Comments on: Talk on Science and Policy, September 17 https://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=752 Sun, 14 Oct 2007 20:35:43 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.10 By: merle https://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=752&cpage=1#comment-44719 Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:00:37 +0000 http://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=752#comment-44719 I agree about the dangers of blurring the lines between the political sphere and the academic one when it comes to imposing research projects and perhaps even a specific methodology to get the desired results.
But, perhaps paradoxically, I’m also wondering if we do not wrongly presuppose that those two spheres operate completely autonomously and hence that we need to find a way for them to come together. Is the science not already political, especially in its institutionalized form? Is it not, even before we ask the question about explicit and institutionalized dialogue among policy makers and scientists, already a social power struggling with or against other institutionalized forms of social power?

]]> By: crocus https://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=752&cpage=1#comment-44542 Tue, 02 Oct 2007 01:03:12 +0000 http://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=752#comment-44542 It is indeed important to find ways that science can inform policy and vice versa. Scientists need to stress the importance of policy creation with regards to issues that need immediate action (not more discussion) and policy needs to inform researchers of what information they need before they can implement good policy.

I do feel however that it is important to make sure that the lines do not get blurred. There may be a danger with policy driving scientific research; it is important to make sure that scientific findings are impartial and not driven by special interests (as can occur when industry or business guide research). It may be less likely to happen in a governmental situation, but the potential needs to be acknowledged. This is not to say that the reverse cannot be true. Science driving policy could lead to an imbalance in the types of policies that are developed.

Perhaps instead of adding another step (an interpreter) the entire process needs to be simplified and accelerated. Science should provide policy makers with research findings that are succinct and make suggestions on how the larger goal can be enacted in short term instalments (the length of time with which policy works). Policy makers then must dedicate time and energy to gather the relevant stakeholders and work to implement the suggestions. Regardless, scientists and policymakers both need to make themselves available to each other during the entire process for progress to be made.

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