Evidence and Democracy in Times of Crisis

Facts about the course

• Course code: ISSSV4500
• Course title: Evidence and Democracy in Times of Crisis (Circle U. Summer School in Democracy) 
• Level: Master 
• Credits: 5 ECTS 
• Teaching: Summer 2023 
• Teaching format: 5 days on-site in Oslo (9am-5pm every day 7th-11th of August 2023) + online activities 
• Examination: Summer 2023
• Prerequisites: Undergraduate degree & enrolment in a regular MA program at one of the Circle U. Universities, CV, and motivation letter 
• Coordinators: Tobias Bach and Eivind Engebretsen
• Teaching language: English 
• Location at University of Oslo: The course takes place at Auditorium 2, Georg Sverdrups Hus at campus Blindern at University of Oslo. 

Course content

The curriculum for the course will be published here: ISSSV4500 ¨C Evidence and Democracy in Times of Crisis.

The systematic use of knowledge in the public sphere ¨C politics, administration, and public services more generally ¨C is usually discussed under the label of evidence-based or evidence-informed policymaking.  

Despite its theoretical appeal, the normative ideal of evidence-based policymaking encounters multiple challenges when faced with acute crises. Acute crises such as the current pandemic confront political and administrative decision-makers with an urgent imperative to act. They must make decisions under conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty and without a solid knowledge base. Both climate science and epidemiological knowledge have also become increasingly polarized sites of controversy in which evidence is continuously discussed and contested. Hence, democratic decisions are not simply informed by evidence, but become sites of the construction and social negotiation of evidence.  

Recent developments trigger several fundamental questions regarding the role of evidence and expertise in modern democratic settings, which will be addressed in this course: 

• What is the role of evidence ¨C and what should be its role ¨C when urgent decisions must be taken?

• How do political and administrative decision-makers balance ¡°hard¡± scientific evidence with other types of evidence and other legitimate concerns? 

• How can scientific evidence be communicated to the wider public without unduly antagonizing significant parts of the population?  

• What are the implications of the contestation of scientific evidence and academic experts by populist politicians and parties?  

• How to weigh and implement evidence-based measures that involve trade-offs with fundamental principles of democratic societies such as freedom of movement or expression? 

Learning outcomes

Knowledge 

Having completed this course, students: 

• have knowledge of the principles of evidence-based/evidence-informed policy. 

• have knowledge about different theoretical approaches to and understandings of evidence in a political context. 

• have knowledge about how the production and use of evidence is influenced by situations of emergency and crises. 

• have knowledge about the role of evidence and evidence-based decisions in sustaining democratic institutions. 

Skills 

Having completed this course, students can: 

• conduct independent empirical studies on evidence-based decisions in situations of crisis. 

• contribute to policy debates on the role of experts and the use of evidence in decision-making. 

• engage with relevant stakeholders in defining and addressing real-world challenges. 

Competence 

Having completed this course, students can: 

• cooperate with others in analyzing and interpreting empirical data in the light of theoretical concepts. 

• compare decision-making actors and processes across different contexts and conditions. 

• identify different types of evidence in decision-process. 

Prerequisites

The formal requirements for participation is a completed Bachelor's degree of at least 180 ECTS, enrolment in a Master's programme at a Circle U. university, your CV and a BA grade average equivalent to a C on the Norwegian grade scale.

We do not use conversion tables for foreign grades. All foreign education is individually evaluated during the admission process.

Please note that eligible applicants who fulfill the minimum grade requirement will compete with other applicants. Applicants will be ranked and admitted based on GPA, motivation letter (max. one page), and CV. The summer course has 6 study places for each university in the Circle U. alliance.

In case of more than 6 eligible applicants, all applicants will be pooled together and chosen at random to ensure that all eligible candidates have an equal opportunity to participate.

The course setup is interdisciplinary including, amongst others, Health Science, Political Science, Public Administration, Sociology, Law, and Communication Studies. 

Teaching

• 10 lectures (8 lectures on-site, 2 hours online lecture before the course week) 
• Project work equivalent to 12 seminars (1,5 hrs per seminar) 
• This course will use Canvas as a digital learning platform. Read more about Canvas. 

Grants

The Summer School is free of charge and comes with a grant. The rates follow the Erasmus+ guidelines, and will be paid out by the sending institution. The grant is composed of an amount for subsistence (70 EUR per day) for up to max. 7 days (duration of the school plus two days for travel) i.e. max. 490 EUR in total and a travel grant which will be calculated according to distance Erasmus+ Distance Calculator).

Please contact the mobility office at your university for information regarding scholarship. 

Mandatory activities

• Active participation in class 

• Reading course syllabus 

• Physical presence during the course (students can not miss more than one lecture)

• Project report (on-site, group work): During the summer school, small groups of students will produce a project presentation (approximately 2500 words, references and appendix excluded, written in English) and orally present their findings (in English). The project work must be informed by the course syllabus. The students will be guided by teaching staff in their project work.

Exam

• Term paper (off-site, individual): participants will write a term paper on a topic related to the course (1800-2200 words, excluding references). The term paper may be related to the project work done by students on-site, but it can also be on another topic. The term paper is due one month after the end of the course at the latest. Deadline: 11th of September 2023. 

• The exam must be submitted in English.

• The exam is graded with a pass/fail grade. 

• It is not possible to resit the exam in another semester. 

Schedule

Online lecture: June 6, 10-12 am

On-site: August 7-11, every day 9am-5pm Auditorium 2, Georg Sverdrups Hus, campus Blindern, University of Oslo

Topics

Rethinking Evidence in the Time of Pandemics (Eivind Engebretsen)

Bureaucrats and Expertise in Policymaking (Tobias Bach)

Climate Policy, IPCC (Elin Boasson)

Knowledge utilization (David Aubin)

Policy Advisory Systems (Pierre Squevin)

Environmental policy & knowledge (Francesca Vantaggiato)

Expertise and democracy (Cathrine Holst)

Knowledge production and contestation in human rights (Nina Reiners)

Lecturers

• Tobias Bach, Professor, University of Oslo (Political Science) 
• Eivind Engebretsen, Professor, University of Oslo (Global Health) 
• Elin Boasson, Professor, University of Oslo (Political Science)
• David Aubin, Professor, UCLouvain (Economic, Social and Political Sciences and Communication)
• Pierre Squevin, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oslo (Political Science)
• Francesca Vantaggiato, Lecturer, Kings College of London (Public Policy)
• Cathrine Holst, Professor, University of Oslo (Philosophy)
• Nina Reiners, Associate Professor,University of Oslo (Human Rights)

Syllabus

Here you will - during spring 2023 - find the syllabus in Leganto.

For more information about the summer course, please read here.