Credibility in Policy Expertise: The Function of Boundaries Between Research and Policy

As science becomes an increasingly crucial resource for addressing complex challenges in society, extensive demands are placed upon the researchers who produce it. Creating valuable expert knowledge that intervenes in policy or practice requires knowledge brokers to facilitate interactions at the boundary between research and policy. Yet, existing research lacks a compelling account of the ways in which brokerage is performed to gain credibility. Drawing on mixed‐method analysis of 12 policy research settings, I outline a novel set of strategies for attaining symbolic power, whereby policy experts position themselves and others via conceptual distances drawn between the “world of ideas” and the “world of policy and practice.” Disciplinary distance works to situate research as either disciplinary or undisciplinary, epistemic distance creates a boundary between complex specialist research and direct digestible outputs, temporal distance represents the separation of slow rigorous research and agile responsive analysis, and economic distance situates research as either pure and intrinsic or marketable and fundable. I develop a theoretical account that unpacks the boundaries between research communities and shows how these boundaries permit policy research actors to achieve various strategic aims.     

A simulation of the transmission of HIV and AIDS in regional populations within the United Kingdom

"The spread of HIV-1 in the United Kingdom is simulated by a model which integrates behavioural and epidemiological processes within a multi-regional population projection framework and represents the spatial heterogeneities in the distribution of HIV which have significant effects on transmission patterns. Analyses determine the significance of different parameters in contributing to prediction uncertainty and highlight the importance of behavioural change and international population movements."     

Book reviews

Walker Connor. Ethnonationalism. The Quest for Understanding. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. xiii + 234 pp. No price given.

Elie Kedourie. Nationalism. Fourth, expanded edition. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. xxi + 154 pp. $32.95 (paper).

Thomas Hylland Eriksen. Ethnicity and Nationalism. Anthropological Perspectives. London: Pluto Press, 1993. ix + 179 pp. £25.00 (cloth), £9.95 (paper).

David Brown. The State and Ethnic Politics in Southeast Asia. London: Routledge, 1994. xxi + 354 pp.

Ted Robert Gurr. Minorities at Risk. A Global View of Ethnopolitical Conflicts. Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1993. xii + 427 pp. $US37.50 (cloth), $US24.95 (paper).

Guntram F.A. Werther. Self‐Determination in Western Democracies. Aboriginal Politics in a Comparative Perspective. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1992. xxxvi + 113 pp. $US43.00 (cloth).

Morton H. Halpern and David J. Scheffer with Patricia L. Small. Self‐Determination in the New World Order. Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1992. xiv + 178 pp. No price given.

Kamal S. Shehadi. Ethnic Self‐Determination and the Break‐up of States. Adelphi Paper 283. London: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1993. 90 pp. £10.00 (paper).

Miron Rezun (ed.). Nationalism and the Breakup of an Empire: Russia and its Periphery. Westport: Praeger, 1992. x + 197 pp. US$42.95 (cloth).

Garry Tompf (ed.) Islands and Enclaves. Nationalisms and Separatist Pressures in Islands and Littoral Contexts. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Ltd, 1993. xxxv + 379 pp. No price given.

David Little. Sri Lanka. The Invention of Enmity. Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1994. xxxviii + 175 pp. $US14.95 (paper).

Ralph R. Premdas. Ethnicity and Development: The Case of Fiji. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, DP46, 1993. 50 pp. No price given.

P.J. Boyce and J.R. Angel (eds). Diplomacy in the Marketplace: Australia in World Affairs 1981–90. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1992. xi + 330 pp. $26.50 (paper).

Jim George. Discourses of Global Politics: A Critical (Re)Introduction to International Relations. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1994. xi + 265pp. $US45.00 (cloth), $US18.95 (paper).

Claire T. Sjolander and Wayne Cox (eds). Beyond Positivism: Critical Reflections on International Relations. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1994. x + 203 pp. $US35.00 (cloth).

Lawrence Freedman, Paul Hayes and Robert O'Neill (eds). War, Strategy and International Politics: Essays in Honour of Sir Michael Howard. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. xi + 322 pp. No price given.

Craig N. Murphy and Roger Tooze (eds). The New International Political Economy. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1991. vii + 237 pp. $US33.00 (cloth), $US15.95 (paper).

Hugh Smith (ed.). Peacekeeping, Challenges for the Future. Canberra: Australian Defence Studies Centre, Australian Defence Force Academy, 1993. xiv + 229 pp. $20.00 (paper).

Gary T. Gardner. Nuclear Nonproliferation: A Primer. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1994. xiii + 141 pp. $US25.00 (cloth), $US10.95 (paper).

Jack Donnelly. International Human Rights. Boulder: Westview Press, 1993. xvi + 206 pp. $US39.95 (cloth), $US12.95 (paper).

Luther Martin (ed.). Religious Transformations and Socio‐Political Change: Eastern Europe and Latin America. Berlin: Moutonde Gruyter, 1993. xiv + 457 pp. DM198.00 (cloth).

Bronislaw Misztal and Anson Shupe (eds). Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective: Revival of Religious Fundamentalism in East and West. Westport: Praeger, 1992. xii + 223 pp. $US45.00 (cloth).

Jeff Hayes. Religion in Third World Politics. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1993. ix + 166 pp. $39.95 (paper).

John Francis. The Politics of Regulation: A Comparative Perspective. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. xi + 289 pp. $45.00 (paper).

Philip Bell and Roger Bell. Implicated: The United States in Australia. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1993. xii + 220 pp. $19.95 (paper).

Stephen E. Ambrose. Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938. 7th revised edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. xvi + 428 pp. $16.95 (paper).

Amos Kiewe (ed.). The Modern Presidency and Crisis Rhetoric. Westview: Praeger, 1994. xxxvii + 246 pp. $US55.00 (cloth).

Elizabeth Pond. Beyond the Wall: Germany's Road to Unification. Washington: Brookings Institution, 1993. xv + 367 pp. No price given

H.G. Peter Wallach and Ronald A. Francisco. United Germany: The Past, Politics, Prospects. Westport: Praeger, 1992. viii + 173 pp. $US45.00 (cloth), $US15.95 (paper).

Robert Zuzowski. Political Dissent and Opposition in Poland: The Workers’ Defense Committee “KOR”. Westport: Praeger, 1992. xii + 293 pp. $US65.00 (cloth).

Roger Kanet, Deborah Nutter Miner and Tamara J. Resler (eds). Soviet Foreign Policy in Transition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. xvi + 308 pp. $130.00 (cloth).

Chris Ward. Stalin's Russia. London: Edward Arnold, 1993. xxii + 241 pp. $32.95 (paper).

Dale F. Eickelman (ed.). Russia's Muslim Frontiers: New Directions in Cross‐Cultural Analysis. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. ix + 206 pp. $US29.95 (cloth), $US12.95 (paper).

Tom Rogers. The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan: Analysis and Chronology. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1992. 223 pp. $US55.00 (cloth).

Hirano Ken'ichiro (ed.). The State and Cultural Transformation. Perspectives from East Asia. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1993. xi + 357 pp. $50.00 (paper).

Trevor Findlay (ed.). Arms Control in the Post‐Cold War World: With Implications for Asia‐Pacific. Canberra: Peace Research Centre, Australian National University, 1993. ix + 328 pp. $20.00 (paper).

C. Inglis, S. Gunasekeran, G. Sullivan and C.‐T. Wu (eds). Asians in Australia: The Dynamics of Migration and Settlement. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1992. xvi + 230 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Russell Trood (ed.). The Future Pacific Economic Order: Australia's Role. Brisbane: Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Griffith University, in association with the Australian Institute of International Affairs, 1993. xii + 123 pp. $16.00 (paper).

Edward J. Lincoln. Japan's New Global Role. Washington: Brookings Institution, 1993. xi + 320 pp. $US28.95 (cloth).

Joseph P. Keddell. The Politics of Defence in Japan. Managing Internal and External Pressures. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1993. xvi + 236 pp. $US47.50 (cloth).

Ryutaro Hashimoto. Vision of Japan. A Realistic Direction for the 21st Century. Tokyo: Bestsellers, 1994. 183 pp. No price given.

Kataoka Tetsuya (ed.). Creating Single‐Party Democracy: Japan's Postwar Political System. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1992. 173 pp. $US17.95 (paper).

Gary Klintworth (ed.). Taiwan in the Asia‐Pacific in the 1990s. Canberra: Allen & Unwin in association with the Department of International Relations, The Australian National University, 1994. xv + 291 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Harold Brookfield and Yvonne Byron (eds). South‐East Asia's Environmental Future: The Search for Sustainability. Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur: United Nations University Press/Oxford University Press, 1993. xxxi + 422 pp. $69.95 (cloth).

Ben Kiernan (ed.). Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge, the United Nations and the International Community. New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies Monograph No.41, 1993. 335 pp. No price given.

Frank Frost. The Peace Process in Cambodia: Issues and Prospects. Australia‐Asia Papers No.69, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Griffith University, 1993. 63 pp. $10.00 (paper).

Pheuiphanh Ngaosyvathn. Strategic Partnership and International Partnership: Australia's Post‐1975 Relations with Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Australia‐Asia Papers No.68, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Griffith University, 1993. 60 pp. $10.00 (paper).

William S. Turley and Mark Selden (eds). Reinventing Vietnamese Socialism: Doi Moi in Comparative Perspective. Boulder: Westview Press, 1993. xiv + 368 pp. $US44.95 (cloth).

Frank Frost. Vietnam's Foreign Relations: Dynamics of Change. Pacific Strategic Papers No.6, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1993. 90 pp. $US9.99 (paper).

Michael Vatikiotis. Indonesian Politics under Suharto: Order, Development and Pressure for Change. London: Routledge, 1993. xix + 220 pp. £27.50 (cloth).

Michele Turner. Telling: East Timor: Personal Testimonies 1942–1992. Kensington: New South Wales University Press, 1992. xxii + 218 pp. $19.95 (paper).

R.W.L. Austin. In the Shadow of the Durian. Indonesia Observed. Australians in Asia Series, no.10, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Griffith University, 1993. 80 pp. $12.00 (paper).

Janet Hunt and Stephen Webb (eds). Aid for a Change: A Plan to Reshape Australia's Overseas Aid— To Tackle Poverty and Promote Sustainable Human Development. Canberra: Australian Council for Overseas Aid, Development Dossier No.31, 1992. x + 113 pp. $10.00 (paper).

S. Mahmud Ali. The Fearful State: Power, People and Internal War in South Asia. London: Zed Books, 1993. $US49.95 (cloth), $US22.50 (paper).

Nigel Worden. The Making of Modern South Africa — Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994. 166 pp. $22.95 (paper).

Morris H. Morley. Washington, Somoza, and the Sandinistas: State and Regime in US Policy Toward Nicaragua, 1969–1981. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. 343 pp. $120.00 (cloth).

James Painter. Bolivia and Coca. A Study in Dependency. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1994. xiv+l94 pp. $US35.00 (cloth).

Politics: Australia and the World Beyond the Headlines No.1. Sydney: Public Affairs Research Centre, University of Sydney, 1993. v + 264 pp. $19.95 (paper).

Hal Hill (ed.). Indonesia's New Order: The Dynamics of Socio‐Economic Transformation. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1994. 364 pp. $29.95.     

A Little Bit of Dirt

An examination of the surface deposit of an Etruscan cup said to have been dug up in Cheshire suggests instead that it had been buried in Italy and brought to England in recent times. The method described here might usefully be employed to assess the provenance of buried artefacts.     

Bilingual districts as an instrument in Canadian language policy

"Accommodation of a multi-ethnic population within the territory of a single state has been recognized as a world-wide problem. Within such a society language maintenance is frequently the avenue through which cultural groups seek to preserve their identity. This paper describes and evaluates the Canadian experience of language planning by concentrating on the bilingual district, the key spatial instrument in the federal Official Languages Act. The paper argues for a cautious and spatially varied application of the 1969 Act and seeks to suggest ways in which a geolinguistic analysis may further our understanding of plurilingual societies."