“Emphasis on ‘making political science matter’ has also been stressed beyond the academy as funders, politicians and potential research-users place ever-greater emphasis on incentivizing and rewarding ‘impact’, ‘relevance’ and demonstrable ‘public value’” – listen to a podcast by Prof. Matthew Flinders based on a PSR article he co-authored with Prof. Leslie A. Pal: The Moral Foundations of Public Engagement: Does Political Science, as a Discipline, Have an Ethics?
Flinders claims that what has been missing from this debate is any sense of clarity around whether what is being demanded is greater engagement by political science as a discipline or greater engagement by political scientists as individuals.
Matthew Flinders is Professor of Politics and Founding Director of the Sir Bernard Crick Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics at the University of Sheffield. He is also President of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom and a board member of the Academy of Social Sciences.
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Dr Eliza Kania, Brunel University London
