ABSTRACT

This short reflective piece revisits Tom O’Regan’s article “Some Reflections on the ‘Policy Moment’” from 1992. Tom’s intervention in the cultural policy debate which raged at that time was magisterial, wide ranging and inclusive. He saw the argument for policy to frame engaged scholarly activity as limiting the social relevance of the humanities and social sciences. Whereas the traditional ‘inclusive and abstract’ injunction to be relevant was fashioned in such a way as not to prescribe the form of engagement, the policy injunction limits relevance to what ‘can be made actionable, publicly endorsed, institutionally sanctioned and found useful by government tribunals, policy-makers and other actors directly involved in the policy process’. This narrowing, he argued, misrecognises the multifaceted nature of policy formation and debate. I reflect on how Tom’s position, and that of Meaghan Morris, has influenced me subsequently through a brief discussion of various scholarly personae that the engaged scholar can adopt.

摘要

这篇简短的反思文章重温了 Tom O'Regan 1992 年的文章“对'政策时刻'的一些反思”。汤姆对当时激烈的文化政策辩论的干预是权威的、广泛的和包容的。他认为，制定学术活动的政策论点限制了人文科学和社会科学的社会相关性。传统的“包容性和抽象性”禁令是相关的，其制定方式并未规定参与的形式，但政策禁令将相关性限制在“可以采取行动、公开认可、制度上认可并被政府发现有用”的内容上。法庭、决策者和其他直接参与者参与政策过程”。他认为，这种狭隘性误解了政策制定和辩论的多方面性质。我通过对参与的学者可以采用的各种学术人物的简短讨论，反思汤姆的立场以及梅根·莫里斯的立场如何影响了我。