News
May 1, 2018
Evidence & Policy: Winner of the 2017 Carol Weiss Prize announced
To mark its tenth anniversary in 2015, Evidence & Policy launched a prize in memory of Professor Carol Weiss, the journal’s first North American Editor and a pioneer in the field.
The 2017 prize has been awarded to Iris Stucki for her paper ‘The use of evidence in public debates in the media: the case of Swiss direct-democratic campaigns in the health policy sector’ which is free to download in Evidence & Policy until 31st July 2018. Iris Stucki is the deputy head of the Federal Office for the Equality of People with Disabilities in Switzerland.
Iris Stucki has written a blog post discussing the importance of her paper and the influence of Carol Weiss on her work. She calls for more experts to participate in political communication, drawing on Carol Weiss, who recognized 20 years ago, that experts have the capacity and the responsibility to actively present evidence in the public arena and explain its scope and relevance to citizens.
She says “ I am convinced that when experts who are involved in the production of evidence collaborate with journalists and publicly share analysis that is relevant in the political world, they both contribute to making democracy more evidence-prone, and citizens more enlightened.”
Annette Boaz, former co-editor of Evidence & Policy, and co-founder of the Carol Weiss prize says "The paper combines questions about participation in civil society with sociological concerns about how decisions are made, and what evidence is available to the public. This is a timely paper, particularly as we grapple with concerns about fake news. We had a difficult choice to make when awarding this prize, but this paper really stood out."
Useful links:
Prize-winning article by Iris Stucki
Information about the Carol Weiss Prize
Information about the journal Evidence & Policy