Constructing Consensus by Data

Abstract

AbstractThrough a sociological analysis of the actors that have become central to transnational governance over the last 50 years, the chapter focuses on the processes that influence and steer the production of expert knowledge. The chapter adopts the position that its construction is not ‘organic’—the product of traditional knowledge-making as it became dominant from the Enlightenment onwards—but rather the outcome of complex undertakings that often imbricate a wide variety of actors—both national and international, including decision-makers—and different fields. The chapter builds on the shift from Mode 1 to Mode 2 knowledge production (Gibbons et al. in The new production of knowledge: The dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. Sage, 1994) in order to document further changes to how expert knowledge is produced today: it argues that, at least in the field of global public policy, we see concerted efforts to produce expert knowledge that focuses equally on technocratic and political accountability and that sees brokerage and consensus-making as the ultimate goals in an increasingly polarised and uncertain post-pandemic world.