Use of academic social research by public officials: exploring preferences and constraints that impact on research use

Cherney, Adrian; Head, Brian; Povey, Jenny; Ferguson, Michele; Boreham, Paul

doi:10.1332/174426514x14138926450067

Cited by 80 publications

(66 citation statements)

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“…In doing so, these chapters will provide important contextual information for the further investigation of knowledge brokering within Australia. To note, what has been extensively investigated in the literature are the facilitators, barriers and challenges to research utilisation amongst research users and producers (see for example Cherney et al, 2015;Hemsley-Brown, 2004;Lamari et al, 2013;Landry et al, 2003). This chapter concentrates on knowledge mobilisation and the mechanism of knowledge brokering as one knowledge mobilisation strategy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…• Existing studies have looked at the views of policy officials and Australian social scientists on research utilisation more broadly (see, for example, Cherney, Head, Povey, Ferguson, and Boreham (2015). However, there is little literature focusing specifically on the knowledge mobilisation and dissemination activities of these parties and their attitudes towards, and perspectives on, such activities.…”

Section: Structure Of Thesismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Little has been conducted in the social sciences. The use of social science research in particular has received some attention empirical in the last decade in Canada (see, for example, Landry et al, 2001b) and more recently in Australia (see, for example, Cherney et al, 2015;Cherney & McGee, 2011), but empirical research specifically looking at examples of knowledge brokering within the social sciences is limited. A recent study by Cooper (2014) looking at knowledge mobilisation intermediaries in the education sector in Canada is one of the only studies within the social sciences to date which has focused on knowledge brokering, and in particular organisational forms of knowledge brokering.…”

Section: A Brief History Of Knowledge Brokering In the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The limitations of the sampling and data for this component of the research have been detailed in publications arising from the project (see, for example, Cherney et al, 2015) and are detailed further in Appendix A of this thesis. These limitations are the following:…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is one measure of research utilisation that has been used by others (Cherney et al, 2015) and is an alternative to the Research Utilisation (RU) scale used by Landry (Landry, Amara, & Lamari, 2001a) and the three types of research use -instrumental, political and conceptual -identified by Weiss (1977). The benefit of using this measure over other measures is that it is important to be as factual as possible when asking policy officials their level of engagement with research outputs, and to use a timeframe that is not too long to better enable recall of certain activities (Ouimet et al, 2010).…”

Section: Constraints Associated With Academiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Knowledge Brokering: Bridging the gap between academia and policy making in Australia?

Bell¹

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Knowledge brokering is showing significant potential as a means of increasing the use of research in policy making. Using research to inform policy making is critical to achieving policies that are 'evidence-based' and result in policy outcomes that have greater potential to address the 'wicked' social problems that governments are facing. Research provides governments with the knowledge to make sense of policy problems, develop policy solutions and evaluate their effectiveness. Despite extensive attention given to better understanding the barriers and facilitators to research utilisation, the use of research to inform policy decisions remains elusive.Advocates of a close relationship between the 'two communities' of policy makers and researchers believe this relationship is the key to effective policy formulation based on sound research.Knowledge brokering is emerging as a promising means of linking, and facilitating exchange, to form effective relationships between the 'two communities' of academics and policy makers, building on interactive models of the policy making process. More specifically, knowledge brokering is the human component of knowledge mobilisation, using relationships to move knowledge between policy makers and academics. In doing so, knowledge brokering works to overcome the barriers that hinder research utilisation.While there has been an increased interest in the past decade in understanding and defining the activities of knowledge brokering, the role and effectiveness of knowledge brokering in moving research into the policy making process is unclear. Furthermore, much of the focus in the literature to date is on knowledge brokering activities carried out by individuals, but the dependence of these knowledge brokering activities on the organisational context in which these individuals operate has largely been ignored in the literature. Hence, the study of knowledge brokering organisations may be very important in understanding how knowledge can be effectively transferred between knowledge producers and users.To address the research problem, two separate yet related research components were undertaken, and these research components are described across three core sections of this thesis. Part A of the thesis provides the essential conceptualisation and operationalisation of the research questions based on current debates within the extant literature on knowledge mobilisation and knowledge brokering. Part B of the thesis analyses surveys and in-depth interviews with policy officials and social scientists to make conclusions on the perceived need for, and existence of, knowledge brokering roles and activities in the movement of knowledge into the policy making process in ii Australia. A typology of organisations that operate in a knowledge brokering capacity in Australia has been developed. Part C adopts a multiple-case study design to investigate one type of entity operating in a knowledge brokering role within key public policy areas in Australia -researchfocused intermediary organi...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Structure Of Thesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Brief History Of Knowledge Brokering In the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Constraints Associated With Academiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Knowledge Brokering: Bridging the gap between academia and policy making in Australia?

Bell¹

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Super‐users and hyper‐experts in the provision of policy advice: Evidence from a survey of Canadian academics

Migone

McGregor

Brock

et al. 2022

European Policy Analysis

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The relationships of influence and activity between academics and other actors (public, private, and nongovernmental) in the policy process are complex.Although older work often argued academic research at best had an indirect "environmental" or "enlightenment" effect on policy-makers, (May et al. (2016). Policy, 36, 195) recently argued that in the US case previous studies misconstrued the role of academic policy advice because they surveyed "average" academics and in so doing missed the significant impact of a small elite group of "hyper-experts" within an already small group of "super-users" interacting on a constant basis with government policy-makers. This article draws upon data from a survey of academics in four fields (Business, Engineering, Health and Politics) in six major Canadian Universities to map out the relationships existing between academics and other actors in the public, private, and non-governmental sectors and test for the existence of this elite pattern of interaction in a second country. Journal of Public

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Dismantling Policies Through (De)mobilization of Analytical Capacity: Cases from Brazil

Koga,

de Moura Palotti,

do Couto

et al. 2024

International Series on Public Policy

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Use of academic social research by public officials: exploring preferences and constraints that impact on research use

Cited by 80 publications

References 0 publications

Knowledge Brokering: Bridging the gap between academia and policy making in Australia?

Knowledge Brokering: Bridging the gap between academia and policy making in Australia?

Super‐users and hyper‐experts in the provision of policy advice: Evidence from a survey of Canadian academics

Dismantling Policies Through (De)mobilization of Analytical Capacity: Cases from Brazil

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