Epistemic Governance

This book argues that modern governance is performed by actors who seek social change epistemically, by drawing on widespread, public views of reality. Agents of change such as parliamentarians or social movement activists will assess and affect what they believe to be people’s conceptions of what is possible, rational, and desirable. This often means that these key authority figures will invest in credible knowledge production, as well as appeal to individual and group identifications, emotions, and values. Alasuutari and Qadir show how this epistemic governance works in three important arenas of social change: parliaments, which debate laws that constitute the bulk of reforms; international organizations that circulate global norms; and social movements and NGOs. Through their analysis, the authors’ detailed, innovative methodology for discourse analysis indicates the utility of epistemic governance as a new paradigm for research into global social change. This book will be of use to students in upper level degree programs who want to design empirical research into social change as well as researchers in sociology, political science and public policy.

“Epistemic governance” refers to the cognitive and knowledge-related paradigms that underlie a social system. In this volume, the authors apply the concept to higher education. In a comprehensive review of recent literature, they define key terms and concepts, arguing that a good, effective and sustainable governance of higher education is not possible unless the epistemic structure and knowledge paradigms of higher education are addressed directly. Effective governance of academic institutions is particularly important, given their essential role in generating and disseminating knowledge. The authors consider the practical and policy implications of the epistemic approach for promoting quality assurance, quality enhancement, and quality management of higher education, and their impact on university administration and academic career development.

This book argues that modern governance is performed by actors who seek social change epistemically, by drawing on widespread, public views of reality. Agents of change such as parliamentarians or social movement activists will assess and affect what they believe to be people’s conceptions of what is possible, rational, and desirable. This often means that these key authority figures will invest in credible knowledge production, as well as appeal to individual and group identifications, emotions, and values. Alasuutari and Qadir show how this epistemic governance works in three important arenas of social change: parliaments, which debate laws that constitute the bulk of reforms; international organizations that circulate global norms; and social movements and NGOs. Through their analysis, the authors’ detailed, innovative methodology for discourse analysis indicates the utility of epistemic governance as a new paradigm for research into global social change. This book will be of use to students in upper level degree programs who want to design empirical research into social change as well as researchers in sociology, political science and public policy.

This book examines the transformations of epistemic governance in education, the way in which some actors are shaping new knowledge, and how that new knowledge impacts other actors in charge of implementing this knowledge in the context of the decision-making process and practice. The book describes knowledge-based and evidence-based technologies that produce new modes of representation, cognitive categories, and value-based judgements which determine and guide actions and interactions between researchers, experts and policy-makers. It explores several major social theories and concepts, analysing the transformation of the relationship between educational and social sciences and politics. In the light of epistemic governance being linked to transformations of academic capitalism, the book describes the ways in which academics engaged in heterogeneous networks are capable of developing new interactions as well as facing new trials imposed on them by the changing conditions of producing knowledge in their scientific community and within their institutions. Knowledge is power. It is materialized in metrics, policy instruments and embedded in networks. The governance of European higher education, insightfully argues Romuald Normand, is not structured by hierarchical public policies, by governmental exercise of authority or heroic decision making. Normand makes a sophisticated intellectual argument, building upon the work of Foucault, Latour (Sociology of science), and the pragmatic sociology of Boltanski and Thévenot (sociology of justification) in order to precisely analyse Europe‘s higher education through the circulation of ideas and instruments. Based upon precise research, the book is a major contribution to the understanding of high education in a capitalist Europe, beyond the simple idea of neo liberalism. Normand, provocatively, even suggests the making of a European Homo Academicus. This is an innovative and important book for public policy, European Studies and the sociology of Education. Patrick le Galès, FBA, CNRS Research Professor, Centre d’Etudes Européennes, Sciences Po, Paris, France

This book illustrates how feminist knowledge and postcolonial knowledge are marginalized in universities due to policies, organizational structures, and knowledge hierarchies that privilege metrics as measures of success and narrow views of science and research. The changing relationship between the state and knowledge production is a critical issue for universities and governments when disinformation is creating a crisis in expertise and trust in democratic institutions. Yet academic autonomy is being undermined by processes of corporatization of the university: managerialism, marketisation, technologization and privatization. Epistemic injustice occurs when particular knowledges are privileged due to policy priorities, metrics and organizational practices as these are underpinned by unequal power relations that inform who does what research and with whom. In turn, injustice occurs when knowledge is evaluated primarily on the basis of its usefulness. The chapters in this book illustrate the epistemic implications of changing institutional and organizational conditions produced by narrow conceptions of ‘knowledge’ and ‘good science’ and relations between them. It explores these arrangements at the level of colonial and geopolitical relations, and their effects in terms of institutional processes, practices, and agency. The text shows how a lack of epistemic diversity reinforces structural and cultural racial and gender injustices arising from colonialism, patriarchy, and dominant views of science. This volume will appeal to policy makers and researchers in higher education reform and scholars interested in changing academic practices from feminist and postcolonial perspectives. It was originally published as a special issue of Critical Studies in Education.

Knowing Governance sets out to understand governance through the design and making of its models and instruments. What kinds of knowledge do they require and reproduce? How are new understandings of governance produced in practice, by scientists and policy makers and by the publics with whom they engage?

Increasingly humanitarian NGOs operate in the context of armed conflicts where the security risks are higher than in contexts of natural disaster. Working in Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is particularly dangerous for humanitarians. This existential threat affects the physical existence of aid workers and the implementation of humanitarian programs, and the core beliefs of humanitarians and the underlying principles of humanitarian action. For NGOs it is difficult to accept that they are attacked despite their good intentions, sometimes even by the very communities they seek to help. For these reasons, humanitarian NGOs have to change their approaches to security by not only adapting their policies, procedures and structures to the changing environment, but also reviewing the underlying principles of their work. This book contributes to debates by demonstrating how issues of (in)security affect humanitarian NGOs and the humanitarian identity, situating the structural changes within the humanitarian NGO community in the context of conflict aid governance and explains how non-state actors establish their own governance structures, independent from state-sponsored solutions, and contributes to the emerging literature on the redefinition of the concept of epistemic communities.

In Crippling Epistemologies and Governance Failures, Gilles Paquet criticizes the prevailing practices of the social sciences on the basis of their inadequate concepts of knowledge, evidence and inquiry, concepts he claims have become methodological “mental prisons”. Paquet describes the prevailing policy development process in Canada in terms of its weak information infrastructure, poor accountability, and inflexible organization design. In contrast, he suggests that social science and public policy should promote forms of “serious play” that would allow organizations to experiment with new structures. Paquet engages with numerous foundationalist programs in the social sciences in order to show their inadequacy and suggests important and unexplored directions in policy areas as diverse as education, science, health, intergovernmental and foreign policy. He closes the work with a plea for experimentalism in academic research, policy development, and organization design.

This edited volume examines power in its different dimensions in global governance. Scholars tend to underestimate the importance of power in international relations because of a failure to see its multiple forms. To expand the conceptual aperture, this book presents and employs a taxonomy that alerts scholars to the different kinds of power that are present in world politics. A team of international scholars demonstrate how these different forms connect and intersect in global governance in a range of different issue areas. Bringing together a variety of theoretical perspectives, this volume invites scholars to reconsider their conceptualization of power in world politics and how such a move can enliven and enrich their understanding of global governance.

Epistemic Communities, Constructivism and International Environmental Politics brings together 25 years of publications by Peter M. Haas. The book examines how the world has changed significantly over the last 100 years, discusses the need for new, constructivist scholarship to understand the dynamics of world politics, and highlights the role played by transnational networks of professional experts in global governance. Combining an intellectual history of epistemic communities with theoretical arguments and empirical studies of global environmental conferences, as well as international organizations and comparative studies of international environmental regimes, this book presents a broad picture of social learning on the global scale. In addition to detailing the changes in the international system since the Industrial Revolution, Haas discusses the technical nature of global environmental threats. Providing a critical reading of discourses about environmental security, this book explores governance efforts to deal with global climate change, international pollution control, stratospheric ozone, and European acid rain. With a new general introduction and the addition of introductory pieces for each section, this collection offers a retrospective overview of the author’s work and is essential reading for students and scholars of environmental politics, international relations and global politics.