Social geography: seven deadly myths in policy research

Abstract

This third and final review ofaction-orientated research in social geography focuses on policy research, an area which has seen most commentary in recent years (

Using Social Geography

“…test, others challenged and breathed new life into the traditional interests of social geography. " She also emphasizes that many social geographers do continue to make a sizeable contribution to policy -but notes that their involvement is not always highly visible in the usual academic outlets (Pain 2003 ), and that literature on policy relevance tends to exclude already marginalized " development " research and that conducted in poorer regions of the world (Pain 2006 ; see also Willis 2004 ). Pain ( 2006 : 256) thus resists any temptation to exhort social geographers to " do more " policy -oriented research, concluding that " hundreds are doing plenty " already.…”

“…There are however many examples of social geographers successfully conducting policy -relevant work without compromising their academic independence or integrity -see Imrie (2004) , Martin (2001) , and Pain (2006) for overviews of such work. There is also evidence that rigorous empirical and/or applied work can and does make a valuable contribution to the development of theory (Banks and Mackian 2000 ;Pain 2003 ).…”

“…Some argue that greater fostering of in -depth and sustained relationships with policy -makers, and dissemination in accessible forums, are needed to facilitate this process (Massey 2000 ;Burgess 2005 ). Doing so not only generates opportunities for mutual information exchange, but also fosters greater appreciation of the constraints that policy -makers work within (Weiss 1979 ;Burgess 2005 ;Pain 2006 ) and thus theoretically enables researchers to construct more " feasible " policy recommendations. It also potentially allows academics to develop greater credibility in the eyes of policy -makers which may, in turn, make the latter more amenable to " bigger ideas, " particularly those which may be unfamiliar, appear counter -intuitive at fi rst, and/or challenge the prevailing political status quo (Massey 2000 ).…”

Boundary spanning in social and cultural geography

“…Even if Woods and Gardner (2011, p. 211) argue that 'support for the system is not a precondition of policy research, and incremental improvements can be secured through research even within structures that might be subjected to broader critique', there seems to be much scope in both Englishand German-language social and cultural geography for exploring further the complex relationships of geographical research and public policies as well as the various ways in which geographers can critically engage with different publics and resist neoliberal governance (e.g. Pain, 2006;Rogers et al, 2014;Ward, 2007).…”

Researching Complex Sustainability Issues: Reflections on Current Challenges and Future Developments

“…The merits of conducting policy-relevant research have been well catalogued over the past decade (for good reviews see Ward, 2005or Pain, 2006. Similarly, there is an extensive body of literature extolling researchers' hostility towards policy research (see Allen and Imrie, 2010 for a review).…”