The authority of science and the legitimacy of international organisations: OECD, UNESCO and World Bank in global education governance

Zapp, Mike

doi:10.1080/03057925.2019.1702503

Cited by 38 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Obviously, policymakers and administrators, experts and scientists, teachers and practitioners are among the principal targets of global reports, yet many of these reports deliberately address all kinds of readers, available in the main world languages and free to download. Many of the larger reports are presented at press conferences, contain executive and lay summaries, they come with online tools, mobile phone applications and even cartoons (Zapp 2017b(Zapp , 2020.…”

Section: What Is a Global Report?mentioning

confidence: 99%

International Organisations and the Proliferation of Scientised Global Reporting, 1947–2019

Zapp

2021

Global Society

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As novel instruments in global governance, international organisations' (IOs) global reports have emerged in all policy sectors in the more recent period. Drawing on an original dataset of N = 363 editions from N = 95 explicitly global reports from the period 1947-2019, this study documents the rise of reporting and uses citation and content analyses to examine the changing role of science. Reporting based on scientific research and quantitative indicators increases over time and across all sectors, yet particularly striking since the late 1980s and most in sectors dealing with human development and the environment. Drawing on arguments from world society theory, the sociology of quantification and post-truth approaches, this work argues that while reports provide IOs with new legitimacy in science-based governance, their scientised and quantified nature is likely to make IO activities the target of antiscientific populist rhetoric and critical arguments about a reductionist interpretation of science.

show abstract

Section: What Is a Global Report?mentioning

confidence: 99%

International Organisations and the Proliferation of Scientised Global Reporting, 1947–2019

Zapp

2021

Global Society

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We are interested specifically in how IOs construct themselves as scientific authorities when seeking to legitimize themselves as credible policy advice providers. IOs' increased research output and their investments in establishing entire research departments have been associated with their endeavours to appear as rational purposive actors (Bromley, 2010;Zapp, 2017Zapp, , 2020. Although such activities may well contribute to IOs' authority, they do not sufficiently explain why nation-states end up introducing reforms that imitate global policy models and ideals.…”

Section: The Epistemic Governance Perspective On Ios' Authority Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

International organizations establishing their scientific authority: Periodizing the legitimation of policy advice by the OECD

Rautalin

Syväterä

Vento

2020

International Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article contributes to the periodization of ‘scientization’ by scrutinizing how international organizations (IOs) have evolved into such scientific authorities as many of them are today. The authors examine the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and its Economic Surveys during the period 1965–2015. The study sheds light on how scientific authority manifests in IOs’ reporting and policy recommendations directed at national governments. First, the analysis scrutinizes how science figures rhetorically in reports. Secondly, it focuses on policy recommendations and their connection to the scientific content of these reports. The results show that although the reports were portrayed as ‘scientific’ already in the 1960s, in the 2000s the reporting clearly shifted from the language of economics towards more popularized consulting language. The authors argue that these changes are due to the OECD’s reactions to transformations in the wider institutional environment and occasioned by its endeavours to appear as a significant actor in knowledge-based policymaking.

show abstract

“…Comparative education scholarship on global governance seems to generally pursue three nonexclusive research strands Zapp, 2020). What appears to be the oldest and most dominant view portrays IOs as powerful 'instruments' for promoting and transferring Western cultures and policies worldwide.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Problematizing Scientization in International Organizations

Bekele

2021

NJCIE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Comparative education studies examined the roles multilateral organizations and non-governmental organizations play in global governance and international development. Emphasis has been given to their engagements both at policy and practice levels as well as their impacts. Generally, the mechanisms international organizations use to govern education and development seem qualitatively to change over time. The most recent emerging research trajectory explains how international organizations primarily use the power of scientific knowledge for organizational legitimacy, credibility, and impact. This is referred to in the literature as soft governance, epistemic governance, scientization, or scientific multilateralism, as it significantly relies on the authority of scientific knowledge as opposed to hard, financial preconditions, for global governance and development. Our understanding of scientization is still in its ‘infancy’, partly due to its relatively recent emergence and partly due to the use of varied indicators to assess it across organizational types. To contribute toward further theorization, this study problematizes scientization in international organizations, with a focus on multilateral, intergovernmental organizations. The study is organized around answering this overarching question: What are the conceptual and methodological attributes or features of scientization in international organizations? Using sociological theories and conceptions of policymaking and transfer, it discusses core substantive, methodological, and theoretical issues of scientization having relevance for further research.

show abstract

The authority of science and the legitimacy of international organisations: OECD, UNESCO and World Bank in global education governance

Cited by 38 publications

References 38 publications

International Organisations and the Proliferation of Scientised Global Reporting, 1947–2019

International Organisations and the Proliferation of Scientised Global Reporting, 1947–2019

International organizations establishing their scientific authority: Periodizing the legitimation of policy advice by the OECD

Problematizing Scientization in International Organizations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About