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The politics of ideas: The complex interplay of health inequalities research and policy

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  • Katherine E. Smith

Abstract

Public health research is overtly orientated towards influencing policy and yet, despite official commitments to ‘evidence-based policy’, most analyses conclude that the impact of public health research has been limited. Based on an analysis of post-1997 UK policy statements and interviews with 112 key actors, this paper argues that the failure of ‘evidence-based’ policy to emerge relates to the fact it is ideas, not evidence, which travel between research and policy, and that these malleable entities are translated as they move between actors. By unpacking six factors that appear to have shaped the ‘interplay of ideas’ about health inequalities, this paper draws attention to the ways in which policy influences research (as well as vice versa). The paper argues that two distinct ‘idea-types’ are evident within the data, each of which helps explain the difficulties in achieving ‘evidence-based’ policy responses to health inequalities: ‘institutionalised ideas’ and ‘chameleonic ideas’.

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  • Katherine E. Smith, 2014. "The politics of ideas: The complex interplay of health inequalities research and policy," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 41(5), pages 561-574.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:scippl:v:41:y:2014:i:5:p:561-574.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/scipol/sct085
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    Cited by:

    1. Weishaar, Heide & Hurrelmann, Klaus & Okan, Orkan & Horn, Annett & Schaeffer, Doris, 2019. "Framing health literacy: A comparative analysis of national action plans," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(1), pages 11-20.
    2. Kathryn Oliver & Warren Pearce, 2017. "Three lessons from evidence-based medicine and policy: increase transparency, balance inputs and understand power," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 3(1), pages 1-7, December.
    3. Ryan Petteway & Mahasin Mujahid & Amani Allen & Rachel Morello-Frosch, 2019. "Towards a People’s Social Epidemiology: Envisioning a More Inclusive and Equitable Future for Social Epi Research and Practice in the 21st Century," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-21, October.

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