Expanding the Domain of Policy-Relevant Scholarshipin the Social Sciences

In this paper the author argues that social scientists need to do more toprovide policy-relevant research. Rapid technological and economicchange raise new issues about how policy should adjust that are notadequately addressed by older and narrower approaches. The authorsuggests two ways in which the domain of policy-relevant scholarshipcan be expanded. First, social scientists should be more flexible about thekinds of data they use and the ways they use them. Preliminary data cansuggest new hypotheses, which can widen debate, and ethnographicand other qualitative methods can uncover patterns of behaviourinvisible in quantitative sources. Second, social theories, concepts andideas should play a greater role in the policy arena, shaping the waypolicy actors think about how the world works.[...]