Between Government and Governance: Opening the Black Box of the Transformation Thesis

The notion of going from government to governance, known as the transformation thesis, as depicted in early Governance Theory has been subjected to substantive critique. This paper explores two different stances of such critique. The first critical stance is represented by Jonathan S. Davies’ 2011 book “Challenging Governance Theory: From networks to hegemony” and entails a radical rejection of the transformation thesis. The second stance offers a more moderate reconfiguration of the transformation thesis and is represented by the recently co-authored work of several prominent governance theorists titled “Interactive Governance: Advancing the paradigm”. While both aspire to set new agendas for governance research, this paper argues that the latter reconfiguration carries a problematic preposition towards overemphasizing the separation between government and governance practices.     

Science governance and the politics of proper talk: governmental bioethics as a new technology of reflexive government

Abstract

The article examines the emergence of governmental bioethics in Great Britain, France and Germany, i.e. bodies, discourses and procedures meant to guide policy-making in terms of ethical considerations. It argues that governmental bioethics, marked by openness, transparency and participation, can be understood as a form of reflexive government in the realm of science governance. It grew out of the problematization of older forms of science governance based on ideas of effectiveness, scientific expertise and system stability, and operates through structuring and managing proper talk rather than intervening in processes of techno-scientific development. Yet, rather than challenging the commitment to techno-scientific ‘progress’, it stabilizes it through mechanisms of inclusion, involvement and mobilization: within the framework of proper ethical talk, participation can be employed to pursue rather than oppose system stability.     

Amtliche Statistik,Sichtbarkeit und die Herstellung von Verfügbarkeit

This essay analyses the programmatic dimension (?Normalerzählung“ or ?normal account“) of official statistics as a social institution and identifies the two concepts of visibility (?Sichtbarkeit“) and availability (?Verfügbarkeit“) as basic principles of modern official statistics. Up to the 18th Century, the proto-statistical attempts at the quantification of the social can still be described as producing ?visibility without availability“. But with the birth of official statistics as an institution in 19th Century the two basic principles are closely coupled. This coupling in statistic visibility regimes of different ranges and depths appears to be unbroken up to the 1970s and 1980s. Towards the end of the 20th Century, however, these principles are increasingly put to the question. This article argues that this can be interpreted as an indication of a reflexive modernization of the official statistics. These developments will finally be illustrated by empirical examples from the public discourse of unemployment statistics.     

论布迪厄“反思社会学”及其对社会学研究的启示

布迪厄反思社会学的核心是从社会实践的主客统一性出发,在对语言交流和文化现实的反思性批判中,通过实践理论来予以建立。这一理论思想对于认识我们今天的社会学研究现状,科学地建构研究对象,增强学术的自主性,培养社会学家的科学惯习具有积极意义。     

中国环境法律演化的可能路向——以西方法律演化理论为概念工具

西方转型社会时期形成了昂格尔的法律类型理论、诺内特和塞尔兹尼克的法律演化理论、哈贝马斯的法律范式理论以及托依布纳的反身型法理论。全球结构之中的中国转型社会意味着,重构上述西方法律演化理论进而据此分析和透视中国环境法律演化的前景是一项艰难的工作。本文以西方法律演化理论为概念工具,试图勾勒中国环境法律演化众多方向中的一条可能路向——程序技术法律模式。     

“Good and Evil” narratives in Islamic State media and Western government statements

This article uses a critical discourse and documentary analysis to explore “Good and Evil” narratives in Islamic State (IS) media and in the official policy statements of the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. The analysis initially considers how IS and Western governments define the other as “Evil” drawing from premodern Manichean and Abrahamic religious conventions. It then interprets how these entities subscribe to a post-Enlightenment ethic that associates the triumph of “Good” over “Evil” with science, reason and technological innovation. Distinct from similar analyses that emphasise the persuasive power of religion, this article reflects on how IS and Western governments use conflicting religious and philosophical imperatives to articulate their strategic political agendas. It further interprets how these agendas become ideologically convincing, through reflexive communication.     

Autonomy,Reflexivity, Tragedy: Notions of Democracy in Camus and Castoriadis

Abstract

This paper looks at two 20th century theories of tragedy: those of Cornelius Castoriadis and Albert Camus. The theories that each proffer of this ancient cultural form are striking. Against more standard views, both theorists stress that tragedy is a cultural form that has only arisen historically in cultures whose forms of religious thought have been laid open to question. In this way, both argue that tragedy is an important democratic cultural form, which stages the confrontation between a no longer unquestionable divine order, and human autonomy. The intent of the paper, from the start, is a political one. It wants to place Camus alongside Castoriadis as a ‘post-Marxist’ thinker, who belongs meaningfully to what Dick Howard has called ‘the Marxian legacy’. More than this, it aims to do this by staging Camus' theorisation of tragedy, with Castoriadis', as a powerful riposte to the conservative criticism of democracy as a modern political form, that is, that it cannot muster sacral cultural forms forceful enough to meaningfully unite people beneath its banner.     

Science studies,climate change and the prospects for constructivist critique

Abstract

Starting from the debates over the ‘reality’ of global warming and the politics of science studies, I seek to clarify what is at stake politically in constructivist understandings of science and nature. These two separate but related debates point to the centrality of modern science in political discussions of the environment and to the difficulties, simultaneously technical and political, in warranting political action in the face of inevitably partial and uncertain scientific knowledge. The case of climate change then provides an experimental test case with which to explore the various responses to these challenges offered by Ulrich Beck's reflexive modernization, the normative theory of expertise advanced by Harry Collins and Robert Evans, and Bruno Latour's utopian vision for decision-making by the ‘collective’ in which traditional epistemic and institutional distinctions between science and politics are entirely superseded.