Folk theories and multilevel governance

Abstract

In this lunch time brown bag seminar we will discuss the use and purpose of theory in the messy real world interdependence that includes politics and civil society, and the supposedly more ordered world of academia. I will introduce two different concepts, folk theories and multilevel governance, and discuss how and where these are used, and how they relate to each other.

Folk theories capture patterns of what is happening and are often analytically short-circuited and usually are used to provide orientation for future action. What can be said for folk theories, can also be extended to theories used in the natural sciences, however the latter are offered a broader analytical circuitry within the concept and practice of the scientific method. Multilevel governance draws from legal theories and aims to be widely communicated to the public at large and discussed in politics as a tool to address the reality of interdependence that is given to us by key factual developments. Both concepts – folk theories and multilevel governance – are used in the literature to address related issues at distinct stages of the regulatory process. For instance, folk theories are used by scientists to engage political decision makers when dealing with emerging technologies. Multilevel governance is being thought of as a framework to generate trust and inspire confidence in individuals that their interests and rights will continue to be protected under the conditions of globalization and regionalization. Therefore, a framework of multilevel governance could profit from the rhetoric advantages of folk theory, despite the fact that folk theories are provisionally drafted theories that may or may not stand the test of time.

Folk Theories are discussed by Arie Rip in ‘Folk Theories of Nanotechnologists’ Science as Culture 15(4) 249-265 (2006) and in more general terms by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in Philosophy in the Flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought (New York: Basic Books, 1999).

Multilevel governance was introduced by Thomas Cottier in ‘‘The Impact from Without: International Law and the Structure of Federal Governance in Switzerland’ in P Knoepfel & W Linder (ed), Verwaltung, Regierung und Verfassung im Wandel. Gedächtnisschrift für Raimund E. Gernmann (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 2000) 213 – 230, and further developed in subsequent publications. 

Biography of the speaker

Dannie Jost works in policy and regulation issues where science, technology and trade are involved. This includes advising federal agencies on the scope of action for nanomaterial regulation within the framework of international trade law. This work is done in close collaboration with trade lawyers and experts in nanotechnology and regulatory affairs.

From 1998 to 2002 Dannie Jost was Technology and Patent Expert at Swiss Federal Institute for Intellectual Property (IPI) in Bern. She had the lead in the creation of the folder "Swiss Innovation in Action" a tool to aid SMEs in starting innovation processes. She negotiated the partnership of the IPI with the Swiss Economic Forum and was a member of the Jury of the Swiss Economic Forum Innovation Award. Dannie Jost created and led training workshops in intellectual property for technology transfer officers, examined patents and did complex prior art patent searches. She worked in private industry as a consultant for oil and gas clients in both formulation and implementation of strategies.

From 1988 to 1993 Dannie Jost was as a scientific collaborator and principal investigator at the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany and a research fellow at Cornell University, Laboratory for Atomic and Solid State Physics, Ithaca, New York, USA. Dannie Jost holds a doctoral degree in natural sciences (Dr phil nat, Physics) from the University of Bern, and a Master of Sciences from California State University, Los Angeles, USA.

Her academic and philosophical interests lie in self-organisation and dynamics of complex adaptive systems; trans-disciplinary research in particular the consilience of law and science; intellectual property, innovation, development, sustainability and education.