How is Expert Knowledge Diffused in International Politics and What Makes It Actionable? Epistemic Infrastructure: a new Framework for Analysis

Abstract

The central focus of this article has been expert knowledge diffusion in international politics, particularly questions such as “how does expert knowledge move from its origin position to international politics and begin to influence it?”, “what decides that specific expert knowledge will diffuse within international politics and be actionable, and another expert knowledge will not?”, and “how do we research expert knowledge diffusion in international politics?”. Here an interdisciplinary study is presented and suggests an innovative approach to how to study expert knowledge diffusion in international politics: 1. The concept of epistemic infrastructure, where epistemic infrastructure is understood as the spatio-temporal hybrid entity with the agency which makes expert knowledge diffusion in international politics possible and which essentially structures this environment; and 2. Epistemic infrastructure as the framework for analysis, which offers a way to research the connections between science, technology, politics and society in the processes of expert knowledge diffusion in international politics.

Keywords

• expert knowledge
• diffusion
• epistemic infrastructure
• international politics