The Role of Subjectivity and Knowledge Power Struggles in the Formation of Public Policy
Abstract
There is a growing incentive for sociologists to demonstrate the use-value of their research. Research ‘impact’ is a driver of research funding and a measure of academic standing. Academic debate on this issue has intensified since Burawoy’s (2004) call for a ‘public’ sociology. However, the academy is no longer the sole or primary producer of knowledge and empirical sociologists need to contend with the ‘huge swathes’ of social data that now exist (Savage and Burrows, 2007). This article furthers these debates by considering power struggles between competing forms of knowledge. Using a case study, it specifically considers the power struggle between normative and empirical knowledge, and how providers of knowledge assert legitimacy for their truth claims. The article concludes that the idea of ‘impact’ and ‘use-value’ is extremely complex and depends on the policy context of knowledge power struggles, and on how policy makers want to view the world.
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Biographies
Sally Shortall is a Reader in Sociology in the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast. Her areas of interest and publications cover the sociology of agriculture and farm families, the social construction of rural development initiatives, gender and property inequalities on farms, community development, social inclusion, and the formation of public policy. Currently she is writing about gender mainstreaming, as well as the social construction of knowledge to inform rural policy and the power struggles between empirical and normative knowledge. This draws on her research experience of being an ‘expert’ adviser in various capacities.
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Article first published online: December 12, 2012
Issue published: December 2013
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