Abstract
This article deals with a new and dynamically developing area of public policy study, the policy work. Its aim is to present the policy work as a field of practice and research inquiry (theory).
It is intended to overview and help to understand this broad area of contemporary scholar interest. The article is divided into two parts.
At first, it considers the policy work as an activity within public policies. It addresses this issue in the perspective of transformation of working activities and changing perception of public policy.
At second, it represents two dominant approaches to the research of the policy work with their crucial concepts. The first, the interpretive “policy work approach” gave name to this stream and is based on the concept of three accounts of policy (Colebatch) and three types of policy knowledge (Tenbensel).
The second, the evidence-based “analytical policy capacity approach”, is nowadays leading approach in the field and relies on concepts of the policy analytical capacity and policy advice system (Howlett).