Call for Papers: Conference and Workshop “Practicing Evidence – Evidencing Practice (19.-21.2.2020, Munich)

The conference and pre-conference workshop “Practicing Evidence – Evidencing Practice How is (Scientific) Knowledge Validated, Valued and Contested?” will take place from February 19th-21st, 2019 in Munich. The Deadline for submissions is October 15th, 2019. The full call can be found here (PDF).

“Evidence” has been generating a lot of interest lately. The concept has become central to public controversies surrounding issues such as climate change and the anti-vaccination movement, and it served as a kind of rallying cry in the “science marches” and debates about the “post-truth” society. Campaigns for more data-driven, “evidence-based” decision-making have emerged in fields as diverse as medicine, politics and management. Meanwhile, the number of conferences and research projects reflecting on the nature and functions of the concept seem to be on the rise too. [..]

Accordingly, we are interested in questions such as: How is knowledge validated? What counts (or does not count) as evidence in a given (disciplinary) context, and how does this affect scientific practices? How do evidence practices change over time? What happens to practices of evidence when established knowledge is challenged? What is the role of evidence-based knowledge in neoliberal, democratic and knowledge-based societies? We also welcome papers which analyze the forums of public engagement with science (natural and social sciences and humanities) including the ways in which popular discourses may influence practices of evidence. What kinds of publics are constituted within such forums and how do these publics engage with evidence practices and with changing concepts of expertise? How does the wider public react to (scientific) crises of evidence and the perceived blurring of boundaries between fact and opinion?

We invite contributions from sociology, history of science, technology and medicine, science and technology studies, media and communication studies, political science, economics, philosophy and related fields. We welcome submissions from contemporary as well as historical contexts.