Facts, power and global evidence

A New Empire of Truth

Bibliographic Data

ID2159765
AuthorsAnn H Kelly (0000-0003-4658-2133, King's College London, corresponding author), Linsey Mcgoey (0000-0002-4404-2574, University of Essex)
Year2018
Volume47
Issue1
Pages1-26
Publication date2018-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomy and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-5147 • E-ISSN: 1469-5766
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03085147.2018.1457261
OpenAlexW2801823335
LanguageEN
Citations received47
References cited98

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

Health and Conflict Studies · Human Rights and Development · Social Science and Policy Research