Facts, power and global evidence: a new empire of truth

What are the epistemological and political contours of evidence today? This introduction to the special issue lays out key shifts in the contemporary politics of knowledge and describes the collective contribution of the six papers as an articulation of what we describe as a 'new empiricism...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEconomy and society Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. 1 - 26
Main Authors Kelly, Ann H., McGoey, Linsey
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.01.2018
Taylor & Francis LLC
Subjects
Ambiguity
Articulation
Big Data
Clinical trials
Computation
Contours
Decision making
Empiricism
Epistemology
Ethics
evidence
Experts
fact-making
new empiricism
new theology
philanthrocapitalism
Political power
Politics
Truth
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Summary:What are the epistemological and political contours of evidence today? This introduction to the special issue lays out key shifts in the contemporary politics of knowledge and describes the collective contribution of the six papers as an articulation of what we describe as a 'new empiricism', exploring how earlier historical appeals to evidence to defend political power and decision-making both chime with and differ from those of the contemporary era. We outline some emerging empirical frontiers in the study of instruments of calculation, from the evolution of the randomized controlled trial (RCT) to the growing importance of big data, and explore how these methodological transformations intersect with the alleged crisis of expertise in the 'post-truth' era. In so doing, we suggest that the ambiguity of evidence can be a powerful tool in itself, and we relate this ambiguity to the ideological commitment and moral fervour that is elicited through appeals to, and the performance of, evaluation.
ISSN:0308-5147
1469-5766
DOI:10.1080/03085147.2018.1457261