Idaho State University

Faculty Member, Political Science

Professor

College of Arts and Letters

About

Historically, my research focuses on public policy, environmental policy, and economic development policy informed by my interdisciplinary interests in both Sociology and Economics. In the 1990s, I primarily explored the role of environmental attitudes and economic development in rural communities along with research on radioactive waste transportation, community development, and policy analysis. Since 2000, my research has mainly focused on the role of policy narratives in the development of public policy. Most of my research has utilized statistical hypothesis testing and methodologies grounded in survey research, content analysis, and experimental design.

Current Major Research Project: Narrative Policy Framework (NPF)

"...narrative remains a mysterious and elusive concept in policy theory, too associated with literary theory, too superfluous to underpin theory building, and too nebulous to facilitate the empirical investigation of policy processes and outcomes." (Jones and McBeth, 2010:331).

The quote above represents a problem that is addressed in a decade long research effort by myself, Elizabeth Shanahan (Montana State University) and Michael Jones (Harvard University) to move the study of policy narratives into an empirical, hypothesis driven framework aimed at finding causal relationships. We have conducted a series of studies exploring policy narratives from this approach and we have gained much national and international attention among policy scholars including recent and future appearances at Advocacy Coalition Framework conferences.

For a explanation of NPF, see a recent Nieman Storyboard (Harvard School of Journalism) interview with a NPF co-founder Dr. Michael Jones (http://niemanstoryboard.us/2010/09/28/harvard-michael-jones-on-heroes-villains-and-the-science-of-narrative-and-policy-analysis).

Recently, I have also published research on interest group maturation, the new media (the fake news), and I am currently working on a project that explores YouTube as a policy instrument.

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