Dr Peter Tangney has been awarded the Crisp Prize 2018 by the Australian Political Studies Association (APSA), for his incisive book Climate Adaptation Policy & Evidence: Understanding the Tensions between politics and expertise in public policy, published in 2017.

This national prize was established in 1987 and is one of APSA’s oldest awards for published work. It is awarded every two years to an author who has published a monograph within 10 years of their PhD.

Dr Tangney, a lecturer in political science and communications, and coordinator of the Bachelor of Science program in Science Policy and Communication, is particularly interested in the ‘politics of science’ and tensions that arise between political and expert forms of authority during policy-making.

His book compares the politics and science informing climate adaptation policy in Australia and the UK to understand how realistic these expectations are in practice – especially pertinent in an era calling for more and better science to anticipate and deal with climate change impacts.

Dr Tangney’s book examines what the politics of climate change mean for both the development of useful evidence and for the practice of policy-making based on verified science.  It explores the ways credible and relevant climate science is often ignored or politicised to ensure the evidence-based mandate is coherent with prevailing ideals, and demonstrates that there are more fundamental elements to assess before shaping policy ahead of examining evidence.