Evidence versus politics

Mark Monaghan is a Lecturer in Sociology, Social Policy and Crime in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds.

• Introduction; The origins and reach of the evidence movement; The two communities of evidence and policy, the challenge of politics and theimpact of the media; Competition, conflict and controversy in the making of UK drug classification policy; Developing tools for exploring 'evidence' in politicised policy areas; The nature of evidence in a politicised policy area; The utilisation of evidence in a politicised policy area; Conceptualising and modelling evidence use in politicised policy areas; Conclusion

'Monaghan does not pretend to provide a complete account of UK drug policy-making. But with this rich and thoughtful exploration of an important topic, he succeeds in his ambition to contribute to a more reasoned debate over the use of evidence in politicised areas.' - Susanne Macgregor in Journal of Social Policy