ABSTRACT
Reactions to that paper from other policy researchers were muted or puzzled. The complexities of researcher-researched relationships, especially where the ‘researched’ are elite members, is one of the themes of this collection, and the continuities, breaks, and puzzlements in these experiences of elite research are charted in detail, establishing points of difference and connection between that 1995 paper and this contemporary publication. Working with them may increase a need for explicitness – such a way of working requires recognition of what Terri Seddon, some time ago, called ‘the principle of choice in policy research’. STS-inspired research has contributed significantly to making the interdependence of contemporary governing practices and changes in knowledge visible, and the attention that STS-inspired research accords to networked governing forms and their related knowledge-based artefacts and actors is a vital contribution to understanding contemporary policy.
