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The rise of the reflexive expert? Epistemic, care-ful and instrumental reflexivity in global public policy

Bandola-Gill, Justyna; Grek, Sotiria; Tichenor, Marlee

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Authors

Justyna Bandola-Gill

Sotiria Grek



Abstract

The production of data and numbers has become the key mechanism of both knowing and governing global public policy. And yet, processes of quantification are inherently paradoxical: from expectations of technocratic rationality and political usability of producing ‘global’ numbers that count for ‘local’ politics and needs to practical limitation of measurement and the necessity to work with ‘good enough’ data. This begs a question – how do these competing epistemic, political and value orders manifest themselves through the work that experts do? In this article, we explore the problem by focussing on reflexivity as a way for experts (primarily those working in key International Organisations) to make sense of and tame the tensions inherent in their work. Through rich qualitative exploration of over 80 semi-structured interviews with experts working in the areas of poverty, education and statistical capacity development, we contribute to debates in the social studies of quantification by arguing that reflexivity is not just a mental process that experts engage in but rather an important resource allowing them to make sense of the contradictions inherent in their work and to mobilise political and ethical considerations in the technocratic process of producing numbers. We identify three types of reflexivity: (1) epistemic reflexivity – regarding the quality of data and its epistemic status as reflecting the reality; (2) care-ful reflexivity – regarding values embedded in data and the duty of care to the populations affected by the measurement and (3) instrumental reflexivity – regarding political rationality and necessary trade-off required to realise political goals. Overall, the article argues that reflexivity becomes an increasingly central expert practice, allowing the transformation of the process of quantification into one of qualification enabling them to attach political attributes and values to data and measurement.

Citation

Bandola-Gill, J., Grek, S., & Tichenor, M. (2023). The rise of the reflexive expert? Epistemic, care-ful and instrumental reflexivity in global public policy. Global Social Policy, 23(3), 481-498. https://doi.org/10.1177/14680181221145382

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 21, 2022
Online Publication Date Jan 6, 2023
Publication Date 2023-12
Deposit Date May 31, 2023
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Global Social Policy
Print ISSN 1468-0181
Electronic ISSN 1741-2803
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 23
Issue 3
Pages 481-498
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/14680181221145382
Keywords reflexivity, expertise, quantification, poverty, health, Education, knowledge
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1172366

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).






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