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Policy Research As Social Science: Outflanking The Value Dilemma

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  • Laurence Chalip

Abstract

Social scientists fear that policy research compromises their objectivity. As a result, policy science is becoming a separate discipline which is accorded lower status that other fields of social inquiry. However, the history, sociology and psychology of science show that the elaboration of robust social theory would be aided by a more intimate relation between policy research and academic social science than currently obtains. The traditional canons of value freedom, which have been invoked to justify the independence of social science from policy, misrepresent the relation between facts and values in science. Objective knowledge is consequent on dispute and triangulation by a many‐valued community of fallible social scientists; but it does not eventuate from consensual value neutralism. Social knowledge interacts with social values to change phenomena our theories represent. This self‐restructuring characteristic of social events warrants singular attention by social scientists. Policy researchers are in a particularly opportune position to provide that attention.

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  • Laurence Chalip, 1985. "Policy Research As Social Science: Outflanking The Value Dilemma," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 5(2), pages 287-308, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revpol:v:5:y:1985:i:2:p:287-308
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1541-1338.1985.tb00357.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Beesley, Lisa G. A., 2003. "Science policy in changing times: are governments poised to take full advantage of an institution in transition?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1519-1531, September.
    2. Hemert, P. van & Nijkamp, P., 2008. "Thematic research prioritization in the EU and the Netherlands: an assessment on the basis of content analysis," Serie Research Memoranda 0023, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.

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