Fabricating Social Europe: From Neo-corporatism to Governance by Numbers

Abstract

In the last decade, cognitive instruments and devices such as standardised indicators, periodic monitoring, benchmarking, and peer review have become an integral part of the self-regulation of European social and labour market policies. The increasing relevance of knowledge regarding the governance of welfare states in Europe refects a broader shift to what is often described as the “knowledge society” or the knowledge economy. A defining characteristic of contemporary society and its governance regimes is that the knowledge necessary for decision-making is no longer mainly based upon routine and procedures, but is increasingly generated through active learning processes (e.g., Willke, 2007). This not only entails a dependency on research, experts, and epistemic communities but also a growing refexivity of knowledge, in the sense that social systems become actively engaged in knowledge production and aim to initiate and produce new knowledge themselves, rather than just manage a stock of existing knowledge (Nowotny et al., 2001).