Our Science, Technology and Society list publishes books that examine the social, political and economic implications of developments in science and technology.
Recent highlights have included Data Lives, The Imposter as Social Theory and We Have Always Been Cyborgs. Path-breaking book series include Dis-positions: Troubling Methods and Theory in STS and Contemporary Issues in Science Communication.
Science, Technology and Society
Taking up the case of climate change, the conclusion considers the argument for moretechnocracy in the face of ‘the end world as we know it’. Climate change is probably the strongest case for a technocratic model of political decision-making. At the very least, insufficient political adherence to the scientific evidence on climate change is an almost commonsensical part of the problem of in the current state of affairs. While fully acknowledging this problem, the chapter argues that attention to the destructive and mutually reinforcing interplay of technocracy and populism is necessary also in to the all-important challenge of climate change.
Explores the link between technocracy and the rise of populist movements and parties in established democracies during the last two decades. Among the various attempt to find the causes of this populist challenge, the chapter singles out the interplay of technocratic depoliticization and populist repoliticization as the key dynamic. Building on existing observations of this logic in the debates on populism and anti- politics, the chapter explores how the new technocratic preoccupation with network organization, reflexive risk regulation and experimental performance calculation have all contributed in particular ways to depoliticization, which in turn has led to populist counter- reactions and attempts at repoliticization.
Setting a new benchmark for studies of technocracy, this book shows that a solution to the challenge of populism will depend as much on a technocratic retreat as democratic innovation. Esmark examines the development since the 1980s of a new 'post-industrial' technocratic regime and its complicity in the populist backlash against politics and political elites that is visible today.
The new technocracy – a combination of network governance, risk management and performance management – has, the author argues, abandoned the overtly anti-democratic sentiments of its industrial predecessor and proclaimed a new partnership with democracy. The rise of populism, however, is a clear sign that the inherent problems of this partnership have been exposed and that technocracy posing as democracy will only serve to exacerbate existing problems.
The introduction provides a starting definition of technocracy as a form of government based on a vision of politics as a form of (post-) industrial management, technological progressivism, social engineering, scientism and the politics of depoliticization. The transition from industrial technocracy to the anti-bureaucratic and pro-democratic form of new technocracy is introduced and situated in relation to key debates. Also includes an overview of the book.
The chapter discusses the possible contributions of this analysis to the broader quest for responses to the new populist challenge. This question is rephrased as a matter of how to rein technocracy back in in order to break out of the vicious circle in which the interplay of technocracy and populism is currently caught. Lack of attention to this problem is likely to exacerbate this problem and reinforce the current tendency to reinforce technocracy and fight fire with fire. Two general approaches to the question of reining technocracy back in are discussed: a short term cordon sanitaire and a more long-term normative reinforcement of the decisionistic model of parliamentary democracy infused with elements of a pragmatic deliberative model.
The chapter takes up the technocratic preoccupation with quantification, measurement and scientific politics. While this is a consistent feature of technocratic governance, the proliferation of performance management, accountability and evaluation systems, evidence-based policy and experimental learning also reflect a new commitment to radical incrementalism and a ‘what works’ approach, which is significantly different from earlier and industrial technocracy. The chapter illustrates the implications of this development in the cases of experimental EU governance and nudging interventions.
The new technocratic pursuit of an imperative but difficult transition to a network state in the ‘information age’ is analyzed. Focusing on the interplay between technology and organization, the chapter argues that the new technocracy is defined by a new commitment to the power of networks, in stark contrast to the earlier preoccupation with large- scale and vertically integrated bureaucratic organization. Three types of new governance particularly invested in this development are discussed in more detail: communicative governance, collaborative governance and multilevel governance.
Technocracy is discussed as a distinct type of regime and form of statecraft. The chapter clears up the considerable confusion surrounding the relationship between technocracy, bureaucracy and democracy, which provides the foundation for the empirical analysis of the anti-bureaucratic and pro-democratic nature of contemporary technocracy. The relationship of technocracy to political ideology is discussed, leading to the suggestion that technocracy consistently pursues a position ‘beyond ideology’ while also remaining fully capable of working in lockstep with socialism, liberalism and anything in between. Finally, the chapter moves from the regime level and provides an overall model of the constitutive and intersecting policy paradigms of the New Technocracy: connective governance, risk management and performance management.
The chapter focuses on changes in technocratic rationality and practice brought about by risk society. The proliferation of manufactured, global and incalculable risk has undercut the traditional security thinking of industrial technocracy and led to the internalization of risk and a new credo announcing the impossibility of insurance against dangers and uncertainty. This has, in turn, prompted important changes in technocratic risk regulation and a new focus on the creation and management of resilient citizens, organizations, communities, societies and systems. Ecological and economic governance are discussed as examples of this development.
The chapter presents a historical analysis of technocracy and its major revolutions, from its original conception in the French revolution to the latest and largely unexplored revolution from the 1980s and onwards. In this way, the chapter provides a historically informed understanding of the technocratic regime and establishes the core idea that the dynamics and structures of post- industrial society is the main driver of technocratic influence on policy and politics.
