Keeping science critical: reflexivity, pluralism and the future of applied research

The growing emphasis on evidence-based policymaking has transformed the relationship between science and practice. Yet closer collaboration between researchers and policy actors also raises questions about academic autonomy, epistemic diversity and the critical role of science. Drawing on research into policing scholarship across Europe, this seminar explores how particular knowledge paradigms come to dominate fields of inquiry and examines their implications for research agendas, data access, funding and methodological pluralism. It introduces Reflexive Policing, a new framework centred on principles such as epistemic openness, respect for objective distance, democratic access to data, independent development of research agendas and a revision of research funding (Betts & Easton, 2016 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2026.100855). While grounded in policing research, the seminar speaks to broader debates across policy domains about how science can remain both useful and critical in democratic societies.

Presenter Professor Marleen Easton is a sociologist and internationally recognised scholar in governance of security at Ghent University (Belgium). With more than 30 years of research experience, her work focuses on policing, security governance, and the relationship between policing and science. She chairs the Working Group on Policing of the European Society of Criminology (ESC) and holds affiliated positions at Leiden University, Queensland University of Technology, and The University of Queensland.

She has also played an active role in bridging research, policy, and practice, serving since 2000 on the board of the Belgian Centre for Policing and Security, as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Dutch Police (2022-), and as President of the Innovation Centre for Security (INNOS/IUNGOS) in Belgium (2014-2021).