Networking Knowledge about Networks

1. Networking Knowledge about Networks Collaboration between the Communication Research and Policy Communities

2. The Past • There is an extensive literature on the relationship between the communication research and policy communities going back to the 1880s. • Analysis of this literature tells us about:

3. What We Know • Context – the sociology of knowledge • Barriers – • knowledge creation • knowledge transfer • knowledge utilization • Enduring tensions • Lessons learned

4. Context • Politics of the empirical • Depoliticization effect of institutional politics • Detachment of effects studies from originary concerns • Complexity • From government to governance and governmentality • Pessimism about the policy enterprise

5. Barriers – Knowledge Creation • Selection of topic • Problem definition • Unit of analysis • Level of abstraction • Reward structure • Timing

6. Barriers – Knowledge Transmission • Genre • Venue • Finding the information • Stage of policy-making process • Timing

7. Barriers – Knowledge Utilization • Understanding of social science research • Skills to evaluate social science research • Political uses of research process • Political uses of research results • Timing

8. Enduring Tensions -- Relationships • Relationships • Researcher and policy-maker (trust, autonomy, structure of relationship) • Researcher and academic employer • Researcher and self: Identity • Research horizon (Publication vs. knowledge management system) • Research questions (validity, innovation vs. consensus)

9. Lessons for Researchers • Ideas matter • Work on policy-relevant questions • Analyze results from policy perspective • Beware of over-generalization • Build coherent research agenda • Translate results for access • Become involved in institutional design

10. What We Don’t Know • Existing lit largely case studies & broad prescription, not systematic research • Case studies in this area are analytically thin and acontextual • Case studies deal only with portions of complex decision-making processes • Little work on current environment

11. The Problem • Existing lit suggests bridges between research & policy communities, eg • Knowledge management systems • Institutional links • Curriculum development • But does not provide the analytical detail required to operationalize such ideas • Current curriculum study

12. Models • Existing lit yields model of linear, 1-way transmission between research & policy communities • Alternative model: Collaboration between research and policy communities on knowledge production

13. Research Agenda • Existing theories and research methods that could be applied to problem: • Policy Networks • Policy Discourse • Information Seeking • Collaborative Work Practices

14. Policy Networks • Private-public sector links are critical to outcomes of policy processes • Used largely in Europe, largely for industrial policy • Add research community as third leg, and apply to social policy issues as well • Use network analysis

15. Policy Discourse • Conceptual frames influence policies • Analysis usually single issue, single discourse • Conduct meta-analyses & comparative analysis across discourses • Use textual analysis, groupware exercises, meta-analyses

16. Information Seeking • Decision-makers acquire information through habitual practices • Use in policy analysis has been relatively rare, always issue and usually individual specific • Systematically apply to policy-makers who deal with IT • Use interviews, observation, textual analysis, network analysis

17. Collaborative Work Practices • Successful collaborations that endure over time are practice based • Easier to study when take place within fixed organizational units • But can apply to relationship between IT research and policy communities • Observation key

18. Today • Administrative & statutory law constrain federal agency use of information -- without research on effects of regs & laws on nature of decision-making • Almost no research on congressional use of information in decision-making

19. A Research Agenda • Conference raised specific IT policy issues, but the relationship between the research and policy communities must also be analyzed. • Doing so of wider value as well, for ITs are one among many policy problems involving large, complex, and rapidly changing technological systems.