Policy and Research

This may be a grander sounding section title than the content warrants – but is the one gone with for now.

The approach behind this section is one of puzzling and exploring: Let’s see where this leads us, done for no reason other than to be interesting and (hopefully) useful.

Research is increasingly linked to the need to produce demonstrably useful outcomes – often with direct commercialisation or policy formulation in mind. Whilst ‘really useful’ activity is important there is equally a place for activities undertaken for no immediate gain, for playfulness, simply because a puzzle has presented itself. Such activities have value if they stimulate curiosity and provide different ways of seeing our social world.

There is a recurring interest in why the good intentions of truly committed people, to bring about changes in society at various levels, seem too often to founder when moving from ideas to policy to implementation to change on the ground.

Articles in this section include: