Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Impact of Work Practices on the Implementation of Science Policy

有关科学政策的国际协定是官僚主义的基础设施，它依赖向各国代表团提供技术和组织援助的国际专业人员。由于这些协定的当事方要求在如何在其国家执行政策方面具有灵活性，国际工作人员需要保持灵活的心态，对执行国际协定的不同方法持开放态度，同时向代表团提供公正和政治中立的服务。本研究调查了国际公务员在科学、科学政策和国际政治之间进行调解时，建立和运用这种灵活心态的方式。本项目的重点是联合国秘书处负责支助《气候变化框架公约》运作的专业人员。该研究将采用民族志方法来揭示《联合国气候变化框架公约》工作人员的正式和非正式工作实践如何影响政策形成的制度环境。除了对科学政策研究的影响外，该项目的结果还将促进对政策人类学、官僚文化人类学以及国际机构在全球治理中的作用的理解。该项目的博士生将在《联合国气候变化框架公约》的三个工作单位实习和轮岗，为期12个月。《联合国气候变化框架公约》的工作人员负责促进科学机构与外交官之间的信息交流，撰写有关科学和政策的技术报告，与气候协议缔约方会面，协调沟通，监督审计程序，并在谈判会议期间为代表提供程序协助，以及其他职责。定性数据将通过参与观察、半结构化访谈和审查内部文件来收集，以了解和解释《联合国气候变化框架公约》工作人员的工作方式、他们对工作的理解，以及他们的工作实践如何影响更大范围的联合国政策制定和实施过程。定性分析技术包括文本分析，描述性和解释性话语分析，以及上下文分析将应用于数据，以揭示有意义的概念，类别和关系。这项研究的结果将提供概念性框架和数据，以了解关于缓解和可持续发展努力的国际政策制定的微观动态。通过阐明国际协议形成和执行的过程，研究结果将对政治行为者、决策者及其工作人员和政策研究人员有价值。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

International agreements concerning science policy are bureaucratic infrastructures that rely on international professional staff who provide technical and organizational assistance to the national delegations. As the parties to these agreements demand flexibility in how policies are to be carried out in their countries, the international staff need to maintain a flexible mindset, being open to different approaches for implementing international agreements while at the same time providing impartial and politically neutral service to the delegations. This research investigates the ways that international civil servants establish and exercise this flexible mindset as they mediate between science, science policy, and international politics. This project is focused on the professional staff of the United Nations Secretariat charged with supporting operation of the UNFCCC. The research will employ ethnographic methods to uncover how the formal and informal work practices of UNFCCC staff impact the institutional environment in which policy is formed. In addition to its implications for the study of science policy, the results of this project will advance understanding of the anthropology of policy, the anthropology of bureaucratic cultures, and the role of international institutions in global governance. The doctoral student on this project, will intern and rotate among three UNFCCC staff units over a 12-month period. UNFCCC staff facilitate information flow from scientific bodies to diplomats, write technical reports on science and policy, meet with parties to the climate agreement, coordinate communication, oversee audit procedures, and provide procedural assistance to delegates during negotiation meetings, among other duties. Qualitative data will be collected via participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and review of internal documents, to understand and explain the ways that the UNFCCC staff work, their understanding of that work, and the ways in which their work practices affect the larger United Nations policy making and implementation processes. Qualitative analysis techniques including text analysis, descriptive and interpretational discourse analysis, and context analysis will be applied to the data to uncover meaningful concepts, categories, and relationships. The results of the study will provide conceptual frameworks and data with which to understand the micro-dynamics of international policy making on mitigation and sustainable development efforts. By illuminating the processes by which international agreements are formed and implemented, the findings will be of value to political actors, policy makers and their staffs, and policy researchers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.