Behavioural Expertise: Drift, Thrift and Shift under COVID-19
Many government responses to the coronavirus-pandemic have been marked by attempts at expertization and scientization. Particularly, politico-epistemological authority is being given to the behavioural science community consulting government. This article critically scrutinizes this most recent wave...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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2022-11-01
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| Series: | International Review of Public Policy |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/irpp/2634 |
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| author | Joram Feitsma Mark Whitehead |
| author_facet | Joram Feitsma Mark Whitehead |
| author_sort | Joram Feitsma |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Many government responses to the coronavirus-pandemic have been marked by attempts at expertization and scientization. Particularly, politico-epistemological authority is being given to the behavioural science community consulting government. This article critically scrutinizes this most recent wave of behavioural expertization. Taking developments in the UK and the Netherlands as our case-studies, we shed light on the disparate ways in which behavioural expertise is being (re)shaped during COVID-19. Some of these ways point at processes of behavioural expertise ‘drift’, in which the applicability and robustness of this knowledge source gets overstated. Other ways instead point at processes of behavioural expertise ‘thrift’ or ‘shift’, where the knowledge is used only minimally or taken in wholly new and norm-breaking directions. Doing so, we seek to demonstrate the importance of institutional context in understanding how behavioural expertise is currently shaping public policy: underpinning institutional configurations determine whether the expertise is gauged and applied effectively. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3b00ebfe9a7e4c128404d4714124fbd4 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2679-3873 2706-6274 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | OpenEdition |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Review of Public Policy |
| spelling | doaj-art-3b00ebfe9a7e4c128404d4714124fbd42025-01-09T16:26:00ZengOpenEditionInternational Review of Public Policy2679-38732706-62742022-11-01414917010.4000/irpp.2634Behavioural Expertise: Drift, Thrift and Shift under COVID-19Joram FeitsmaMark WhiteheadMany government responses to the coronavirus-pandemic have been marked by attempts at expertization and scientization. Particularly, politico-epistemological authority is being given to the behavioural science community consulting government. This article critically scrutinizes this most recent wave of behavioural expertization. Taking developments in the UK and the Netherlands as our case-studies, we shed light on the disparate ways in which behavioural expertise is being (re)shaped during COVID-19. Some of these ways point at processes of behavioural expertise ‘drift’, in which the applicability and robustness of this knowledge source gets overstated. Other ways instead point at processes of behavioural expertise ‘thrift’ or ‘shift’, where the knowledge is used only minimally or taken in wholly new and norm-breaking directions. Doing so, we seek to demonstrate the importance of institutional context in understanding how behavioural expertise is currently shaping public policy: underpinning institutional configurations determine whether the expertise is gauged and applied effectively.https://journals.openedition.org/irpp/2634COVID-19Behavioural Insightsexpertise driftpolicy-Science Interactioninstitutional contextBehavioural Public Policy |
| spellingShingle | Joram Feitsma Mark Whitehead Behavioural Expertise: Drift, Thrift and Shift under COVID-19 International Review of Public Policy COVID-19 Behavioural Insights expertise drift policy-Science Interaction institutional context Behavioural Public Policy |
| title | Behavioural Expertise: Drift, Thrift and Shift under COVID-19 |
| title_full | Behavioural Expertise: Drift, Thrift and Shift under COVID-19 |
| title_fullStr | Behavioural Expertise: Drift, Thrift and Shift under COVID-19 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Behavioural Expertise: Drift, Thrift and Shift under COVID-19 |
| title_short | Behavioural Expertise: Drift, Thrift and Shift under COVID-19 |
| title_sort | behavioural expertise drift thrift and shift under covid 19 |
| topic | COVID-19 Behavioural Insights expertise drift policy-Science Interaction institutional context Behavioural Public Policy |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/irpp/2634 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT joramfeitsma behaviouralexpertisedriftthriftandshiftundercovid19 AT markwhitehead behaviouralexpertisedriftthriftandshiftundercovid19 |