IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rsocxx/v9y2014i3p345-355.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The perils of 'impact' for academic social science

Author

Listed:
  • Martyn Hammersley

Abstract

'Impact' has become a standard way of conceptualising the contributions that research makes to policy-making and practice, this reflecting in large part the shift from a state patronage to an investment model of research funding. However, little attention has been given to the metaphor that underpins the term 'impact'. Yet this is important because there are ways in which it can distort our understanding of the public contribution of academic research, and thereby create false expectations about it. Some problematic assumptions built into the metaphor are examined, along with several ways in which it may obscure our understanding of the relationship between research and policy-making or practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Martyn Hammersley, 2014. "The perils of 'impact' for academic social science," Contemporary Social Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 345-355, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocxx:v:9:y:2014:i:3:p:345-355
    DOI: 10.1080/21582041.2014.923580
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/21582041.2014.923580
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/21582041.2014.923580?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rsocxx:v:9:y:2014:i:3:p:345-355. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rsoc21 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.