Complex problems and public policies: the case of the obesity epidemic in Mexico

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24965/gapp.i28.10886

Keywords:

Complexity, mainstreaming, policy formulation, obesity, epidemic, public health

Abstract

This article proposes an analytical framework to understand the complex nature of policy issues and problems, based on the following arguments. First, that complexity is related to the process of social construction that determines which issues are assumed as public problems and the way in which they are defined as such. Second, complexity also has to do with the «material causes» of the problems themselves that involve multiple variables and relationships. Third, the complexity also comes from the fact that social problems increasingly call into question the traditional referents of government organization and action; namely, the referents of a functional, spatial, and temporal nature which determine the way in which they approach problems and conceive their solutions. We deal with this third argument in this article, analyzing the case of obesity which, in the field of health, is a social problem representative of this complexity.

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Author Biography

Oscar Mauricio Covarrubias Moreno, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (México)

Doctor en Ciencias Políticas y Sociales por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Profesor del Instituto Nacional de la Administración Pública de México. Vicepresidente de la Academia Internacional de Ciencias Político-Administrativas (IAPAS, por sus siglas en ingles). Editor de la Revista Internacional de Estudios sobre Sistemas Educativos (RIESED). Columnista de PA TIMES de la American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). Coordinador en México del Proyecto TOGIVE: Transatlantic Open Government Virtual Education, del Programa ERASMUS+ de la Unión Europea. Miembro del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores del CONACYT.

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Published

01-03-2022

How to Cite

Covarrubias Moreno, O. M. (2022). Complex problems and public policies: the case of the obesity epidemic in Mexico. Gestión Y Análisis De Políticas Públicas, (28), 81–98. https://doi.org/10.24965/gapp.i28.10886