ABSTRACT
Previous chapters have demonstrated that the performance of the EU’s investment in social inclusion cannot be understood outside of governing norms, discursive frames, and administrative practices. This chapter explores the ideational aspect of policymaking and examines how the cognitive maps orienting actors working in the domain of cohesion policy are expressed and used to develop strategic policy plans. It pays heed to the effect of framing in order to capture the implicit (and sometimes explicit) characterization of public problems and reflects upon the implications of those characterizations for the articulation of funding goals, targets, and measures. Attention to the discursive aspect of policy design is combined with a critical analysis of implementation tools. This is imperative since too often policies and projects are set into action without proper delivery planning, which can lead to a good policy idea failing to achieve the desired outcomes.
