Academic Symposium Technologies of Expertise as Technologies of Authorization

The Global Governance Centre at the Graduate Institute in collaboration with NORRAG organized the Academic Symposium Technologies of Expertise as Technologies of Authorization: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Mobilization, Production and Impact of Technologies of Expertise by International Organizations, which took place at The Graduate Institute, Geneva, on May 24 and 25 2018. The event, which is co-sponsored by the Swiss National Science Foundation, was organized by Annabelle Littoz-Monnet, Professor and Co-Director of the Global Governance Centre at The Graduate Institute, and Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Professor and Director of NORRAG at the Graduate Institute and Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University.

The Academic Symposium drew on research on the politics of expertise, governance of numbers, and globalization in order to examine the technologies of expertise devised and used by international organizations and stakeholders of the global development community to authorize global norm-setting. By introducing the notion of technologies of authorization, the symposium stimulated innovative thinking about mechanisms and channels through which technologies of expertise become actors of the global governance structure through legitimizing and empowering International Organizations in setting up global agendas and framing the roles and responsibilities of representatives of global governance both at the global and national levels.

International and Swiss scholars came together to present their research, identify common research trajectories, and determine a larger joint research agenda around three main research questions:

• Typology: How are technologies of expertise mobilized by international organizations and how do they differ in terms of type of organization and sector?
• Agency: Who and which agendas do these technologies empower – or legitimize?
• Impact: What are the implications of using such technologies? Do they have effects of their own?

The group of experts invited to the symposium represents a diversity of researchers in terms of (i) technologies of expertise, (ii) disciplinary focus, and (iii) sector or sub-system specialization. The triple orientation will enable to advance research on technologies of global governance and authorization in novel directions, that is, beyond the more commonly explored global-national/local nexus.

Participants include:

• Anna Leander, The Graduate Institute
• Annabelle Littoz-Monnet, The Graduate Institute
• Arushi Terway, NORRAG
• Ben Williamson, University of Stirling
• Cynthia Weber, University of Sussex
• Eva Hartmann, University of Cambridge
• Gili Drori, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Columbia University, The Graduate Institute and NORRAG
• Jan-Peter Voß,  Technische Universität Berlin
• John Berten, Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences
• Özlem Altan-Olcay, Koç University
• Patrick Montjourides, NORRAG
• Radhika Gorur, Deakin University
• Thomas Biersteker, The Graduate Institute
• Velibor Jakovleski, The Graduate Institute

For further information about the event, please refer to the programme.