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Policy and Other Government Research

20 October, 2015 - 10:40

Finally, many social science researchers do policy and other government-related kinds of work. In fact, the federal government is one of the largest employers of applied social science researchers. Government and policy research could be in any number of areas. For example, nonpartisan private firms such as Child Trends (http://www.childtrends.org/index.cfm) conduct research that is specifically intended to be useful for policymakers. In the case of Child Trends, researchers aim to improve the lives of children by “conducting high-quality research and sharing it with the people and institutions whose decisions and actions affect children” (http://www.childtrends.org/_catdisp_page.cfm?LID=124). Other private firms, such as Belden Russonello & Stewart, conduct research aimed at helping create social change, including projects on biodiversity, education, and energy use (http://www.brspoll.com/index.htm).

As for government work, Contexts magazine recently published an article featuring four sociological researchers to whom President Obama’s administration has turned, “relying on their unique understanding of American society to apply the most relevant research to policy-making” (2010, p. 14). 1 Those researchers include James P. Lynch, Bureau of Justice Statistics Director; John Laub, Director of the National Institute of Justice; Robert M. Groves, US Census Bureau Director; and David Harris, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Services Policy in the US Department of Health and Human Services.

KEY TAKEAWAY

  • Sociologists are employed in many arenas. Some of the most common include evaluation research, market research, and policy and other government research.

EXERCISE

  1. If you’re interested in hearing more from sociologists who do research, or sociology more generally, for a living, check out Contexts’ article on “embedded sociologists” (Nyseth, Shannon, Heise, & McElrath, 2011) 2 who work in fields as diverse as epidemiology to housing rights to human resources. The article can be found online at http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2011/embedded-sociologists/.