Suchergebnisse

Development of the think tank sector in post-communist states is, at times, regarded as a self-evident consequence of the processes of democratization. However, the specific "environment of obstacles and opportunities" makes it neither automatic, nor easy for think tanks of the region to join the policy game. In particular, it is not clear to what extent the think tanks in transition democracies can or should engage in strictly political disputes. The alleged shift from academic towards advocacy profiles that is said to characterize Western think tanks evokes numerous questions in post-communist settings. The paper provides an analysis of the development of the think tank sector in Poland and the challenges it faces on its way towards "maturity". It aims at getting some insights into perspectives of think tanks themselves. Building on a qualitative analysis of think tanks' mission statements, survey data and interviews with think tank managers, it analyses how they construct their positions of policy experts at the crossroads between politics, science, business and the media.

Cover Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of Figures and Tables -- Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- PART I THEORETICAL ISSUES -- 1 Theoretical Models and Approaches to Understanding the Role of Lobbies and Think Tanks in US Foreign Policy -- 2 The Political Expert: A Soldier of Fortune -- 3 Can the Philosopher Be a Political Expert? -- 4 Deliberating Experts Versus Political Representation -- 5 Speaking Truth to Power: The Paradox of the Intellectual in the Visual Information Age -- PART II NATIONAL CASES -- 6 Do Policy Experts Matter? Lessons from Canada and the United States -- 7 The Canadian Think Tank Scene: An Insider's Perspective -- 8 Expert Policy Advice in Germany -- 9 Determinants of German Think Tanks' Public Policy Roles -- 10 Political Expertise in Poland in the Field of Foreign Policy and the Emergence of Think Tanks -- Bibliography

In the world of Wikipedia, blogging and citizen journalism where huge masses of information and the capability to disseminate opinions, thoughts and ideas is available at the click of a mouse what is the role and impact of political experts? The contributors to this insightful and original volume argue that across the western world in general, the political expert occupies as important a role today as at any time in the past. The ubiquity of information and the fact that the experts and the organizations to which they are affiliated may be viewed as having an ideological agenda has not diminished their role, influence or status. Governments and the media still rely on them for information and advice whilst organizations in civil society need them in order to provide the evidence, arguments and policy recommendations that are essential to having a voice in the public conversation. By examining how these policy experts and their think tanks continue to exert influence across a range of modern western democracies a better understanding of the role of policy expertise and an examination of how it may develop and evolve throughout the rest of the world is reached.

AbstractThis article discusses the role of language in the collaboration between science, policy, and society. Combining computational methods of corpus linguistics (manifold learning) with sociological field theories, we analyze approximately 30,000 articles that were published in the field of transdisciplinary sustainability studies. We show that the field oscillates between deliberative and technocratic vocabularies and can therefore be characterized as a transversal field. We conclude that researchers who collaborate in science–society interstices are thrown into a semantic pluralism that cannot be boiled down to a common language. For transdisciplinary research practice and corresponding science policies, this involves trade-offs between generating a homogenous language and a collaborative appeal; between creating a stable creole and a situated semantic plurality. A corresponding theoretical viewpoint and science policy approach should be based on a pluralist view on the science–society–policy interplay.

"Die befragten Beratungsakteure sehen in beiden Staaten einen großen Bedarf an wissenschaftsgestützter Politikberatung. Sie verstehen sich dabei weniger als Sprachrohr eines bestimmten gesellschaftlichen Interesses oder einer klar identifizierbaren Ideologie, sondern als ein Konsortium, das an Wissenschaftsdiskursen teilnimmt und die dort entwickelten Ideen in politisch relevante und politisch nutzbare Konzepte und Vorschläge übersetzt. Eine auf die Arbeitswelt und die Arbeitnehmerperspektive bezogene Politikberatung lässt sich sowohl hinsichtlich ihrer kommunikativen Ausrichtung auf eine immer stärker ausdifferenzierte multimediale Öffentlichkeit als auch hinsichtlich der Bandbreite der konsultationsfähigen Beratungsquellen ausweiten und optimieren, was zu einer größeren Durchschlagskraft arbeitnehmerbezogener wirtschafts- und sozialpolitischer Beratung führen könnte."