Extract

ABSTRACT: Practice and policy led research should be accorded higher recognition in academic
institutions, alongside the dominant scientifically- orientated research culture. Three reasons are
adduced for this. A broad-church approach to planning and policy-making involves baptising and
using a variety of disciplines and perspectives for planning and policy purposes. Practice and
policy led thinking, judging and doing cannot be reduced to, and transcend the theoretical
/empirical divide. The social location of practice and policy led research on the border between
academia and the planning, policy and political market-place requires the development of
assessment criteria reflecting the overlap and the tensions between the norms of these different
institutions. The challenge for the future is to explore these issues as part of a continuing
conversation between academic and political institutions. The goal is to change the world rather
than simply interpret it.

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