Sheila Jasanoff and Stephen Hilgartner spoke to faculty and students at Sciences Po about international collaboration, the comparative method, and early CompCoRe findings.

Walker’s talk addressed “The Crisis of Constitutional Democracy in Pandemic Times,” exploring how the pandemic challenges the paradigm of representative democracy and raises opportunities for democratic renewal. J. Benjamin Hurlbut and a panel of scholars responded, and Sheila Jasanoff moderated the event. 

Warren Pearce gave a talk titled “Scientific emergency or emergency for science? Alternative experts and civic dislocation in the UK’s Covid-19 response” as part of Warwick Sociology Seminar Series. He demonstrated that the UK has experienced increasing ‘civic dislocation’ (Jasanoff 1997) during the pandemic, as public confidence in the country’s institutions to deliver reliable information and advice has eroded and reflected on possible ways forward.

We are pleased to publish the first issue of the CompCoRe Chronicle, a tri-annual newsletter documenting CompCORe project accomplishments and research insights. Read the first issue here.

Brice Laurent (France) won a grant from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (French National Research Agency) for a project on political and social issues of expertise during the Covid crisis. The funds help to support Laurent’s study of the French case and participation in CompCoRe. 

Warren Pearce (UK) published a paper about uncertainties in UK science advice in Humanities & Social Science Communications. The paper argues that contradictory representations of Covid infection rates in the UK stem from the dual roles of science advisors as both knowledge producers (through epidemiological models) and knowledge users (through policy advice).

Iris Eisenberger (Austria) and her colleagues received funding from the Province of Styria to study “Legal Requirements for Statistical Modeling” in Covid policy. The project is examining whether requirements for using statistical models can be derived from constitutional principles of democracy and the liberal state.

A Swedish team based at Lund University and led by Shai Muinari becomes a new core member of the CompCoRe network.

Sheila Jasanoff’s “Pathologies of Liberty: Public Health Sovereignty and the Political Subject in the Covid-19 Crisis” appeared in Cahiers Droit, Sciences & Technologies. It analyzes how litigation during the pandemic tested the nature and limits of power in the US public health system.