School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemReflections of evidence: locating the role of data in drug policy discourse( 2014)This study critically examines the concept of evidence-based policy and the role research evidence plays in shaping Australian drug policy decisions. The theoretical framework adopted is Weiss’s (1979, 1977) research utilisation model, which suggests three ways research can be used in the policy context: instrumental (research influencing the direction of policy), political/symbolic and conceptual/enlightenment use. The importance of research evidence is contrasted with the influence of other factors in the policy sphere such as values, interests, symbolism and cultural perceptions of risk and danger. The study focuses on one example of evidence collection (drug information systems) to investigate to what extent evidence is reflected in the context of drug policy discourse and how data use is shaped by these other factors. The central aim is to identify to what extent references to three Australian drug information systems (the National Drug Strategy Household Survey, Drug Use Monitoring in Australia program and Illicit Drug Reporting System) can be identified within drug policy discourse. A documentary analytical approach is adopted to locate systematically references to each of the systems within policy documentation, academic research and mass media print articles between 2000 and 2009. Semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders are also conducted to understand the broader application of research within the drug policy environment. The documentary analysis revealed a generally low uptake and unsophisticated use of data from the drug information systems; however, this differed significantly across the three systems. In the context of Weiss’s framework, there were few examples of policy being directly based on the research data in line with the theoretical concept of a rational evidence-based decision-making model. The author extended Weiss’s model by introducing a fourth category of research use. Termed ‘methodological validation’, this includes any instances where the drug information system was referred to simply to justify the government’s desire to collect data to produce evidence-based policy, without any direct use of the data. The study reveals a significant gap between the expected use of data as understood by data collection agencies and their actual use in policy. Whilst the political climate was important to this finding, a lack of proactive communication by agencies, tight control over data and overly technical representation of findings also hindered the development of evidence-based policy in this area. The findings from this study are important for understanding why Australia continues to fund these monitoring systems given their relatively minimal footprint within drug policy discourse. Within drug policy discourse, it provides greater support for the theoretical approach of a values-based as opposed to evidence-based policy framework.