In the common imagination, evidence is numbers. These numbers can emerge from natural science or social science research. But, generally, whenever policy-makers, stakeholders or the general public call for evidence, they tend to think of ‘objective’ pieces of information, that will help de-emotionalise debates and calm conflicts around a specific public policy problem.
This is a limited view of what is commonly understood to be ‘evidence’. Evidence can take many forms and be gathered in a diversity of ways. Stories and spoken testimonials can be evidence. Evidence can be emotional, rather than de-emotionalise public policy debates; and that can be a strength, not a weakness.
These claims feature in our recent paper published in the Geographical Journal, on the basis of insights from the case of the World Commission on Dams. This Commission was a global science-policy platform that existed between 1998 and 2000, to resolve conflicts around the planning, construction, and operation of large dams.
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