The Moderns: A Study on the Governmentality of World Society

1. The Moderns: A Study on the Governmentality of World Society A Brief Introduction

2. World Society • Why is the world looking more and more similar? • Principles of World Society Theory: • consciousness of the world as one (stateless) place • rational organisation of world culture as a framing assumption • Cultural/ Environmental constitution of authorised (en)actors: • shift attention away from individual social actors toward social context in which actors are embedded

3. Neo-Institutionalism • Helps in asking questions and explaining patterns not generally asked or answered by: • functionalism • coercive, zero-sum power games (world-system) • scientific realism • rational-choice actor-centrism • Emphasises: • de-masking of dominant, taken-for-granted views as cultural world-wide models • strong commonalities in international discourses • disorganisation, contradictions, decoupling

4. World Polity • Tracing and explaining isomorphism in structures and policies and in shifting trends since 1950s • Patterns of influence and conformity cannot be explained by zero-sum power or functionalism • Nation-states as ritual enactors • conformist decision-makers • agenda for local action defined and legitimated by worldwide, culturally rooted models • propagation in global cultural/ associational processes

5. Applications • Mostly quantitative cross-national comparative analyses of isomorphism in: • education (higher education) • human rights • environment and environmental sustainability • gender equality • civil society and international NGOs • Perspective – nothing inevitable or even functionally defensible • post-Enlightenment cultural rootedness

6. More on world polity theory http://worldpolity.wordpress.com

7. But… • Explaining difference? • creolisation, hybridity, … • Agents and actors? • Aren’t there individuals pursuing their interests, only Babbits, “hypocrite conformists” that enact world models at the national level? • Our key research question: • How is isomorphic change brought about in such a way that banal nationalism is maintained? • That is, despite uniformity, the nation is seen a self-evident entity or community minding its own business

8. Domestication of TransnationalModels • Thesetwophenomena, isomorpicchange and banalnationalism, areintertwined in the process here called the domestication of transnational models • It entails that a model is brought to a local political agenda and as a consequence of more or less intense deliberation and field battle tamed to the local context • Because of the crucial role of local actors, domestication often leads into a strengthening rather than weakening of banal nationalism

9. Domestication of TransnationalModels • How transnational models or ideas are domesticated to local contexts has been addressed in several research traditions: • In case-studies of policy transfer it has been shown that domestic actors build congruence between exogenous models and local practices and in which models are re-embedded into, and reshaped in, the new context • In the ‘second wave’ of norm scholarship in international relations the term norm localizationdescribes a complex process and outcome by which norm-takers build congruence between transnational norms and local beliefs and practices

10. Domestication of TransnationalModels • In ’Scandinavianinstitutionalism’ the concept of translationhasbeenused to takedistancefromthe notion of diffusion or transfer and emphasize that when concepts and conceptions derived from a one social context are introduced into another, they trigger a shift in the existing order of interpretation and action in that context • We use the concept of domestication as a reference to such a process • The term has been used in antropology, consumption research, science and technology studies, as well as in research on the domestication of foreign news

11. Domestication of TransnationalModels • In worldpolitytheorylocalprocessesaredownplayed as unimportantormitigatedbytalkingaboutdecoupling of principles and actualpractices • (hence the talkabout ”hypocriteconformists”) • On the otherhand the localization of worldwide models can be celebrated as proof that globalization does not lead into homogenization • We emphasize that isomorphic development does occur but the domestication process hides it from view; does it in such a way that the nationhood framework persists

12. Domestication of TransnationalModels • The process of domestication: • The introduction of cross-national information or new translocal ideas coupled with the (transnational) cultural framework of competition • Invoking the national team in competition • The onset of a field battle • The national cast of actors engaged in power play • The transformation of actors and fields • Supranational politics with a view on national interests • Nationalization as Naturalization • Models become emblems of national culture and society

13. Domestication of TransnationalModels • Importantpoints: • Wemustnotconceive of transnationalmodels as wholesystemsbutrather as an array of translocal ideas • Anyprocess of domesticationconsists of a plethora of worldwideideas and principlesappealed to by the actors • Notonlymodelspromotedbutalso the discourses of resistancearetransnational • A contradictionbetweenworldwideidealprinciples and eventualpractices is not the effect of domestication • Ideals and realityarebothpart of a ”regime of practices” • E.g. ’individuality’ in earlychildhoodeducationplanning

14. Domestication of TransnationalModels • Domestication is an endlessprocessthroughwhich translocal paths of changeconstantlyconverge • A new idea orfashion is introducedbeforepreviousonesarefullysaturated to the localreality • Social change as domestication • Sociologiststend to conceive of society (a nation-state) as a systemicwholewithitsinherentdynamicsthatlead to structuraltransformations • In reality, paraphrasingKerstin Sahlin-Andersson, in nation-states problems are constructed through comparing the local situation with that of other countries • In that sense social change is the effect of domestication • Evolutionarytheories of changearelegimitationstrategies

15. National Reception and Implementation of TransnationalEnvironmentalRegulationElina Mikola • Case: The policy process and media debate concerning the implementation of the European Emission Trading Scheme (2002-2008) • Banal nationalism and European environmental governance: While policy planning and decision making takes place at supranational level, in national context the emission trading scheme still is interpreted within a nationalist framework and intertwined with national field battles. • The focus of the analysis: Rhetorical strategies used to conceal controversies e.g between (national) economic and (global) environmental interest - >use of transnational ideas of “green growth” and cost-efficient climate policy

16. Culture of Higher Education Reform in PakistanAli Qadir • Institutional & thematic contours of “long march of modernity” in Pakistani higher education reform • globalism, English language, utilitarianism, Islam • Approach • anthropology of public policy • culture and social imaginaries (Charles Taylor) • Four key reforms (2001•1959•1904•1854) • Tangential modernity • TN institutionalisation in a context of power

17. The Role of PISA in Finnish Education PolicyMarjaana Rautalin • Focus of the PhDThesis on the uses of the OECD PISA Studiesbylocalactors in Finland • Whyinteresting? • The PISA didnotincludeanydirectsuggestionsabouthow to improveFinnisheducation • National actorsuse and utilize the PISA and the resultsachievedby Finland in it to furthertheirpoliticalinterests • Actorsstudiedsofar: Finnishteachers, governmentofficials, and the Finnishquality media • Theseactorsuse the PISA for differentpurposes • Main findingsofar: goodresultsgood for thosewhowant to keepthingsunchangedbut a threat for thosewhowant to havechanges. Interpretations of PISA biased in the sensethatthesesupport the politicalinterests of the interestgroup in question

18. Institutionalization of Ethical Policy AdviceJukka Syväterä • The transnational model domesticated: • Idea of ’ethical policy advice’ • Concept of ’national bioethics committee’ • Empirical chapters of PhD Thesis: • Forming of global bioethics • Introducing the committee model in ethical policy advice to Finland • Ethical expertise of ethics advisory bodies • Turning the model of ethical advice into actual practice

19. Inter/National Ideas and Agendas of Health Promotion PolicyLeena Tervonen-Gonçalves • to study public health policies and their change in Finland and Portugal from interpretive policy analysis approach (e.g. Yanow, Hajer) paying special attention to role of international ideas and policies in the formation of national policy agendas • Local interpretation of global models • Policy strategies and programs as data • from mid 1970 to 2010 • Diffusion of ideas and models approached from different perspectives in individual articles: 1. WHO Health for All-program - policy transfer 2. Health promotion and Churches (Fi, Pt, England) – intertextuality 3. EU’s / WHO’s comparative practices – use and interpretation of these practices in national agendas – imitation 4. “Domestication of evidence-based health promotion policy”

20. Isomorphic Change in European Science Policy and Funding PracticesLaura Valkeasuo • Dissertation’s thematic focus is on European science policy and research funding practices; especially on the formation of the European research area and one of its instruments, ERA-nets. • Theoretical framework consists of neoinstitutionalism, world culture and world polity theories; the ways to understand isomorphic change among nations. • Empirical case studies are aimed at e.g. producing knowledge about domestication of transnational models; local and situational actions as part of transnational isomorphic change. • The first article concentrates on the discourse of knowledge-based economy; how and why it is used in Finnish ministry documents during the past two decades. • Methodology of the first article consists of rhetorical and discourse analysis, mainly drawing on lessons by Chaïm Perelman and Maarten A. Hajer. • Object of the article is to produce knowledge on why world cultural models are appealing to local actors, aiming to make a contribution to the discussion on how one can understand the diffusion of world cultural models within and among nations. • Following articles will concentrate on for example values and practices of transnational research coordination and funding in Europe.