What is policy? 21 years later: reflections on the possibilities of policy research

This paper is a reflection on What is policy? Texts, Trajectories and Tool Boxes, which was first published in 1993, in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. It looks back to what the 1993 paper was trying to do and at some of the developments of the ideas first sketched there in my later work, in particular in the book How Schools Do Policy (2012). It also considers the continuing tensions between domination and agency, discourse and text, in policy research and the misuse of the concept of discourse in some policy analysis work.     

New from the Government

Violence and the Mass Media: A Staff Report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence (Government Printing Office, $2.50). Written primarily by Robert K. Baker and Sandra J. Ball     

Validation of a New Skinfold Prediction Equation Based on Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry

Skinfold prediction equations recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine underestimate body fat percentage. The purpose of this research was to validate an alternative equation for men created from dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. Two hundred ninety-seven males, aged 18–65, completed a skinfold assessment and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry scan to determine percent of body fat. Three American College of Sports Medicine equations (JP7, JP3a, and JP3b) and the new dual energy x-ray absorptiometry criterion equation were used to predict percent of body fat. Mean age was 32.4 ± 14.0 years and mean BMI was 25.6 ± 3.3 kg/m². The mean dual energy x-ray absorptiometry percent of body fat was 18.0 ± 5.9. The mean percent of body fat for Dual Energy X-Ray Aborptiometry (DC), JP7, JP3a, and JP3b were 19.1 ± 6.3, 16.1 ± 7.4, 14.8 ± 6.8, 15.6 ± 6.7, respectively. The standard error of the estimate of DC was low (2.72%) and was highly correlated (R² = 0.87) with dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. The DC equation more accurately predicted percent of body fat across a general population of men than the recommended American College of Sports Medicine equations.     

Development and Experimental Application of an HPLC Procedure for the Determination of Capsaicin and Dihydrocapsaicin in Serum Samples from Human Subjects

Total capsaicins are extracted from 2 mL aliquots of serum or plasma using methyl-isobutyl ketone, evaporation of the extract to dryness and reconstitution with 200 μL of acetonitrile. The HPLC mobile phase is 40:60 water:acetonitrile. The absorbance of the eluent is monitored at 205 nm. Standardisation uses a known mixture of pure capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin. Accuracies are 98.9 and 100.6 % for capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin respectively. Inter batch reproducibility for both is 15 %. The limits of detection are 2.6 and 3.8 ng/mL for capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin respectively. Analyses of sera obtained previously from human subjects who had eaten chilli containing meals showed that in those that absorbed capsaicins (N = 30) then the median, mean and SD of their serum capsaicin were: 13.4, 18.9 and 16.3 ng/mL. The corresponding data for those sera (N = 13) that had measurable levels of dihydrocapsaicin were: 6.9, 7.5 and 3.6 ng/mL. This procedure is suitable for use in prospective studies of the metabolism of orally ingested chilli.