The Impact of the Social Sciences

The Impact of the Social Sciences is a very important book, because it shows the enormous impact the social sciences have made in business, government, and civil society. At a time when governments overly concentrate on science and engineering, they fail to understand that without the social sciences many of the physical science/technological advances would have little traction, particularly without an understanding of human and social behaviour and change. This is a must read for all, particularly decision makers in government and business.

-- Prof. Cary L. Cooper
The social sciences have tremendous impact potential. But in practice, our research community can take much more responsibility for generating a return on the public’s investment. Readable, relevant and evidence based, this book will inspire the research community to deliver greater impact. -- Penny Young

Of all areas of academic research, the social sciences should be the most concerned with the question of impact, with how they affect the societies they study. This book is a valuable guide to the importance of social science research, and sets out a systematic approach to thinking about and measuring its different types of impact.

-- Diane Coyle
This ambitious, learned, and valuable book confronts fundamental questions about the scope of the social sciences, the character of its audiences, mechanisms of influence, criteria for assessment, and the impact of digital culture. Richly detailed and rigorously reasoned, this is a must read. -- Dr. Ira Katznelson
The new book from the LSE is timely. It provides a rich, empirical account. It is based on analyses of staffing data, profiles of the outputs and impacts of a sample of 270 researchers drawn from online sources, reviews from universities′ websites, interviews with 100 researchers proactive in identifying the impact for their work, interviews with potential research users, published surveys and case studies of research/practice linkages, and revenue flows to researchers. The book is jargon-free, well-structured, with clear tables and revealing graphics, and some pertinent and witty quotations - all in all a model of research communication. It is accompanied by a website and through its production, it has been accompanied by a blog which continues...This work is a valuable contribution to understanding the often fraught research/practice relationship. -- William Solesbury
Deceptively compact, this data-rich book covers an enormous amount of territory beyond the scope of this review, and is an ideal starting point for anyone who is looking for a broad overview of the story of the social sciences in modern research, and the current, rapidly changing landscape within which the research impact agenda is situated. Although critical of many of the ways in which the impact agenda is currently being implemented, the authors encourage social scientists to seize the opportunity to demonstrate how much the social sciences can contribute to the economy and society. -- Michele Ferguson, The University of Queensland
The attention and time devoted to assessing the impact of social sciences research on public policy have been minimal at best. There have been previous attempts by other authors to disseminate this information, but this text – The impact of the social sciences: how academics and their research make a difference – is the first time a coordinated approach has really been utilized to comprehensively assess this area. In an era of diminishing funds for research, the impact that works such as this could have on the value that society places in social sciences research is immense… Social science research in general has immense research impact potential but it is in the domain of the current and emerging researchers to embrace the opportunities that this text highlights in order to reestablish, at least in the eyes of the public, the value and importance of research into human action. This book should be regarded as a seminal study that breaks new ground in how academics disseminate and communicate their research. -- Genevieve Hohnena, Murdoch University, Australia
IMPACT is written in candid language and is well illustrated by figures and tablesenabling a wide audience to take advantage of its ideas and proposed courses ofaction. As a handy script IMPACT, taking advantage of the escalated recent progressin the various social science disciplines, opens new research agendas for social scientistsin order to relocate to a more meaningful field of study and research amongthe applied sciences. As such, IMPACT is a must for those involved in our environment,society’s wellbeing, economic growth and in orderly spatial development. -- Baruch A. Kipnis, The University of Haifa
The research design is a wonderful example of quantitative and qualitative research, with the modelling of the determinants of impact done to a high level of sophistication and the case studies to a rich level of detail. The section on the demand for social science research amongst users shows a thorough knowledge of the policy process, as well as a good understanding of the variety of different kinds of beneficiaries who might be interested in social science research. -- John D Br