Bringing the Homefront to the Forefront: Understanding the academia-policy gap by centring lived experiences of military families in welfare provision

尽管英国军队依靠服役人员的实际和情感劳动来维持行动的有效性，但他们的需求一直被忽视，并被视为次于军事目标的。国家在口头上相当慷慨，并宣传支持mf的想法，例如通过《武装部队公约》，但这种说法与现实之间存在差距。在最近的退伍军人咨询中，没有针对家庭的建议就明显证明了这一点。此外，我的博士研究发现，对基金经理可用的整体福利框架的有效性没有经过深思熟虑的审查——成功似乎是用在职人员的保留数字来衡量的。因此，mf的声音和观点继续被忽视，某些问题几乎没有得到承认，最坏的情况是被否认。该奖学金将通过与主要利益相关者(包括来自不同方法的学者（例如定量/定性，关键/解决问题）和政策影响者（例如政策制定者，国防部，相关慈善机构，从业者，国会议员和活动家）进行接触，重点探索学术界与政策之间的关系，从而扩展我的博士学位范围。它将通过探索这些利益相关者对MFs面临的问题的识别、他们的重点、提出的解决方案和理论框架之间的（不）相似性，引发学术界和政策中各种方法之间的辩论。具体来说，它将调查使政策和（多种）学术叙述保持一致的障碍和机会。我的目标是鼓励政策影响者/决策者认真对待基金经理的问题，并探索如何更好地倾听和理解基金经理的声音和经验，从而以政策为中心。事实上，我的论文发现，政策影响者更多地与采用定量方法且不质疑军事过程（例如，一些心理学和医学研究中明显的方法）的学术界接触，这模糊了将军事过程置于调查核心的方法所证明的发现、辩论和观点。本探索性研究将通过以下几个方面来实现：与支持提供者一起回顾博士期间收集的数据，以开发更多的创新见解，以便为硕士提供支持。将通过对政策影响者的进一步5次访谈来解决差距；组织一次会议，从不同的学术方法（如定量/定性、解决问题/关键、医疗/社会）介绍研究报告，审视金融专家的生活，以及参与政策的相关机会/障碍；3. 3 .就已确定的学术与政策关系的主要发现编写一份报告；撰写一篇期刊文章，概述学术方法与政策之间的关系。在整个奖学金期间，我将通过最大化上述活动提供的交流机会，并修改/重新提交三篇期刊文章（在奖学金开始之前提交），进一步在学术领域建立自己的地位。因此，这个奖学金将使我能够建立和提高我作为一个新合格的学者的形象，进行少量的额外研究，并为学术和非学术受众提供交流和传播的机会。未来方向探索性工作为未来研究的定义和应用奠定了必要的基础。在确定一些对对准学术界和政策叙事的障碍，我将开发一个应用程序，以利华休姆的早期职业奖学金，以探索更大范围的利益相关者更详细的这一领域（预计提交：2022年2月）。

ContextAlthough the British military relies upon the practical and emotional labour of partners of serving personnel to maintain operational effectiveness, their needs are continually over-looked and treated as tertiary to military objectives. The state pays considerable lip service and publicises the idea of supporting MFs, e.g. through the Armed Forces Covenant, but there is a gap between this discourse and reality. This has been markedly evidenced by the absence of family-specific recommendations in the recent Veterans Consultation. Furthermore, my PhD research found that there has been no considered review of the effectiveness of the overall welfare framework available to MFs - and success appears to be measured by the retention figures of serving personnel. Thus, voices and perspectives of MFs continue to go unheard, certain issues barely acknowledged and, at worst, denied. AimsThis Fellowship will extend the scope of my PhD through a focused exploration of the relationship between the academy and policy by engaging with key stakeholders including academics from diverse approaches (e.g. quantitative/qualitative, critical/problem-solving), and policy-influencers (e.g. policy-makers, the MoD, related charities, practitioners, MPs and activists). It will spark a debate between the various approaches in academia and policy by exploring (dis)similarity between these stakeholders' identification of issues facing MFs, their foci, proposed solutions, and theoretical framework. Specifically, it will investigate the barriers and opportunities towards aligning policy and (multiple) academic narratives. I aim to encourage policy-influencers/makers to take seriously MFs' issues, and to explore ways in which MFs' voices and experiences may be better heard and understood, and thus centred within policy. Indeed, my thesis found that policy-influencers more often engage with academia that takes a quantitative approach and does not question military processes (e.g. approaches evident in some psychological and medical research) - obscuring findings, debates, and perspectives evidenced in approaches which place military processes at the heart of enquiry. This exploratory research will be achieved through the following: 1. Revisiting data collected during the PhD with support providers to develop additional innovative insights into support provision available for MFs. Gaps will be addressed through a further 5 interviews with policy-influencers;2. Organising a conference presenting research examining the lives of MFs from different academic approaches (e.g. quantitative/qualitative, problem-solving/critical, medical/social) and associated opportunities/barriers towards engaging with policy; 3. Developing a report of the key findings around the identified academia-policy relationship;4. Developing a journal article outlining the relationship between academic approaches and policy. Throughout this Fellowship I will further establish myself within the academic sphere by maximising networking opportunities afforded by the activities outlined above, and revising/resubmitting three journal articles (submitted prior to the start of the Fellowship). Therefore, this Fellowship will enable me to build and enhance my profile as a newly qualified academic, conduct a small amount of additional research, and provide networking and dissemination opportunities to both academic and non-academic audiences.Future DirectionThis exploratory work builds the necessary foundations for defining and applying for future research. Upon identifying some of the barriers towards aligning academia and policy narratives, I will develop an application to Leverhulme's Early Career Fellowship order to explore this area in greater detail with a larger range of stakeholders (expected submission: Feb 2022).