CompCoRe Chronicle Issue 2 published

The second issue of CompCoRe Chronicle is out. This issue includes accomplishments from the team, insights about current events from several country teams, and a research note about how national leaders used (or didn’t) war metaphors when addressing their constituencies about the pandemic. Read the full newsletter here.

Tooze presents his new book, Shutdown, in conversation with Hilgartner and Jasanoff, moderated by Özgöde

Historian Adam Tooze (Columbia University) discussed his forthcoming book, Shutdown, at the first STS@Tea, a new series of occasional events co-organized by Harvard STS and CompCoRe. Using a critical macro-finance framework, he examined how the Federal Reserve’s emergency interventions in the US Treasury market in early 2020 made lockdowns possible throughout the world.  Hilgartner and Jasanoff engaged with Tooze’s global perspective from a comparative STS perspective, arguing that the nation state was the key unit of analysis for understanding why many wealthy nations failed to control the virus. Despite their orthogonal perspectives, the consensus was that economic resources were necessary but not sufficient to  manage the pandemic. The event was moderated by Özgöde.

Jasanoff speaks at opening night of Science Gallery Bengaluru exhibition

Sheila Jasanoff gave a keynote lecture titled “Control, Consensus, Chaos: The Global Response to the Pandemic” at the opening night of CONTAGION, an online exhibition that explores the transmission of emotions, behaviours and diseases. The lecture drew on CompCoRe findings and how they might inform our understanding of the human impacts of the pandemic. Science Gallery Bengaluru organized the exhibition.  

Jasanoff advises NASEM on pandemic preparedness

Sheila Jasanoff spoke on “Social and Political Context of Preparedness” at the first meeting of the Influenza Public Health Interventions Committee at National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). Her talk counseled the committee on priorities for analyzing the COVID-19 pandemic and related events. The committee is tasked with strengthening non-vaccine measures for seasonal and pandemic influenza.

Hilgartner, Hurlbut, and Jasanoff publish policy forum in Science

Stephen Hilgartner, Benjamin Hurlbut, and Sheila Jasanoff argue that US discourse about lack of trust in science needs to be reframed and show that treating political disagreements as being mainly about evidence undermines democracy. They also propose ways to build a more progressive politics of science.   

Jasanoff and Hilgartner participate in international ANSES symposium

Sheila Jasanoff and Stephen Hilgartner each gave plenary talks at “Credibility of Scientific Expertise and Decision-Making,” organized by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES). Jasanoff discussed a political theory of trust in expertise (English, French translation), and Hilgartner presented the CompCoRe Interim Report (video in English or French translation).

CompCoRe findings presented to Schmidt Futures Forum on Preparedness

Following a keynote speech by the WHO Director-General, Sheila Jasanoff and Stephen Hilgartner led off the event with a presentation of the CompCoRe Interim Report to key policy makers, leading academics and thought leaders, and thousands who tuned in. The talk framed the conversation for the Forum’s first day. A distinguished interdisciplinary panel reacted enthusiastically to their presentation.

CompCoRe Interim Report published

The 114-page report was published and presented at the Schmidt Futures Forum on Preparedness. The report highlights CompCoRe’s findings and includes an appendix with summaries of all 16 country cases. Full text here. 
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