Politics  4.2.2 Policies and Policy Processes  4.2.3 Visual Spillovers  4.3 Conceptualizing the Policy Process: Four Perspectives  4.3.1 The Rationalist Approach  4.3.2 The Political Approach  4.3.3 The Institutional Approach  4.3.4 The Cultural Approach  4.3.5 Synthesis  4.4 Visual Events as Storytelling  4.5 Grasping the Meaning of Visual Events  4.5.1 The Rethorical Approach  4.5.2 The Semantic Approach  4.5.3 The Pragmatic Approach  4.6 Conclusion  5. Research Strategy  5.1 Introduction  5.2 Towards a Theoretical Framework  5.2.1 The Societal, Cultural and Political Context  5.2.2 The Policy Arena  5.2.3 Features of Visual Events and Visual Technologies  5.2.4 Construction and Distribution of Visual Events: Framing and Storytelling  5.2.5 Interactions with Other Actors  5.2.6 Shaping the Course, Content and Outcome of Policy Processes  5.3 Methodology  5.3.1 Analytical Model  5.3.2 A Comparative Case Study Method  5.3.3 The Case Studies  6. Agenda Setting: Setting the Wheels in Motion  6.1 Introduction  6.2 Societal and Political Context  6.3 The Policy Arena  6.4 Features of Visual Events and Visual Technologies  6.5 Construction and Distribution of Visual Events: Framing and Storytelling  6.6 Interaction with Others  6.7 Shaping Course, Content and Outcome  6.8 Summary  7. Policy Design and Decision Making: Unravelling Complexity  7.1 Introduction  7.2 Societal and Political Context  7.3 The Policy Arena  7.4 Features of Visual Events and Visual Technologies  7.5 Construction and Distribution of Visual Events: Framing and Storytelling  7.6 Interaction with Others  7.7 Shaping Course, Content and Outcome  7.8 Summary  8. Policy Evaluation: Who Is to Blame?  8.1 Introduction  8.2 Societal and Political Context  8.3 The Policy Arena  8.4 Features of Visual Events and Visual Technologies  8.5 Construction and Distribution of Visual Events: Framing and Storytelling  8.6 Interaction with Others  8.7 Shaping Course, Content and Outcome  8.8 Summary  9. Visual Culture and the Policy Process: Towards a Conclusion  9.1 Introduction  9.2 Societal and Political Context  9.3 Creation and Distribution  9.4 Framing and Frame Change  9.5 Interaction, Course, Content and Outcome  9.5.1 The Course  9.5.2 The Content  9.5.3 The Outcome  9.6 Summary  9.7 Limitations  10. Reflection: Towards a Visual Polity  10.1 Introduction  10.2 Towards a Visual Ecology: How Visual Technologies Co-evolve with Changes in Socio- political Environment  10.3 Towards a Political Economy of the Visual: Cui Bono?  10.4 Towards a Visual Polity: How Government Has Become Mediated  10.5 And What about Democracy?

Biography

Victor Bekkers is Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Rebecca Moody is Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

'‘Performance’ has two sides of the same coin. It is ‘results’ and ‘putting something on stage’. This book brings these two sides together in a very smart way. Whether it is the policy cycle, or its governance and polity, the visual dimension becomes so dominant that reality risks to become the derivative. Convincing pictures show and prove the role of visual perception. In this book "What you see is really what you get".' - Geert Bouckaert, President of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium.

'In this powerful and important book, Viktor Bekkers and Rebecca Moody examine myriad influences of visualization on the content and course of public policy. As visual culture is more routinely and pervasively embedded in policy practices, the authors demonstrate persuasively through nine vivid, carefully selected cases, how visual culture is used by policy experts and stakeholders to frame--and shift the framing of--key policy problems and actions. As Bekkers and Moody argue cogently, scholars and practitioners in public administration and policy must update their understanding of the policy process as textuality gives way to visuality.' - Jane Fountain, Professor, University of Massachusetts, USA.