Knowledge and Politics

Politics is not only a subject to have knowledge about; it is an arena in which knowledge is produced, contested, and used as a source of power. The theme knowledge and politics examines how political interests shape what counts as knowledge and how knowledge shapes political life.

Knowledge as power

A guiding insight of this theme is that knowledge and power are entangled. Those who control information, official statistics, historical narratives, scientific advice, gain influence, and those with power can shape which knowledge is funded, published, taught, or suppressed. This does not mean all knowledge is "just politics," a claim that would collapse the distinction between evidence and propaganda, but it does mean that the scope of accepted knowledge is never set in a vacuum. Asking whos