In a new paper entitled ‘The science-policy relationship in times of crisis: An urgent call for a pragmatist turn’ co-authored with Trisha Greenhalgh and published in Social Science and Medicine, we propose that to better prepare for the next public health crisis, five pragmatism-informed shifts are needed in the science-policy relationship:

 

1. from scientism to science-informed narrative rationality that emerges from practice;
2. from knowledge-then-action to acting judiciously under uncertainty;
3. from hierarchies of evidence to pluralist inquiry;
4. from polarized camps to frame-reflective dialogue; 5. from an “inside-track” science-policy dialogue to greater participatory democracy.

Read the full paper here.