Laboratories of Social Knowledge
How International Organizations Construct Social Policy Through Numbers
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Beschreibung
The book examines the politics of knowledge in global social policy, investigating how international organisations (IOs) have contributed to the emergence and development of social security as a global policy field. It reconstructs the role of numerical knowledge in the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank, theorising how IOs contribute to epistemic infrastructures of global social security. The book shows how IOs’ knowledge production has led to a continuous refinement of the meaning and purpose of social security. First, it reveals how IOs arrived at a shared conception of social security: what the book calls an ontological framework. Second, it traces how numbers have increasingly enabled the assessment of countries according to shared benchmarks: what the book calls an evaluative framework. The author demonstrates the political and epistemic work involved in universalising knowledge of social security, while highlighting the limits of governing by numbers in global social policy.
John Berten is a postdoctoral researcher and junior research group leader at the Faculty of Sociology of Bielefeld University, Germany. His research and teaching focuses on global social policy, social policy in the Global South, knowledge and ideas in policymaking, and the role of futures in global politics.
The book examines the politics of knowledge in global social policy, investigating how international organisations (IOs) have contributed to the emergence and development of social security as a global policy field. It reconstructs the role of numerical knowledge in the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank, theorising how IOs contribute to epistemic infrastructures of global social security. The book shows how IOs’ knowledge production has led to a continuous refinement of the meaning and purpose of social security. First, it reveals how IOs arrived at a shared conception of social security: what the book calls an ontological framework. Second, it traces how numbers have increasingly enabled the assessment of countries according to shared benchmarks: what the book calls an evaluative framework. The author demonstrates the political and epistemic work involved in universalising knowledge of social security, while highlighting the limits of governing by numbers in global social policy.
Demonstrates the implicit but far-reaching implications of global knowledge for policymaking Applies a new theoretical perspective on the politics of knowledge in global social policy Investigates the role of International Organisations in delineating the boundaries of global social security policy
Autor*in
John Berten
Themen in »Laboratories of Social Knowledge«
International organizations global social governance social policy rationalized others public policy global social policy global policy fields International Labour Organization World Bank social security epistemic infrastructure