Advocacy coalitions have played an increasingly critical role in evidence-based policy development. Despite this, little is known about how such coalitions leverage research to influence policy. Addressing this gap, this qualitative study explores how a multi-sectoral advocacy coalition seeks to shape Canadian food security policy through ‘solutions-focused advocacy’. We explore four of the coalition’s strategies: (1) shaping policymakers’ thinking and priorities while responding to governments’ needs; (2) utilising research to help governments achieve political ‘wins’ while advancing the cause; (3) using research to broker relationships between ‘community’, government, and the coalition; and (4) mobilising research to ‘bring the sector along’.
Bogenschneider, K. and Corbett, T.J. (2010) Family policy: becoming a field of inquiry and subfield of social policy, Journal of Marriage and Family, 72(3): 783–803. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00730.x
Brisbois, M.C., Girling, K. and Findlay, S. (2018) Academics should build rapport with government’s policy analysts, Nature, 555: 165–74. doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-02831-3
Cairney, P. (2016) The Politics of Evidence-based Policy Making, New York: Springer.
Cairney, P. and Kwiatkowski, R. (2017) How to communicate effectively with policymakers: combine Insights from psychology and policy studies, Palgrave Communications, 3(1). doi: 10.1057/s41599-017-0046-8
Caplan, N. (1979) The two-communities theory and knowledge utilization, American Behavioral Scientist, 22(3): 459–70. doi: 10.1177/000276427902200308
Damschroder, L.J., Aron, D.C., Keith, R.E., Kirsh, S.R., Alexander, J.A. and Lowery, J.C. (2009) Fostering implementation of health services research findings into practice: a consolidated framework for advancing implementation science, Implementation Science, 4(1): 50. doi: 10.1186/1748-5908-4-50
Doberstein, C. (2016) Building a Collaborative Advantage: Network Governance and Homelessness Policy-making in Canada, Vancouver: UBC Press.
Dunn, G. and Laing, M. (2017) Policy-makers perspectives on credibility, relevance and legitimacy (CRELE), Environmental Science & Policy, 76: 146–52.
Funke, N., Huitema, D., Petersen, A. and Nienaber, S. (2021) The roles of experts and expert‐based information in the advocacy coalition framework: conceptual and empirical considerations based on the acid mine drainage case study in Gauteng, South Africa, Policy Studies Journal, 49(3): 785–810. doi: 10.1111/psj.12409
Jenkins-Smith, H.C., Nohrstedt, D., Weible, C.M. and Ingold, K. (2018) The advocacy coalition framework: an overview of the research program, in C.M. Weible and P.A. Sabatier (eds) Theories of the Policy Process, 4th edn, New York: Routledge, pp 135–71.
Lofland, J., Snow, D.A., Anderson, L. and Lofland, L. (2005) Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.
Lomas, J. (2007) The in-between world of knowledge brokering, BMJ, 334(7585): 129–32. doi: 10.1136/bmj.39038.593380.AE
Macnaughton, E., Nelson, G. and Goering, P. (2013) Bringing politics and evidence together: policy entrepreneurship and the conception of the At Home/Chez Soi Housing First Initiative for addressing homelessness and mental illness in Canada, Social Science & Medicine, 82: 100–107.
Main, T.J. (2016) Homelessness in New York City: Policymaking from Koch to de Blasio, New York, NY: New York University Press.
Newson, R., King, L., Rychetnik, L., Milat, A. and Bauman, A. (2018) Looking both ways: a review of methods for assessing research impacts on policy and the policy utilisation of research, Health Research Policy and Systems, 16(1): 54–67. doi: 10.1186/s12961-018-0310-4
Nichols, N. (2014) Youth Work: An Institutional Ethnography of Youth Homelessness, Toronto, ON: The University of Toronto Press.
Nutley, S., Walter, I. and Davies, H. (2007) Using Evidence: How Research Can Inform Public Services, Bristol: Policy Press.
Oliver, K., Innvar, S., Loernc, T., Woodman, J. and Thomas, J. (2014) A systematic review of barriers to and facilitators of the use of evidence by policymakers, Health Services Research, 14(1): 2–13. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-14-2
Oxman, A.D., Lewin, S., Lavis, J.N. and Fretheim, A. (2009) Support tools for evidence-informed health policymaking (STP) 15: engaging the public in evidence-informed policymaking, Health Research Policy and Systems, 7(1): S15. doi: 10.1186/1478-4505-7-15
Peters, B.G. (2017) What is so wicked about wicked problems? A conceptual analysis and a research program, Policy and Society, 36(3): 385–96. doi: 10.1080/14494035.2017.1361633
Sabatier, P.A. (1987) Knowledge, policy-oriented learning, and policy change: an advocacy coalition framework, Knowledge, 8(4): 649–92. doi: 10.1177/0164025987008004005
Sabatier, P.A. and Jenkins-Smith, H.C. (eds) (1993) Policy Change and Learning: An Advocacy Coalition Approach, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Sabatier, P.A. and Weible, C.M. (2007) The advocacy coalition framework: innovations and clarifications, in P. Sabatier (ed) Theories of the Policy Process, 2nd edn, New York, NY: Routledge, pp 189–222.
Shinn, M. (2007) Waltzing with a monster: bringing research to bear on public policy, Journal of Social Issues, 63(1): 215–31.
Smith, D.E. (1987) The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology, Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
Smith, D.E. (1999) Writing the Social: Critique, Theory, and Investigations, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Smith, D.E. (2005) Institutional Ethnography: A Sociology for People, Lanham, MD: Rowman Altamira.
Spaapen, J. and Van Drooge, L. (2011) Introducing ‘productive interactions’ in social impact assessment, Research Evaluation, 20(3): 211–18. doi: 10.3152/095820211X12941371876742
Ward, V., Smith, S., House, A. and Hamer, S. (2012) Exploring knowledge exchange: a useful framework for practice and policy, Social Science & Medicine, 74(3): 297–304.
Weible, C.M. (2008) Expert‐based information and policy subsystems: a review and synthesis, Policy Studies Journal, 36(4): 615–35. doi: 10.1111/j.1541-0072.2008.00287.x
Weible, C.M., Sabatier, P.A. and McQueen, K. (2009) Themes and variations: taking stock of the advocacy coalition framework, Policy Studies Journal, 37(1):121–40. doi: 10.1111/j.1541-0072.2008.00299.x
Weible, C.M., Sabatier, P.A., Jenkins-Smith, H.C., Nohrstedt, D., Henry, A.D. and deLeon, P. (2011) A quarter century of the advocacy coalition framework: an introduction to the special issue, Policy Studies Journal, 39(3): 349–60. doi: 10.1111/j.1541-0072.2011.00412.x
Weiss, C. (1977) Research for policy’s sake: the enlightenment function of social research, Policy Analysis, 3(Fall): 531–45.
May 2022 onwards | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 327 | 325 | 24 |
Full Text Views | 324 | 324 | 24 |
PDF Downloads | 130 | 130 | 8 |