Research-Policy Dialogues in the United Kingdom

Inspired by academic and political currents in North America, early research on migrant integration in the United Kingdom contributed to the development of a ‘race relations’ consensus, launching Britain on a trajectory quite distinct from subsequent approaches in neighbouring European countries. Since the 1970s, the diversity of discourse coalitions and actors involved in discussions of migrant integration policy has increased markedly. An interesting feature of the UK case has been policymakers’ long-standing preference for integration dialogues to take place in government-sponsored commissions. Developing the insight that independent commissions are an ideal venue to study science-society dialogues, the authors compare three commissions that reported in the 2000s: the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain in 2000 (CMEB); the Community Cohesion Review Team (CCRT) in 2001; and the Commission on Integration and Cohesion in 2007 (CIC).