ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to strengthen understanding of the theoretical and practical challenges involved in bridging the gap between the parallel universes of researchers and policymakers in academic, community and public sector settings. The first section of the chapter identifies a range of differing assumptions and drivers influencing public sector policymakers and university-based researchers.
These include differing aims and expectations in relation to: the framing of research problems; the time frame for achieving results; the relationship between evidence and decision making; the management of organisational and political risks; and strategies for communicating research outcomes.
The second half of the chapter draws on recent research on the obstacles standing in the way of decisive action on climate change to open up broader debates about the increasingly disconnected realms of democratic decision making, political agency and corporate power. Key climate change policy roadblocks include: denial of the necessity and urgency of action; the power and influence of vested interests; political paralysis and ‘short termism’; technological, social and economic path dependencies; and financial, governance and implementation constraints. The chapter concludes by noting the importance of an appropriately integrated combination of evidence and education, creative and disruptive innovation and visionary advocacy and leadership in driving the decisive actions required to adequately address large scale, complex policy problems such as those exemplified by the threat of extreme climate change.
