Authorities and Partisans

This book presents an account of the debate which raged in research and government arenas in the 1970s and 1980s - the debate on the effect of unemployment on health. The book sets out in detail how researchers came to be interested in the topic, how they worked on it, and how their results came to the attention of policy-makers. "Authorities and Partisans" is also a study of the complex relationship between research and policy. It analyzes the course of the unemployment and health debate using theoretical perspectives drawn from social policy, the sociology of the media, and the social study of science. Aiming to develop a new approach to questions about the relationship between research and policy, it concludes that the pressures produced when the political stakes are high, can result, as in this case, in innovative and high quality research.