Decision Making for the Environment Social and Behavioral Science Research Priorities (2005) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A When Do Environmental Decision Makers Use Social Science?--Rebecca J. Romsdahl
Appendix A When Do Environmental Decision Makers Use Social Science?--Rebecca J. Romsdahl
Pages 139-174
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From page 139... ...
· What is the social science and environmental domain? · Who are the decision makers involved?
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Most of the literature in this bibliography comes from the study of "knowledge utilization," a popular research area in the 1970s and early 1980s. Interest in this field of research seems to rise and fall periodically and it has been less active in recent years; however, as this panel study shows, questions about social science utilization persist and recent studies do build on and advance earlier work.
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government agencies responsible for natural resource management. The bibliography includes two studies that examine social science utilization by such agencies -- the National Oceanic
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. Some of these recommendations include having headquarters and each line office develop social science research plans that identify goals and implementation strategies to help the agency accomplish its mission, creating a chief social scientist position in each line office, and using external experts to help educate personnel about potential contributions of social science to NOAA's goals.
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· unavailability of social science research results until after a decision must be made (Dreyfus, 1977; Greenberg and Mandell, 1991; Healy and Ascher, 1995; Jones et al., 1999; Weiss and Bucuvalas, 1980) · low credibility of social science information relative to natural science information (Gismondi, 1997; Sabatier, 1978)
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Studies of social science use in environmental decision making are sparse overall and tend to focus on case studies of social impact assessment, but a couple of insights are worth mentioning. Freudenburg (1989)
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RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE REVIEWED LITERATURE What Social Science Researchers Can Do to Improve Utilization Some of the studies make recommendations for improving utilization of social science by government decision makers. Francis, King, and Riddlesperger (1980)
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. CONCLUSIONS This appendix presents a brief summary of the state of knowledge in the field of social science utilization.
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was examined · Decision makers were at the federal level · Conclusions: The study found that social science fails to pro duce results in the form of generalized principles that can be ap plied to particular cases. Practitioners need closer, more effective open links with basic social sciences.
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So, to increase utili zation, the gap between social scientists and policy makers' per spectives must be bridged, but there does not necessarily need to be more direct contacts. · Recommendations: The author suggested the formation of a group of individuals representing different roles and skills in re search and policy making who can make realistic and rational appraisals of available social science information, make appropri ate translations from university research to policy-making situa tions, recast policy issues into researchable terms, identify and dis tinguish between scientific and "extrascientific" knowledge needs, deal with the value issues and bureaucratic factors that influence both the development and the use of scientific results, and gain policy makers trust and sufficient understanding of the policy pro
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Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. Notes: · Statistical analysis of 204 face-to-face recorded interviews · Social science research utilization and policy formation were examined · Decision makers represented high-level civil servants or po litical appointees from across the entire range of federal govern ment activities including environmental and natural resource man agement · Conclusions: The study found that decision makers used so cial science in diverse ways including such examples as a basis for planning, evaluating, and determining feasibility of programs and increasing bureaucratic efficiency.
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by teaching social science methods to professionals in environmental management, and (3) by turning research attention to the development of predic tive models of social impacts for future types of environmental impact assessment projects.
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The assumption that guided the study is that the use of social science information is related to how it interacts with other information and with the ideology and interests of the policy maker in the decision-making process. Findings from the study revealed that policy makers drew on a variety of information
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:133-152. Notes: · Literature review and analysis · Factors limiting the use of social science in environmental decisions were examined · Decision makers were at the federal agency level · Conclusions: The study found that the lack of social science inclusion in environmental decision making can be attributed to many factors, including social scientists limiting their own effec tiveness by not communicating effectively with decision makers or failing to offer realistic suggestions for policy changes; social scien tists must also overcome the hurdle of explaining to those with a nonsocial science background the many ways in which environ mental policies are social, the imbalance between resources and expectations for social science results versus other sciences, and political influences may be a large factor because scientists have a limited role in policy-making processes.
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:578-605. Notes: · Literature review and analysis · Factors limiting the use of social science (specifically social impact assessments)
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New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. Notes: · Literature review and analysis · Social science for policy making was considered · Decision makers were at the federal level · Conclusions: The study found that policy making needs so cial science in its design stages to assist in decisions about which program will achieve the desired goals.
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· Recommendations: The author suggested that social science could contribute to EIAs by quantifying the number of peer-re viewed and non-peer-reviewed research studies supporting a given proposal and assessing them for bias, context, and alternatives presented. Other recommendations included that social science could identify the extent to which natural and physical scientists bias their findings with personal value-based inputs and it could provide understanding of the social interaction of public speaking in contexts of unequal power.
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156 DECISION MAKING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT highlighted the importance of dissemination efforts as emphasized by the utilization literature. Healy, R.G., and W
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Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Notes: · 70 face-to-face interviews · Government-contracted social science projects were consid ered · Decision makers were medium-level policy makers in Aus trian federal and municipal government · Conclusions: The study categorized four functions of social science research utilized by government: census, motivation, ac quisition, and rationalization functions.
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Cohen 1979 Usable Knowledge: Social Science and Social Problem Solving. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
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Cluck 2000 Applied Social Science for MMS: A Framework for Decision Mak ing. Washington, DC: Minerals Management Service Environmen tal Studies Program.
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:193-215. Notes: · Interviews with 90 respondents from capital cities of seven states, statistical analysis of relationships between decision types · Social service domain was examined · Decision makers were at the state government level · Conclusions: The study categorized four types of decisions: performance appraisal, resource requirement, program change, and those establishing criteria for assessing effectiveness.
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(2) Organizational: institutional social science research focusing on providing information related to how NOAA and each of the line offices should be organized to enhance the ability to perform required services and produce nec essary outputs.
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Policy makers who have a reasonable appreciation of both scientific and political aspects were more likely to use social sci ence information. In policy making, social science information was often used in decision preparations so it provided a base on which decisions were made versus in business; such information was used directly because there was a higher cost visibility and objectives were easy to quantify, and there were also fewer constituencies to please.
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The following factors were found to influence social science utilization in this study: rapidly chang ing policy issues, organizational incentives, the decision makers' position in the organization and their attitude toward research, and information sources and types. The impact of the information was better explained by information characteristics, such as amount available or the source of it, than by other factors.
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The study found that demographic fac tors, such as age and education, rarely have an influence on the impact of social science information on policy making. It also found that decision makers consciously judge how much informa tion will be helpful rather than just assuming that the information has an impact simply because they used it.
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Eleven factors were analyzed for their impact on utilization: methodological appropriateness, timeliness, lateness of report, positive-negative findings, surprise of findings, central-peripheral program objectives evaluated, pres ence or absence of related studies, political factors, government evaluator interactions, and resources available for the study. Two factors emerged as having significant influence on social science utilization: methodological quality and appropriateness and politi cal factors.
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Rich, R.F. 1977 Uses of social science information by federal bureaucrats: Knowl edge for action versus knowledge for understanding.
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, to improve use of social science data by policy-making agencies, e.g., HEW and HUD. Interviews with CNS personnel (N = 38)
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Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Notes: · Literature review and analysis · Study examined the use of social science in setting legal policy · Decision makers were Supreme Court justices · Conclusions: The study found that it was very difficult to determine the true use of social science in legal decision making.
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problems with the starting points in sociology, such as weak theory, primi tive research methods, incomplete knowledge, and misperceptions on the part of sociologists of how social science research can be used by policy makers, and (2) problems with government recep tivity of social science research, for example, using social science data to further agency aims, congressional members seeking social
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:612-631. Notes: · Structured interviews with a representative sample · Social science analysis: "Policy information" was defined as scientific and technical information about the ways a policy actu ally works, or would work if it were to be adopted -- information ranging from commonsense knowledge to academic research.
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knowledge driven -- from the natural sciences, basic research reveals opportu nities that may be relevantly applied to policy; (2) problem solv ing -- direct application of results from specific social science study to a pending decision; (3)
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New York: Plenum Press. Notes: · Literature review and analysis · Social science analysis of the policy process · Conclusion: The author argues that every policy results from interactions among ideologies, interests, and information.
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Study presented the following obstacles to re search use: academic researchers were often not interested in policy-relevant issues; research questions did not match policy makers definitions of problem issues; researchers simplified prob lems to make them easier to study; social science had few broad theories that could be applicable to framing policy research; social science methodology was often limited (i.e., data were limited or inaccurate) ; problems were often conceptualized to fit the methods instead of fitting the nature of the policy question; social research often took more time than policy makers had before a decision must be made; social research concepts often did not match deci sion makers' assumptions of social behavior; a great deal of social research examined issues that policy makers could do little to change (i.e., race, class, etc.)
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174 DECISION MAKING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT Notes: · Literature analysis and persuasion · Effects of social science research on social issues, such as crime prevention and labor market policies in the United States compared with Europe were examined · Decision makers were at the federal level · Conclusions: The study found that social research increased the knowledge of policy makers in two ways: (1) It helped identify issues that were open to alternatives and possible to change and (2)
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