In this article, we address the question of how policy orientation shapes academic research from a sociological perspective. Policy orientation involves the mobilization of scientific resources and the “mobilization of the world.” Our analysis is based on Bourdieusian field theory and focuses on democracy promotion research (DPR). It shows that DPR is a heterogeneous academic field characterized by the field-specific demand for policy orientation. (Western) Scholars and, particularly, scholar-practitioners occupy central positions, and field-specific practices of policy orientation include stocktaking, evaluation, problem identification, and critical intervention. While we derive these insights from analysis of DPR, our findings are useful for the study of policy orientation in similar academic fields. For the reflexive and systematic analysis of how policy orientation shapes, for example, development studies and human rights research, we suggest a focus on interrelations between academic fields, field-specific struggles, and relationships with the respective policy fields.

中文翻译：

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政策导向的实践：民主促进研究的异质领域研究

在本文中，我们从社会学的角度探讨政策导向如何影响学术研究的问题。政策导向涉及科学资源的动员和“世界的动员”。我们的分析基于布迪厄场论，重点关注民主促进研究 (DPR)。它表明 DPR 是一个异质性的学术领域，其特点是对政策导向的领域特定需求。（西方）学者，尤其是学者实践者占据中心位置，政策导向的特定领域实践包括盘点、评估、问题识别和批判性干预。虽然我们从对 DPR 的分析中得出这些见解，但我们的发现对于研究类似学术领域的政策导向很有用。