{"id":526,"date":"2015-06-02T22:00:43","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T03:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/?post_type=announcement&p=526"},"modified":"2016-02-01T11:11:35","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T16:11:35","slug":"register-for-the-1st-international-online-conference-studying-think-tanks-september-october-2015","status":"publish","type":"announcement","link":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/announcement\/register-for-the-1st-international-online-conference-studying-think-tanks-september-october-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Register for the 1st International Online Conference: Studying think tanks (September \u2013 October 2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Studying the impact on, and of, think tanks (#TTMethods<\/a>)<\/p>\n

International online conference: Methodologies for Researching Think Tanks<\/p>\n

A series of webinars: September\u00a0-October 2015\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sign-up here<\/a><\/h2>\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n

Think tanks, or policy institutes, are garnering ever more attention within the public debate, and have become major actors across several polities. Thus, in the last years there has been a growing interest in researching these organisations, particularly within Sociology and Political Science. As such, there have been several efforts in understanding what they are and what they do: from the perspective of their work and impact in policymaking (be it in healthcare, education, foreign policy, etc.); their role as public intellectuals and in the \u2018battle of ideas\u2019; from the standpoint of the national and international networks they are part of; and from the point of view of their funding and organisational structure, to name but a few.<\/p>\n

Conversely, several methodological approaches could and have been applied to study these institutions. Researchers have focused on their intellectual output, policy impact and its members, on their funders, political allies and presence across the media landscape. One could employ a network analysis, critical discourse analysis, or grounded theory approach to study them, across reports, blog posts, interviews, surveys or tweets.<\/p>\n

Discussion\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Part of the fascination and frustration of studying think tanks is the question \u2018what is a think-tank<\/a>?\u2019 Answers tend to point towards contrasting positions: that think tanks are either extensions of the academic or political spheres and that there is a number of possible typologies that ensue. Both have uncritically (and pre-empirically) assumed that these labels correspond with a certain intellectual practice, condition and activity.<\/p>\n

For more critical scholars, the assertion is that \u2018real\u2019 think-tanks are either ideological stooges building lobbying for the interests of capital and embedded within the interests of the main political parties. On the other hand, those sympathetic to the role of think tanks have tended to overplay the cognitive autonomy of these organisations.<\/p>\n

To add another layer of complexity to the debate, think tanks are no longer seen as a North American or European phenomenon. They exist in every region (and, possibly, country) in the world. There they take different organizational arrangements that allow them to perform the kind of functions that we have come to associate with think tanks.<\/p>\n

These issues were addressed in the introductory\u00a0discussion during a\u00a0pre-launch event in London in August 2015<\/a>. Using concepts associated with the sociological approach of field analysis, an alternative approach to what a think tanks is will be put forward as a working description for the conference. You can view the webinar here:<\/p>\n

August 11 2015: 1pm British Summer\u00a0Time (BST) Location: London\u00a0<\/strong>Pre-Launch Public Event in London: Approaching a murky subject: what is a think tank?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n