University of Twente Student Theses
Trapped by division: Evaluation of the Utrecht 'barriers against trafficking' policy program
Birkenhager, P (2014) Trapped by division: Evaluation of the Utrecht 'barriers against trafficking' policy program.
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| Abstract: | The aim of this study is to identify and analyse the policy beliefs of policy actors and other stakeholders towards the Utrecht local governmental policy program with particular reference to combatting the occurrence of trafficking in legal prostitution. The target group of the policy consisted of legal prostitutes working on Zandpad, who where by the government assumed to be nearly all victimized subjects of trafficking. The outcome of the policy was the dismantling of the legal facility. The data were mainly obtained through the analysis of publicly available policy documents. The analysis consists of three core elements. First, the policy theory of the central actor was reconstructed and reflected upon with help of the method of the ‘goal tree’ of Van de Graaf en Hoppe. Second, the bolstering and criticising beliefs were derived or inferred from the texts with help of the Fischer framework for policy evaluation. Third, the belief sets were complemented and interpreted with help of archetypical mental maps, based on a combination of group-grid cultural theory as developed by Douglas, Thompson, Ellis and Wildavsky and the Fischer framework. The results showed that the policy theory was primarily based on unwarranted probabilistic relations with little evidence. Little or no attention was given to the development of contingency plans and risk analysis. The majority of the identified beliefs of the involved actors and stakeholders were critical. The discourse could be characterized as heterogeneous, and appeared to consist of many discordant beliefs. Based on the used theoretical lenses, a couple of ideological clashes could be retrieved and interpreted. Several Identified flaws in process of policy learning pertaining to the wicked problem of trafficking led to the conclusion that there was no question of an acceptable learning process. The author recommends researching other local policy practises with particular reference to the mitigation of trafficking, the stimulation of pilots with self-regulation and ‘responsibilization’ of the target group, and the involvement of community knowledge. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 89 political science |
| Programme: | European Studies MSc (69303) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/65712 |
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