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Project

How policy-makers use uncertainty information – an empirical study of civic epistemologies

This research project aims to draw attention to how the form of uncertainty presentation in pieces of evidence can impact policy-makers deliberations. We will approach this problem in three ways. Firstly, we aim to improve on the state of the art regarding formal social epistemology by developing new models for opinion dynamics that include agent- or community specific variables. By the use of numerical opinion dynamic simulations and empirical inputs from our planned experiments with policy-makers, we want to understand behavior emerging out of the interaction of individual agents in a qualitative way. Secondly, we will focus on the crucial concept of ‘civic epistemology’ defined by Jasanoff (2011) as the body of institutionalized practices by which members of a given society test and deploy knowledge claims used as a basis for making collective choices. In this framework the role of uncertainty in these decision processes will be investigated. Finally, we will draw on insights from formal epistemology and in particular Bayesian epistemology which views probabilities as an epistemic notion and provides us with a normative framework for rational decision making under epistemic uncertainty.

Date:11 Mar 2021 →  Today
Keywords:uncertainty, policy-making, social epistemology
Disciplines:Epistemology
Project type:PhD project