Scholars Award: The Coming of Age: The Formation of the Global Science and Policy of Aging

The formation and dynamics of global science and policy fields are important to understand because fields shape the kinds of questions that are asked and answered, who participates in decisionmaking, and who acquires benefits or is harmed by processes and frameworks. Studies of global science and policy fields are relatively rare, and those that exist have typically assumed that knowledge and policy flows are from the global north to other parts of the globe. Recent research has suggested that this framework is unsound, and misses the critical exchanges of ideas and people that operate in multiple directions, including from the global south to the global north. This research project intervenes at this point, examining how global science and policy fields are formed through critical exchange points at multiple institutional, state, and extra-state levels, using a case study of the formation of the science and policy of aging. More specifically, this study investigates how the science and policy of aging took form at the local, community, nation and global level, by addressing three critical questions: 1) how and why specific policymakers and scientists have conceived of and shaped knowledge about aging and its policies; 2) how and why specific geographic areas came to be sites of scientific and policy intervention around aging; 3)what critical arenas and conjuctures played the greatest role in field formation. Evidence is drawn from archival data and existing documents from international institutions and NGOs, analysis of scientific publications, and in-depth interviews with experts and policymakers to explore these questions.

This study contributes to social scientific understandings of the emergence of new science fields by showing how politics and science intersect to produce transnational networks of experts who can interact across ideological and political settings. It advances social scientific knowledge of how fields evolve, gain credibility, and ebb from global policy agendas, with persistent legacies in contemporary policies.

Around the globe, the rapid aging of populations is transforming societies in profound and pervasive ways. The social and political implications of an aged population have raised concerns in national and international governance organizations, in scientific communities, and among medical researchers. New policy interventions and fields of scientific study have been established to address these concerns, knowledge of the norms, assumptions, institutional junctures that have and continue to shape the science and policy of aging, activities are undertaken without the comparative knowledge necessary to make valuable interventions. This study will address that gap, and provide knowledge about the critical arenas and conjunctures that have played and may play important causal roles in future aging science and policy. Research results are disseminated through the development and delivery of course materials, briefings and presentations to NGOs and other institutions, and through scholarly publications.