A new ERC Starting Grant and UKRI-funded project, Studying Parliaments and the Role of Knowledge – or SPARK, has started in earnest. This project asks: how is knowledge used in parliaments? What are the values that underpin knowledge use in those institutions? And what are the effects of knowledge production, acceptance and contestation on democratic governance? These are pivotal questions at a time when democratic decision-making has never been more scrutinised and contested.
Employing an innovative research design involving mixed methods, seven parliaments, and three case study policy domains (environment, welfare and healthcare), SPARK will examine and compare patterns of knowledge use in and by parliaments. By looking at how MPs, officials, staff and stakeholders interpret different kinds of knowledge and their authority, SPARK seeks to understand beliefs and values underpinning views of what knowledge in parliaments is for.
As part of the research programme, SPARK is also attempting to bring together a research network of academics working on the relationships between parliaments and knowledge use: “SPARK.net”. If you are conducting research on any aspect about how parliaments and parliamentary actors gather, analyse and use knowledge, then please get in touch with the research team.
The SPARK team is led by Marc Geddes, and also includes two post-doctoral research research fellows, Ewan Robertson and Matt Johnston, and a PhD student, Marie Bruyndonckx. The SPARK team will share an update with the Transforming Evidence community early in 2025. Meanwhile you can find out more on the newly launched SPARK website.
