The emergence and governance of issues globally is shaped by (often hidden) logics of exclusion and power asymmetries. Emphasizing the underlying practices of global governance, Juanita Uribe Garcia’s research aims to further our understanding of the inseparable relationship between knowledge and the politics that produces it.
Your PhD project investigates the role expertise and how certain objects can become targets of global action. So, how does something become “governable” globally?
We tend to think that global governance agendas are responses to already existing problems. Malnutrition, the use of psychoactive substances, and the development of new biopharmaceutical drugs are among the issues that are presented as common challenges awaiting global responses. In this thesis I want to stress that these problems are not simply external events but are also given shape and meaning through concrete governance practices. Objects do not simply exist in the world but require continuous work and power to be stabilized and represented. My research also emphasizes that the range of solutions to address these problems is always partial and exclusionary. Global governance is a highly hierarchical process in which certain forms of knowing are considered more authoritative than others, sometimes only on the basis of their expert status.
What inspired you to examine these questions?
While doing my master’s in Geneva, I had the opportunity to work at an United Nations agency for a period of time. While it was a very enriching experience, I observed that there was a constant urge, sometimes constrained by donors, to portray the agencies’ activities as technical. But, despite this aura of impartiality, what the agency was doing was underpinned by assumptions and values about how the world ought to be. It then became clear to me that knowledge cannot be fully separated from the politics that led to its production. Under the supervision of Professor Annabelle Littoz-Monnet, I started to investigate this complex relationship between knowledge and politics during my master’s thesis, in which I studied the production of global indexes and metrics. My research experience as a master’s student was very enriching, so much so that I decided that my next step would be to embark upon a PhD to better understand these knowledge production dynamics in the domains of global health, biotechnology and food policy.
Early work on global governance and the politics of expertise was focused almost exclusively on institutions and actors. Your work emphasizes processes in governance. Why is this analytic move significant for you?
Global governance remains often defined either by its actors or its broader institutional architecture. I believe that an emphasis on processes enriches the study of global governance in two different ways. First, it makes it possible to provide a fine-grained analysis about the informal ways in which governing takes place. For instance, it allows us to better observe the unwritten, the unspoken and the informal character of governance that increasingly takes place in sites that go beyond the traditional decision-making spheres. Second, a focus on processes has also allowed me to bypass static conceptions of global politics. In my the-sis, I have been able to put greater emphasis on dynamics that are never complete but al-ways in the making.
In this thesis I want to stress that these problems are not simply external events but are also given shape and meaning through concrete governance practices. (...) My research also emphasizes that the range of solutions to address these problems is always partial and exclusionary. Global governance is a highly hierarchical process in which certain forms of knowing are considered more authoritative than others, sometimes only on the basis of their expert status
Power plays an important role in your research. How do you understand this concept, and its relationship to knowledge production and global governance more broadly?
It is no longer sufficient to conceive power vertically or to think about it in a top-down manner. Following Foucault, power is diffuse and is everywhere. In my thesis I want to show more precisely that power gets exercised in multiple sites and through various practices. In other words, power is inherent to the different processes via which governing takes place. There is power involved in defining what objects deserve global attention and collective action. There is power in defining whose voice is authoritative and whose knowledge is considered reliable. In my research, the ability to produce, shape and translate knowledge is deeply linked to the workings of power and its productive capacity.
This is an innovative project, in part because of its interdisciplinary approach. Can you explain how you use insights from other fields?
I draw on Science and Technology Studies (STS) and bring some of its insights to the International Relations theoretical repertoire to explore the constitution of governance objects on a global scale. The idiom of co-production, introduced by Sheila Jasanoff is particularly illuminating for my research since it helps me to overcome tendencies to grant primacy either to technological and scientific developments or to the “social”. Co-production sensitizes the researcher to investigate the intertwined logics between the material, the social and the normative in the simultaneous formation of knowledge and politics. In mobilizing these interdisciplinary analytic tools, I seek to develop a more comprehensive framework about the production of knowledge in global governance processes, one that takes a much closer look at power asymmetries and logics of inclusion and exclusion.
You also work as a research assistant for the SNSF-funded project “To Save and To Defend - Global Normative Ambiguity and Regional Order” hosted at the Global Governance Centre. How has this experience shaped your PhD research project?
Working as a Research Assistant on Professor Stephanie Hofmann’s project has been a really valuable experience for me. The project has been a unique training platform to learn how to navigate the demanding complex world of academia. From how to collect data and make sense of it, to key aspects on how to publish in top-level academic journals, the project has given me some of the tools that I will need in my career as a researcher. In addition, the project’s focus on the linkages between different levels of governance and ordering processes, has allowed me to refine the concepts and questions of my own PhD research. Having the chance to work at a cutting-edge institution such as the Global Governance Centre, is a real privilege. During my years at the Centre, I have participated in various events and original discussions involving not only academics but also decision-makers and policy practitioners. The centre has also been crucial for the dissemination of my research. Through the centre’s blog, I have shared some of my ideas on the present of global governance and I have been able to connect with a broader audience.
You were awarded a Mobility Grant by the Swiss National Science foundation to spend six months as an academic visitor at the Institute for Science Innovation and Society at Oxford University. How do you think your stay at Oxford will contribute to your current research?
The Centre for Science Innovation and Society is a research center that is devoted to understanding key contemporary and emerging issues and processes of social, scientific, and technological change. During my stay at Oxford, which will take place by the end of my doctoral project, my aim is to gain greater exposure to STS theories and methods. It will also be a key opportunity to disseminate my work and foster exchanges with a leading and interdisciplinary team of researchers. I am very much looking forward to this opportunity.
Juanita Uribe Garcia is a PhD candidate in International Relations/Political Science at the Graduate Institute. Her PhD project is entitled “Mastering the globe: The co-constitution of expertise and governance objects.”
Email: juanita.uribe@graduateinstitute.ch
Twitter: @uribejuanita https://twitter.com/uribejuanita
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juanita-uribe-779731133/