What is a “social impact scholar”?

(Reposted from the LSE Impact Blog)

Having a positive impact beyond academia can often be seen as a requirement, rather than as a personal orientation to research and its potential to create social change. John E. Wilcox and Brandon Reynante reflect on their experience as social impact scholars and what it means for their research.

Our adult lives have been largely devoted to research, so it makes sense to ask, “Why do we do it?”. Our response to this question may have changed over time, but our current answer is “social impact”—that is, to have a positive impact on society (assuming some understanding of that term).

As we use the term, then, a “social impact scholar” is anyone who undertakes research largely with this objective of social impact in mind. For example, we currently do research on how education can better prepare our societies for severe climate change in the future. We also know many others admirably working on social impact through, for instance, research that aims to improve the justice system or adolescent mental health.

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