Journal Article

The Role of Subjectivity and Knowledge Power Struggles in the Formation of Public Policy

Shortall, Sally

2013

Overview

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.

• Publisher: SAGE Publications,Sage Publications,Cambridge University Press
• Subject: Agricultural policy / Case studies / Debate / Debates / Empirical evidence / Empirical research / Funding / Knowledge / Legitimacy / Normativity / Policy Making / Poverty / Power / Public policy / Public sociology / Research funding / Rural areas / Rural development / Rural poverty / Social research / Social theory / Sociologists / Sociology / Sociology of knowledge / Sociology of knowledge and ethics / Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture / Studies / Subjectivity / Truth