Impact has become a central part of the assessment criteria for academic worth. It has been adopted by many research funding bodies, and it is firmly embedded in the British Research Excellence Framework. However, a clear definition of impact remains elusive and guidance on how exactly to achieve it is often superficial.
This concise, informative book analyses impact across the social sciences. It draws on the analysis of the most highly ranked British impact case studies from the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, as well as fifteen interviews with senior academics, providing a longitudinal and critical framing of impact. The author concludes with valuable recommendations of how and when scholars can achieve impact.
). When comparing the ratings across the three sub-panels in Table 3.1, a couple of things stand out. The first is that the 30 DIM ENSIONS OF IM PACT IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES Table 3.1: Number and ranking of impact case studies included in the sample by sub-panel Social Policy and Social Work Sociology Politics and International Relations University Number of ICS % of ICS rated four-star University Number of ICS % of ICS rated four-star University Number of ICS % of ICS rated four-star LSE 6 100 York 3 100 Oxford 9 87 York 4 100 Cardiff 4 80
Measuring research impact and engagement is a much debated topic in the UK and internationally. This book is the first to provide a critical review of the research impact agenda, situating it within international efforts to improve research utilisation. Using empirical data, it discusses research impact tools and processes for key groups such as academics, research funders, ‘knowledge brokers’ and research users, and considers the challenges and consequences of incentivising and rewarding particular articulations of research impact.
It draws on wide ranging qualitative data, combined with theories about the science-policy interplay and audit regimes to suggest ways to improve research impact.
This edition brings together specially commissioned reviews of key areas of social policy and considers a range of current issues within the field.
The book contains invaluable research, including discussions on modern slavery, childcare and social justice and welfare chauvinism, as well as a chapter centred on the Grenfell Tower fire. Bringing together the insights of a diverse group of experts in social policy, this book examines critical debates in the field in order to offer an informed review of the best in social policy scholarship over the past year.
Published in association with the SPA, the volume will be of interest to students and academics in social policy, social welfare and related disciplines.
EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
Written by a leading expert in the field, this practical and accessible book is an essential guide to knowledge exchange, impact and research dissemination in health and social care.
Providing the why, what, who, how and when of research impact, the book helps researchers turn raw findings into useful, high-impact evidence for policymakers, practitioners and the public. It includes insightful interviews from leading journalists, science communicators, researchers and influencers in health and social care, as well as practical exercises, insider tips and case studies. The book will help researchers at all stages of their career to maximise the impact of their work.
Experts review the leading social policy scholarship from the past year in this comprehensive volume.
Published in association with the Social Policy Association, the latest volume in this long-running series addresses current issues and critical debates throughout the international social policy field with a particular focus on employment policy, housing policy and climate justice. Contributors also explore key developments including researching during the COVID-19 pandemic, migrants’ access to social benefits in Germany, the right(s) to healthcare in Italy, American and European homelessness policies and much more.
This annual review is essential reading for students and academics in social policy, social welfare and related disciplines.
Robust university–industry partnerships are vital to achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and create a better world for everyone.
Developing the theory and practice of the ‘5th Generation University’, this book shows how cross-sector collaboration and innovation are crucial to maximising the societal benefits of research, education and knowledge exchange, while also driving economic growth and productivity.
The authors bring extensive experience in working at the interface between academia, industry and government to demonstrate how universities can effectively combine transdisciplinary programmatic activities and strategic corporate philanthropy. They explain how long-term alliances can be forged to have a transformational impact on the greatest challenges facing our world such as climate change.
As nations reel from the effects of poverty, inequality, climate change and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, it feels as though the world has entered a period characterized by pessimism, cynicism and anxiety.
This edited collection challenges individualized understandings of emotion, revealing how they relate to cultural, economic and political realities in difficult times.
Combining numerous empirical studies and theoretical developments from around the world, the diverse contributors explore how dystopian visions of the future influence, and are influenced by, the emotions of an anxious and precarious present.
This is an original investigation into the changing landscape of emotion in dark and uncertain times.
Building substantially on the earlier, landmark text, What Works? (Policy Press, 2000), this book brings together key thinkers and researchers to provide a contemporary review of the aspirations and realities of evidence-informed policy and practice. The text is clearly structured and provides sector-by-sector analysis of evidence use in policy-making and service delivery. It considers some cross-cutting themes, including a section of international commentaries, and concludes by looking at lessons from the past and prospects for the future.
This book will be of interest to a wide range of social science researchers, students and practitioners as well as those interested in supporting more evidence-informed policy and practice.
As social media is increasingly becoming a standard feature of sociological practice, this timely book rethinks the role of these mediums in public sociology and what they can contribute to the discipline in the post-COVID world.
It reconsiders the history and current conceptualizations of what sociology is, and analyzes what kinds of social life emerge in and through the interactions between ‘intellectuals’, ‘publics’ and ‘platforms’ of communication.
Cutting across multiple disciplines, this pioneering work envisions a new kind of public sociology that brings together the digital and the physical to create public spaces where critical scholarship and active civic engagement can meet in a mutually reinforcing way.
