Jukka Syväterä
Biographic Data
| ID | 292836 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jukka Syväterä |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jukka |
| FAMILY NAME | Syväterä |
| SIGNATURE | SYVÄTERÄ J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tampere University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5387-667X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 61 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The decreasing legitimacy of non-governmental organizations in world society: Evidence from the United Nations General Debates, 1992–2019
Recent studies have paid attention to the crisis in the liberal order and the illiberal backlash in world society. As central actors in that society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have not been spared from this backlash and are increasingly challenged in various national and transnational contexts. By analysing changes in NGO-related discourse in United Nations General Debates between 1992 and 2019, we investigate how the general legitima…
The rhetorical functions of invoking experts in legislative debates over social policy in Finland
While experts are commonly perceived to play an instrumental role in policymaking, research increasingly shows that politicians also use expert knowledge symbolically and strategically. Concurrently, the rise of evidence-based policymaking has been accompanied by politicization and growing skepticism around expertise. However, rhetorical appeals to experts and changes in their use remain underexplored. We treat the term ‘expert’ as a position who…
An Engine of Growth or a Public Burden? Economic Knowledge and Expertise in Finnish Parliamentary Discourse on Social Policy, 1960–2020
Scientification of politics or politicisation of science? Parliamentary committee hearings on the Finnish alcohol policy reforms in 1994 and 2017 as epistemic work
The study examined how alcohol policy stakeholders use research evidence to influence legislation and how the role of evidence and scientific expertise has changed over the past three decades in parliamentary alcohol policy consultations in Finland. The data consisted of parliamentary committee hearings on the comprehensive Alcohol Act reforms of 1994 and 2017. The analysis focused on the statements made by experts representing corporate interest…
Packaging OECD policy advice: Universal Policy Models and Domestication of Recommendations
The dynamics between international organisations' activity of scriptwriting universalised models and theorising the local effects of such models has been a little studied aspect of world society research. In this paper, we seek to bridge this gap in the existing research. We examine one prominent IO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and its flagship reports, and how the policy proposals promoted therein have chan…
From where do legislators draw scientific knowledge? Organizations as scientific authorities in four countries' parliamentary debates
Organizations far beyond traditional academic institutions have become prolific science producers, with many now providing evidence-based advice for national governments and policy-makers. Neo-institutional sociology explains organizations' growing investment in research activities and research-based policy advice by the all-embracing scientization and the expansion of the educated population, phenomena observable throughout the world. There is, …
Formal commitments versus actual practices? Narratives as tools of epistemic governance in the debate over Finnish forestry
Nation states often end up adopting practices that are incongruent with their formal commitments to international efforts, such as mitigation of climate change. Although the necessity of a transfer towards carbon-neutral societies is widely understood, such decoupling is a challenge to transition. This study analyses the political discourse in the Finnish media from 2017 to 2018 around the European Union's Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (…
The moral authority of science: Evidence from parliamentary debates in seven countries
Relying on a neo-institutionalist framework of epistemic governance, this articleexamines the rhetorical function the term ‘science’ plays in the parliamentarydiscourse of seven countries. Our analysis confirms that ‘science’ is oftenreferred to by members of parliaments throughout the world and across allpolicy sectors. We find ample references not just to particular sciences, butalso to science in the abstract, and find hardly any contests arou…
The ghostwriting of a global policy script: International organizations and the discursive construction of conditional cash transfers
More than 60 countries have implemented a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program. The predominant CCT narrative begins from programs created in Mexico and Brazil in the mid-1990s. The literature concerned with CCTs tends to take this narrative as a given. In this article, we examine the role of international organizations (IOs) in the global governance of social policy by exploring the use of narratives as a strategy IOs employ to claim and gene…
International organizations establishing their scientific authority: Periodizing the legitimation of policy advice by the OECD
This article contributes to the periodization of 'scientization' by scrutinizing how international organizations (IOs) have evolved into such scientific authorities as many of them are today. The authors examine the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and its Economic Surveys during the period 1965-2015. The study sheds light on how scientific authority manifests in IOs' reporting and policy recommendations directed at …
The authority of meta-organisations: Making the international association of National Public Health Institutes attractive to prospective members
International organisations are key actors in global governance. Among them is a growing group of international meta-organisations (IMOs) – organisations whose members are themselves organisations. Understanding how IMOs become worth joining demands an explanation of how they try to gain value in the eyes of prospective members. The article analyses the case of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes, which rapidly amas…
The construction and spread of global models: Worldwide synchronisation and the rise of national bioethics committees
Cultural approaches to national policymaking have yielded much empirical evidence that national decision-making is greatly impacted by policy choices made in other countries. Considering that the common explanation of policy diffusion cannot explain all instances of isomorphism, this paper proposes an alternative way of operationalising interdependent decision-making. Drawing on emerging work in neoinstitutionalist world society theory, we sugges…
Organisations as Epistemic Capital: The Case of Independent Children’s Rights Institutions
Conforming to global policy trends: Legitimating narratives in the case of ethical policy advice
The global proliferation of national bioethics committees has been explained by arguing that they are legitimation devices used to reconcile ethical contradictions brought about by the development of biotechnology. However, such functional explanations do not suit all cases, like that of Finland, where the founding of a national bioethics committee was not preceded by remarkable conflicts or public controversies around biotechnology. The case can…
Organisations as Epistemic Capital: The Case of Independent Children’s Rights Institutions
Formal commitments versus actual practices? Narratives as tools of epistemic governance in the debate over Finnish forestry
Nation states often end up adopting practices that are incongruent with their formal commitments to international efforts, such as mitigation of climate change. Although the necessity of a transfer towards carbon-neutral societies is widely understood, such decoupling is a challenge to transition. This study analyses the political discourse in the Finnish media from 2017 to 2018 around the European Union's Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (…
The moral authority of science: Evidence from parliamentary debates in seven countries
Relying on a neo-institutionalist framework of epistemic governance, this articleexamines the rhetorical function the term ‘science’ plays in the parliamentarydiscourse of seven countries. Our analysis confirms that ‘science’ is oftenreferred to by members of parliaments throughout the world and across allpolicy sectors. We find ample references not just to particular sciences, butalso to science in the abstract, and find hardly any contests arou…
International organizations establishing their scientific authority: Periodizing the legitimation of policy advice by the OECD
This article contributes to the periodization of 'scientization' by scrutinizing how international organizations (IOs) have evolved into such scientific authorities as many of them are today. The authors examine the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and its Economic Surveys during the period 1965-2015. The study sheds light on how scientific authority manifests in IOs' reporting and policy recommendations directed at …
Conforming to global policy trends: Legitimating narratives in the case of ethical policy advice
The global proliferation of national bioethics committees has been explained by arguing that they are legitimation devices used to reconcile ethical contradictions brought about by the development of biotechnology. However, such functional explanations do not suit all cases, like that of Finland, where the founding of a national bioethics committee was not preceded by remarkable conflicts or public controversies around biotechnology. The case can…
From where do legislators draw scientific knowledge? Organizations as scientific authorities in four countries' parliamentary debates
Organizations far beyond traditional academic institutions have become prolific science producers, with many now providing evidence-based advice for national governments and policy-makers. Neo-institutional sociology explains organizations' growing investment in research activities and research-based policy advice by the all-embracing scientization and the expansion of the educated population, phenomena observable throughout the world. There is, …
The ghostwriting of a global policy script: International organizations and the discursive construction of conditional cash transfers
More than 60 countries have implemented a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program. The predominant CCT narrative begins from programs created in Mexico and Brazil in the mid-1990s. The literature concerned with CCTs tends to take this narrative as a given. In this article, we examine the role of international organizations (IOs) in the global governance of social policy by exploring the use of narratives as a strategy IOs employ to claim and gene…
The authority of meta-organisations: Making the international association of National Public Health Institutes attractive to prospective members
International organisations are key actors in global governance. Among them is a growing group of international meta-organisations (IMOs) – organisations whose members are themselves organisations. Understanding how IMOs become worth joining demands an explanation of how they try to gain value in the eyes of prospective members. The article analyses the case of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes, which rapidly amas…
The construction and spread of global models: Worldwide synchronisation and the rise of national bioethics committees
Cultural approaches to national policymaking have yielded much empirical evidence that national decision-making is greatly impacted by policy choices made in other countries. Considering that the common explanation of policy diffusion cannot explain all instances of isomorphism, this paper proposes an alternative way of operationalising interdependent decision-making. Drawing on emerging work in neoinstitutionalist world society theory, we sugges…
Scientification of politics or politicisation of science? Parliamentary committee hearings on the Finnish alcohol policy reforms in 1994 and 2017 as epistemic work
The study examined how alcohol policy stakeholders use research evidence to influence legislation and how the role of evidence and scientific expertise has changed over the past three decades in parliamentary alcohol policy consultations in Finland. The data consisted of parliamentary committee hearings on the comprehensive Alcohol Act reforms of 1994 and 2017. The analysis focused on the statements made by experts representing corporate interest…
Packaging OECD policy advice: Universal Policy Models and Domestication of Recommendations
The dynamics between international organisations' activity of scriptwriting universalised models and theorising the local effects of such models has been a little studied aspect of world society research. In this paper, we seek to bridge this gap in the existing research. We examine one prominent IO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and its flagship reports, and how the policy proposals promoted therein have chan…
Conforming to global policy trends: Legitimating narratives in the case of ethical policy advice
The global proliferation of national bioethics committees has been explained by arguing that they are legitimation devices used to reconcile ethical contradictions brought about by the development of biotechnology. However, such functional explanations do not suit all cases, like that of Finland, where the founding of a national bioethics committee was not preceded by remarkable conflicts or public controversies around biotechnology. The case can…
The construction and spread of global models: Worldwide synchronisation and the rise of national bioethics committees
Cultural approaches to national policymaking have yielded much empirical evidence that national decision-making is greatly impacted by policy choices made in other countries. Considering that the common explanation of policy diffusion cannot explain all instances of isomorphism, this paper proposes an alternative way of operationalising interdependent decision-making. Drawing on emerging work in neoinstitutionalist world society theory, we sugges…
Organisations as Epistemic Capital: The Case of Independent Children’s Rights Institutions
The authority of meta-organisations: Making the international association of National Public Health Institutes attractive to prospective members
International organisations are key actors in global governance. Among them is a growing group of international meta-organisations (IMOs) – organisations whose members are themselves organisations. Understanding how IMOs become worth joining demands an explanation of how they try to gain value in the eyes of prospective members. The article analyses the case of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes, which rapidly amas…
The moral authority of science: Evidence from parliamentary debates in seven countries
Relying on a neo-institutionalist framework of epistemic governance, this articleexamines the rhetorical function the term ‘science’ plays in the parliamentarydiscourse of seven countries. Our analysis confirms that ‘science’ is oftenreferred to by members of parliaments throughout the world and across allpolicy sectors. We find ample references not just to particular sciences, butalso to science in the abstract, and find hardly any contests arou…
The ghostwriting of a global policy script: International organizations and the discursive construction of conditional cash transfers
More than 60 countries have implemented a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program. The predominant CCT narrative begins from programs created in Mexico and Brazil in the mid-1990s. The literature concerned with CCTs tends to take this narrative as a given. In this article, we examine the role of international organizations (IOs) in the global governance of social policy by exploring the use of narratives as a strategy IOs employ to claim and gene…
International organizations establishing their scientific authority: Periodizing the legitimation of policy advice by the OECD
This article contributes to the periodization of 'scientization' by scrutinizing how international organizations (IOs) have evolved into such scientific authorities as many of them are today. The authors examine the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and its Economic Surveys during the period 1965-2015. The study sheds light on how scientific authority manifests in IOs' reporting and policy recommendations directed at …
Packaging OECD policy advice: Universal Policy Models and Domestication of Recommendations
The dynamics between international organisations' activity of scriptwriting universalised models and theorising the local effects of such models has been a little studied aspect of world society research. In this paper, we seek to bridge this gap in the existing research. We examine one prominent IO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and its flagship reports, and how the policy proposals promoted therein have chan…
From where do legislators draw scientific knowledge? Organizations as scientific authorities in four countries' parliamentary debates
Organizations far beyond traditional academic institutions have become prolific science producers, with many now providing evidence-based advice for national governments and policy-makers. Neo-institutional sociology explains organizations' growing investment in research activities and research-based policy advice by the all-embracing scientization and the expansion of the educated population, phenomena observable throughout the world. There is, …
Formal commitments versus actual practices? Narratives as tools of epistemic governance in the debate over Finnish forestry
Nation states often end up adopting practices that are incongruent with their formal commitments to international efforts, such as mitigation of climate change. Although the necessity of a transfer towards carbon-neutral societies is widely understood, such decoupling is a challenge to transition. This study analyses the political discourse in the Finnish media from 2017 to 2018 around the European Union's Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (…
An Engine of Growth or a Public Burden? Economic Knowledge and Expertise in Finnish Parliamentary Discourse on Social Policy, 1960–2020
Scientification of politics or politicisation of science? Parliamentary committee hearings on the Finnish alcohol policy reforms in 1994 and 2017 as epistemic work
The study examined how alcohol policy stakeholders use research evidence to influence legislation and how the role of evidence and scientific expertise has changed over the past three decades in parliamentary alcohol policy consultations in Finland. The data consisted of parliamentary committee hearings on the comprehensive Alcohol Act reforms of 1994 and 2017. The analysis focused on the statements made by experts representing corporate interest…
The decreasing legitimacy of non-governmental organizations in world society: Evidence from the United Nations General Debates, 1992–2019
Recent studies have paid attention to the crisis in the liberal order and the illiberal backlash in world society. As central actors in that society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have not been spared from this backlash and are increasingly challenged in various national and transnational contexts. By analysing changes in NGO-related discourse in United Nations General Debates between 1992 and 2019, we investigate how the general legitima…
The rhetorical functions of invoking experts in legislative debates over social policy in Finland
While experts are commonly perceived to play an instrumental role in policymaking, research increasingly shows that politicians also use expert knowledge symbolically and strategically. Concurrently, the rise of evidence-based policymaking has been accompanied by politicization and growing skepticism around expertise. However, rhetorical appeals to experts and changes in their use remain underexplored. We treat the term ‘expert’ as a position who…
Political science (12 works) · Public Administration (12 works) · Public Administration (12 works) · Law (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Economics (7 works) · Politics (6 works) · Corporate governance (5 works) · International Development and Aid (5 works)