scholarly journals Organizational Identity of Think Tank(er)s: A Growing Elite Group in Swedish Civil Society

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 142-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pelle Åberg ◽  
Stefan Einarsson ◽  
Marta Reuter
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Large Mass ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Shared Understanding ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Policy Actor ◽  
Policy System ◽  
Elite Group ◽  
Movement Organizations

Think tanks, defined as organizations that produce policy research for political purposes (McGann, 2007; Medvetz, 2008), are an increasingly ubiquitous type of policy actor world-wide. In Sweden, the last 20 years’ sharp increase in think tank numbers (Åberg, Einarsson, & Reuter, 2019) has coincided with the decline of the traditional Swedish corporatist model based on the intimate involvement of the so-called ‘popular movements’ in policy-making (Lundberg, 2014; Micheletti, 1995). Contrary to the large, mass-membership based and democratically organized movement organizations, think tanks are small, professionalized, expert-based, and seldom represent any larger membership base. Their increasingly important role as the ideological greenhouses in Swedish civil society might, therefore, be interpreted as an indication of an increasingly elitist and professionalized character of the latter. But what is a think tank? The article explores how a shared understanding of what constitutes a think tank is constructed by think-tankers themselves. In the study, interviewed think tank executives and top-level staff reflect upon their own organizations’ missions and place in the Swedish policy system.

Case study 2

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewan Ferlie ◽  
Sue Dopson ◽  
Chris Bennett ◽  
Michael D. Fischer ◽  
Jean Ledger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Significant Potential ◽  
Key Stakeholders

This chapter analyses the role of think tanks in generating a distinctive mode of policy knowledge, pragmatically orientated to inform and shape issues of importance to civil society. Drawing on political science literature, we argue that think tanks exploit niche areas of expertise and influence to actively mobilize policy analyses and recommendations across diverse stakeholders. Through our exploratory mapping of think tanks, geographically concentrated within London, we characterize their influence as significantly boosting knowledge intensity across the regional ecosystem. In particular, we study the empirical case of one London-based think tank which powerfully mobilized policy knowledge through its formal and informal networks to build influential expert consensus amongst key stakeholders. We conclude that such organizations act as key knowledge producers and mobilizers, with significant potential to influence policy discourses and implementation.

Thinks tanks and their role in policy making in ireland

2021 ◽  
pp. 157-170
Author(s):  
Chris McInerney
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
International Experience ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Broad Variety

This chapter reviews the role of think tanks in policy making. Like most modern democracies, Ireland relies on a range of sources to influence the choices and designs of public policy. Apart from political and administrative influences, a broad variety of civil society, academic and private sector actors seek to access, influence, advise, inform and sometimes embarrass those in power. The chapter focuses on ‘think tanks’, defining them, reviewing international experience, examining different types and considering the complex issue of assessing think tank influence. It maps out Ireland’s limited think tank landscape and examines recent developments. Think tanks’ influence on Irish policymaking is assessed across a number of indicators.

Changing Windows on a Changing China: The Evolving “Think Tank” System and the Case of the Public Security Sector

2002 ◽  
Vol 171 ◽  
pp. 559-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murray Scot Tanner
Keyword(s):  
Second Generation ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Public Security ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
The Public ◽  
Tank System ◽  
Chinese Policy ◽  
Policy Communities

The entrepreneurial “second generation” of Chinese policy research institutes (often called think tanks) that emerged during the 1980s played a pivotal role in the policy process of reform. Since Tiananmen, China's growing commercialization is spawning a “third generation” of think tanks characterized by even more ambiguous links to sponsoring leaders and institutions, greatly expanded commercial links, greater exposure to Western theories and techniques, and the gradual emergence of wide-ranging “policy communities.” The extent of this change varies greatly across policy sectors, however. Generational change is evident in China's previously unstudied network of public security (police) think tanks. Though clearly still of the “second generation” variety, these institutes have been in the forefront of importing and incorporating more sophisticated crime-fighting techniques and less class-based and conspiratorial theories of crime and social unrest.

scholarly journals Three Types of Denial: Think Tanks as a Reluctant Civil Society Elite

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 152-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Jezierska
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Educational Level ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Social Analysis ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Unique Role ◽  
One Step

Think tanks, or policy advice institutions, are civil society organizations producing and delivering social analysis to policymakers and the wider public. Their aim is to influence policy in a given direction. Compared to most other civil society organizations, they hold relatively privileged positions, both in terms of wealth (on average bigger budgets and staffs), political influence (their very raison d’être), knowledge (educational level of the staff), and social networks. Thus, it seems beyond dispute that think tanks adhere to the elite of civil society. This article focuses on think tanks’ negative self-identification, on their reluctance to accept labels. Not only are think tanks unwilling to take on the elite designation, some of them also deny being part of civil society, and some go one step further in denying identification with the think tank community. These multiple denials are expected if we recall Pierre Bourdieu’s observation that “all aristocracies define themselves as being beyond all definition” (Bourdieu, 1996, p. 316). The analysis focuses on how this definitional ambiguity is discursively constructed. Think-tankers are often described as situated in an interstitial space between such fields as politics, civil society, media, market, and academia. While this intermediary position is the source of their unique role as converters of various forms of capital, it also complicates the identity formation of think tanks. The argument is illustrated by Polish think tanks and the data consists of original interviews with think tank leaders. The article provides a novel perspective on think tanks and on civil society elites.

scholarly journals Think Tanks in Nepal: Emergence and Growth

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 17-20
Author(s):  
Birendra Prasad Shah
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Private Institutions ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Government Investment ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Language Form ◽  
Research Activities

Think tank is bridging gap among academic and policy making communities, states and civil society to serve in the public interest as independent voices that translate applied and basic research into a language, form that is understandable, reliable, and accessible for policy makers and the public. Hence, Nepal is officially far from it. Although, practices in Nepal is very limited as well as narrow ideas, thinking, and approaches to sake prosperities of divergent Nepali societies and cultures. Government investment is very poor in these works. However, newly opened universities, private institutions and NGOs are work like as hybrid, are engaged in educational research activities. Over the last 10-15 years, governments, and civil society have come to rely on it, and this trend will continue to input better future of Nepal.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/av.v4i0.12351Academic Voices Vol.4 2014: 17-20

Think Tanks and Foreign Policy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuti Bhatnagar
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Policy Frames ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
The Media ◽  
Intellectual Elites

The role of think tanks as policy actors has developed over time and created significant global scholarship. Widely understood as non-state policy actors, think tanks established either with or without the support of government have evolved in various political contexts with varied characteristics. They are avenues for the discussion of new policy ideas as well as used for the consolidation of existing understandings of global and national political issues. As ideational actors think tanks interact with policy frameworks at different levels, either in the framing stage or at the stage of consensus building towards certain policies. Intellectual elites at think tanks allow for the introduction of think tank ideas into the policy frames as well as the creation of public opinion towards foreign policy decisions. Think tank deliberations involve an interaction with policymakers, academic experts, business and social actors, as well as the media to disseminate ideas. Institutionally, think tanks in a wide variety of political contexts play a critical role in the making of foreign policy and bring closer attention to processes of state–society interactions in different political environments.

scholarly journals Authority signaling: How relational interactions between journalists and politicians create primary definers in UK broadcast news

Journalism ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 896-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Chadwick ◽  
Declan McDowell-Naylor ◽  
Amy P Smith ◽  
Ellen Watts
Keyword(s):  
Think Tanks ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Broadcast News ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Relational Approach ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Journalism Studies ◽  
Sociology Of News ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Relational Interactions

How journalists construct the authority of their sources is an essential part of how news comes to have power in politics and how political actors legitimize their roles to publics. Focusing on economic policy reporting and a dataset of 133 hours of mainstream broadcast news from the 5-week 2015 UK general election campaign, we theorize and empirically illustrate how the construction of expert source authority works. To build our theory, we integrate four strands of thought: an important, though in recent years neglected, tradition in the sociology of news concerned with ‘primary definers’; the underdeveloped literature on expert think tanks and media; recent work in journalism studies advocating a relational approach to authority; and elements from the discursive psychology approach to the construction of facticity in interactive settings. Our central contribution is a new perspective on source authority: the identification of behaviors that are key to how the interactions between journalists and elite political actors actively construct the elevated authoritative status of expert sources. We call these behaviors authority signaling. We show how authority signaling works to legitimize the power of the United Kingdom’s most important policy think tank and discuss the implications of this process.

scholarly journals RESEARCH ON THE PROMOTION OF CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THINK TANKS IN LOCAL NEWLY BUILT UNDERGRADUATE UNIVERSITIES—TAKING THE BRAND STRATEGY AND DEVELOPMENT THINK TANK OF SHANDONG WOMEN'S UNIVERSITY AS AN EXAMPLE

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHI-GUO HUANG ◽  
PEI-BIAO LIU
Keyword(s):  
Social Service ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Brand Strategy ◽  
Women's College ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Healthy Development ◽  
Existing Problems

The think tank of universities is an important carrier for scientific research, social service and talent training. At present, the construction of the think tank in local newly-built undergraduate universities is increasingly intensified, but its related functions have not been fully developed and played yet. Taking the brand strategy and development think tank of Shandong Women’s College as an example, this paper investigates and analyzes the current situation, existing problems and causes of its construction and development, and then proposes corresponding countermeasures, the purpose is to provide guidance for the sustainable and healthy development and growth of the think tank. At the same time, it can provide reference for the construction and development of the think tank in similar newly-built undergraduate universities.

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