Between knotweed and the deep blue sky: Debating the value of science in society

This blog was first published as a guest blog on the LSE blog ‘Impact of Social Sciences‘ on 7 June, 2012. Knotweeds and rats Last Friday (1 June, 2012) I was reading the Times Higher over breakfast. My eyes fell on the following sentence in the editorial: “The ubiquity of market ideology is explored in …

Exploring the language of impact

I recently collected a few indicative phrases around ‘impact’, one of the pillars of the Research Excellence Framework. In one email a colleague asked me “Can we call that impact?” (400 hits on facebook linked to a TV interview linked to a still speculative health improvement measure). A tweet announced: “That’s what I call impact”, …