Steve Bennett wrote: > On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 8:46 AM, Carcharoth <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> lobbying groups. A look through the articles in this category (if >> accurately placed there) may help UK readers of this mailing list to >> see what "public policy" means: >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Public_policy_in_the_United_Kingdom >> >> I haven't a clue what it is called in other countries. >> > > The term seems familiar to me (Australia). It's actually > self-explanatory, no? Policy that affects the public... > > > >> My view? This seems rather a US-centric project. >> > > Yeah. I for one find it very frustrating that you can read the entire > announcement talking about a certain number of "schools" etc and they > don't even mention what country it's taking place in, or whether it's > international. Fair enough that the money is spent only in US > universities. But they could say so explicitly. Ho hum. > > My first reaction, too, was that US-slanted systemic bias would be a problem with the project as framed. I then looked around a bit, and found that public policy as a masters-level course is certainly taught in the UK, that "European public policy" is something recognised, and comparative public policy is also an area with an academic basis. So all is not hopeless: we've all heard the arguments "In Sweden they ...", and it is not hard to see that there is a WP-style job there in documenting such international comparisons.
I would read this initiative, perhaps too narrowly, as a reaction to the US healthcare debate, and the fact that enWP articles on those public policy issues have been closely scrutinised. See for example http://www.universalhealthcare101.com/ . Basically NPOV and V applied to contentious debates are what you'd want; and WP's "bland survey" model is so different from others (talking heads, op-ed pieces) as to look like a potentially serious contribution. Charles _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
