The International Politics of Knowledge Mobilization: The Intersection of Funding Agencies, International Organizations, Epistemic Communities, and Policy Entrepreneurs

Session Type: WERA Symposium

Abstract

Within the context of globalization, policy entrepreneurs, international organizations and the networks that connect them are increasingly influential in the production and international dissemination of knowledge, particularly when it comes to research knowledge related to privatization or quasi-market reforms in education, though few studies have examined this influence. This panel responds by presenting four papers that characterize and problematize how research is brokered, mediated, and mobilized by such actors, and with what effects and implications. In summary, the panel focuses on (a) the research brokering activity of social science funding agencies in multiple countries, (b) the institutionally-embedded epistemic communities that mobilize pro-privatization education research, and (c) the production and mediating roles of World Bank policy entrepreneurs in promoting quasi-market policies.

Sub Unit

• World Education Research Association (WERA)

Chair

• Christopher A. Lubienski, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Papers

• Social Science Funding Agencies' Support and Promotion of Knowledge Mobilization: An International Study - Amanda Cooper, Queen's University

• International Organizations and the Politics of Knowledge Production: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Education Privatization Debate - Antoni Verger, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Ruarri Rogan, University of Amsterdam; Thomas Gurney, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

• Understanding Knowledge Mobilization in the Context of Global Education Policy: A Bibliometric and Discursive Analysis of World Bank Publications - Francine Menashy, University of Massachusetts - Boston; Robyn Read, OISE/University of Toronto

• The Echo Chamber of Global Education Policy: Charter Schools in Colombia, Inconclusive Evidence, and the International Promotion of Public-Private Partnerships Through Research Mobilization - D. Brent Edwards Jr., Drexel University

Discussant

• Gustavo E. Fischman, Arizona State University