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March 2025: The Narrative Policy Framework and Institutions

This presentation re-evaluates conventional Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) scholarship, which has traditionally prioritized the study of specific rules configurations and their role in forming effective institutional arrangements. By drawing insights from the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), Rachel McGovern seeks to enrich the understanding of institutional-actor-rule dynamics. She argues that effective institutional governance may actually be more reliant on the narrative foundations and personal cognitive interpretations of these rules than on the explicit rules themselves. Although institutional scholarship recognizes the centrality of communication, its impact on shaping institutional arrangements and rule formation remains insufficiently explored. McGovern advocates for the integration of the NPF and the Institutional Grammar Tools’ (IGT) ADICO, identifying potential parallels between the two frameworks. Her preliminary research suggests a cyclical relationship between narratives and institutions, with narratives shaping and being shaped by institutional rules and norms. Building upon Narrative Attention Theory, she aims to understand the broader implications of institutional narratives in driving or reinforcing policy stasis. This research represents a foundational step toward a comprehensive theoretical framework on the role of narratives in institutions.