Dimensions of Impact in the Social Sciences

The aim of this book is to compare and contextualise the dimensions of impact within the social sciences. The contribution of this book then is threefold: Unlike most other studies of the 2014REF impact case studies, this book includes case studies from three different sub-panels, which in themselves capture several disciplines, and therefore allows for a comparison of how impact and academic identify are defined and presented. Therefore, it allows for an in-depth comparison across three key social sciences disciplines. Secondly, the impact case studies are placed in an analytical framework that takes identifies different types of impact and impact pathways and places them in the context of academic identities and difference policy models. Finally, it provides a comparison across time based on interviews with Social Policy professors who are looking back over 40 years of being involved as well as analysing the relationship between research and policy-making. This long view allows to place the achievements as well as the serendipitous and superficial nature of impact into the context of different governments and stages of welfare state development.