Translating Policy and Practice

Abstract

Global influences and demographic changes are leading policy makers in less developed countries to look to more developed regions for policy and service ideas. Policy and services ideas may then be `borrowed' via processes such as policy transfer (Dolowitz and Marsh, 1996). This article explores the establishment of day care for people with dementia in Kerala, India. During the development of this service policy, information and practice ideas were transferred from different countries, particularly the UK. During the transfer of information and also within the following processes of implementation and enactment of policy, translation processes take place. In order to understand these translation processes, this article describes the development of day care in Kerala and compares its current functioning with that of similar day care centres in the UK. The concept of translation is found to illuminate and explain the process of service development in Kerala and could be used elsewhere to explain examples of policy and practice development.