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Overview
- Presents an insightful overview of the different fields and sub-fields that attend to global social change
- Bridges the macro institutional and the micro interactional levels across theoretical, conceptual and empirical chapters
- Designed to be used by researchers or those in upper level degree programmes who want to think critically about empirical evidence, an approach that is often reserved for methodology courses
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About this book
This book argues that modern governance is performed by actors who seek social change epistemically, by drawing on widespread, public views of reality. Agents of change such as parliamentarians or social movement activists will assess and affect what they believe to be people’s conceptions of what is possible, rational, and desirable. This often means that these key authority figures will invest in credible knowledge production, as well as appeal to individual and group identifications, emotions, and values.
Alasuutari and Qadir show how this epistemic governance works in three important arenas of social change: parliaments, which debate laws that constitute the bulk of reforms; international organizations that circulate global norms; and social movements and NGOs. Through their analysis, the authors’ detailed, innovative methodology for discourse analysis indicates the utility of epistemic governance as a new paradigm for research into global social change.
This book will be of use to students in upper level degree programs who want to design empirical research into social change as well as researchers in sociology, political science and public policy.
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Keywords
Table of contents (8 chapters)
Reviews
“This book is key reading for understanding social and political change: what exactly is going on in the persuasion work that makes it possible for worldviews to evolve, policies to get made and influence exerted? Drawing on crucial insights about human communication and blending them succinctly, the authors constructively explore the ways we try to makeeach other change our minds, and how we strive to make the world make sense. Not to be missed!” (Ricca Edmondson, Professor in the School of Political Science and Sociology, National University of Ireland)
“In Epistemic Governance, Alasuutari and Qadir develop a striking and exciting new perspective for sociology. Emphasizing the persistence of authority in the modern world, they propose to reorient our thinking on social movements, law and power, and non-governmental organizations. In so doing, they subject post-Foucauldian social theory to a major overhaul, theorizing modernity in a new register, and reorienting our thinking about governments and governmentality.” (Isaac Ariail Reed, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia, USA)
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Pertti Alasuutari is Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences,Tampere University, Finland. He has published widely in the areas of social theory, cultural and media studies, and social research methodology.
Ali Qadir is Associate Professor of New Social Research, Tampere University, Finland. Qadir’s research centers on epistemic governance in modern world society and on religion in modernity. He has published widely in global and transnational sociology, and in sociology of religion.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Epistemic Governance
Book Subtitle: Social Change in the Modern World
Authors: Pertti Alasuutari, Ali Qadir
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19150-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-19149-8Published: 07 October 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-19150-4Published: 23 September 2019
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 192
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Political Sociology, Social Policy, Social Theory, Methodology of the Social Sciences, Governance and Government