Epistemic community

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Epistemic community is a social science concept which tries to explain political control through the authority of expert groups. Viewed ontologically , epistemic communities are networks of experts who exercise authority in their respective areas of knowledge and thereby influence political decisions. The concept was made popular especially by the American political scientist Peter Haas, who tries to explain cooperation between states in the international system.

Concept history

The term was introduced in 1968 by the sociologist Burkart Holzner . Holzner examined the perception or construction of reality and called the epistemic community essentially a group of individuals who have similar perceptions of reality, i.e. who share a certain form of knowledge with one another. Together with John Marx , Holzner later specified the term as “ knowledge-oriented work communities in which cultural standards and social arrangements interpenetrate around a primary commitment to epistemic criteria in knowledge production and application ”. Holzner and Marx refer here primarily to scientists who are makes common belief in the scientific method as access to truth to an epistemic community. Knowledge is - because it is socially constructed - context-dependent. The epistemic community is a social group that defines and shares the context of knowledge. This enables members of an epistemic community to understand and correctly classify the knowledge produced by other members of the group. In extreme cases, the knowledge of one epistemic community can be completely incomprehensible and meaningless to another community. Using the shared knowledge base, the group develops a self-image and a classification in the environment. This understanding, i.e. epistemic community as a scientific community, was prevalent until the 1990s.

With his approaches, which appeared in International Organization in 1992 (fundamentally the introduction: “Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy coordination”), Haas made the concept of the epistemic community fruitful in political science , more specifically for international relations . Haas, like many other IB theorists, dealt with the declaration of cooperation between states after the end of the Cold War. The prevailing theories of realism and neorealism seemed inadequate for the explanation, since they assume an anomic international system in which states fear one another and are concerned with securing their very existence. Haas' epistemic community concept tries to explain cooperation by the fact that many problems are dealt with by experts who also share the same knowledge across national borders in the sense of the same belief in fundamental truths or valid methods. The underlying assumption is that governments are trying to reduce uncertainty and gain knowledge in terms of interpreted information. It is about understanding social or physical processes so that decision-makers can calculate the consequences of their actions. In particular, this form of knowledge does not mean that experts "guess" or estimate the intentions of other actors (states, governments) and also "raw data" in the sense of isolated information (e.g. how large is the nuclear capacity of a certain state ?) is not relevant information for the decision maker. Haas emphasizes the processing and meaning given by humans: “ The information is [...] the product of human interpretations of social and physical phenomena. “ Due to the complexity of reality, political actors lack sufficient skills of their own, so that they have to rely on the expertise of the epistemic communities. This gives these expert groups great factual power, even though they lack formal legitimation - for example through elections. Haas demonstrated this mechanism using the regulations to protect the ozone layer .

definition

The epistemic community according to Haas is a network of recognized experts in a particular area with the power to interpret politically relevant knowledge in this area. ( An epistemic community is a network of professionals with recognized expertise and competence in a particular domain and an authoritative claim to policy-relevant knowledge within that domain or issue area. ). These specialists can in principle be experts in various disciplines, so they are not limited to scientists, as is the case with Holzner / Marx. In order to form an epistemic community, these experts have to

  1. common normative and principled beliefs ( a shared set of normative and principled beliefs, which provide a value-based rationale for the social action of community members )
  2. common assumptions about causal relationships ( shared causal beliefs, Which are derived from Their analysis of practices leading or contributing to a central set of problems in Their domain and Which then serve as the basis for elucidating the multiple linkages between possible policy actions and Desired outcomes )
  3. common notions of validity ( shared notions of validity - that is, intersubjective, internally defined criteria for weighing and validating knowledge in the domain of Their expertise )
  4. and a common agenda in the sense of a common understanding of the problem with corresponding problem-solving methods ( a common policy enterprise - that is, a set of common practices associated with a set of problems to which their professional competence is directed, presumably out of the conviction that human welfare will be enhanced as a consequence )

have.

The modeling of the epistemic community as an actor is analytically relevant. It is therefore not a question of experts advising governments as individuals, but of experts (transnational) forming a group with other experts that acts as an independent actor. Using the example of the ozone layer problem, Haas explains that the epistemic community, as a group of experts, has both defined the problem and developed appropriate solutions. Ultimately, the role of governments was only to transform these policies into international law.

literature

  • Burkart Holzner: Reality Construction in Society. Cambridge 1968, OCLC 186717624 .
  • Burkart Holzner, John Marx: Knowledge Application: The Knowledge System in Society. Boston 1979, ISBN 0-205-06516-3 .
  • Peter M. Haas (Ed.): Knowledge, Power and International Policy Coordination. (= International Organization. Vol. 46, No. 1). Massachusetts 1992, OCLC 27959355 .

Remarks

  1. ^ B. Holzner: Reality Construction in Society. 1968.
  2. ↑ B. Holzner, J. Marx: Knowledge Application. 1979, p. 108.
  3. ^ PM Haas: Knowledge, Power and International Policy Coordination. 1992, p. 4.
  4. ^ PM Haas: Knowledge, Power and International Policy Coordination. 1992, p. 118 ff.
  5. ^ All citations from PM Haas: Knowledge, Power and International Policy Coordination. 1992, p. 3.