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"Boswell, Christina"
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The Political Uses of Expert Knowledge
Why do politicians and civil servants commission research and what use do they make of it in policymaking? The received wisdom is that research contributes to improving government policy. Christina Boswell challenges this view, arguing that policymakers are just as likely to value expert knowledge for two alternative reasons: as a way of lending authority to their preferences; or to signal their capacity to make sound decisions. Boswell develops a compelling new theory of the role of knowledge in policy, showing how policymakers use research to establish authority in contentious and risky areas of policy. She illustrates her argument with an analysis of European immigration policies, charting the ways in which expertise becomes a resource for lending credibility to controversial claims, underpinning high-risk decisions or bolstering the credibility of government agencies.
eBook
Rethinking policy ‘impact’: four models of research-policy relations
Political scientists are increasingly exhorted to ensure their research has policy ‘impact’, most notably via Research Excellence Framework (REF) impact case studies, and ‘pathways to impact’ statements in UK Research Council funding applications. Yet the assumptions underpinning these frameworks often fail to reflect available evidence and theories. Notions of ‘impact’, ‘engagement’ and ‘knowledge exchange’ are typically premised on simplistic, linear models of the policy process, according to which policy-makers are keen to ‘utilise’ expertise to produce more ‘effective’ policies. Such accounts overlook the rich body of literature in political science, policy studies, and sociology of knowledge, which offer more complex and nuanced accounts. Drawing on this wider literature, this paper sets out four different approaches to theorising the relationship: (1) knowledge shapes policy; (2) politics shapes knowledge; (3) co-production; and (4) autonomous spheres. We consider what each of these four approaches suggests about approaches to incentivising and measuring research impact.
Journal Article
Theorizing Migration Policy: Is There a Third Way?
This article critically reviews theories of migration policy according to two criteria: methodological rigor and explanatory plausibility. It finds that political economy accounts are theoretically robust, but at the price of oversimplification. Neo-institutional theories offer more sophisticated accounts, but fall short on a number of methodological and explanatory counts. As an alternative, this article suggests a theory focusing on the functional imperatives of the state in the area of migration, which shape its responses to societal interests and institutional structures.
Journal Article
Immigration and social systems
Michael Bommes was one of the most brilliant and original migration studies scholars of our time. This posthumous collection brings together a selection of his most important work on immigration, integration, transnationalism, irregular migration and migrant networks. Each essay provides a rigorous and compelling critique of mainstream accounts, building on Bommes' distinctive systems theoretic approach. It will be required reading for all theoretically minded scholars and advanced students of migration studies.
eBook
Immigration and Social Systems
Michael Bommes was one of the most brilliant and original migration studies scholars of our time. This posthumous collection brings together a selection of his most important work on immigration and the welfare state, immigrant integration, discrimination, irregular migration, migrant networks and migration policy research.
eBook
The 'external dimension' of EU immigration and asylum policy
Since the late 1990s, the EU has sought to develop the so-called 'external dimension' of cooperation on immigration and asylum: attempts to manage migration through cooperation with migration sending or transit countries. However, one can discern two rather distinct concepts of the 'external dimension'. The first involves attempts to externalize traditional tools of domestic or EU migration control; the second to prevent the causes of migration and refugee flows, through development assistance and foreign policy tools. Both are based on different assumptions about how best to influence migration flows, and will have divergent impacts on migration flows, refugee protection and relations with third countries. It therefore makes a big difference which of the two is likely to emerge as the predominant pattern of cooperation in the future. This article looks at the factors influencing the emergence of both concepts, focusing on three central determinants: the potential of such approaches to meet migration policy goals; the institutional context; and domestic political-electoral pressures. It argues that the two last factors have militated in favour of the prevalence of externalization approaches to the detriment of longer-term strategies of migration management, refugee protection and relations with third countries.
Journal Article
Policies, politics and organisational problems: multiple streams and the implementation of targets in UK government
Kingdon's multiple streams approach has recently been applied to study implementation across sectors or levels of government. Building on these contributions, we suggest that two streams are especially important in shaping implementation: organisational problem constructions and political pressure from the centre. These variables produce a four-way typology of implementation modes. We test the model by analysing implementation of UK targets on asylum, defence and climate change, drawing on 54 semi-structured interviews with policy actors. The analysis shows how organisations can shift between modes of implementation over time, responding to changes in organisational problems and central political commitment to the policy.
Journal Article
Correction: Rethinking policy “impact”: four models of research-policy relations
On page 7 of the PDF, in the second paragraph under the subheading “Conclusion” the first sentence “The existing literature on research impact has already subjected current approaches to assessing, incentivizing and rewarding impact in the UK to extensive critique (e.g., ADD REFS) and it was not the purpose of this paper to expand on these critiques” has been corrected to “The existing literature on research impact has already subjected current approaches to assessing, incentivizing and rewarding impact in the UK to extensive critique, and it was not the purpose of this paper to expand on these critiques”.
Journal Article
Theorizing Migration Policy: Is There a Third Way? 1
This article critically reviews theories of migration policy according to two criteria: methodological rigor and explanatory plausibility. It finds that political economy accounts are theoretically robust, but at the price of oversimplification. Neo-institutional theories offer more sophisticated accounts, but fall short on a number of methodological and explanatory counts. As an alternative, this article suggests a theory focusing on the functional imperatives of the state in the area of migration, which shape its responses to societal interests and institutional structures.
Journal Article