 POLICY RESEARCH AS SOCIAL SCIENCE: OUTFLANKING THE VALUE DILEMMALaurence Chalip Review of Policy Research, 1985, vol. 5, issue 2, 287-308 Abstract: Social scientists fear that policy research compromises their objectivity. As a result, policy science is becoming a separate discipline which is accorded lower status that other fields of social inquiry. However, the history, sociology and psychology of science show that the elaboration of robust social theory would be aided by a more intimate relation between policy research and academic social science than currently obtains. The traditional canons of value freedom, which have been invoked to justify the independence of social science from policy, misrepresent the relation between facts and values in science. Objective knowledge is consequent on dispute and triangulation by a many‐valued community of fallible social scientists; but it does not eventuate from consensual value neutralism. Social knowledge interacts with social values to change phenomena our theories represent. This self‐restructuring characteristic of social events warrants singular attention by social scientists. Policy researchers are in a particularly opportune position to provide that attention. Date: 1985 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:revpol:v:5:y:1985:i:2:p:287-308 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Review of Policy Research is currently edited by Christopher Gore More articles in Review of Policy Research from Policy Studies Organization Contact information at EDIRC. |
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