Impact Validity: A Politics of Possibilities

Abstract

This commentary reflects upon the possibilities opened up by the concept of “impact validity.” Particular attention is paid to three key issues that appear across the entire issue, namely: (1) the role of understandings of politics in research that aims to achieve impact validity, (2) the intersections of career and real world impact, and (3) how researchers who aim for impact validity manage the needs of the differing audiences of their work. Overall, the commentary suggests that the concept of impact validity holds great potential to contribute to how we think about the ways we do research, and the role that researchers can play in the public sphere in terms of creating the space for new ways of knowing about the world, in addition to encouraging those in positions of power to think about how they may usefully be influenced by academic knowledge.

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