You have to want your work to have resonance outside of the academy, you have to communicate appropriately to whichever audience you are working with, and you have to work hard at building goodwill and trust. All that applied at the outset of my career when (it has to be said through serendipity and coincidence) I became a trusted insider in the dense committee structures through which the German federal system operates, and it applied just as much last year when – alongside the engagement with governments and campaigns – we engaged on a quite unexpected scale with the general public. That too was about appropriate communication and building


“ The biggest challenge has


been finding enough time for all the things I’ve wanted to do


trust. And most of it was online: presenting our expertise crisply and accessibly, building a reputation for our analysis as authoritative and above the political fray, and developing real engagement that met a need, not just supplying analysis for people to read or hear. What challenges have you faced in your career and how did you overcome them? The biggest challenge has probably been finding enough time for all the things I’ve wanted to do. I’ve written far fewer books than I’d intended, and I’ve had more ideas for new avenues of research than I’ve found the time to pursue. One way of overcoming these limitations has been to collaborate. I’ve been fortunate to work with inspiring people throughout my career with whom I’ve written more, carried out more research projects, and achieved more impact than I ever could have working alone.


28 SOCIETY NOW SUMMER 2015 ”


The referendum has changed the way Scots think about how they are governed.


What’s the value of social science to society? The value is to know ourselves better as individuals, groups and communities so we can open up knowledge about our shared interests and how we can better pursue them than we do now. My own field has been about how we govern ourselves, and how social science can offer both analysis and challenge so that we might govern ourselves better. The fact that we are now about 20 years into a constitutional reform programme that shows no sign of finding a conclusion suggests there is plenty more to keep us occupied. What’s next for you after the Scottish Referendum? The Scottish Referendum was not the end-point of Scotland’s debate about how to govern itself, or of debates elsewhere in the UK it set in motion. We are now seeing all this unfold in the UK Parliament as Scottish MPs press for more powers for the Scottish Parliament, and the UK Government tries to introduce ‘English Votes for English Laws’. But then there is also the EU referendum, which intersects with these internal debates because people in Scotland and England seem increasingly to think – and may vote – differently when it comes to our continued membership of the EU. So I was delighted to get one of the small projects in the UK in a Changing Europe initiative to look at how public opinion on EU membership evolves in different parts of the UK. n


i


Contact Professor Charlie Jeffery, University of Edinburgh Telephone 0131 650 6443 Email charlie.jeffery@ed.ac.uk Web www.centreonconstitutionalchange.ac.uk/about/ people/charlie-jeffery www.ed.ac.uk/principals-office/vice-principals-smgt/jeffery


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