Download or read book Social Science Information and Public Policy Making written by and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Rich reports the results of the Continuous National Survey (CNS), an administrative experiment with a two-year lifespan, designed to facilitate the use of research data by public officials in federal agencies.
Download or read book Evidence Based Policy Making in the Social Sciences written by Stoker, Gerry and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2016-09-29 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gathers an expert group of social scientists to showcase emerging forms of analysis and evaluation for public policy analysis. Each chapter highlights a different method or approach, putting it in context and highlighting its key features before illustrating its application and potential value to policy makers. Aimed at upper-level undergraduates in public policy and social work, it also has much to offer policy makers and practitioners themselves.
Download or read book Social Science Information and Public Policy Making written by Robert F. Rich and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A survey of federal officials reveals the belief that government should make the fullest possible use of social science information-and yet most of the information developed by social scientists winds up in specialized libraries or data banks, where it remains unused. Why don't public officials make greater use of the information social scientists develop? What can social scientists do to ensure that their findings are used? To answer these and related questions, Robert Rich reports the results of a unique experiment designed to facilitate the use of research data by public officials in federal agencies. Rich interviewed both researchers and users of research data over the two-year life of a Continous National Survey (CNS) experiment to discover the extent to which the CNS mechanism was successful and to record the levels and types of use that officials made of the data provided. Rich reveals that factors such as the timeliness, cost, and relevance of data do not guarantee that information will be used. He examines patterns in the actual use of survey data by agency officials and explores key organizational factors, such as the compatibility of information with various bureaucratic interests. He discusses the preoccupation of public officials with bureaucratic issues regarding the ownership and control of information, identifies the incentives that prompt bureaucrats to pass along new information and the government officials' difficulties in developing policies and programs for meeting national needs. Rich notes that studies of knowledge inquiry systems, found in the research literature of many social science disciplines have been dominated by a "rationalistic bias." This "bias" is expressed in terms of the belief that the act of acquiring information will automatically lead to its use, in turn, automatically leading to improved policy or decisions. He contends that empirical studies of how information is actually used do not support the assumptions of rational choice theory. The new chapter also discusses types of information, knowledge, and use; prospects for the development of learning organizations in government; and the politics of expertise. This book will be of interest to social scientists and public policy makers. Robert F. Rich is professor of law and political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also professor in the Institute of Government and Public Affairs, and was the director of that Institute from 1986-1997. He is the founding editor of Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, Utilization (now Science Communication).
Download or read book Using Social Research in Public Policy Making written by Carol H. Weiss and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ethics The Social Sciences and Policy Analysis written by Daniel Callahan and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The social sciences playa variety of multifaceted roles in the policymaking process. So varied are these roles, indeed, that it is futile to talk in the singular about the use of social science in policymaking, as if there were one constant relationship between two fixed and stable entities. Instead, to address this issue sensibly one must talk in the plural about uses of dif ferent modes of social scientific inquiry for different kinds of policies under various circumstances. In some cases, the influence of social scientific research is direct and tangible, and the connection between the find ings and the policy is easy to see. In other cases, perhaps most, its influence is indirect-one small piece in a larger mosaic of politics, bargaining, and compromise. Occasionally the findings of social scientific studies are explicitly drawn upon by policymakers in the formation, implementation, or evaluation of particular policies. More often, the categories and theoretical models of social science provide a general background orientation within which policymakers concep tualize problems and frame policy options. At times, the in fluence of social scientific work is cognitive and informational in nature; in other instances, policymakers use social science primarily for symbolic and political purposes in order to le gitimate preestablished goals and strategies. Nonetheless, amid this diversity and variety, troubling general questions persistently arise.
Download or read book The Impact of the Social Sciences written by Simon Bastow and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2014-01-17 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The impact agenda is set to shape the way in which social scientists prioritise the work they choose to pursue, the research methods they use and how they publish their findings over the coming decade, but how much is currently known about how social science research has made a mark on society? Based on a three year research project studying the impact of 360 UK-based academics on business, government and civil society sectors, this groundbreaking new book undertakes the most thorough analysis yet of how academic research in the social sciences achieves public policy impacts, contributes to economic prosperity, and informs public understanding of policy issues as well as economic and social changes. The Impact of the Social Sciences addresses and engages with key issues, including: identifying ways to conceptualise and model impact in the social sciences developing more sophisticated ways to measure academic and external impacts of social science research explaining how impacts from individual academics, research units and universities can be improved. This book is essential reading for researchers, academics and anyone involved in discussions about how to improve the value and impact of funded research.
Download or read book Social Sciences for Knowledge and Decision Making written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2001-01-31 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This conference proceedings examines the role social sciences can play in developing sound policy.
Download or read book Social Science and Policy Making written by David Lee Featherman and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2009-12-21 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays examines how the social sciences in America were developed as a means of social reform and later, especially after World War II, as a tool in federal policymaking and policy analysis. It also uses arenas of policymaking, such as early childhood education and welfare and its reform, as case studies in which social research was used, in policy decisions or in setting and evaluating policy goals. The book is written to aid students of public policy to appreciate the complex relationship of information--principally, of social science research--to policymaking at the federal level. David L. Featherman is Professor of Sociology and Psychology, Director and Senior Research Scientist, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. Maris A. Vinovskis is Bentley Professor of History, Senior Research Scientist, Institute for Social Research, Faculty member, School of Public Policy, University of Michigan.
Download or read book Applying Social Science written by Byrne, David and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2011-02-16 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important book examines how social science is applied now and how it might be applied in the future in relation to social transformation in a time of crisis.
Download or read book Social Science in Government written by Richard P. Nathan and published by Rockefeller Institute Press. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new, substantially updated, and expanded version of a classic work on how to evaluate public policy published over a decade ago.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy written by Michael Moran and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2008-06-12 with total page 997 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is part of a ten volume set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of political science. This work explores the business end of politics, where theory meets practice in the pursuit of public good.
Download or read book Social Science and Policy Challenges written by Georgios Papanagnou and published by UNESCO. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Producing scientific knowledge that can inform solutions and guide policy-making is one of the most important functions of social science. Nonetheless, if social science is to become more relevant and influential so as to impact on the drawing and execution of policy, certain measures need to be taken to narrow its distance from the policy sphere. This decision is less obvious than it seems. Both research and experience have proved that policy-making is a complex, often sub-rational, interactive process that involves a wide range of actors such as decision makers, bureaucrats, researchers, organized interests, citizen and civil society representatives and research brokers. In addition, social science often needs to defend both its relevance to policy and its own scientific status. Moving away from instrumental visions of the link between social research and policy, this collective volume aims to highlight the more constructed nature of the use of social knowledge.
Download or read book Social Science and Social Policy written by Martin I A Bulmer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-29 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1986, Social Science and Social Policy addresses major questions concerned with the social utility of social science. The book is divided into four parts. The first part considers the place of social science in the policy-making process and criticizes the rational model which gives a central place to analysis. In part two, five different methodologies for policy research are considered: the use of continuous surveys, public opinion polls, social indicators, evaluation research and social experimentations and the use of qualitative methods. The advantages and drawbacks of each are considered with extensive use of examples. In the third part, the role of theory is examined. Particular attention is paid to the issue of health inequality. In part four, general questions are raised about the use and abuse of social science, including questions about how it can be most effectively disseminated to make maximum impact. The book is aimed at a general readership and requires no special methodological expertise. It will appeal particularly to undergraduates and graduate students taking courses in social policy, public policy applied sociology and a range of applied social sciences such as criminology, health studies, education and social work.
Download or read book How Social Science Got Better written by Matt Grossmann and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-05 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It seems like most of what we read about the academic social sciences in the mainstream media is negative. The field is facing mounting criticism, as canonical studies fail to replicate, questionable research practices abound, and researcher social and political biases come under fire. In response to these criticisms, Matt Grossmann, in How Social Science Got Better, provides a robust defense of the current state of the social sciences. Applying insights from the philosophy, history, and sociology of science and providing new data on research trends and scholarly views, he argues that, far from crisis, social science is undergoing an unparalleled renaissance of ever-broader understanding and application. According to Grossmann, social science research today has never been more relevant, rigorous, or self-reflective because scholars have a much better idea of their blind spots and biases. He highlights how scholars now closely analyze the impact of racial, gender, geographic, methodological, political, and ideological differences on research questions; how the incentives of academia influence our research practices; and how universal human desires to avoid uncomfortable truths and easily solve problems affect our conclusions. Though misaligned incentive structures of course remain, a messy, collective deliberation across the research community has shifted us into an unprecedented age of theoretical diversity, open and connected data, and public scholarship. Grossmann's wide-ranging account of current trends will necessarily force the academy's many critics to rethink their lazy critiques and instead acknowledge the path-breaking advances occurring in the social sciences today.
Download or read book Non Equilibrium Social Science and Policy written by Jeffrey Johnson and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-01-20 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The overall aim of this book, an outcome of the European FP7 FET Open NESS project, is to contribute to the ongoing effort to put the quantitative social sciences on a proper footing for the 21st century. A key focus is economics, and its implications on policy making, where the still dominant traditional approach increasingly struggles to capture the economic realities we observe in the world today - with vested interests getting too often in the way of real advances. Insights into behavioral economics and modern computing techniques have made possible both the integration of larger information sets and the exploration of disequilibrium behavior. The domain-based chapters of this work illustrate how economic theory is the only branch of social sciences which still holds to its old paradigm of an equilibrium science - an assumption that has already been relaxed in all related fields of research in the light of recent advances in complex and dynamical systems theory and related data mining. The other chapters give various takes on policy and decision making in this context. Written in nontechnical style throughout, with a mix of tutorial and essay-like contributions, this book will benefit all researchers, scientists, professionals and practitioners interested in learning about the 'thinking in complexity' to understand how socio-economic systems really work.
Download or read book Public Policy Analytics written by Ken Steif and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2021-08-18 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public Policy Analytics: Code & Context for Data Science in Government teaches readers how to address complex public policy problems with data and analytics using reproducible methods in R. Each of the eight chapters provides a detailed case study, showing readers: how to develop exploratory indicators; understand ‘spatial process’ and develop spatial analytics; how to develop ‘useful’ predictive analytics; how to convey these outputs to non-technical decision-makers through the medium of data visualization; and why, ultimately, data science and ‘Planning’ are one and the same. A graduate-level introduction to data science, this book will appeal to researchers and data scientists at the intersection of data analytics and public policy, as well as readers who wish to understand how algorithms will affect the future of government.
Download or read book Agricultural Water Management written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2007-03-20 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report contains a collection of papers from a workshopâ€"Strengthening Science-Based Decision-Making for Sustainable Management of Scarce Water Resources for Agricultural Production, held in Tunisia. Participants, including scientists, decision makers, representatives of non-profit organizations, and a farmer, came from the United States and several countries in North Africa and the Middle East. The papers examined constraints to agricultural production as it relates to water scarcity; focusing on 1) the state of the science regarding water management for agricultural purposes in the Middle East and North Africa 2) how science can be applied to better manage existing water supplies to optimize the domestic production of food and fiber. The cross-cutting themes of the workshop were the elements or principles of science-based decision making, the role of the scientific community in ensuring that science is an integral part of the decision making process, and ways to improve communications between scientists and decision makers.
