This book provides a timely and expansive study on the subject of the impact that academic social science has across a broad societal canvas, including on government and public policy, commerce and business, and the third sector and public engagement.

The impact agenda is set to shape the way in which social scientists prioritise the work they choose to pursue, the research methods they use and how they publish their findings over the coming decade, but how much is currently known about how social science research has made a mark on society?

Based on a three year research project studying the impact of 360 UK-based academics on business, government and civil society sectors, this groundbreaking new book undertakes the most thorough analysis yet of how academic research in the social sciences achieves public policy impacts, contributes to economic prosperity, and informs public understanding of policy issues as well as economic and social changes. The Impact of the Social Sciences addresses and engages with key issues, including:

• identifying ways to conceptualise and model impact in the social sciences
• developing more sophisticated ways to measure academic and external impacts of social science research
• explaining how impacts from individual academics, research units and universities can be improved.

This book is essential reading for researchers, academics and anyone involved in discussions about how to improve the value and impact of funded research.

1. The Social Sciences in Modern Research
The scale and diversity of the social sciences
The social sciences and human-dominated systems
Perceptions of ‘impact’ from the social sciences
PART I: HOW ACADEMICS ACHIEVE EXTERNAL IMPACTS
2. Social Scientists′ Pathways to Impacts
The academic impacts of social science researchers
The external impacts of researchers
Profiling different types of academic and their impacts
3. Modelling the Determinants of Social Science Impacts
Multi-variate modelling of impacts
The factors shaping academic impacts
The factors shaping external impacts
4. Comparing Individuals′ Impact
Using case studies of high impact academics
Explaining high impacts at the individual level
Pulling together the analysis
PART II: THE DEMAND FOR SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
5. Business and the Corporate Sector
The range of university links with business
The scale of social sciences involvement with business
Barriers to greater use of social science research in firms
6. Government and Public Policy Making
Social science and the policy arena
The scale of social science links to policy
Social scientists’ influence on policy
7. Civil Society Organizations and the Third Sector
Civil society organizations and ‘advocacy coalitions’
The scale of social science research links to civil society
Growing the impacts of social science in the third sector
8. The Media and Public Engagement
Academic expertise and ‘the public’
Social scientists and conventional news media
Social science and social media
Innovating with social science and the media
PART III: PATTERNS OF KNOWLEDGE AND IMPACTS
9. The Dynamic Knowledge Inventory and Research Mediation
The dynamic knowledge inventory
The mediation of social science research
10. Social Science for a digital era
Joining up for a ‘broad-front’ social science
Re-framing human-centred disciplines and integrating STEM and social sciences
Towards a more global social science