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Survey Research and the Production of Evidence for Social Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2013

Marine Boehm ,
Dina Bowman  and
Jens O. Zinn
Marine Boehm
Affiliation:
School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne E-mail: [email protected]
Dina Bowman
Affiliation:
Research and Policy Centre, Brotherhood of St Laurence E-mail: [email protected]
Jens O. Zinn
Affiliation:
School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Large representative surveys have become a valuable resource to inform public policy in an increasingly complex modern world. They provide authority to policy since they are considered objective, neutral and scientific. In contrast, this article conceives the production of knowledge as an interactive process. We argue that the conduct of large social surveys tends to reinforce existing world views, power relations and a narrow construction of social issues. To illustrate this, we draw on a small exploratory study which examined the experience of responding to selected survey questions of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia study (HILDA). We suggest that while more open approaches are required to capture the complexities of everyday life, these are unlikely to be implemented given the dominance of particular forms of knowledge.

Keywords

Social policyknowledge generationsurvey researchsocial inequality
Type
Themed Section on Risk, Social Inclusion and the Life Course
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , April 2013 , pp. 309 - 318
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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