300463 Science and Politics in Times of Crisis (MA: Politische Soziologie) (S) (SoSe 2021)

In times of crisis the pressures to make decisions explode. Contradictory expectations and priorities collide. Authority, both political and scientific, can be gained and lost in a moment. Multiple modes of coordination need to by synchronized across social levels and sectors. Often, the success and failure of measures can only be appraised in hindsight. This seminar focuses on the interlinkage between science and policy under the conditions of crisis. We will both discuss and compare different theories of crisis from sociology, public policy, STS, ethnography, and communication studies. Moreover, a main part of the seminar will be dedicated to studying cases of crisis ranging from ‘natural’ disasters such as the earthquake in L’Aquila, food-born illnesses such as the BSE or EHEC outbreak, recent economic and financial crises, pandemics such as COVID-19 to the ‘slow-moving’ crisis of climate change. In what ways do science and politics co-construct a crisis? How can we describe and analyse the interplay of different forms of authority (political, epistemic, ethical) involved? How do crisis regulation and communication work and what are the sources of failure? What is the relation between ethics and expertise in crisis? What are the contexts and conditions of global crises in world society?

Bibliography

Introductory literature:

Boin, Arjen, t' Hard, Paul, Stern, Eric, & Sundelius, Bengt. (2016): The Politics of Crisis Management. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Iles, Alastair, & Montenegro de Wit, Maywa. (2020). Who gets to define ‘the COVID-19 problem’? Expert politics in a pandemic. Agriculture and Human Values, 31, 659–660, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-020-10118-5

Schwarz, Andreas, Seeger, Matthew W., & Auer, Claudia (Eds.). (2016). The Handbook of International Crisis Communication Research. Malden (MA)/Oxford/West Sussex: Wiley.