Description
Where is the ‘big manual’ for academic boundary-work? Institutional stances on policy-maker utility.Abstract
At a time when big goals have become central to government policy and industrial strategies in the last decade or so and grand challenge narratives pervade academic debates, this review paper aims to make four contributions. First, to brace an available evidence base, presently notable for its simplistic framing of small and big challenges, and articulate ways that Business Schools can contribute in more expansive ways towards policy practice. Second, to articulate a three-dimensional diagrammatic representation of the institutional scaffolding work in policy practice, drawing attention to the avenues for fruitful tall ontological engagement – ‘big picture’ – through interconnecting spheres, ugly scaffolding work and multi-modal vocabularies. Third, to catalyse and shift the debate forward, addressing the missing industrial policy symbiosis. Finally, to draw out lessons from our multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) in policymaking utility of academic boundary-work in policy environments. We illustrate with our experience on working on the geothermal energy transition in Northern Ireland and Belize to reflect on policy-maker utility.
| Period | 17 Jun 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event type | Workshop |
| Degree of Recognition | International |