The Semiotics of Ronald Barthes in the Interpretation of a Policy Program
Author: Jeng-Ti Huang
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
Roland Barthes’ semiotics draws attention to the fact that an encoded sign hastwo interactive dimensions, which are language-dimension and myth-dimension.Language-dimension signifies an objective or a denotation. Myth-dimensioncan be read with three kinds of patterns, which correspond to three culturalmeanings, namely connotation, myth, and symbol. Based on these viewpoints, thispaper regards a policy program as a sign, and then takes advantage of the threecultural meanings to interpret the possible meanings of the policy program.Because a sign has three cultural meanings, we should not naively consider apolicy program as a problem-solving tool. Moreover, a policy program has thecharacteristics of being autonomous and being social networks, which leads to aprocess of reform with multiple contingencies.