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ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu13438379812021-08-03T06:06:17Z From Means to Ends: How Scientific Ideas Transformed International Politics, 1550-2010 Allan, Bentley B. The role of scientific knowledge is often viewed instrumentally: science serves the interests of political actors. In a historical analysis of international politics I argue that scientific ideas are no mere means to ends because they have have transformed the goals and values of states and international organizations. Since the 16th century, experts and social scientists have imported what I call the “classical model of science” into international political institutions. This created pressure for changes in the means and ends of political discourses that privileged rationalist and modernist goals. The unintended naturalization of scientific values and goals poses serious problems for policy effectiveness, organizational learning, accountability, democratic control, and conceptualizing basic human needs. These problems pervade the world of global public policy. Why do scientific methods surreptitiously change the values and ends of political institutions? I argue that argumentation and communication in the everyday life of political institutions drives a discursive process by which means constrain and shape ends. Experts and social scientists import scientific concepts which alter the way the institutions can represent and intervene in reality. Scientific representations are naturalized when they are connected to cosmological concepts such as what the universe is made of and how to achieve objective knowledge. I find that normatively problematic naturalization is more likely to happen when institutions empower like-minded experts who favor abstract, calculable representations of reality. I begin my analysis before the emergence of modern science and trace the rise of scientific ideas through four case studies: power politics in early modern Europe (1550-1750), British colonialism (1750-1950), economic development in the World Bank (1950-2000), and peacebuilding in the United Nations (1990-2010). I conclude that the rise of scientific ideas supports growth oriented policies rooted in narratives of scientific and technological progress. While the causes of the growth imperative are complex, challenges to growth oriented policies depend on new policy tools rooted in alternative scientific and non-scientific discourses. 2012-08-29 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1343837981 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1343837981 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
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NDLTD
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| language |
English
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NDLTD
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| author |
Allan, Bentley B.
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| spellingShingle |
Allan, Bentley B.
From Means to Ends: How Scientific Ideas Transformed International Politics, 1550-2010
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| author_facet |
Allan, Bentley B.
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| author_sort |
Allan, Bentley B.
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| title |
From Means to Ends: How Scientific Ideas Transformed International Politics, 1550-2010
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| title_short |
From Means to Ends: How Scientific Ideas Transformed International Politics, 1550-2010
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| title_full |
From Means to Ends: How Scientific Ideas Transformed International Politics, 1550-2010
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| title_fullStr |
From Means to Ends: How Scientific Ideas Transformed International Politics, 1550-2010
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| title_full_unstemmed |
From Means to Ends: How Scientific Ideas Transformed International Politics, 1550-2010
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| title_sort |
from means to ends: how scientific ideas transformed international politics, 1550-2010
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The Ohio State University / OhioLINK
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| publishDate |
2012
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| url |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1343837981
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AT allanbentleyb frommeanstoendshowscientificideastransformedinternationalpolitics15502010
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