Grey area

Abstract

In this commentary, I pick up on selected themes and issues raised by Woods and Gardner’s (2011) article and also draw on my own experiences of ‘grey research’. My focus is on the messy and mundane realities of this work, and I suggest that we need something of an ‘emotional turn’ in policy research, to rethink what this work means to us and how it makes us feel. This is a different way of thinking about ‘impact’ than the usual one deployed by, among other instruments, the UK’s Research Excellence Framework. I also draw on notions of the ‘prosaic state’ and the ‘peopled state’ to help understand how the policy-making process is also prosaic and peopled, to contextualize the ‘grey environment’ and to suggest some ways of approaching grey research. Finally, I draw on debates about ‘public geographies’ while responding to the ‘lessons’ that conclude Woods and Gardner’s discussion.