The Authority of Science in Parliamentary Debates: An Epistemic Governance Perspective

This presentation draws together the key results from Jukka Syväterä’s research project on the authority of science and expert knowledge in the parliamentary debates over new legislation. Building on the framework of epistemic governance, the project has illustrated epistemic work legislators are engaged with when they enact or contest scientific authority.

In the presentation Jukka will elaborate the characteristics of such epistemic work, focusing on the following observations: (1) Legislators often justify their arguments with references to scientific authority, yet these references tend to be abstract invocations of science rather than citing specific studies or research results. (2) A significant proportion of organizations, which are referred as sources of scientific authority, has little to do with traditional science organizations. (3) Although the norm of evidence-informed policymaking is rhetorically prevalent, it often does not translate into shared understanding about what counts as proper evidence.

From the viewpoint of epistemic governance, authority of science appears multifaceted – while it is sometimes based on scientists’ perceived ability to provide trustworthy knowledge about the world, often it is derived from capacity-based, charismatic, or moral authority of science. 

Speaker: Jukka Syväterä is an Academy Research Fellow and a Docent of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki. His current research projects, funded by the Research Council of Finland and Kone Foundation, explore the evolving role of scientific authority in the politics of parliamentary policymaking. In addition, his recent studies have addressed organizations as epistemic authorities as well as the creation and domestication of global policy models. For more information on projects and publications, visit https://blogs.helsinki.fi/syvaterj/