In April 2019, the special issue on to foreknowledge in public policy that was developed by Stefan Aykut, Bilel Benbouzid and David Demortain in the framework of INNOX will be published by Science & Technology Studies. In the meantime, the first paper to appear in this special issue has been published online. In "Reassembling Energy Policy", Stefan Aykut shows that visions of policy futures are emerging from what he calls predictive assemblages. The term designates the fact that in a policy environment such as the energy policy sector, coalitions of actors are equipped with their own models and forecasts, which cohere, in turn, with a normative discourse about future developments in energy systems. Actors, models and discourses form the assemblage.
This original persective is particularly helpful to reveal the politics behind modeling and anticipation for policy: there are competing assemblages at any given time and country. Stefan compares the changing predictive policy assemblages in France and Germany from the 1960s to the present. At the end of the day, Stefan teaches us how and to what extent models and predictions enable policy change, but also shows how to go beyong conventional accounts of the performativity of models in policy. As he says, "further research should not only focus on the effects of foreknowledge on expectations and beliefs (discursive performativity), but also take into account how new models equip political, administrative and market actors (material performativity), and how forecasting practices recompose and shape wider policy worlds (social performativity)."
The paper may be downloaded below.
This original persective is particularly helpful to reveal the politics behind modeling and anticipation for policy: there are competing assemblages at any given time and country. Stefan compares the changing predictive policy assemblages in France and Germany from the 1960s to the present. At the end of the day, Stefan teaches us how and to what extent models and predictions enable policy change, but also shows how to go beyong conventional accounts of the performativity of models in policy. As he says, "further research should not only focus on the effects of foreknowledge on expectations and beliefs (discursive performativity), but also take into account how new models equip political, administrative and market actors (material performativity), and how forecasting practices recompose and shape wider policy worlds (social performativity)."
The paper may be downloaded below.
| aykut_-_2019_-_reassembling_energy_policy.pdf |
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