School of Social and Political Science

Description

This online workshop will be run by the Scottish Policy and Research Exchange from 1.00-2.00pm on 7th March, 2024. You will be sent a link to attend in advance of the session. 

About the workshop

Improving the use of evidence and expertise in public policy is widely and increasingly regarded as imperative to improving policy outcomes. However, implicit within many efforts to facilitate this form of policy influence is a ‘technical’ or ‘instrumental’ framing that assumes linearity in research-policy relations, incentivises a narrow focus on impact, and legitimises notions that researchers are value-neutral in their work.
 
Many researchers and practitioners have highlighted not only the unattainability of such instrumental approaches in practice, but also the undesirability of them – emphasising their harms, such as its complicity in (re)producing societal inequalities. Instead, they suggest what can be considered a ‘relational’ framing as a way forward, which embraces the complexity of research-policy relations, centres learning and relationships as impacts in their own right, and places attention on the inseparability of facts and values, particularly through how problems are framed.
 
This session will provide an introduction to relational approaches to policy engagement, and ways we can ethically and equitably engage in more technical approaches where these are the best (or only) route for engagement. 
 
SPRE will facilitate this workshop by providing some introductory framing and provocations to spark reflection. We will also invite participants to work pairs or small groups to share experiences from their own work about engagement with policy makers and decision makers. 
 
At the end of the session, participants will leave with a better understanding of relational approaches, a clear grasp of their own opportunities for engagement, and some tools/approaches which they can use to strengthen their engagement practice.