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Government social researchers are a group of civil servants who have been overlooked in the existing literature on policy-making in the UK. Their role is particularly intriguing in policy areas relating to environment, food, and energy policy. In these domains, researchers in Science and Technology Studies have argued that policy-makers hold flawed assumptions about citizens’ views and likely actions, contributing to an image of UK policy institutions as overly technocratic and resistant to change. In this context, this thesis aims to understand changes in social research capacity and influence in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) between 2001 and 2015. Based on an analysis of more than 200 documents and 46 interviews with civil servants and external researchers, this thesis illuminates the growth of social research capacity and influence within DEFRA and DECC, since these departments were formed in 2001 and 2008 respectively. The first two empirical chapters (4 & 5) explain how social research capacity expanded within specific institutional, political, and epistemic contexts, through changes in how actors perceived the meanings, roles, and value of social research. It is shown that, contrary to what has been implied by recent literature, DEFRA and DECC are epistemically diverse and dynamic: they house multiple and conflicting epistemic perspectives which are reshaped over time. Moreover, social researchers are committed to performing a ‘challenge function’, whereby they question assumptions, values, and the framing of ideas. Indeed, such challenging has been important in shaping the capacity for social research within these departments. Social researchers’ ‘challenge function’ has also contributed to their gaining greater influence in DEFRA and DECC. Considering policy areas from each department in depth, Chapters 6 & 7 show that social researchers have enabled both ‘single-loop’ and ‘double-loop’ learning. As a result, in both departments social researchers have had some success in encouraging their colleagues to develop and test out policy ideas with the help of empirical research about citizens’ perspectives and everyday lives. While social researchers’ 'challenge function' is a significant policy learning mechanism, it has also been inhibited in various ways within these departments. The thesis concludes that their challenge function could be strengthened if social researchers gain greater representation in the senior civil service and more institutional recognition of their expert knowledge relating to a policy area (besides their skills). Moreover, better interdisciplinary collaboration is needed early on in policy development processes. Such changes have the potential to improve both the effectiveness and democratic legitimacy of policy-making within DEFRA and DECC.

The main objective of this study is to examine the characteristics of the literature of Indonesian Economics, Indonesian Agricultural Development Economics, and Indonesian Demography. The data used are the references made by Ph.D. and master's candidates in these three subject fields in their theses, which were submitted to the Australian National University during the period from 1971 to 1981. At first the references were examined according to four researcher groups : Ph.D.'s in Indonesia Economics (Ph.D Indec); Masters of Agricultural Development Economics (MADE), with Indonesia as the subject area; Ph. D.'s in Demography (PhD Demog), with Indonesia as the subject area; Masters of Arts in Demography ( MAD ), with Indonesia as the subject area. The results indicate that the literature referred to by the four researcher groups has many of the same characteristics, as well as/ a high degree of relationship amongst them. Therefore, the references made by the four researcher groups were combined. In total, there were 5235 references from 42 theses. It was found that 54.48% of the references were to monographs and 44.85% were to serials. Academic research centres, which contributed 21.32% to the literature of the four researcher groups, constituted the major source' institution, slightly above the contribution of commercial publishers. The United States was the most important source country, contributing 35.28%; and Indonesia was the second most important, contributing 25.86%. The main language used was English, accounting for 82.35% with Indonesian the second, accounting for 15.01%. Materials of up to 10 years old accounted for 68.41% of the total.

This thesis focuses on the relationship between public libraries, that is, those library services provided by local authorities under the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act for use by the general public, and research conducted in such services by professional library staff - 'practitioner-researchers'- within the local government context. The aims of the study are: • To examine the relationships between local authorities, public library services, and research activities. • To review and evaluate contemporary research activities in public library services carried out by practitioner-researchers. • To identify and investigate the use of particular research methods and techniques used by practitioner-researchers. • To analyse, and provide a clear understanding of, limitations in current practice. Chapter One introduces the study and states the parameters and constraints of the research. The time period covered by this thesis is from the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act until April 1998. Chapter Two argues that as local government moves from a traditional model of service provision to a model of activities in support of strategic policy objectives, more attention will need to be given to 'deep' research in order to address cross-cutting issues. Chapter Three reviews the public library research scene from three perspectives, historical, thematic and current, and demonstrates the emergence of a more coherent approach with co-ordination and funding at a national level. It also shows that research methods remain undeveloped in the public library service as a whole. Research activity is largely confined to simpler issues of service development and does not extend to research addressing the impact of the service. Chapter Four outlines and explains the methodology used for the fieldwork. It demonstrates the rigour incorporated in the naturalistic inquiry approach, verifies the sample, and describes the process of data analysis. Chapter Five examines current practice in public library services through a series of twenty interviews with Chief Librarians. An overview of the findings is followed by a more detailed analysis which draws from the qualitative data. The analysis is set in context, making links with the earlier literature reviews. The closing section broadens the discussion to consider the influence of research on policy. Chapter Six synthesises the themes of the thesis. A description of the new agenda, and an analysis of its implications for research and organisational structures, enables a reconsideration of the rationale for research in local government. It is argued that simply demonstrating the relevance of the service is not enough; the real contribution of research must be in terms of policy development. Approaches to research, and in particular research methods, are reviewed to assess their suitability and a way forward is identified.

While research in the area of strategy is diverse and widely diffused across different areas of interest within the domain of strategy, the academic interest in the process of strategy-making still remains current (Szulanski, Porac and Dos, 2005:xiv). Some researchers deem the amorphous boundaries and inherent pluralism in the field of strategy as benefiting scholars and practitioners to thrive as a community without being constraint by a dominant theoretical or methodological ‘straight-jacket’ (Nag, Hambrick&Chen, 2007:952). It became evident from the literature review that academic discourse on the process of strategy-making renders little academic agreement and is explained in diverse and opposing ways. This study endeavored to unite various views into a single description of strategy-making processes. A continuum of diverse strategy-making approaches is crystallized from literature. Various and divergent views on strategy-making are grouped together and associated with extreme views in this range of approaches to strategy-making. These extreme views represent the rational planning approach to strategy-making on the one end and the emergent approach to strategy-making on the other end. Issues influencing the choice of strategy-making approach, hinging on the perceived advantages and disadvantages of these approaches, are also investigated. The study set out to describe the dominant approach/es to strategy-making followed in South African organisations. This is done through qualitative and quantitative research exploring the research questions and hypotheses. Furthermore, defying critique on research methodology typically followed for strategy research (with dominance of qualitative research methods), this study made use of mixed method research. This enabled quantitative data (from questionnaires) to be corroborated with qualitative data (from interviews). Results were also quantified and a spread of data analysis techniques applied to provide the most reliable and valid results and conclusions. This study describes, applies and tests an array of strategy-making approaches categorised according to extreme views. The study therefore shows that reflecting only on one aspect or extreme of strategy-making to the exclusion of other views when conducting strategy research, training on strategy or practicing strategy distorts the truth and reality of strategy-making and cripples the application of strategy in general. / Thesis (DCom)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Business Management / unrestricted

Master's students have the potential to contribute to the counseling literature in significant ways, reducing the current scientist-practitioner gap in the mental health professions. Participants in this roundtable will have the opportunity to learn and discuss strategies for creating programs that engage master's level counseling trainees in research and are supportive of the development of scientist-practitioners in counseling.

This research reports on the nature and preference of the relationship between researchers and practitioners, as expressed by both parties. The research methods used in this study included a critical analysis of 28 Masters and doctoral dissertations from a large university in South Africa to examine how they described the researcher–practitioner relationship. This was followed by extended interviews with both the original researchers and the participants in three studies selected from these 28 projects. In addition, two research projects conducted by experienced researchers were included, as well as a discussion on how my participants interacted with me as a researcher. The data were explained through the theoretical frame of a general model developed by Huberman in 1990, not only focusing on the relationship manifested in the research process itself, but also locating the relationship within a broader theoretical frame that seeks to explain the patterns and consequences of such engagement. The findings draw attention to the often uncovered similarities between the two communities, while also highlighting ethics as an area of concern that displays the biggest disjunction between the two communities. In addition, the findings confirm the powerful influence of organisational culture, in this case academic discourse on the behaviour of an individual researcher. On the other hand, however, the findings also point to the individualism manifested in research decisions and processes. Finally, the findings disprove the way in which power is perceived in research situations in the literature. The significance of this study also includes a revisiting of existing theories about insider/outsider positioning and research utilisation and the proposal to extend current debates. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Higher education institutions in South Africa are pressured to produce high quality and quantity research output. In order to produce research, information is needed. Very little research has been done on the information needs of veterinary science researchers and the role and services of veterinary libraries. The aim of this study was to determine what the information needs, information seeking behaviour and information use behaviour of veterinary researchers are, and how these needs are being met by the library. Researchers and information specialists at the Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, were used as a case study. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected by means of questionnaires, focus group interviews, a citation analysis and LibQual results (only as additional information). Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used to analyse the data. The study found that the information needs of researchers are influenced by the research environment, they need access to information and information resources and prefer electronic information sources. Although many of the information needs are addressed by current library services, a number of potential areas of improvement were identified. These include technical support with accessing online collections, support with research methodology and publishing, improved collection building practices and dedicated library spaces for researchers. Findings revealed a considerable gap between researchers’ expectations from information specialists and their own perceptions of roles to fulfil. Researchers are often not aware of the information organising skills and expertise of information specialists. It is recommended that information specialists need to make researchers aware of their skills and expertise. The study contributes to the limited literature on the information behaviour of veterinary researchers and libraries supporting their needs. / Dissertation (MIS) -- University of Pretoria, 2015. / mn2015 / Information Science / Unrestricted

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