Political situations: knowledge controversies in transnational governance

Barry, Andrew

doi:10.1080/19460171.2012.699234

Cited by 100 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…In these growing transnational technological zones, governance by standards, comparison and by rendering distinct objects as similar proliferates (Hönke and Cuesta-Fernandez 2017). At the same time, however, as Barry (2012) reminds us, new objects become matters over which to disagree. As ports become ever more entwined with transnational standards and technologies, new objects emerge around which controversies arise (see also Marres 2005).…”

Section: Global Infrastructure Hubs: Critical Security Studies Meets mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…in Venturini 2009). With this third perspective, we draw on Barry (2012) by interpreting controversies as bringing 'political situations' to the fore. Political situations are neither fixed nor focused on political settlements defined by relations between key groups of actors, but are a result of ongoing, contingent processes of order-making in which transnational technologies and imaginaries play a key role.…”

Section: A Controversies Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mobilising security and logistics through an African port: A controversies approach to infrastructure

Hönke

Cuesta-Fernandez

2018

Mobilities

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Section: Global Infrastructure Hubs: Critical Security Studies Meets mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Controversies Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobilising security and logistics through an African port: A controversies approach to infrastructure

Hönke

Cuesta-Fernandez

2018

Mobilities

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“…A major focus has been on controversies where policy decisions involving techno-scientific evidence is the subject of disagreement. Investigating public controversies not only necessitates re-posing questions regarding the legitimacy of actors and associated knowledge claims (Barry, 2012;Jasanoff, 2003), but also requires examination of the making (and unmaking) of policy decisions based on evidence and expertise assembled by competing (and sometimes polarised) actors (Martin and Richards, 1995;Nowotny et al, 2001;Collins, 2014). As Hannigan (2006: 29, emphasis in the original) argues, controversy is not about 'an absence of certainty, but rather of contradictory certainties: several divergent and mutually irreconcilable sets of convictions both about the difficulties we face and the available solutions'.…”

Section: Knowledge Controversy and Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Post-decisional logics of inaction: The influence of knowledge controversy in climate policy decision-making

Sharman¹,

Perkins

2017

Environ Plan A

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Contestation over knowledge claims, including their legitimacy as an input to policy decisionmaking, does not end at the moment of policy creation. Policies continue to be made and unmade during the implementation phase. Drawing from work on knowledge controversies, and building on Puchala's (1975) concept of post-decisional politics, we investigate the implementation of climate change policy in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. We identify politically salient post-decisional logics of inaction which have been used to justify delaying or diluting climate policy implementation in both countries. In New Zealand, knowledge controversy has had little or no influence over decision-making, with political rationales in the form of the current national economic interest and cost-based logics prevailing.Conversely, arguments emphasising scientific uncertainty have achieved political traction in the United Kingdom, creating a "fog of distrust" instrumental in draining political capital from the active implementation of climate policy. Explanatory factors such as structural economic considerations and different values placed on science as an input to policy-making are discussed, highlighting the importance of being attentive to the fluidity of knowledge controversies as they achieve salience and legitimacy according to the specificities of time and place.

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“…An important question therefore is: Do subnational governments serve to politicise energy, in the sense of bringing energy policy into contingency and debate, or to depoliticise it (Flinders and Wood 2014;Barry 2002Barry , 2012Stirling 2014)? Politicisation matters insofar as it may bring a wider array of value concerns into the energy policy arena, beyond those embodied in the mechanics of governance.…”

Section: Guiding Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sub-national government and pathways to sustainable energy

Cowell

Ellis

Sherry-Brennan

et al. 2017

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

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In an effort to understand how to promote more sustainable forms of energy provision, researchers have begun addressing the scale of political and governance processes, yet the effects of sub-national government remain neglected. At the same time, analysts of political devolution, decentralisation and independence have rarely given attention to the energy sector. Papers in this special issue seek to better understand the relationship between sub-national government and pathways to sustainable energy: examining how city-regional and devolved governments have shaped agendas for building retrofit; elucidating the importance of decentralised governance in knitting together electricity, heat and transport energy markets; mapping the complex, fuzzy spatial organisation of legal powers to direct energy policy across multi-level polities; and analysing conflicts over the allocation of energy infrastructure consenting powers between national and devolved governments. The papers highlight the interdependencies of action in different governmental arenas, and reinforce arguments for greater central-to-local reflexivity in governance styles. Analysing the interface between sub-national government and energy transition also raises new questions about the meaning of ‘sovereignty’, the fragmentary nature of democratic control over energy systems, and the effects of boundaries.

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Political situations: knowledge controversies in transnational governance

Cited by 100 publications

References 32 publications

Mobilising security and logistics through an African port: A controversies approach to infrastructure

Mobilising security and logistics through an African port: A controversies approach to infrastructure

Post-decisional logics of inaction: The influence of knowledge controversy in climate policy decision-making

Sub-national government and pathways to sustainable energy

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