IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/polsoc/v41y2022i4p431-444..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Global public policy in a quantified world: Sustainable Development Goals as epistemic infrastructures
[The ethics of a formula: Calculating a financial-humanitarian price for water]

Author

Listed:
  • Marlee Tichenor
  • Sally E Merry
  • Sotiria Grek
  • Justyna Bandola-Gill

Abstract

Despite the multiplicity of actors, crises, and fields of action, global public policy has known one constant, that is, the ubiquity of indicators in the production of governing knowledge. This article theoretically engages with the phenomenon of hyper-quantification of global governance in the context of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), debated and introduced in 2015. Increasingly metrics—such as indicators and quantified data to monitor targets and goals—are no longer just tools of governance but rather are emblematic of the new types of political cultures, enabling an interplay of material, techno-political, and organizational structures within which (statistical) knowledge is produced, disseminated, and translated into global public policy. The paper unpacks this complexity by proposing a new theoretical approach to quantification as an “epistemic infrastructure,” which emerges across three levels: materialities (such as data and indicators), interlinkages (such as networks and communities), and paradigms (such as new ways of doing policy work). Using the lens of the “epistemic infrastructure” on the SDGs, this article and the others in this special issue analyze the ways that quantified knowledge practices—in widely varying policy arenas, scales, and geographic regions—are at the heart of the production of its global public policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Marlee Tichenor & Sally E Merry & Sotiria Grek & Justyna Bandola-Gill, 2022. "Global public policy in a quantified world: Sustainable Development Goals as epistemic infrastructures [The ethics of a formula: Calculating a financial-humanitarian price for water]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 431-444.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:polsoc:v:41:y:2022:i:4:p:431-444.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/polsoc/puac015
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen Fox, 2000. "Communities Of Practice, Foucault And Actor‐Network Therory," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(6), pages 853-868, September.
    2. Johannes M Waldmüller & Mandy Yap & Krushil Watene, 2022. "Remaking the Sustainable Development Goals: relational Indigenous epistemologies [Assessing national progress and priorities for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Experience from Australia]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 471-485.
    3. Power, Michael, 2015. "How accounting begins: object formation and the accretion of infrastructure," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64324, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Coleman, William D. & Skogstad, Grace D. & Atkinson, Michael M., 1996. "Paradigm Shifts and Policy Networks: Cumulative Change in Agriculture," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(3), pages 273-301, September.
    5. Johannes M. Waldmüller & Hameed Jamali & Nelson Nogales, 2019. "Operationalizing Sustainable Development Goals in Vulnerable Coastal Areas of Ecuador and Pakistan: Marginalizing Human Development?," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 468-485, October.
    6. Haas, Peter M., 1992. "Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy coordination," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 1-35, January.
    7. Stone,Diane, 2019. "Making Global Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108724753.
    8. Hal Colebatch, 2006. "What work makes policy?," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 39(4), pages 309-321, December.
    9. Power, Michael, 1999. "The Audit Society: Rituals of Verification," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198296034.
    10. Susan Leigh Star & Karen Ruhleder, 1996. "Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 7(1), pages 111-134, March.
    11. Sakiko Fukuda‐Parr & Desmond McNeill, 2019. "Knowledge and Politics in Setting and Measuring the SDGs: Introduction to Special Issue," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 10(S1), pages 5-15, January.
    12. Raustiala, Kal & Victor, David G., 2004. "The Regime Complex for Plant Genetic Resources," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 58(2), pages 277-309, April.
    13. Justyna Bandola-Gill, 2022. "Statistical entrepreneurs: the political work of infrastructuring the SDG indicators [The legitimacy of experts in policy: navigating technocratic and political accountability in the case of global," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 498-512.
    14. John Berten, 2022. "Producing decent work indicators: contested numbers at the ILO [The analysis of sustainability indicators as socially constructed policy instruments: Benefits and challenges of ‘interactive researc," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 458-470.
    15. Marieke Louis & Lucile Maertens, 2021. "Why International Organizations Hate Politics : Depoliticizing the World," Post-Print hal-03187782, HAL.
    16. Power, Michael, 2015. "How accounting begins: Object formation and the accretion of infrastructure," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 43-55.
    17. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, 2022. "When indicators fail: SPAR, the invisible measure of pandemic preparedness [Governing the world at a distance: The practice of global benchmarking]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 528-540.
    18. Judith G. Kelley & Beth A. Simmons, 2015. "Politics by Number: Indicators as Social Pressure in International Relations," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 59(1), pages 55-70, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kate Williams, 2022. "Hybrid knowledge production and evaluation at the World Bank [The challenge of managing boundary-spanning research activities: Experiences from the Swedish context]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 513-527.
    2. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, 2022. "When indicators fail: SPAR, the invisible measure of pandemic preparedness [Governing the world at a distance: The practice of global benchmarking]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 528-540.
    3. Sotiria Grek, 2022. "The education Sustainable Development Goal and the generative power of failing metrics [The Learning Metrics Task Force 2.0: Taking the Global Dialogues on Measuring Learning to the Country Level]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 445-457.
    4. Justyna Bandola-Gill, 2022. "Statistical entrepreneurs: the political work of infrastructuring the SDG indicators [The legitimacy of experts in policy: navigating technocratic and political accountability in the case of global," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 498-512.
    5. Marlee Tichenor, 2022. "Statistical capacity development and the production of epistemic infrastructures [The millennium development goals: A critique from the south]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 541-554.
    6. John Berten, 2022. "Producing decent work indicators: contested numbers at the ILO [The analysis of sustainability indicators as socially constructed policy instruments: Benefits and challenges of ‘interactive researc," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 458-470.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Justyna Bandola‐Gill, 2023. "Our common metrics? Our Common Agenda report and the epistemic infrastructure of the Sustainable Development Goals," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(S2), pages 8-12, March.
    2. Rebecca Vine, 2020. "Riskwork in the construction of Heathrow Terminal 2," SPRU Working Paper Series 2020-20, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    3. Pflueger, Dane & Palermo, Tommaso & Martinez, Daniel, 2019. "Thinking infrastructure and the organization of markets: the creation of a legal market for cannabis in Colorado," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 91412, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Justyna Bandola-Gill, 2022. "Statistical entrepreneurs: the political work of infrastructuring the SDG indicators [The legitimacy of experts in policy: navigating technocratic and political accountability in the case of global," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 498-512.
    5. Marlee Tichenor, 2022. "Statistical capacity development and the production of epistemic infrastructures [The millennium development goals: A critique from the south]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 541-554.
    6. Kornberger, Martin & Pflueger, Dane & Mouritsen, Jan, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures: Accounting for platform organization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 79-95.
    7. Arena, Marika & Arnaboldi, Michela & Palermo, Tommaso, 2017. "The dynamics of (dis)integrated risk management: a comparative field study," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 84285, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Kornberger Martin & Pflueger Dane & Mouritsen Jan, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures : Accounting for platform organization," Post-Print hal-02276737, HAL.
    9. Pflueger, Dane, 2016. "Knowing patients: The customer survey and the changing margins of accounting in healthcare," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 17-33.
    10. Luis Araujo & Katy Mason, 2021. "Markets, infrastructures and infrastructuring markets," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(3), pages 240-251, December.
    11. Thor Olav Iversen, 2023. "Boundary experts: Science and politics in measuring the Sustainable Development Goals," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(4), pages 600-610, September.
    12. Sotiria Grek, 2022. "The education Sustainable Development Goal and the generative power of failing metrics [The Learning Metrics Task Force 2.0: Taking the Global Dialogues on Measuring Learning to the Country Level]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 445-457.
    13. Jérémy Eydieux & Stéphanie Tillement & Benoît Journé, 2020. "A pragmatist approach to audit practices: two cases of technical dialog from nuclear risk governance in France," Post-Print halshs-03721410, HAL.
    14. Faulconbridge, James R. & Muzio, Daniel, 2021. "Valuation devices and the dynamic legitimacy-performativity nexus: The case of PEP in the English legal profession," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    15. Reilley, Jacob & Löhlein, Lukas, 2023. "Theorizing (and) the future of interdisciplinary accounting research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    16. Oliver Westerwinter & Kenneth W. Abbott & Thomas Biersteker, 2021. "Informal governance in world politics," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-27, January.
    17. Palermo, Tommaso & Power, Michael & Ashby, Simon, 2022. "How accounting ends: self-undermining repetition in accounting lifecycles," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115278, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Charl de Villiers & Matteo La Torre & Vida Botes, 2022. "Accounting and social capital: A review and reflections on future research opportunities," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(4), pages 4485-4521, December.
    19. Oleh Pasko, 2017. "Impact of Calculative Practices on Innovation," Oblik i finansi, Institute of Accounting and Finance, issue 4, pages 66-74, December.
    20. Martinez, Daniel E. & Cooper, David J., 2019. "Assembling performance measurement through engagement," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:polsoc:v:41:y:2022:i:4:p:431-444.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/policyandsociety .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.