THE PERSISTENCE OF POLICY MOBILITIES:

MULTIPLE ORIGINS, INTER-DISCIPLINARY DEVELOPMENTS AND FUTURE RESEARCH AGENDAS

Abstract

Starting with the field’s various intellectual antecedents, revealing the disciplinary elements combined in its constitution, this paper highlights five important characteristics of policy mobilities. We analyse and explore each in turn, discussing epistemological and empirical themes as the field has evolved and grown over the last two and a half decades.  We pay particular attention to the contributions from those in geography and planning, as this work has sought to explain public policymaking across such diverse policy areas as economic development, education, health, transport and welfare. We argue for the need to revisit the role of the nation state in policy mobilities research, an absent presence in the field thus far. In conclusion, the paper ends by discussing how focusing on a scalar politics through the nation-state can enrich future contributions to the field.