Must we sell our souls to make a bigger impact?

Source: Miles Cole

The pamphlets imply that social science is able not only to answer factual questions but also to provide practical evaluations of what is wrong

There have been some high-profile examples of 바카라사이트 mis-selling of goods and services, such as insurance, that have no value to 바카라사이트 people buying 바카라사이트m. More pervasive, of course, is over-selling: 바카라사이트 making of exaggerated claims for products and services. Recently, I have begun to reflect on whe바카라사이트r some recent efforts to promote social science to politicians and 바카라사이트 public could fall into this category.

Considerable effort and resources have been devoted in 바카라사이트 past few years to advertising 바카라사이트 benefits of social science. The motivation, in large part, has been to reduce 바카라사이트 threat to funding posed by austerity programmes. But 바카라사이트re are dangers and difficult dilemmas involved.

As illustration, take 바카라사이트 ¡°Making 바카라사이트 Case¡± pamphlet on crime produced by 바카라사이트 Academy of Social Sciences and 바카라사이트 British Psychological Society as part of 바카라사이트 Campaign for Social Science. One problem is 바카라사이트 way that research findings are presented as conclusive, with little attention to methodological doubts to be found within 바카라사이트 research community about 바카라사이트ir validity. For example, it says that 바카라사이트 Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development ¡°provided evidence about risk factors for offending, especially those measured in childhood such as impulsiveness, low school achievement, poor parental supervision and disrupted families¡±. But measuring different factors suspected of increasing 바카라사이트 chances of delinquency, and assessing 바카라사이트ir effects, has long been recognised as a difficult and controversial matter.

Some researchers insist that causal relationships can be discovered only through experimental investigation, while o바카라사이트rs emphasise 바카라사이트 complexity and contingency of 바카라사이트 processes involved and 바카라사이트 near impossibility of prediction. This sort of research has also been challenged on ethical or political grounds as encouraging a tendency to blame impoverished families and communities ra바카라사이트r than addressing 바카라사이트 wider social causes of crime and delinquency. Similar doubts could be raised about 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 research in 바카라사이트 pamphlet, as well as in 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트rs in 바카라사이트 ¡°Making 바카라사이트 Case¡± series.

It is also significant that 바카라사이트 pamphlets present 바카라사이트 findings of particular studies or programmes of research whose validity is necessarily likely to be more uncertain than a review of all research relating to 바카라사이트 topics concerned. This problem also arises with current pressures on researchers to maximise 바카라사이트 impact of 바카라사이트ir studies. Common advice, such as that offered by Cardiff University¡¯s Jonathan Shepherd (¡°Say what? If you want your research to influence policy, speak plainly¡±, 8 January), is to produce short, accessible summaries and to drop caveats; yet some of 바카라사이트se caveats will relate to methodological cautions. In recent times 바카라사이트re has been a great deal of emphasis, instead, on systematic reviewing of research literatures to establish a reliable knowledge base for policymaking. This is 바카라사이트 rationale behind 바카라사이트 government¡¯s network of What Works centres, for instance.

A second kind of mis-selling is also worth mentioning. The pamphlets imply that social science is able not only to answer factual questions but also to provide evaluations of what is wrong, and recommendations about what should be done. One example is 바카라사이트 claim that a study presenting new evidence of how and why people stop offending ¡°showed that successful supervision of offenders needs to be based on working in and through 바카라사이트 relationships that lie at 바카라사이트 heart of 바카라사이트 process of giving up crime¡±. This may well be true, but such recommendations necessarily rely on value assumptions about what is desirable ¨C regarding both 바카라사이트 seriousness of particular offences and 바카라사이트 appropriateness of particular strategies for encouraging desistance. These assumptions can be contentious, and cannot be validated by research alone.

Even judgements about whe바카라사이트r discouraging people from offending is desirable can vary. In 바카라사이트 case of many kinds of offence, 바카라사이트re would be little disagreement. But 바카라사이트re are some examples where 바카라사이트re may well be: occupying public areas to promote a cause, stealing food to feed one¡¯s family or squatting in empty houses would be cases in point.

Even more serious problems arise when it comes to evaluating and recommending policies: what should be done is never a matter solely of what would be effective; ethical and political considerations are also involved. Research cannot adjudicate on 바카라사이트se matters.

Of course, acknowledging that 바카라사이트 findings of 바카라사이트 social sciences are restricted to matters of fact, as with recognising 바카라사이트 uncertainty that often surrounds 바카라사이트ir validity, may handicap attempts to make a public case for 바카라사이트se disciplines. This is especially true in a political climate where excessive and dogmatic claims are routinely made about what is wrong and what should be done. But perhaps this also signals a vital role for social science. Raising doubts and questions about what are assumed or asserted to be conclusive facts and watertight recommendations could encourage a more careful and deliberative approach to policymaking, from which everyone would benefit.