Epistemic community

Epistemic Community is a concept developed in political science. The concept is distinct from other similar concepts such as Invisible Colleges, Discourse Coalitions or Thought Collectives.
==Origin of the concept==
The concept is particularly associated with Peter M Haas, though confusingly, it is also used by Ernst Haas the Robson Professor of government at UC Berkeley. In fact as Ernst Haas has put it: 'Actually, my son invented the term'.Ernst Haas Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley Science and Progress in International Relations: Conversation with Ernst B. Haas, Robson Research Professor of Government; 10/30/00 by Harry Kreisler. Page 3 of 5: Theories and Ideas
==What is an epistemic community?==
According to some advocates of the concept, an epistemic community is a disinterested scientific community of expertise. Ernst Haas states: 
:Epistemic communities are associations of professional experts in a particular field who, because of the knowledge they have, have an unusual influence on politicians and bureaucrats, and are, therefore, able to penetrate government departments and make their ideas part of policy. That's an epistemic community. And, you know, they don't operate in all fields of policy. They only operate in fields of policy where science matters. In the field of human rights, forget it. There are no epistemic communities. Science is irrelevant to that field. In environmental politics, it matters a great deal.Ernst Haas Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley Science and Progress in International Relations: Conversation with Ernst B. Haas, Robson Research Professor of Government; 10/30/00 by Harry Kreisler. Page 3 of 5: Theories and Ideas
Peter Haas has spent much of his career examining how environmental politics have related to questions of international organisation and the role of epistemic communities in such processes.For example: Haas, Peter M. (1990) Saving the Mediterranean - the politics of international environmental co-operation (New York: Columbia University Press); Haas, Peter M., R.O. Keohane and M.A. Levy (eds) (1993) Institutions for the Earth (London: The MIT Press); Haas, Peter M. (1992b) ‘Obtaining International environmental protection through epistemic consensus’ in Rowlands I.H. and M. Greene (eds) Global Environmental change and international relations (Basingstoke: Macmillan) Marvin S. Soroos notes in an article in the American Political Science Review that 'While Peter Haas is not the originator of the term epistemic community, his writings are largely responsible for its recent rise to prominence in the lexicon of theory and research on international organization.'Marvin S. Soroos 'Review: Saving the Mediterranean: The Politics of International Environmental Cooperation by Peter M. Haas' The American Political Science Review, Vol. 85, No. 4 (Dec., 1991), p. 1495
==Criticisms==
:The notion of knowledge, though, is merely confined to scientific knowledge, which is perceived as rational, valid and therefore true. Moreover, as James Sebenius (1992: 324) notes in his critique on the epistemic communities approach, that knowledge and power are “treated as […] analytically separable, rather than inherently bound together”. The questions of why a certain epistemic community (and not another one) manages to gain influence in their respective nation-states and why a specific set of expert knowledge (and not another one) becomes influential in a policy field remains unclear. Focusing on scientific knowledge as the only authoritative knowledge not only obscures the existence of interpretative struggles but also the role of other forms of knowledge that might facilitate completely different policy solutions.Gülay Çağlar, Gender and Global Economic Governance: The Constitutive Role of Knowledge, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the ISA's 50th ANNUAL CONVENTION "EXPLORING THE PAST, ANTICIPATING THE FUTURE", New York Marriott Marquis, NEW YORK CITY, NY, USA, Feb 15, 2009. 2009-11-04 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p312295_index.html>
==Contending concepts==
Articles from Google Scholar on the spread of ideasSearch conducted on Google Scholar from the UK on Thursday 24 May @ 12.50 hrs approx. Search terms = First number: "Discourse coalition"; "Epistemic community"; "Invisible college"; "Thought collective". Second number: "Discourse coalition" OR "Discourse Coalitions"; "Epistemic community" OR "Epistemic communities"; "Invisible college" OR "Invisible colleges"; "Thought collective" OR "Thought collectives"
Discourse coalition
Epistemic community
Invisible college
Thought collective
 
 
 742/1,750
 8,040/16,100
 7,250/11,100
 1,340/1,690
 
It is clear that the concept of Epistemic community is used more often than contending concepts.
==Reading==
===Epistemic communities===
*Adler, Emanuel. “The Emergence of Cooperation: National Epistemic Communities and the International Evolution of the Idea of Nuclear Arms Control.” International Organization. Vol. 46, No. 1. The MIT Press Winter, 1992. pp. 101-145.
*Adler, Emanuel and Peter M. Haas. “Conclusion: Epistemic Communities, World Order, and the Creation of a Reflective Research Program.” International Organization. Vol. 46. No. 1. Winter. MIT Press, 1992. P. 367-390.
*William Clark Albert Wohlstetter pinkindustry.wordpress.com.
*William Clark Gerald Frost pinkindustry.wordpress.com.
*William Clark Albert Wohlstetter—the delicate balance of error pinkindustry.wordpress.com.
*Haas, E.B. (1990) When Knowledge is Power (Berkeley: University of California Press)
* Haas, Peter M. “Do Regimes Matter? Epistemic Communities and Mediterranean Pollution.” International Organization. Vol. 43. No. 3. The MIT Press Summer, 1989. pp. 377-403.
*Haas, Peter M. (1990) Saving the Mediterranean - the politics of international environmental co-operation (New York: Columbia University Press)
*Haas, Peter M. (1992a) ‘Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy co-ordination’ in International Organization 46 (1): 1-36
*Haas, Peter M. (1992b) ‘Obtaining International environmental protection through epistemic consensus’ in Rowlands I.H. and M. Greene (eds) Global Environmental change and international relations (Basingstoke: Macmillan)
*Haas, Peter M. (1992c) ‘Banning Chloroflurorcarbons: Epistemic Community efforts to protect stratospheric ozone’ in International Organization 46 (1): 187-224.
*Haas, Peter M., R.O. Keohane and M.A. Levy (eds) (1993) Institutions for the Earth (London: The MIT Press)
*Haas, Peter M. (ed) (1997) Knowledge, Power and International Policy Co-ordination (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press)
*Haas, Peter M. (1999) ‘Social Constructivism and the Evolution of Multilateral Governance’ in Hart, J. and Prakash, A. (eds) Globalization and Governance (London: Routledge)
*Haas, Peter. M. and Haas, E. B. (1995) ‘Learning to Learn: improving international governance’ in Global Governance 1 (3): 255-284.
*Kolodziej, Edward A. “Epistemic Communities Searching for Regional Cooperation.” Mershon International Studies Review. Vol. 41. No. 1 Blackwell Publishing May, 1997. pp. 93-98.
*John Gerard Ruggie,1 Peter J. Katzenstein,2 Robert O. Keohane,3 and Philippe C. Schmitter4 [author%3A+Schmitter&searchHistoryKey= TRANSFORMATIONS IN WORLD POLITICS: The Intellectual Contributions of Ernst B. Haas]* Annual Review of Political Science Vol. 8: 271-296 (Volume publication date June 2005) (doi:10.1146/annurev.polisci.8.082103.104843) First published online as a Review in Advance on Dec. 16, 2004.
*Sebenius, James K. “Challenging Conventional Explanations of International Cooperation: Negotiation Analysis and the Case of Epistemic Communities.” International Organization. Vol. 46, No. 1. The MIT Press Winter, 1992. pp. 323-365. 
*Thomas, Craig W. “Public Management as Interagency Cooperation: Testing Epistemic Community Theory at the Domestic Level.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. J-PART. Vol. 7. No. 2. Oxford University Press, Apr. 1997. p. 221-246.
===Debating epistemic communities===
*Claire Dunlop Epistemic Communities: A Reply to Toke Politics, Volume 20 Issue 3, Pages 137 - 144, Published Online: 5 Feb 2002 (Word version available here)
*Marvin S. Soroos 'Review: Saving the Mediterranean: The Politics of International Environmental Cooperation by Peter M. Haas' The American Political Science Review, Vol. 85, No. 4 (Dec., 1991), pp. 1494-1496
==See Also==
Invisible College | Thought Collective | Discourse Coalition
==Notes==
Category:Concepts