Decision-makers, whether governments, organisations or individuals, often turn to social science for practical advice on how to resolve difficult and complex issues. Yet within social science the relationship between research and policy or between theory and practice is tenuous.

In an endeavour to deal with the complexity of our sociality, social science has specialised and has developed a diversity of disciplines (such as economics, politics, sociology, cultural studies and geography), a diversity of methods (such as quantitative, qualitative, theoretical, historical, evaluative, critical, comparative, policy analysis and development, and strategic) and a diversity of approaches (such as positivist, constructionist, realist and phenomenological). This diversity, however, has made collaboration very difficult and has further complicated the resolution of difficult and complex social issues: from whom should decision-makers take advice? what advice is relevant to resolving particular issues?

This paper proposes a new framework for collaboration in the social sciences, Functional Collaboration. By considering the process by which we go from the current social situation to implementing something new, Functional Collaboration reconfigures current disciplines, methods and approaches and integrates them within a unified framework. In this way it relates the diversity of disciplines, methods and approaches to one another giving each a specific role. Each discipline, method and approach can then make a specific contribution to this total process.

The paper proposes a new understanding and doing of science, one which is inclusive of the social sciences. Within the process of shifting from the current social situation to implementing something new, Functional Collaboration distinguishes eight stages that provide the grounds for a new form of specialisation and collaboration. Functional Collaboration seeks to promote a collaborative approach that is both cyclical and global. It addresses the complex problems that currently confront social research as it seeks to address the complex problems currently facing our society and provide practical advice to decision-makers. (See McNelis 2014).
---------------------------
McNelis S 2014, Making Progress in Housing: A Framework for Collaborative Research, Routledge, Abingdon