Producing Knowledge, Producing Credibility: British Think-Tank Researchers and the Construction of Policy Reports

Abstract

Think-tanks and their researchers are located within an interstitial and ill-defined 'space between fields'; a space both constituted and divided by the worlds of academia, politics, journalism and business. This liminal position can be problematic for a think-tank researcher's intellectual credibility as they lack the recognised cultural and symbolic capital derived from being located within an established profession's jurisdiction. The question arises, how do think-tanks gain intellectual credibility? Drawing on interviews with think-tank researchers, this paper explores how these interstitial intellectuals produce policy reports. In following this process, we find that credibility emerges from a complex web of relationships across established fields/professions. Think-tank researchers must engage in a complex 'dance' of positioning the symbols, capitals and interests of a number of professions. To maintain their integrity, researchers must try to keep in step with competing interests from different professions; at times aligning them, at other times blocking or obscuring them from one another.

Transforming evidence for policy and practice: creating space for new conversations

“…We would like to help people articulate the hard-won, often disciplinary-specific lessons from their own work for others-and to work with partners to embed them into the design, practice and evaluation of research. For instance, critical perspectives on power can describe the lines of authority and the institutional governance surrounding decision-making (Bachrach and Baratz, 1962;Crenson, 1971;Debnam, 1975); the interpersonal dynamics which determine everything from the credibility of evidence to the placement of topics on policy agendas (Oliver and Faul, 2018;Tchilingirian, 2018;White, 2008); to the practice of research itself, and the ways in which assumed and enacted power leads to the favouring of certain methodologies and narratives (Hall and Tandon, 2017;Pearce and Raman, 2014). How might this translate into infrastructure and funding to support equitable research partnerships ?…”

Network Intellectuals and Networked Intellectuals: relational approaches to the study of British think tanks

“…Qualitative interviews with think tank researchers recounting the experience of producing policy reports reconstructs a think tank researcher's practice, their perspective on their personal and organizational networks, and their perception of their role within them. This provides valuable insight into the way in which think tank researchers manage actors/resources from a diverse number of professions, and how researchers and think tanks oscillate between agency and dependence within their networks (Tchilingirian, 2018). Taking funding relationships as an example, interviewees described not only how they actively procure and enrol funders, but also how they attempt to overcome potentially problematic dependencies.…”

“…Central to the issue of the intellectual life of think tanks and their researchers are the cross-professional networks they cultivate to gain legitimacy from multiple fields and to influence policy (Landry, 2019;Stone, 1996, pp. 132-133;Tchilingirian, 2018). However, despite the fact that there is a rich body of literature about think tanks, research into think tank networks and the act of knowledge production is limited.…”

A disconnected policy network: The UK's response to the Sierra Leone Ebola epidemic

“…In his study of UK think tanks, Jordan Tchilingirian suggests that policy think tanks operate on the periphery of more established networks and enjoy fluctuating levels of support and interest in their ideas. Ideas and knowledge do not simply flow within the network, given that dominant paradigms and political, social and cultural norms privilege better established knowledge communities (Tchilingirian, 2018). This is reminiscent of Meyer's work on the boundaries that exist between "amateurs" and "policy professionals" (Meyer, 2008).…”