Social researchers must continue to engage in the systematic exploration of the world as it is and as it could be.
By Geoff Mulgan
London School of Economics and Political Science - December 9, 2013
How researchers and the state understand the scope of social research plays a pivotal role in the future of impact. Geoff Mulgan
argues society at large – the public, researchers and the government –
must all adapt their practices to take evidence seriously and to take
part in policy implementation. Social researchers are in a unique
position as they are required to be engaged with power, but remain
ultimately accountable to the public not the state.
There are two competing traditions of social research. In one
tradition it is an arm of the state, concerned with mapping and
measuring society the better to shape it. The word statistics
reflects this (Prussian) origin. And it’s not surprising that any state
should want to understand society, and to exercise some control over
its tendencies to disorder, criminality or, in some cases, dissent.
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