Applying social research: How research knowledge is shaped and changed for use in a bushfire management organisation

摘要

Experience in applying research suggests that new knowledge requires development and change before it can be applied in everyday settings, but there has been little examination of how this occurs. Through two case studies of new knowledge about social values being developed for a bushfire agency in Victoria, Australia, we follow how pre-existing social research findings about "valued attributes" are shaped and changed as they were applied in two different organisational activities of planning guidance and community engagement. We form a conceptual framework of reduction and amplification, stretching, re-articulation, and crystallisation to observe how the social research findings were drawn on, modified, and incorporated into the future directions of the organisation. In finding that the social research was stretched and crystallised differently in the two case studies, we consider how organisational context and relationships influence how social research findings are shaped and changed. We consider implications for theory and practice in fostering integration between academic research and real-world application.