Citation

Mellaard A, Meijl T. Crit. Policy Stud. 2017; 11(3): 330-348.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/19460171.2016.1194766

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article explores how public policies regarding domestic violence aim at assembling a fragmented domain of views, attitudes and practices in a coherent manner. We propose to approach policy from an object-oriented anthropology, which makes it necessary to understand how objects come into being and to explore their ontology. We argue that policy objects, such as domestic violence, become real and multiply in practice when they associate in an assemblage: their ontology is relational. This implies an emphasis on motion, non-coherence and multiplicity in the study of how policy objects are enacted. We illustrate this approach by sharing a narrative of the development of a policy instrument, the reporting code on domestic violence and child abuse in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). The case study is focused on the interaction between the reporting code and its normative inscription, which is contested by a number of professionals. In order to demonstrate that policy instruments aim at constructing a new social order, we draw special attention to various modes of syncretism that are applied to create coherence.

Language: en