19th Bacchus reading group

Lauronen, J. P. (2022). The epistemic, production, and accountability prospects of social impact: An analysis of strategic research proposals. Research Evaluation, 31(2), 214-225.

• Research impact is a simplification of how the research process is influencing society

• Negative impact is usually not considered at all, only focus on the positive and salesmanship

• There is little space for discussing the nuances of these aims, especially if one is critical of these agendas

• The management style of the interaction, is poor and devaluing the contribution are being made

  • People are trying to sell themselves, without going too far

  • academics become salesmen

  • conflict of interests are usually not addressed

  • Academics have learned to parrot a particular discourse which gets them the funding they want

  • When it comes to accounting it becomes difficult, and then the nuances are acknowledged (The data material of the mid term reports are much more detailed and the nuances are reflected better, in the Academy of Finland documentation that was the empirical material for the study)

  • It degenerates into a language game

• There is a need for a better way of talking about impact, in relation to disciplinary – and authority and integrity

• It is uncertain if we need to get rid of the discourse of impact, or just more sophisticated language

  • There are some positive dimensions for it, so a better language would solve some of the issues

• Research impact theme setting as “kingmakers”, as in setting the agenda

  • Academics just parrot back the original themes that were already there in the funding call

  • Policy makers live also in a dynamic world, and there is a difficulty to disentangle oneself from this process if one is to engage with them

• There is a constant dialogue and impact creation, and policy is not a static field, and impact is a moving target

• The idea of measurement is devaluing and potentially disrupting the co-creation of knowledge production

  • people learn from each other

• Increasing uncertainty and inflation and undermining of authority creates a need for impact narratives to justify academia, if the justification is to be made on utilitarian grounds

• Epistemology and ontology, being ideas of the university knowledge domain, and the language of impact is colonised by management and policy jargon, they colonizes academic discourse