Feelingful Development: redefining policy through interpretation

This article initiates the concept of feelingful development, an idea whichhas emerged from our work on economic and community-based developmentin Atlantic Canada and Northern Ireland. The concept hasevolved in parallel with the work of social and human scientists includingBevir and Rhodes (2008 and 2010), who have adopted an alternative,interpretive and decentred approach to the study of modern governance.The article will begin by outlining some of the thinking oninterpretive approaches to public policy. It will offer our contribution byway of exploring what insights the literature of regional novelists inAtlantic Canada and Northern Ireland might add to pushing out theboundaries of this research. It will close by contemplating possible futureresearch agendas on adaptation of policy and exploring whether Sen’s(1999) capability approach might in future be cast within the governanceliterature to generate novel ideas on the interpretive evaluation of publicpolicy and local development initiatives.