The Evaluation and Advancement of Policy Process Research

Abstract

This chapter begins by summarizing what it means to design policy process research by recapping the chapters. Social science involves using scientific processes or methods for forming understandings and knowledge about people and their interactions with each other and the world. The methods associated with policy process theories include embracing varied relationships between researchers and their phenomena, from basic science where researchers detach themselves from their subjects to various forms of engaged scholarship, such as co-producing knowledge, ethnographic approaches, and advocacy. The epistemological orientation of policy process theories traditionally relies on a combination of empiricism and falsificationism as part of their traditional scientific method. Some ontological assumptions used in policy process research necessitate mindfulness and tolerance of their assumptions. People create, maintain, and advance policy process theories or destroy them through neglect and poor judgment.