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Producing the Climate: States, Scientists, and the Constitution of Global Governance Objects

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  • Allan, Bentley B.

Abstract

This paper argues that the climate came to take on a geophysical rather than a bioecological form in global governance because it emerged from a dynamic, interactive process between states and scientists. In the 1950s, state agencies, especially elements of the US military, steered and accelerated the development of the geophysical sciences, which set the discursive frame within which climate politics now plays out. In the 1990s, scientists and IO experts responded to states' requests to study carbon sinks by expanding the climate to include new greenhouse gases and land-use practices. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies as well as discursive theories of global governance, I theorize object constitution as a process of co-production in which states steer the development of scientific knowledge and scientists assemble epistemic objects. This contingent interaction of political and scientific actors shapes the form and content of global governance objects. The argument extends and challenges the epistemic communities literature and theories of the global governance life cycle that focus on how problems end up on the agenda of states rather than the processes of problem construction.

Suggested Citation

  • Allan, Bentley B., 2017. "Producing the Climate: States, Scientists, and the Constitution of Global Governance Objects," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(1), pages 131-162, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:intorg:v:71:y:2017:i:01:p:131-162_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Alejandro Esguerra & Sandra van der Hel, 2021. "Participatory Designs and Epistemic Authority in Knowledge Platforms for Sustainability," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 21(1), pages 130-151, Winter.
    2. Katzenstein, Peter J., 2022. "Of Gardens, Forests, and Parks," EconStor Open Access Book Chapters, in: Uncertainty and Its Discontents: Worldviews in World Politics, pages 279-352, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    3. Haas, Peter M., 2018. "Preserving the epistemic authority of science in world politics," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Global Governance SP IV 2018-105, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    4. Katzenstein, Peter J., 2022. "Worldviews in World Politics," EconStor Open Access Book Chapters, in: Uncertainty and Its Discontents: Worldviews in World Politics, pages 1-69, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    5. Drieschova, Alena, 2021. "The social media revolution and shifts in the climate change discourse," Global Cooperation Research Papers 29, University of Duisburg-Essen, Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR21).
    6. Wim Carton & Adeniyi Asiyanbi & Silke Beck & Holly J. Buck & Jens F. Lund, 2020. "Negative emissions and the long history of carbon removal," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(6), November.
    7. Ina Möller, 2020. "Political Perspectives on Geoengineering: Navigating Problem Definition and Institutional Fit Abstract: Geoengineering technologies are by definition only effective at scale, and so international poli," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 20(2), pages 57-82, May.

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