The action

European Network for Argumentation and Public Policy Analysis

Providing and criticising reasons is indispensable to achieve sound public policy that commands the support of both citizens and stakeholders. This need is now widely acknowledged in the recent literature and key EU documents, which highlight the perils of populist discourse and policies.

The European network for Argumentation and Public PoLicY analysis (APPLY) improves the way European citizens understand, evaluate and contribute to public decision-making on such matters of common concern as climate change or energy policies. Addressing this need from a multidisciplinary perspective on argumentation, the APPLY Action identifies gaps between the citizens’, policymakers’ and scholarly experts’ argumentation, and explores ways of treating them.

Figure 1. Gaps in public policy argumentation

Background

The Three Gaps

From a multidisciplinary perspective, the Action identifies three problematic aspects that we refer to as “the three gaps” (see Figure 1).

1. The gap between citizens’ and policymakers’ argumentation
2. The gap between normative theory and institutional practice
3. The gap between normative theory and citizens’ practice of argumentation

more details

COST Action CA 17132

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The inclusion of further partners from currently participating COST Countries, or other countries within or outside the COST Network, is welcome and strongly encouraged during the entire duration of the Action.

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