Workshop 6: Theory, method and agenda: implications for policy and practice

9th & 10th March 2006

The final workshop in this ESRC-funded series was designed to take stock of what has been learned from successive comparisons drawn between the different levels (individual, research centre, research programme) and contexts (disciplines, public and private sector funders) of interactive agenda setting. As well as highlighting points of difference and similarity, the aim was to identify processes and methods that might be adopted to generate more or different forms of interactive agenda setting. The session also aimed to compare different forms of interaction, some being more direct than others. In addition, this final workshop provided an opportunity to re-engage with questions about participation and elitism in what is (and is not) researched, and why.

Participants included several contributors to earlier workshops, allowing the organisers to develop and disseminate key insights and conclusions through and with the help of the complete cohort of workshop participants. In addition, commentators with expertise in research and science policy were invited to comment on what they took to be the central contributions of the workshop programme as a whole.