Policy (re) turn debate in British geography

Abstract

In the UK, the policy (re) turn debate emerged in the late 1990s. One of the most important reasons for this was the establishment of the Blair-New Labor government, which introduced evidence-based policy making and sought evidence from academics. The aim of this paper is to trace this debate and consider what is required for producing academic work that constructively contributes to public policies. For this purpose, the author studied debate articles dealing with the relevance of modern human geography that appeared in the most influential journals and were written by renowned academics. The main findings are summarized as follows. Among the most important points of focus of the policy (re) turn debate are the evaluation of various approaches that emerged in the anti-quantification movement in terms of policy relevance and the extent of relevance. In this debate, it was insisted that qualitative research featuring recent cultural and social geographies and geography in itself make significant contributions mainly to local-scale/government policies. Nevertheless, certain serious problems such as poverty and inequality cannot be solved by local-scale/ government policies alone. Therefore, examinations and proposals for policies in the upper tiers of governance and designs for intergovernmental relations remain as further tasks. This debate clarified that geographers need to devise strategic, multitrack practices to make constructive contributions to public policies. According to Kevin Ward's classification, activist geography and participatory geography have the potential to lead public opinion toward establishing alternative societies. On the other hand, policy geography requires its researchers not only to theorize and write on research but also make their writing easily accessible to influential policy makers. In this regard, the research should be both of a high standard and exhaustive, while at the same time contain effective strategies for dissemination, depending on its purpose. The above findings provide important suggestions for geography studies to make constructive contributions to public policies not only in the UK but also in the rest of the world. The policy (re) turn debate only identifies such geography studies and provides the manner in which research methods are to be selected and combined for effective utilization. On the basis of this debate,we must apply the above suggestions in our own research practices.