Intellectual and Institutional Trajectory of a Heterodox British Think Tank (2008-2013)

• In Event: 066 - Section on Political Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. The Politics of Knowledge

Abstract

This paper will cover the work and institutional characteristics of the New Economics Foundation (NEF, a center-left British think tank) focusing especially on the changes it underwent between 2008 and 2013, based on interview data and document analysis. The argument is based on Baert’s (2012) positioning theory, which argues that the study of intellectuals should focus on intellectual interventions as attempts of positioning in the public domain. In this sense, I seek here to connect the literature on the sociology of intellectuals to the study of think tanks. The first part will explore briefly NEF’s origins and intellectual inspiration, followed by a description of its organizational structure and sources of funding and its effects on the institute's output. After this I will survey some of the common tropes and policy recommendations found in its reports, continued by an – by no means exhaustive – account of its work in the aforementioned period, focusing especially on the changes it experienced after the 2008 crisis and the 2010 general election. We will conclude by connecting these transformations with wider discussions within the sociology of intellectuals, especially focusing on discursive change.

Author

• Marcos Gonzalez Hernando, University of Cambridge