ABSTRACT
This chapter examines what is seen as the more important reasons for the apparent lack of influence of research upon policy, and attempts to draw some conclusions concerning the kinds of contribution which research is capable of making to future policies. The discussion is organised around four major and connected themes which appear to us to underlie many of the difficulties in creating an effective role for research in policy-making. The first three of these concern: the kinds of policy-relevant research undertaken by social scientists, and the contribution to policy-making of such research; the differing frames of reference adopted by researchers and policy-makers in approaching and evaluating the research task; and the constraints placed upon relationships between researchers and policy-makers by the institutional settings within which they usually have to relate to each other. The chapter closes with a consideration of the relationship between policy and practice; and the implications this has for the implementation of research findings.
