Evidence-based Policy, Featured, Government, Higher Education, Impact, policy-making, REF 2014

Research impact on policy-making is often understood in instrumentalist terms, but more often plays symbolic role.

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The idea that research should have an impact on policy is premised on an instrumentalist, or problem-solving theory of research utilisation: namely, that research is valued by policy-makers as a means of adjusting their outputs. Yet Christina Boswell‘s research has shown that expert knowledge is just as likely to be valued for its symbolic function: as a means of substantiating […]