SPARK research presented at Leuphana University

Marc Geddes, PI of SPARK, was invited to contribute to Leuphana University of Lüneburg’s research programme and deliver a keynote talk at the University.

Marc presented an overview of the SPARK research project, and specifically outlined his review paper on the state of the subdiscipline and how we can and should study the relationship between parliaments and knowledge.

As part of the presentation, Marc covered:

-          A summary of debates around the term ‘knowledge’, and how this would be approached in SPARK.

-          A summary of the distinctive role of parliaments vis-à-vis other types of institutions that use knowledge in decision-making, especially governments and executives

-          A mapping of the research field in terms of how political scientists and other scholarship has approached the study of knowledge in parliaments to date, and the resulting overlaps, discrepancies, gaps and oversights

-          Some initial observation of data and from other projects to demonstrate the importance of studying the role of parliaments and the role of knowledge

-          An outline of the central idea of studying parliaments as ‘knowledge institutions’, including the need to study their actors and beliefs; their processes and practices; and their impacts on democratic decision-making.

A copy of previous presentations is available under the Resources webpage of SPARK.

Marc is extremely grateful for all the comments that he received. In particular, the seminar sparked a considerable discussion around the nature of knowledge in the first place and how this can be studied effectively, while other comments focus on the differences to executives. Overall, it was a really informative exchange of ideas.

Marc is also very grateful to the hosts for their kind organisation and making him feel so welcome in Lüneburg.

Image by Jens Junge from Pixabay