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Relational coupling of multiple streams: The case of COVID ‐19 infections in German abattoirs
Author(s) -
Möck Malte,
Vogeler Colette S.,
Bandelow Nils C.,
Hornung Johanna
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
policy studies journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1541-0072
pISSN - 0190-292X
DOI - 10.1111/psj.12459
Subject(s) - german , streams , coupling (piping) , work (physics) , covid-19 , government (linguistics) , outbreak , perspective (graphical) , business , political science , core (optical fiber) , sociology , public relations , computer science , telecommunications , geography , engineering , biology , artificial intelligence , linguistics , mechanical engineering , medicine , computer network , philosophy , disease , archaeology , pathology , virology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
After a series of COVID‐19 outbreaks among employees in the German meat‐processing industry, the Work Safety Control Act protecting these workers made it on the government's agenda in July 2020. From a Multiple Streams perspective, local corona hotspots may be understood as policy windows for introducing respective measures. However, this alone is not sufficient to explain agenda setting. This study investigates the coupling of streams within policy windows. Introducing the notion of relational coupling to the MSF research agenda, discourse network analysis provides a new methodology to reveal entrepreneurial activities. Studying the German mass media discourse on the issue identifies two stages: (1) An initial problem brokerage without coupling of core policies, followed by (2) a coupling across all streams based on a focusing event. We argue that relational coupling allows for an enhanced understanding of agenda setting.