Abstract:
With the exponential growth in population, issues in the public sector are ever more complex, they range from how to tackle poverty and social exclusion, to dealing with the ecology and environment, from improving healthcare to the integration of divergent ethnic and religious groupings as we try to live with one another. More and more people are actively involved in shaping opinions and they are joined by the mass media which is demanding a role in the public debate which can often appear to be manipulative. In this issue of Research World, we take a closer look at the practice of research in this high profile, high tension area.