International Organisations and the Proliferation of Scientised Global Reporting, 1947–2019

Abstract

As novel instruments in global governance, international organisations' (IOs) global reports have emerged in all policy sectors in the more recent period. Drawing on an original dataset of N = 363 editions from N = 95 explicitly global reports from the period 1947-2019, this study documents the rise of reporting and uses citation and content analyses to examine the changing role of science. Reporting based on scientific research and quantitative indicators increases over time and across all sectors, yet particularly striking since the late 1980s and most in sectors dealing with human development and the environment. Drawing on arguments from world society theory, the sociology of quantification and post-truth approaches, this work argues that while reports provide IOs with new legitimacy in science-based governance, their scientised and quantified nature is likely to make IO activities the target of antiscientific populist rhetoric and critical arguments about a reductionist interpretation of science.