Linda Hantrais - International and Interdisciplinary Insights into Evidence and Policy

International and Interdisciplinary
Insights into Evidence and Policy

Contributors to this highly original book address the many questions raised by researchers and policy-makers about the complex and often uneasy relationship between evidence and policy from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. They explore both the institutions acting as evidence brokers and the different methods used to collect, assess and use evidence in a variety of national and international settings, by drawing on their experience of working in international contexts and in different disciplinary and policy environments, and in some cases analysing their own involvement in the evidence-based policy process. The policy areas covered range from national and state level economic and social policies more generally to specific areas of intervention, such as EU bio-fuels targets, the Active Ageing Index, mental health and media, the construction of second-language learning policies, microfinance and alcohol policy. The authors highlight the strengths and weaknesses, the use and abuse, or successes and failures, of different institutional and methodological approaches to evidence-based policy. They consider what elements of the lessons learned might be transferable across national and cultural boundaries, and if so under what conditions. This book was originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Social Science.

Linda Hantrais, FAcSS, is Emeritus Professor of European Social Policy at Loughborough University, UK, and Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics' Centre for International Studies. Her research interests span international comparative research theory, methodology, management and practice, with particular reference to public policy and institutional structures in the European Union, and the relationship between socio-demographic trends and social policy.

Ashley Thomas Lenihan is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics Centre for International Studies and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Law, Science, & Global Security at Georgetown University. She is also a Senior Policy Adviser at the UK Academy of Social Sciences. Her research focusses on the political economy of international security, international law, and the relationship between social science research and the policy-making process.

Susanne MacGregor, FAcSS, is an Honorary Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Emeritus Professor at Middlesex University, London. She has been a Scientific Adviser to the UK Department of Health and was Programme Coordinator for their Drug Misuse Research Initiative (20002008). She is a member of the UNRISD research collaboration: Towards universal social security in emerging economies.

Contemporary Issues in Social Science

Series editor: David Canter

University of Huddersfield, UK

Contemporary Social Science, the journal of the Academy of Social Sciences, is an interdisciplinary, cross-national journal which provides a forum for disseminating and enhancing theoretical, empirical and/or pragmatic research across the social sciences and related disciplines. Reflecting the objectives of the Academy of Social Sciences, it emphasises the publication of work that engages with issues of major public interest and concern across the world, and highlights the implications of that work for policy and professional practice.

The Contemporary Issues in Social Science book series contains the journals most cutting-edge special issues. Leading scholars compile thematic collections of articles that are linked to the broad intellectual concerns of Contemporary Social Science, and as such these special issues are an important contribution to the work of the journal. The series editor works closely with the guest editor(s) of each special issue to ensure they meet the journals high standards. The main aim of publishing these special issues as a series of books is to allow a wider audience of both scholars and students from across multiple disciplines to engage with the work of Contemporary Social Science and the Academy of Social Sciences.

Titles in the series:

Crowds in the 21st Century

Perspectives from contemporary social science

Edited by John Drury and Clifford Stott

Biologising the Social Sciences

Challenging Darwinian and Neuroscience Explanations

Edited by David Canter and David Turner

The Social Dynamics of Web 2.0

Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Edited by Charalambos Tsekeris and Ioannis Katerelos

Alcohol and Public Policy

Edited by Thom Brooks

Knowledge Mobilisation and Social Sciences

Research Impact and Engagement

Edited by Jon Bannister and Irene Hardill

Protest, Movements, and Dissent in the Social Sciences

A Multidisciplinary Perspective

Edited by Giovanni Travaglino

Social Science Perspectives on Climate Change

Edited by David Canter

Revisiting the Self

Social Science Perspectives

Edited by Charalambos Tsekeris

The Olympic Legacy

Social Scientific Explorations

Edited by Alan Tomlinson

International and Interdisciplinary Insights into Evidence and Policy

Edited by Linda Hantrais, Ashley Thomas Lenihan and Susanne MacGregor

First published 2016

by Routledge

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2016 Academy of Social Science

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-65526-3

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Publishers Note

The publisher accepts responsibility for any inconsistencies that may have arisen during the conversion of this book from journal articles to book chapters, namely the possible inclusion of journal terminology.

Disclaimer

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their permission to reprint material in this book. The publishers would be grateful to hear from any copyright holder who is not here acknowledged and will undertake to rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of this book.