The Politics of Expertise: Competing for Authority in Global Governance

by Ole Jacob Sending

Overview

Experts dominate all facets of global governance, from accounting practices and antitrust regulations to human rights law and environmental conservation. In this study, Ole Jacob Sending encourages a critical interrogation of the role and power of experts by unveiling the politics of the ongoing competition for authority in global governance.

Drawing on insights from sociology, political science, and institutional theory, Sending challenges theories centered on particular actors’ authority, whether it is the authority of so-called epistemic communities, the moral authority of advocacy groups, or the rational-legal authority of international organizations. Using in-depth and historically oriented case studies of population and peacebuilding, he demonstrates that authority is not given nor located in any set of particular actors. Rather, continuous competition for recognition as an authority to determine what is to be governed, by whom, and for what purpose shapes global governance in fundamental ways.

Advancing a field-based approach, Sending highlights the political stakes disguised by the technical language of professionals and thus opens a broader public debate over the key issues of our time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780472119639
Publisher:	University of Michigan Press
Publication date:	12/15/2015
Series:	Configurations: Critical Studies Of World Politics
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	174
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Ole Jacob Sending is Director of Research at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI).

Table of Contents

Foreword Patrick Thaddeus Jackson, Configurations Series Editor ix

Acknowledgments xi

Part I

Introduction: Authority in Global Governance 3

Chapter 1 Competing for Authority: Recognition and Field Dynamics in Global Governance 11

Part II

Chapter 2 Diplomats, Lawyers, and the Emergence of International Rule 33

Chapter 3 Ethnographic Sagacity and International Rule 55

Part III

Chapter 4 Genesis of the Field of Transnational Population Governance 81

Chapter 5 Safeguarding Positions, Transforming the Field: The Field Population of 1974-1994 103

Conclusion: Fields and the Study of Global Governance 125

Notes 135

Bibliography 139

Index 155

Editorial Reviews

Erudite, informative, insightful, thoughtful and thought-provoking . . . a critically important contribution to college and university library Contemporary Political Science reference collections and supplemental studies reading lists.”.”
—Midwest Book Review



“Ole Jacob Sending’s Bourdieu-inspired analysis brings new theoretical resources and historical depth to understanding global governance. Incisive and revealing, this is a cutting-edge contribution.”
—Michael Williams, University of Ottawa



“Sending’s reputation as one of the most astute and creative observers of global governance is solidified with this cogent, timely, and field-bending book.”
—Michael Barnett, George Washington University

From the Publisher