Diving in again – a response to commentaries on ‘Applied policy research and critical human geography: some reflections on swimming in murky waters’

In writing the article ‘Applied policy research and critical human geography’ (Woods and Gardner, 2011), Graham Gardner and I aimed to nudge discussion of policy research in human geography along from debates about the value of such research, to engagement with the actual practicalities of conducting contract research and the challenges that arise. Through an extended exposition of a single research project, we sought to highlight the dynamics of the process as we experienced it, with the objective of encouraging others to share and reflect on their own experiences, building a corpus of knowledge about the how and what of policy research.