James Wilsdon
Biographic Data
| ID | 6553989 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James Wilsdon |
| GIVEN NAMES | James |
| FAMILY NAME | Wilsdon |
| SIGNATURE | WILSDON J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Sussex |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5395-5949 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Socially-distanced science
In early 2021, the United Kingdom (UK) had the highest per capita death rate from Covid-19 of any large country. Yet it had previously been ranked as one of the best prepared countries for a future pandemic. This gap between preparedness and performance has been the subject of intense debate, including as part of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. In this paper, we contribute to this ongoing process of reflection by identifying the imagined public(s) withi…
Supported or stressed while being assessed? How motivational climates in UK University workplaces promote or inhibit researcher well‐being
Academic culture now places high expectations on researchers to demonstrate research productivity alongside teaching, leadership and knowledge exchange. In two studies of researchers across career stages in UK higher education institutions (HEIs), we examined workplace climate within academic departments as (1) supportive of researchers' needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, (2) publish‐or‐perish focused and (3) hyper‐competitive. In St…
Lessons from the UK’s handling of Covid-19 for the future of scientific advice to government
Despite strong expertise and a sophisticated scientific advisory system, the UK’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been, and continues to be, weak in terms of preventing death and illness, and damage to the economy. This article argues that an important reason for this failure has been that the policies of the UK government have at critical times failed to take adequate account of scientific evidence, while at the same time attempts have bee…
A conducive environment? The role of need support in the higher education workplace and its effect on academics' experiences of research assessment in the UK
Little is known about how researchers in higher education institutions (HEIs) experience and respond to support received from their departments. The present study investigated how support for researchers' autonomy (choice and self‐expression), relatedness (through connections with colleagues) and competence (feeling effective in one's work) influenced their attitudes towards an external assessment of research. To do so, we surveyed 598 academics …
Understanding perceptions of the Research Excellence Framework among UK researchers
RAND Europe, together with the University of Cardiff and the University of Sheffield, conducted a real-time evaluation of the Research Excellence Framework. The study assessed attitudes, perspectives and behaviours towards REF 2021 across the sector; and explored how REF policies and changes are embedded in the way submissions are prepared and delivered. The study aims to provide clarity and perspective to inform future rounds of the REF
Analysts, advocates and applicators
Background: Continued growth of the evidence and policy field has prompted calls to consolidate findings in pursuit of a more holistic understanding of theory and practice. Aims and objectives: The aim of this paper is to develop and explore an analytical typology that offers a way to consider the heterogeneity of different actors in UK evidence and policy. Methods: We draw upon a discourse coalitions approach to analyse a series of semi-structur…
Research priorities for managing the impacts and dependencies of business upon food, energy, water and the environment
Delivering access to sufficient food, energy and water resources to ensure human wellbeing is a major concern for governments worldwide. However, it is crucial to account for the 'nexus' of interactions between these natural resources and the consequent implications for human wellbeing. The private sector has a critical role in driving positive change towards more sustainable nexus management and could reap considerable benefits from collaboratio…
The Metric Tide
Metrics evoke a mixed reaction from the research community. A commitment to using data and evidence to inform decisions makes many of us sympathetic, even enthusiastic, about the prospect of granular, real-time analysis of our own activities. Yet we only have to look around us, at the blunt use of metrics to be reminded of the pitfalls. Metrics hold real power: they are constitutive of values, identities and livelihoods. How to exercise that powe…
Why should we promote public engagement with science
This introductory essay looks back on the two decades since the journal Public Understanding of Science was launched. Drawing on the invited commentaries in this special issue, we can see narratives of continuity and change around the practice and politics of public engagement with science. Public engagement would seem to be a necessary but insufficient part of opening up science and its governance. Those of us who have been involved in advocatin…
From foresight to hindsight
This short paper forms one of a series of responses to a longer essay by Alfred Nordmann in the inaugural issue of the Journal of Responsible Innovation. Wilsdon's response reinforces Nordmann's emphasis on the value of history to contemporary science and technology policy and asks, if we want to practice the art of anticipation, what skills and capabilities do we require? How will existing cultures, processes and organisational arrangements for …
From Bio to Nano
In this paper we develop an analysis of the public and political controversy which overtook genetically modified (GM) foods and crops in the UK in the 1990s and identify some key lessons for the fu
The politics of small things
Nanotechnology is set to change the world. Nanotechnology is increasingly talked about with the same breathless excitement that surrounded biotechnology and information technology at the start of the 1990s. Nanotechnology has caught the attention of several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that have spent the past decade campaigning against genetically modified (GM) crops and foods. A debate about its risks, is rapidly taking on a sharper foc…
Digital Sustainability in Europe
From Bio to Nano
In this paper we develop an analysis of the public and political controversy which overtook genetically modified (GM) foods and crops in the UK in the 1990s and identify some key lessons for the fu
Research priorities for managing the impacts and dependencies of business upon food, energy, water and the environment
Delivering access to sufficient food, energy and water resources to ensure human wellbeing is a major concern for governments worldwide. However, it is crucial to account for the 'nexus' of interactions between these natural resources and the consequent implications for human wellbeing. The private sector has a critical role in driving positive change towards more sustainable nexus management and could reap considerable benefits from collaboratio…
Analysts, advocates and applicators
Background: Continued growth of the evidence and policy field has prompted calls to consolidate findings in pursuit of a more holistic understanding of theory and practice. Aims and objectives: The aim of this paper is to develop and explore an analytical typology that offers a way to consider the heterogeneity of different actors in UK evidence and policy. Methods: We draw upon a discourse coalitions approach to analyse a series of semi-structur…
Digital Sustainability in Europe
The politics of small things
Nanotechnology is set to change the world. Nanotechnology is increasingly talked about with the same breathless excitement that surrounded biotechnology and information technology at the start of the 1990s. Nanotechnology has caught the attention of several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that have spent the past decade campaigning against genetically modified (GM) crops and foods. A debate about its risks, is rapidly taking on a sharper foc…
From Bio to Nano
In this paper we develop an analysis of the public and political controversy which overtook genetically modified (GM) foods and crops in the UK in the 1990s and identify some key lessons for the fu
Why should we promote public engagement with science
This introductory essay looks back on the two decades since the journal Public Understanding of Science was launched. Drawing on the invited commentaries in this special issue, we can see narratives of continuity and change around the practice and politics of public engagement with science. Public engagement would seem to be a necessary but insufficient part of opening up science and its governance. Those of us who have been involved in advocatin…
From foresight to hindsight
This short paper forms one of a series of responses to a longer essay by Alfred Nordmann in the inaugural issue of the Journal of Responsible Innovation. Wilsdon's response reinforces Nordmann's emphasis on the value of history to contemporary science and technology policy and asks, if we want to practice the art of anticipation, what skills and capabilities do we require? How will existing cultures, processes and organisational arrangements for …
The Metric Tide
Metrics evoke a mixed reaction from the research community. A commitment to using data and evidence to inform decisions makes many of us sympathetic, even enthusiastic, about the prospect of granular, real-time analysis of our own activities. Yet we only have to look around us, at the blunt use of metrics to be reminded of the pitfalls. Metrics hold real power: they are constitutive of values, identities and livelihoods. How to exercise that powe…
Research priorities for managing the impacts and dependencies of business upon food, energy, water and the environment
Delivering access to sufficient food, energy and water resources to ensure human wellbeing is a major concern for governments worldwide. However, it is crucial to account for the 'nexus' of interactions between these natural resources and the consequent implications for human wellbeing. The private sector has a critical role in driving positive change towards more sustainable nexus management and could reap considerable benefits from collaboratio…
A conducive environment? The role of need support in the higher education workplace and its effect on academics' experiences of research assessment in the UK
Little is known about how researchers in higher education institutions (HEIs) experience and respond to support received from their departments. The present study investigated how support for researchers' autonomy (choice and self‐expression), relatedness (through connections with colleagues) and competence (feeling effective in one's work) influenced their attitudes towards an external assessment of research. To do so, we surveyed 598 academics …
Understanding perceptions of the Research Excellence Framework among UK researchers
RAND Europe, together with the University of Cardiff and the University of Sheffield, conducted a real-time evaluation of the Research Excellence Framework. The study assessed attitudes, perspectives and behaviours towards REF 2021 across the sector; and explored how REF policies and changes are embedded in the way submissions are prepared and delivered. The study aims to provide clarity and perspective to inform future rounds of the REF
Analysts, advocates and applicators
Background: Continued growth of the evidence and policy field has prompted calls to consolidate findings in pursuit of a more holistic understanding of theory and practice. Aims and objectives: The aim of this paper is to develop and explore an analytical typology that offers a way to consider the heterogeneity of different actors in UK evidence and policy. Methods: We draw upon a discourse coalitions approach to analyse a series of semi-structur…
Lessons from the UK’s handling of Covid-19 for the future of scientific advice to government
Despite strong expertise and a sophisticated scientific advisory system, the UK’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been, and continues to be, weak in terms of preventing death and illness, and damage to the economy. This article argues that an important reason for this failure has been that the policies of the UK government have at critical times failed to take adequate account of scientific evidence, while at the same time attempts have bee…
Supported or stressed while being assessed? How motivational climates in UK University workplaces promote or inhibit researcher well‐being
Academic culture now places high expectations on researchers to demonstrate research productivity alongside teaching, leadership and knowledge exchange. In two studies of researchers across career stages in UK higher education institutions (HEIs), we examined workplace climate within academic departments as (1) supportive of researchers' needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, (2) publish‐or‐perish focused and (3) hyper‐competitive. In St…
Socially-distanced science
In early 2021, the United Kingdom (UK) had the highest per capita death rate from Covid-19 of any large country. Yet it had previously been ranked as one of the best prepared countries for a future pandemic. This gap between preparedness and performance has been the subject of intense debate, including as part of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. In this paper, we contribute to this ongoing process of reflection by identifying the imagined public(s) withi…
Political science (12 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Engineering (6 works) · Economics (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Management (4 works) · Psychology (4 works)