300456 Knowledge, Money, and Power: The Global Political Economy of Expertise (MA: Politische Soziologie) (S) (WiSe 2026/2027)

It is well documented that industry, private, and business actors strongly influence the production of global expertise. We can think of deniers of climate change being financed by the oil industry, occupational medicine silencing the effects of asbestos exposure, or pharmaceutical expertise directed by profit interests. This research seminar discusses literature that unpicks the nexus of knowledge, money, and power – trying to understand exactly how the global political economy affects the design and content of global expertise. The seminar thereby wants to carve out a thinking space that engages with the global political economy of expertise without either normalizing or demonizing economic influences on expertise. Instead, it aims to survey theoretically informed literature that makes us understand how exactly the global political economy affects experts and expertise. This will entail engaging with political science literature on expertise, STS literature on knowledge production, just as engagement with Marxist history of science.