Great 21st Century debates about the usefulness of research: can they help rural research?

This paper aims to contribute to reflection on how rural research can better serve rural communities. Using the results of literature searches across the disciplines, it explores some major 21st Century debates about improving the usefulness of research for policy and practice. The paper begins with an examination of different debates in biomedical and health research, moving on to other debates in the social sciences and humanities, particularly in sociology, political science, and history. Powerful critiques of the relevance of research are provided by case-based analysis, which raises the question of whether we need new forms of research evidence that reflect the configurational, synergistic complexity of policy and practice. The paper concludes with directions for what these debates collectively suggest for making rural research more useful to policy and practice. It also suggests how research methodology may be a political battlefield for democratic accountability in the 21st Century.