Policy, theory, politics: problem representations in drug and gambling policy

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel approach to thinking about policy formulation. The approach, called ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’, draws attention to the need to interrogate the ways in which policy proposals constitute the ‘problems’ they purport to address (Bacchi 1999). This insight is applied to a range of dominant and sub-dominant representations of the ‘problems’ of drug use/‘abuse’ and ‘problem gamblers/gambling’. The hope is that this conceptual tool can become a useful theoretical intervention in necessarily political debates about approaches to these issues. The wider usefulness of the approach is also addressed in passing.