The Funding of Social Knowledge Production and Application A Survey of Federal Agencies (1978) / Chapter Skim
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'THE FRAMEWORK OF SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION AND APPLICATION'
'THE FRAMEWORK OF SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION AND APPLICATION'
Pages 10-28
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From page 10... ...
However, many of those activities -- such as program evaluation and general purpose social statistics -- fall outside the traditional definition of research and development. The traditional R&D framework as well as existing R&D data do not adequately capture the wide diversity of activities supported by the federal government that are aimed at either producing or applying knowledge about social problems.
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From page 11... ...
For these reasons, the traditional R&D framework did not capture the many dimensions and concerns that gave rise to the Study Project's work. A major goal of the Study Project survey was to better describe the diverse set of activities associated with social R&D and social problems.
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From page 12... ...
A distinguishing factor of program evaluation is that national operating programs (or their components) are evaluated for the use of agency decision makers in making policy or program decisions.
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From page 13... ...
Such materials are used in a variety of educational, training, or testing settings.t •Dissemination Dissemination consists of activities undertaken by research managers or others to promote the application of knowledge or data resulting from social knowledge production activities.t Dissemination activities include: Publication and distribution of scientific and technical information resulting from social research; Documentation, reference, and information services (information retrieval systems) ; Research syntheses written for the use of practitioners and decision makers; Technical assistance to practitioners to disseminate knowledge; Support of conferences to disseminate information; and Creation of dissemination networks and consortia.
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From page 14... ...
For all these reasons, the Study Project decided to use a framework of knowledge production and knowledge application. It was felt that this framework is more descriptive of the activities actually being conducted and funded by the federal government in the area of social problems.
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From page 15... ...
The boundary issue was not as big a problem as originally anticipated. CATEGORIES OF KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION Research Research is systematic, intensive study directed toward greater knowledge or understanding of the subject studied.
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Over 85 percent of the Study Project's research total was reported to the NSF Federal Funds survey. The remaining 15 percent was not reported, because either the individual agencies spending the funds do not report to NSF or the activities were not considered "research" by the agencies.5 Policy Formulation Demonstrations A demonstration is a small-scale program undertaken in an operational setting for a finite period of time to test the desirability of a proposed course of action.
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From page 17... ...
A distinguishing factor of program evaluation is that national operating programs (or their components) are evaluated for the use of agency decision makers in making policy or program decisions.
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From page 18... ...
This type of demonstration does not attempt to generate new information but instead attempts to apply existing knowledge. In contrast to policy formulation demonstrations, policy implementation demonstrations imply a conscious decision on the part of federal "See OMB, "Resources for Program Evaluation Fiscal 1977," September 1977.
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From page 19... ...
Dissemination Dissemination activities consist of action undertaken by research managers to promote the application of knowledge or data resulting from the conduct of social knowledge production activities. This group of activities encompasses the dissemination of information in recorded or other
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From page 20... ...
Hence the funds reported to NSF as STINFO account only for a small portion of the dissemination total in the Study Project survey. Other dissemination activities included in the survey are: Publication and distribution of social scientific and technical information.
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From page 21... ...
The remaining activities of the service include the dissemination of scientific agricultural information and were excluded from the Study Project survey totals. SUMMARY ANALYSIS OF STUDY PROJECT CATEGORIES Survey interviews found that three of the seven knowledge production and application categories -- research, policy formulation demonstrations, and development of materials -- were categorized as either research or development by agency personnel.
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From page 22... ...
Broad policy areas were selected, first, because a detailed classification system was deemed more appropriate for project-level data, and the Study Project survey was based on program-level data. Second, policy areas were an important but secondary concern of the Study Project survey; greater emphasis was placed on collecting data by the knowledge production and application categories.
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From page 23... ...
Health education activities were included in the health category, and science education activities were included in the science and technology base category. Employment and Training The employment and training category includes knowledge production and application on: job training or retraining programs; the delivery of training programs; employment statistics; equal employment opportunities; programs aimed at upgrading skills and increasing participation and usefulness in the labor force; pension programs; etc.
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From page 24... ...
The small amount of research on telecommunication policy was included in this category. Housing and Community Development The housing and community development category includes knowledge production and application on a wide range of related topics: rural housing and development; disaster prevention and relief; area and regional development; housing economics and finance; housing assistance programs; community growth; land use control techniques; intergovernmental relations; and revenue sharing.
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From page 25... ...
CLASSIFICATION BY ORGANIZATIONAL LOCATION The Study Project was also interested in finding out the organizational location of units that support social knowledge production and application activities. It did this by classifying the types of organizations in which social knowledge production and application funding programs were located.
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From page 26... ...
. CLASSIFICATION BY GOALS OR AUDIENCE The Study Project also sought to find out more about the goals and audiences of social knowledge production and application activities.
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From page 27... ...
It also supports a significant amount of research that is intended to be useful to practitioners in community mental health centers, social service agencies, and third parties generally. Although some of the rhetoric surrounding the NIMH program emphasizes the latter activity, the Study Project concluded the predominant function of NIMH to be the advancement of knowledge and classified the agency accordingly." In agencies with more than one goal or audience, the Study Project sought to classify the predominant one.
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From page 28... ...
E., et al.. Serving the Federal Evaluation Market, Urban Institute, Washington, D.C., 1977 (for a list of Urban Institute papers on program evaluation, write Urban Institute, 2100 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.
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