Improving input from research to environmental policy: challenges of structure and culture

Clark, Rebecca; Holmes, John

doi:10.3152/030234210x534887

Cited by 11 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Another indicator of accelerating demand for evidence is the recent proliferation of professional associations producing evidence as well as organisations that establish evidence standards and identify studies that provide the strongest evidence for decision and policy making, part of the so-called "evidence movement". For the UK, Clark and Holmes (2010) highlight the following aspects: a) adoption of government guidelines in support of good practice in using research findings and advice from researchers; b) "science and engineering assurance" reviews carried out by the Government Office for Science to evaluate and help im-prove how major departments use research findings in policy;2 c) institutional changes, primarily the establishment of chief scientific advisers in a majority of governmental organisations, so that research findings of appropriate scientific quality are used; and d) uptake of analysis and use of evidence among the core skills for civil servants in the Professional Skills for Government competency framework (in development since 2003). In this sense, EBPM is also associated with the rise of popularity of the "new public management" discourse and the structural changes in public administration that have followed (see also Nassehi et al 2007;Pons and Zanten 2007).…”

Section: Evidence-based Policy Making: Production Of Policy-usable Scmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Overview of Discourses on Knowledge in Policy: Thinking Knowledge, Policy and Conflict Together

Sedlačko

Staroňová

2015

Central European Journal of Public Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Around the world, there is a growing interest among policy scholars and practitioners in the role of knowledge in relation to public policy. These debates are accompanied by some confusion about what is meant by knowledge or evidence, as well as controversies around the role of scientists and suspicions of increasingly technocratic decision making. Our aim is to provide a useful overview of the major debates in this paper, and to trace six dominant discourses in current research that address the role of scientific knowledge or expertise in the policy process. We distinguish evidence-based policy making, knowledge utilisation, policy learning, knowledge transfer, social construction of knowledge and boundaries, and knowing in practice as separate discourses. We show how they differ in their understanding of knowledge, of the problem to solve in terms of the role of knowledge in policy, of practical implications, as well as in their understanding of public policy and in their ontologies and epistemologies. A condensed and structured representation serves as a basis for conducting comparisons across discourses as well as to open ways for analysis of strategic associations between the discourses. We hope to contribute to extending the discussion of knowledge in policy into the realm of epistemic politics and we suggest several avenues for future research that can draw on a range of concepts from across all of the discourses.

show abstract

Section: Evidence-based Policy Making: Production Of Policy-usable Scmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Overview of Discourses on Knowledge in Policy: Thinking Knowledge, Policy and Conflict Together

Sedlačko

Staroňová

2015

Central European Journal of Public Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Policy makers and their advisors commonly seek information first from personal rather than from published sources (Clark & Holmes, 2010;Holmes & Savgård, 2008;Nutley, Walter, & Davies, 2007). Personal sources include peers and scientists who may belong to boundary organizations.…”

Section: How Policy Makers Obtain and Use Information Contained In Scmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The main forms of written material used by policy makers and advisers are reviews and updates which summarize available scientific information (Clark & Holmes, 2010;Hemsley-Brown, 2004;McNie, 2007). Policy makers prefer to use reports commissioned by government departments and agencies as they contain information that is more likely to be policy-relevant than is found in purely academic research publications.…”

Section: How Policy Makers Obtain and Use Information Contained In Scmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Policy makers prefer to use reports commissioned by government departments and agencies as they contain information that is more likely to be policy-relevant than is found in purely academic research publications. Policy makers and advisors want technical reports to contain short summaries written in less technical language, giving definitive conclusions, firm recommendations, and clear directions for action (Clark & Holmes, 2010). If an author does not provide a summary, policy makers may rely on one prepared by an external body which may alter the original meaning of the information.…”

Section: How Policy Makers Obtain and Use Information Contained In Scmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Use and Influence of Scientific Information in Environmental Policy Making: Lessons Learned From Nova Scotia

Soomai

2012

Proc NSIS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Governmental organisations produce vast quantities of scientific information on the state of the marine and coastal environment which is often intended to guide policy-making to mitigate or reverse the declining trends in the health of the environment. How scientific information is used and how it influences environmental policy and decision making are however not well understood. The apparent disconnect between the knowledge and information produced by scientists and that used by policy makers is attributed to problems at the science-policy interface. Based on a multi-disciplinary literature review, this paper describes how policy makersseek out and use scientific information within the context of policy design in the 21st century. Best practices for increasing information flows across the science-policy interface are drawn from a study of the awareness, use, and influence of The 2009 State of the Nova Scotia Coast Report in coastal policy making in Nova Scotia.Strategic or rational approaches to policy making can increase the two-way flow of information across the science-policy interface as it facilitates collaboration among multiple actors in information generation, transmis-sion, and use. The production, use, and influence of The 2009 State ofNova Scotia's Coast Report in coastal policy making in Nova Scotia demonstrates the strategic approach to policy making whereby coastal policy is being developed through (i) intergovernmental partnerships, (ii) the use of best available information, (iii) linkages between the policy process and policy output, and (iv) public participation.

show abstract

“…Brokers need to operate because decision makers and researchers are driven by different imperatives and time frames using different languages and practices (Caplan, 1979;Clark & Holmes, 2010;Wehrens, Bekker, & Bal, 2011). Literature on evidence-informed policies points to "knowledge brokering" as a promising strategy for bridging this know-do gap between research and decisionmaking process (Dobbins et al, 2009;Frost et al, 2012;Lomas, 2007;Meyer, 2010;Olejniczak et al, 2016).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Game of Knowledge Brokering

Olejniczak

2017

American Journal of Evaluation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Knowledge brokering is a promising practice for addressing the challenge of using research evidence, including evaluation findings, in policy implementation. For public policy practitioners, it means playing the role of an intermediary who steers the flow of knowledge between producers (researchers) and users (decision makers). It requires a set of specific skills that can be learnt most effectively by experience. The article explains how to develop knowledge brokering skills through experiential learning in a risk-free environment. It reports on the application of an innovative learning method-a game-based workshop. The article introduces the conceptual framework for designing game-based learning. Then, it demonstrates how this framework was applied in practice of teaching knowledge brokering. In conclusion, article discusses the first lessons of game application in training public policy practitioners. It concludes that game-based workshop is a promising method for learning about knowledge brokering strategies that increase evaluation use.

show abstract

Improving input from research to environmental policy: challenges of structure and culture

Cited by 11 publications

References 16 publications

An Overview of Discourses on Knowledge in Policy: Thinking Knowledge, Policy and Conflict Together

An Overview of Discourses on Knowledge in Policy: Thinking Knowledge, Policy and Conflict Together

The Use and Influence of Scientific Information in Environmental Policy Making: Lessons Learned From Nova Scotia

The Game of Knowledge Brokering

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About