How to Communicate Policy Research beyond the Academy

This is a short talk at the University of Queensland in Brisbane (24 October 2018) called Theory and Practice: How to Communicate Policy Research beyond the Academy

The blog post - Theory and Practice: How to Communicate Policy Research beyond the Academy - should be written in a way that allows you to read along (or at least see the pictures/ powerpoint slides I mention). It begins:

'Here is the powerpoint that I tend to use to inform discussions with civil servants (CS). I first used it for discussion with CS in the Scottish and UK governments, followed by remarkably similar discussions in parts of New Zealand and Australian government. Partly, it provides a way into common explanations for gaps between the supply of, and demand for, research evidence. However, it also provides a wider context within which to compare abstract and concrete reasons for those gaps, which inform a discussion of possible responses at individual, organisational, and systemic levels. Some of the gap is caused by a lack of effective communication, but we should also discuss the wider context in which such communication takes place.

I begin by telling civil servants about the message I give to academics about why policymakers might ignore their evidence:

There are many claims to policy relevant knowledge.

Policymakers have to ignore most evidence.

There is no simple policy cycle in which we all know at what stage to provide what evidence

...

In such talks, I go into different images of policymaking, comparing the simple policy cycle with images of ‘messy’ policymaking, then introducing my own image which describes the need to understand the psychology of choice within a complex policymaking environment.

Under those circumstances, key responses include:

framing evidence in terms of the ways in which your audience understands policy problems

engaging in networks to identify and exploit the right time to act, and

venue shopping to find sympathetic audiences in different parts of political systems.

[see the post for more words, and to see the pictures]