Justyna Bandola-Gill
Biographic Data
| ID | 2126170 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Justyna Bandola-Gill |
| GIVEN NAMES | Justyna |
| FAMILY NAME | Bandola-Gill |
| SIGNATURE | BANDOLA-GILL J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3418-4085 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 95 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 24 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
A matter of culture? Conceptualizing and investigating “Evidence Cultures” within research on evidence-informed policymaking
This paper conceptualizes the notion of “evidence culture” in evidence-informed policymaking by surveying existing literature that either specifically employs the term or uses adjacent terms such as “epistemic” or “research culture”. It employs mixed-methods scoping review, combining citation analysis using Web of Science data used to identify the key clusters of scholarship with a qualitative thematic analysis of key papers across these clusters…
Knowing (in) organizations
This paper explores the evidence culture in one of the key global knowledge institutions—the World Bank. Framing itself as a “Knowledge Ban,” the World Bank is a leading organization in data and evidence provision around poverty and inequalities, and as such, it shapes the broader evidentiary standards and knowledge infrastructures around the world. Drawing on a rich qualitative study of 46 semistructured interviews with experts working on povert…
Next slide please
How do governments visually communicate policies, and what does this reveal about actors’ political objectives? Governments strategically narrate their priorities, yet few studies examine this process through visual modes. We contribute to theoretical and empirical understanding in policy studies by focusing on the UK government’s COVID-19 response through its daily press briefings during the first wave of 2020. Combining quantitative changepoint…
Our common metrics? Our Common Agenda report and the epistemic infrastructure of the Sustainable Development Goals
Our Common Agenda—the flagship report by the UN Secretary General released in September 2021—promises a transformative change in the face of a post‐pandemic crisis in the progress towards global human development. As such, the report is not only closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals but also from the outset outlines its ambition to ‘accelerate’ progress towards the SDGs. This paper unpacks the complex interplay between the two fr…
Out of the ivory tower
The relevance and impact of political scientists’ professional activities outside of universities has become the focus of public attention, partly due to growing expectations that research should help address society’s grand challenges. One type of such activity is policy advising. However, little attention has been devoted to understanding the extent and type of policy advising activities political scientists engage in. This paper addresses this…
The rise of the reflexive expert? Epistemic, care-ful and instrumental reflexivity in global public policy
The production of data and numbers has become the key mechanism of both knowing and governing global public policy. And yet, processes of quantification are inherently paradoxical: from expectations of technocratic rationality and political usability of producing ‘global’ numbers that count for ‘local’ politics and needs to practical limitation of measurement and the necessity to work with ‘good enough’ data. This begs a question – how do these c…
Numbers as Utopia
In this article, we argue that number-making is a mode of imagining political futures – not only futures that are probable but, crucially, futures that are desired. In this way, rather than simply a mode of ‘technicising’ policy challenges, quantification fleshes out the utopian dream of a better world. Global governance is faced with the paradox of, on one hand, the utopian aspiration of the Sustainable Development Goals to create a perfect worl…
SDGs and the Politics of Reconciling the Dual Logic of Democracy and Technocracy
The SDGs and their ambition of ‘leaving no one behind’ are grounded on the ideals of country-led monitoring (and reforms). As such, the notion of ‘democratisation’ of the production of data and indicators is central to achieving both the legitimacy of the process and the effectiveness of the policy reforms aimed at the specific goals. This chapter explores the ways in which International Organisations mediate this process of securing ‘buy-in’ fro…
Harmonising Global Public Policy
This chapter explores the ideas and practices of ‘harmonisation’ by International Organisations (IOs). The concept of harmonisation emerges as one of the central ways in which International Organisations govern the multiplicity of country-level measures to create universal, global-level metrics. By coordinating the multiplicity of actors (including country governments, civil society and various experts), the IOs aim to achieve the development of …
Scripting the SDGs
One of the central qualities of the ‘political work’ of numbers in global governance is the fact that they can rarely persuade by themselves; instead, we always find them in need of constructing persuasive narratives of crisis, development and progress. This chapter explores the way in which number achieve their political goals through three types of narrative-making practices: through the use of visuals, the application of discourses and through…
The Sustainable Development Goals as Epistemic Infrastructures
Over the last three decades, quantification has emerged as the predominant governing logic in global public policy. In this introductory chapter, we explore how this paradigm has evolved from one of governing by numbers to governing numbers in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This chapter presents an overview of the emergence of sustainability politics and contextualises it in the broader literature on quantification and g…
Epistemic Infrastructures
In this concluding chapter, we propose a theorisation of an epistemic infrastructure in the context of the SDGs. Epistemic infrastructure, we argue, emerges on three conceptual levels. The first order of the epistemic infrastructure entails the materialities of measurement—the building blocks of the infrastructure such as data, indicators, visualisations, reports, etc. The second order involves the interlinkages—networks and connections linking e…
Expert Brokers
This chapter explores the changing nature and scope of expertise of International Organisations (IOs) in the SDG agenda. The central role of the experts in IOs in the process of governance of the SDGs lies not solely in providing technical guidance but rather in mediation and brokerage between actors and fields. As such, the legitimacy and effectiveness of experts in IOs rely on their ability to mediate connections, create and communicate common …
SDGs and the Rise of an Epistemic Infrastructure
One of the key goals of the SDG agenda is increasing the collaboration between global institutions. This chapter explores the emerging interdependence between IOs by exploring the networks of actors working towards operationalising and governing the SDGs. Focusing on the production of the education indicator (SDG4), this chapter explores the roles of organisations and individual actors within them in creating the connections, shaping numbers and …
Knowledge Production for the SDGs
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) entail several innovations, not only in relation to their governing architecture but also in terms of the production of governing knowledge for global challenges. This chapter explores the epistemic practices by International Organisations (IOs) and working groups organised by the United Nations Statistical Commission, aimed at producing, valuing and legitimising (quantified) knowledge for global governanc…
What is co-production? Conceptualising and understanding co-production of knowledge and policy across different theoretical perspectives
Background: ‘Co-production’ is one of the key concepts in evidence-informed policy and practice – in terms of both its theoretical importance and its practical applications − being consistently discussed as the most effective strategy for mobilising evidence in policy and practice contexts. The concept of co-production was developed (almost) independently across multiple disciplines and has been employed in various policy and practice fields incl…
Statistical entrepreneurs
Governing by indicators has emerged as the predominant mode of global public policy. Consequently, global governance has become a field in which different indicators compete for policymakers’ and public attention. This begs a question—what makes some indicators successful when others become irrelevant? This paper explores this problem through the inquiry into the measurement of multidimensional poverty in Sustainable Development Goal 1 (“End pove…
Global public policy in a quantified world
Despite the multiplicity of actors, crises, and fields of action, global public policy has known one constant, that is, the ubiquity of indicators in the production of governing knowledge. This article theoretically engages with the phenomenon of hyper-quantification of global governance in the context of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), debated and introduced in 2015. Increasingly metrics—such as indicators and quantified data to mon…
Knowledge Brokering Repertoires
With the rise of research impact as a ‘third’ space (next to research and teaching) within the universities in the United Kingdom and beyond, academics are increasingly expected to not only produce research but also engage in brokering knowledge beyond academia. And yet little is known about the ways in which academics shape their practices in order to respond to these new forms of institutionalised expectations and make sense of knowledge broker…
Governing the Sustainable Development Goals
Governing by narratives
Performance assessment is permeating increasingly diverse domains of higher education, even in areas previously perceived to be too complex and idiosyncratic to quantify. The UK’s attempts to assess ‘research impact’ within the Research Excellence Framework (REF) are illustrative of this trend and are being closely monitored by several other countries. A fundamental rationale for employing narrative case studies to assess impact within REF, rathe…
Co-option, control and criticality
Over the last 20 years, the notion of relevance vis-à-vis political science became not only a subject of academic debates but also a domain of practice, largely due to the developments in the research funding, increasingly referred to as the 'impact agenda'. In this article, we explore how the growing focus on socio-economic impact as the assessment criterion of research funding shapes the discipline of political science itself—its knowledge prod…
The legitimacy of experts in policy
Background: The canonical view of expert legitimacy in policymaking links it to objectivity and autonomy from politics. Yet, in practice such ‘epistemic gains’ stemming from the separation of facts and values are problematic, as expert advice inherently combines political and technical considerations. Aims and objectives: This article addresses the puzzle of double – technocratic and political – legitimacy of experts by proposing a framework for …
Opening up evidence-based policy
[Abstract not available]
What is co-production? Conceptualising and understanding co-production of knowledge and policy across different theoretical perspectives
Background: ‘Co-production’ is one of the key concepts in evidence-informed policy and practice – in terms of both its theoretical importance and its practical applications − being consistently discussed as the most effective strategy for mobilising evidence in policy and practice contexts. The concept of co-production was developed (almost) independently across multiple disciplines and has been employed in various policy and practice fields incl…
Governing the Sustainable Development Goals
Global public policy in a quantified world
Despite the multiplicity of actors, crises, and fields of action, global public policy has known one constant, that is, the ubiquity of indicators in the production of governing knowledge. This article theoretically engages with the phenomenon of hyper-quantification of global governance in the context of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), debated and introduced in 2015. Increasingly metrics—such as indicators and quantified data to mon…
Knowledge Brokering Repertoires
With the rise of research impact as a ‘third’ space (next to research and teaching) within the universities in the United Kingdom and beyond, academics are increasingly expected to not only produce research but also engage in brokering knowledge beyond academia. And yet little is known about the ways in which academics shape their practices in order to respond to these new forms of institutionalised expectations and make sense of knowledge broker…
The rise of the reflexive expert? Epistemic, care-ful and instrumental reflexivity in global public policy
The production of data and numbers has become the key mechanism of both knowing and governing global public policy. And yet, processes of quantification are inherently paradoxical: from expectations of technocratic rationality and political usability of producing ‘global’ numbers that count for ‘local’ politics and needs to practical limitation of measurement and the necessity to work with ‘good enough’ data. This begs a question – how do these c…
Next slide please
How do governments visually communicate policies, and what does this reveal about actors’ political objectives? Governments strategically narrate their priorities, yet few studies examine this process through visual modes. We contribute to theoretical and empirical understanding in policy studies by focusing on the UK government’s COVID-19 response through its daily press briefings during the first wave of 2020. Combining quantitative changepoint…
Governing by narratives
Performance assessment is permeating increasingly diverse domains of higher education, even in areas previously perceived to be too complex and idiosyncratic to quantify. The UK’s attempts to assess ‘research impact’ within the Research Excellence Framework (REF) are illustrative of this trend and are being closely monitored by several other countries. A fundamental rationale for employing narrative case studies to assess impact within REF, rathe…
The legitimacy of experts in policy
Background: The canonical view of expert legitimacy in policymaking links it to objectivity and autonomy from politics. Yet, in practice such ‘epistemic gains’ stemming from the separation of facts and values are problematic, as expert advice inherently combines political and technical considerations. Aims and objectives: This article addresses the puzzle of double – technocratic and political – legitimacy of experts by proposing a framework for …
Opening up evidence-based policy
[Abstract not available]
Numbers as Utopia
In this article, we argue that number-making is a mode of imagining political futures – not only futures that are probable but, crucially, futures that are desired. In this way, rather than simply a mode of ‘technicising’ policy challenges, quantification fleshes out the utopian dream of a better world. Global governance is faced with the paradox of, on one hand, the utopian aspiration of the Sustainable Development Goals to create a perfect worl…
A matter of culture? Conceptualizing and investigating “Evidence Cultures” within research on evidence-informed policymaking
This paper conceptualizes the notion of “evidence culture” in evidence-informed policymaking by surveying existing literature that either specifically employs the term or uses adjacent terms such as “epistemic” or “research culture”. It employs mixed-methods scoping review, combining citation analysis using Web of Science data used to identify the key clusters of scholarship with a qualitative thematic analysis of key papers across these clusters…
Co-option, control and criticality
Over the last 20 years, the notion of relevance vis-à-vis political science became not only a subject of academic debates but also a domain of practice, largely due to the developments in the research funding, increasingly referred to as the 'impact agenda'. In this article, we explore how the growing focus on socio-economic impact as the assessment criterion of research funding shapes the discipline of political science itself—its knowledge prod…
The legitimacy of experts in policy
Background: The canonical view of expert legitimacy in policymaking links it to objectivity and autonomy from politics. Yet, in practice such ‘epistemic gains’ stemming from the separation of facts and values are problematic, as expert advice inherently combines political and technical considerations. Aims and objectives: This article addresses the puzzle of double – technocratic and political – legitimacy of experts by proposing a framework for …
Opening up evidence-based policy
[Abstract not available]
Co-option, control and criticality
Over the last 20 years, the notion of relevance vis-à-vis political science became not only a subject of academic debates but also a domain of practice, largely due to the developments in the research funding, increasingly referred to as the 'impact agenda'. In this article, we explore how the growing focus on socio-economic impact as the assessment criterion of research funding shapes the discipline of political science itself—its knowledge prod…
SDGs and the Politics of Reconciling the Dual Logic of Democracy and Technocracy
The SDGs and their ambition of ‘leaving no one behind’ are grounded on the ideals of country-led monitoring (and reforms). As such, the notion of ‘democratisation’ of the production of data and indicators is central to achieving both the legitimacy of the process and the effectiveness of the policy reforms aimed at the specific goals. This chapter explores the ways in which International Organisations mediate this process of securing ‘buy-in’ fro…
Harmonising Global Public Policy
This chapter explores the ideas and practices of ‘harmonisation’ by International Organisations (IOs). The concept of harmonisation emerges as one of the central ways in which International Organisations govern the multiplicity of country-level measures to create universal, global-level metrics. By coordinating the multiplicity of actors (including country governments, civil society and various experts), the IOs aim to achieve the development of …
Scripting the SDGs
One of the central qualities of the ‘political work’ of numbers in global governance is the fact that they can rarely persuade by themselves; instead, we always find them in need of constructing persuasive narratives of crisis, development and progress. This chapter explores the way in which number achieve their political goals through three types of narrative-making practices: through the use of visuals, the application of discourses and through…
The Sustainable Development Goals as Epistemic Infrastructures
Over the last three decades, quantification has emerged as the predominant governing logic in global public policy. In this introductory chapter, we explore how this paradigm has evolved from one of governing by numbers to governing numbers in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This chapter presents an overview of the emergence of sustainability politics and contextualises it in the broader literature on quantification and g…
Epistemic Infrastructures
In this concluding chapter, we propose a theorisation of an epistemic infrastructure in the context of the SDGs. Epistemic infrastructure, we argue, emerges on three conceptual levels. The first order of the epistemic infrastructure entails the materialities of measurement—the building blocks of the infrastructure such as data, indicators, visualisations, reports, etc. The second order involves the interlinkages—networks and connections linking e…
Expert Brokers
This chapter explores the changing nature and scope of expertise of International Organisations (IOs) in the SDG agenda. The central role of the experts in IOs in the process of governance of the SDGs lies not solely in providing technical guidance but rather in mediation and brokerage between actors and fields. As such, the legitimacy and effectiveness of experts in IOs rely on their ability to mediate connections, create and communicate common …
SDGs and the Rise of an Epistemic Infrastructure
One of the key goals of the SDG agenda is increasing the collaboration between global institutions. This chapter explores the emerging interdependence between IOs by exploring the networks of actors working towards operationalising and governing the SDGs. Focusing on the production of the education indicator (SDG4), this chapter explores the roles of organisations and individual actors within them in creating the connections, shaping numbers and …
Knowledge Production for the SDGs
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) entail several innovations, not only in relation to their governing architecture but also in terms of the production of governing knowledge for global challenges. This chapter explores the epistemic practices by International Organisations (IOs) and working groups organised by the United Nations Statistical Commission, aimed at producing, valuing and legitimising (quantified) knowledge for global governanc…
What is co-production? Conceptualising and understanding co-production of knowledge and policy across different theoretical perspectives
Background: ‘Co-production’ is one of the key concepts in evidence-informed policy and practice – in terms of both its theoretical importance and its practical applications − being consistently discussed as the most effective strategy for mobilising evidence in policy and practice contexts. The concept of co-production was developed (almost) independently across multiple disciplines and has been employed in various policy and practice fields incl…
Statistical entrepreneurs
Governing by indicators has emerged as the predominant mode of global public policy. Consequently, global governance has become a field in which different indicators compete for policymakers’ and public attention. This begs a question—what makes some indicators successful when others become irrelevant? This paper explores this problem through the inquiry into the measurement of multidimensional poverty in Sustainable Development Goal 1 (“End pove…
Global public policy in a quantified world
Despite the multiplicity of actors, crises, and fields of action, global public policy has known one constant, that is, the ubiquity of indicators in the production of governing knowledge. This article theoretically engages with the phenomenon of hyper-quantification of global governance in the context of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), debated and introduced in 2015. Increasingly metrics—such as indicators and quantified data to mon…
Knowledge Brokering Repertoires
With the rise of research impact as a ‘third’ space (next to research and teaching) within the universities in the United Kingdom and beyond, academics are increasingly expected to not only produce research but also engage in brokering knowledge beyond academia. And yet little is known about the ways in which academics shape their practices in order to respond to these new forms of institutionalised expectations and make sense of knowledge broker…
Governing the Sustainable Development Goals
Governing by narratives
Performance assessment is permeating increasingly diverse domains of higher education, even in areas previously perceived to be too complex and idiosyncratic to quantify. The UK’s attempts to assess ‘research impact’ within the Research Excellence Framework (REF) are illustrative of this trend and are being closely monitored by several other countries. A fundamental rationale for employing narrative case studies to assess impact within REF, rathe…
Our common metrics? Our Common Agenda report and the epistemic infrastructure of the Sustainable Development Goals
Our Common Agenda—the flagship report by the UN Secretary General released in September 2021—promises a transformative change in the face of a post‐pandemic crisis in the progress towards global human development. As such, the report is not only closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals but also from the outset outlines its ambition to ‘accelerate’ progress towards the SDGs. This paper unpacks the complex interplay between the two fr…
Out of the ivory tower
The relevance and impact of political scientists’ professional activities outside of universities has become the focus of public attention, partly due to growing expectations that research should help address society’s grand challenges. One type of such activity is policy advising. However, little attention has been devoted to understanding the extent and type of policy advising activities political scientists engage in. This paper addresses this…
The rise of the reflexive expert? Epistemic, care-ful and instrumental reflexivity in global public policy
The production of data and numbers has become the key mechanism of both knowing and governing global public policy. And yet, processes of quantification are inherently paradoxical: from expectations of technocratic rationality and political usability of producing ‘global’ numbers that count for ‘local’ politics and needs to practical limitation of measurement and the necessity to work with ‘good enough’ data. This begs a question – how do these c…
Numbers as Utopia
In this article, we argue that number-making is a mode of imagining political futures – not only futures that are probable but, crucially, futures that are desired. In this way, rather than simply a mode of ‘technicising’ policy challenges, quantification fleshes out the utopian dream of a better world. Global governance is faced with the paradox of, on one hand, the utopian aspiration of the Sustainable Development Goals to create a perfect worl…
A matter of culture? Conceptualizing and investigating “Evidence Cultures” within research on evidence-informed policymaking
This paper conceptualizes the notion of “evidence culture” in evidence-informed policymaking by surveying existing literature that either specifically employs the term or uses adjacent terms such as “epistemic” or “research culture”. It employs mixed-methods scoping review, combining citation analysis using Web of Science data used to identify the key clusters of scholarship with a qualitative thematic analysis of key papers across these clusters…
Knowing (in) organizations
This paper explores the evidence culture in one of the key global knowledge institutions—the World Bank. Framing itself as a “Knowledge Ban,” the World Bank is a leading organization in data and evidence provision around poverty and inequalities, and as such, it shapes the broader evidentiary standards and knowledge infrastructures around the world. Drawing on a rich qualitative study of 46 semistructured interviews with experts working on povert…
Next slide please
How do governments visually communicate policies, and what does this reveal about actors’ political objectives? Governments strategically narrate their priorities, yet few studies examine this process through visual modes. We contribute to theoretical and empirical understanding in policy studies by focusing on the UK government’s COVID-19 response through its daily press briefings during the first wave of 2020. Combining quantitative changepoint…
Political science (23 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Economics (13 works) · Politics (13 works) · Law (11 works) · Public relations (11 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Human Rights and Development (10 works) · International Development and Aid (10 works) · Epistemology (9 works)