This video brief provides a quick introduction to the substantive method of implementation analysis called policy fields analysis. Multiple levels of government, nonprofit service providers, citizens groups, philanthropic funders and private businesses often are involved in trying to solve public problems and implement public policy.

As discussed in Sandfort & Stone (2008), policy field analysis involves walking systematically through a series of questions to better understand the structure and process within an institutional field focused on public policy and programs in a particular state or local setting.