Societal impact evaluation in SSH in Czech Republic. In Defence against the Strong STEM Application Discourse
Abstract
In the last fifteen years, research evaluation in Czech Republic has undergone major changes. Prior to this period, policy initiatives in research evaluation on national level were very limited and despite of heavy support for the outreach of research and development activities there was a complete absence of societal impact evaluation within the national R&D policy and debate.
Even if the societal impact of science played a crucial role in the socialist policy both in extensive applied research sector (Blažka, 2014) and in higher education sector (Šima & Pabian, 2013), the central planning system of science had major deficiencies in research evaluation. In this chapter we reflect on this development on two levels.
First, we analyse the policies that relate to the evaluation of societal impact as a type of learning process that evolved around the existing information infrastructure of research in Czech Republic (CZ). We detail how these policies affected both public debate and academics' practices and their perception of the societal impact of research they conduct.
Second, we frame the policy initiatives by looking specifically at the public debate about societal impact of social sciences and humanities (SSH) forming the politics level in this area. In addition, we explore some of the narratives present in the public debate on SSH and its place in the Czech society in the given timeframe.