Making Science Public as a route to better evidence | Impact of Social Sciences

"The role of scientific evidence within policy is one of the most vexed issues within politics and public administration. Often such evidence is complex, translated to the public via the media and subsequently used to justify particular policy actions or seen to be ignored by government ministers. This use, or perhaps abuse, of evidence can have implications for political legitimacy, scientific authority and democratic participation and a host of efforts are being made to alleviate this situation. However, problems persist. 2012 saw a prolonged, and still unresolved, debate about the effectiveness and ethics of culling badgers to arrest the spread of bovine tuberculosis in the UK. This followed a series of flashpoints along the difficult boundary between science and politics over the last 20 years: for example, the MMR vaccine debate challenged scientific authority, Climategate led to questions over the integrity of scientific research and the sacking of David Nutt called into question the status of scientific advice in policymaking. In this post, we use the example of evidence-based policy to illuminate the recurring crises of science and politics, and how one perceived solution – making science more public and transparent – opens up a new set of challenging questions for science society..."