ABSTRACT Recently, it has been argued that the many works on policy learning constitute a stand-alone basis for understanding policy processes. In this study, we evaluate this claim through a bibliometric analysis of 588 publications on the topic in the Web of Science database, complemented by a literature review. We find that while the study of learning is supported by an active and growing research community, it has neither definitional clarity nor a shared vocabulary. And, further, its model of agency is both incomplete and inconsistent. As such, the subject remains more a metaphor than a framework of analysis, per se, and has little potential to advance epistemologically. Given this analysis, we argue that intellectual resources are better spent organising research on learning within existing frameworks rather than attempting to create a new stand-alone one that would contribute to the further splintering of an already fragmented field of study.

中文翻译：

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框架还是隐喻？分析政策学在政策科学中的地位

摘要最近，有人争辩说，许多关于政策学习的著作构成了理解政策过程的独立基础。在这项研究中，我们通过对Web of Science数据库中有关该主题的588种出版物的文献计量分析来评估这一主张，并辅以文献综述。我们发现，尽管学习研究得到活跃且不断发展的研究社区的支持，但它既没有定义清晰也没有共享的词汇表。而且，它的代理模式既不完整也不一致。这样，该主题本身仍然是比分析框架更多的隐喻，并且在认识论上前进的可能性很小。鉴于此分析，