Knowledge, Science and Expertise

This Section is a longstanding forum for a growing and diverse body of research on the relationship between knowledge, policy and politics. The Section will explore the following topics: 1. The use of evidence in policymaking: The governance of social and economic problems increasingly relies on the continuous production and use of scientific evidence and research. This trend has been especially prevalent in areas of policy characterised by risk and uncertainty where science and expertise are often vital to political and bureaucratic decision-making. Yet both the production of scientific expertise and its uses in the political context have raised important empirical and theoretical questions. Section Chairs invite 1–2 Panels in this area of empirical and theoretical research. 2. Evidence-based policymaking across networks and institutions: A particular focus in research on knowledge and governance has been the organization and institutionalization of the nexus between science and politics, its variation across political and geographical space, and its reconfiguration over time. This research observes organizational boundaries as well as the structures and interactions of knowledge networks and epistemic communities in the national, transnational and global context. The Section invites 1–2 Panels in this area of empirical and theoretical research. 3. Post-truth and epistemic polarization in policymaking: The emergence of post-truth politics has forced political science to confront questions of knowledge and politics with new urgency. This Section continues to provide a home for the ongoing academic debate of these developments and their empirical and theoretical implications for politics and political research. The global pandemic in particular has provided a vivid backdrop against which to reassess the varying dynamics of post-truth politics in different political contexts, as well as the emergence of radicalization and counter-mobilization along a new social, cultural and political cleavage in modern politics. The Section invites 1–2 Panels in this area of empirical and theoretical research. 4. Democratization of evidence-based policymaking: More generally, there is an ongoing pressure for policies to be legitimate not only in terms of their technocratic underpinnings as seen through the lens of evidence-based policymaking but also in terms of broader democratic values. In democratic governance, conflicts over knowledge are becoming as common as conflicts over interests and ideology, yet they continue to draw less research attention. The Section therefore invites 1–2 Panels highlighting current trends in the contestation of knowledge in democratic politics, from empirical and theoretical perspectives. 5. The role of knowledge has become an important factor in the conceptualization of political regimes and the study of regime transformation: How democracies generate, use, and legitimize knowledge is distinct from other political regimes. Tendencies of technocratization have long been seen as threats to democratic authority. Yet every crisis also raises questions about the effective use of knowledge to tackle increasingly intricate challenges in democracies, and public trust often shifts between elected officials and experts when political decisions are most consequential. The section therefore invites a broader debate on issues of regime transformation that tackles the empirical and conceptual issues involved in newly emerging theoretical contexts.