Subject(s): Policy sciences. -- Critical theory. -- Policy sciences. -- Political planning -- policy studies -- Origins and theoretical development : from lasswell to habermas and foucault -- Critical theory and public policy -- Theoretical perspectives : critical reflexivity, hegemony and power -- Post-structuralist discourse theory and critical policy studies -- Cultural political economy and critical policy studies -- Interpretation of power -- Discursive politics: deliberation, justice, protest and emotion -- Discursive institutionalism -- Social justice and urban policy -- Democracy, diversity and equality -- Deliberation and protest -- Policy deliberation -- Policy processes: problem definitions, evidence and social contradiction -- Social construction of target population -- Autopoietic text -- Co-production and public policy -- Politics of policy expertise : Knowledge, think-tanks and action research -- Politics and policy expertise -- Global governance and sustainability indicators -- Organizing expertise legitimacy and counter expertise in policy networks -- Critical action research and social movement -- Methodological issues : interpretation, framing and social constructions -- Policy practices -- Critical functions of interpretive policy analysis -- Analysing policy frames -- Critical policy ethnography -- Exploring feminist perspective through the case of anti-smoking policy