Full discussion on what ‘critical’ is in policy studies by editors and key editorial board members of Critical Policy Studies journal including Rosana Boullosa (Federal University of Bahia, Brazil), Maria Proestou (Humboldt University, Berlin), Frank Fischer (Humboldt University, Berlin), Hugh Miller (Florida Atlantic University, USA), Douglas Torgerson (Trent University, Canada), Dieter Plehwe (WZB Berlin Social Science Centre, Germany), Philippe Zittoun (University of Lyon, France) and Piyapong Boossabong (Chiang Mai University School of Public Policy, Thailand).