Think tanks “unsettling findings of academic research more than ever” during pandemic, say ...
1 June 2020
A reliance on think tanks and individual voices with a bias poses a “significant threat” to evidence-based policy more than ever during the coronavirus pandemic, leading academics have warned.
A team of academics at SOAS University of London have highlighted a democratic deficit in UK Higher Education created by encroaching government control on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly on university campuses, heightened by social distancing measures currently in place across the world.
The SOAS Corridors of Power (SOAS COP) team is led by Professor Alison Scott-Baumann, Dr Rob Faure Walker, Dr Maryyum Mehmood, Dr Alyaa Ebbiary, Shahanaz Begum and Hasan Pandor. They produce timely briefings that meet the high standards of ethics expected of academic publications and have a peer review process to approve publications within hours, ensuring that fast-moving political debates are keep expertly informed.
The SOAS COP team have supported academics to produce expert briefings that are produced as podcasts and sent to MPs, Lords and policymakers in Westminster. This has resulted in the team informing numerous debates in the Parliament, successfully lobbying for changes to the Coronavirus Act, and advising MPs on writing formal questions for the Government.
The SOAS COP team has produced a series of briefings on Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the disproportionate mortality in BAME communities. This has resulted in the Government investigating how better data to inform their response might be collected.
The SOAS COP team, led by Prof Alison Scott-Baumann, report that: “The normalisation of think tank science and individual bias inevitably creates doubt about academic findings and consensus. What we need to see more than ever is the need for advocacy and direct lobbying by universities.”
Scott-Baumann and her team of academics have highlighted the tactic of using think tanks to promote doubt that emerged to defend the tobacco industry from scientific claims that their product was harmful, and has recently been used to disastrous effect in undermining the scientific consensus that human activity is a significant cause of climate change. The issue has been further exacerbated by direct lobbying being further curtailed due to lockdown measures in place. The team have reported that, “An emerging tactic to provoke doubt is to appeal to public opinion if academic and scientific consensus does not fit government or corporate agendas. Conservative Home recently declared that ‘there is no climate emergency’ because two thirds of their members do not agree with the overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change poses a significant threat to life on earth.”
A similar reliance on public opinion over academic findings can be seen in efforts to justify the growing counter-extremism industry. The Government’s own Commission for Countering Extremism prioritises public opinion to call for an expansion of counter-extremism efforts, and largely ignores academic research that proposes this to be counterproductive.
Similarly, CREST Associates appeal to public opinion in a report that was commissioned by Counter-Terrorism Policing HQ, “to review and make recommendations on the police delivery of the Prevent programme”. Using leading questions that would never have obtained ethical approval nor passed the peer review required of academic research, the CREST report focuses on the public’s lack of opposition to the Prevent Strategy to argue for Prevent’s continuation.
“These arguments make the implicit claim that decades of academic research should be ignored because it is not aligned with public opinion,” says Scott-Baumann
According to SOAS COP, this situation can be recovered by academics lobbying government and civil society directly. Academics and students are willing and able to speak directly to politicians and policymakers and with the internet and social media, there is no need for them to rely on think tanks to do this during lockdown.
SOAS Corridors of Power Project has put forward a new model to address this democratic deficit in universities by helping students and academic experts to reach out directly into the corridors of power.
The project will continue to encourage and support academics to present their research for non-specialist audiences. It will help academics and students to write and publish briefings on their work and disseminate to all MPs, Lords, policymakers and the media.
The project also aims to connect academics with select committees and APPGs and help universities to promote direct engagement with policymakers, and help prioritise academic research in decision making.
Scott-Baumann said: “It is only by increasing the direct advocacy and lobbying by academics that trust will rightfully be focused on real science rather than think tank opinions or isolated individuals with a particular bias .”
Visit the COP website for further briefings.