Electives

Science and Public Policy

Maastricht University, The Netherlands

Science and Public Policy

Maastricht University, The Netherlands

General Description

Contemporary societies face increasingly complex challenges — from climate change and public health crises to digital transformation, artificial intelligence, energy transitions, and global inequality. Addressing these issues requires policymakers to engage with diverse forms of knowledge and expertise. Scientific evidence, data analytics, technological innovation, and stakeholder perspectives have become integral to policy development and governance across virtually all sectors. At the same time, the role of expertise in public decision-making is increasingly contested. Rapid technological change, misinformation, political polarization, and competing knowledge claims raise important questions about how evidence is produced, communicated, and used in policy processes. Understanding these dynamics is essential for navigating contemporary governance.

This specialisation explores the interactions between science, technology, expertise, and public policy. It examines how knowledge informs decision-making, how evidence and values shape policy choices, and how governance institutions respond to societal and technological change. Students will critically analyse the role of experts, data, and scientific knowledge in addressing complex policy challenges, while also considering issues of legitimacy, inclusion, uncertainty, and public trust. Drawing on perspectives from science and technology studies, public policy analysis, political science, sociology, and institutional economics, the specialisation combines conceptual and practical approaches to understanding contemporary governance. Through lectures, seminars, and case studies, students will investigate how policy problems are defined, how evidence is mobilised, and how alternative solutions are evaluated and implemented.

Participants will develop analytical, methodological, and communication skills for addressing complex policy challenges in knowledge-intensive societies. By the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Analyse how different forms of knowledge and expertise shape policy processes;
  • Critically evaluate evidence, assumptions, and values underlying policy decisions;
  • Apply systemic and interdisciplinary approaches to complex societal challenges;
  • Assess and compare alternative policy interventions;
  • Communicate policy analysis clearly and effectively to diverse audiences.
Maastricht University
Maastricht University
Maastricht University

Elective Structure

The specialisation is divided into two parts. The first part consists of five intensive weeks of lectures and seminars (February–March) during which the students become fully acquainted with the fundamentals of science-policy analysis and its implications for decision-making in various contexts of governance and organisational practice. For the remaining five months, the students work on a thesis in a thematic area of their choice within the science policy-making arena. Students have their own supervisors from among the FASoS academic staff who work with them on a one-to-one basis to carve out a thesis project. Theses generally combine empirical work and theoretical reflection.




  • Alasuutari, Pertti (2014): Epistemic Governance. An Approach to the Politics of Policy Making. European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 1, 1: 67-84.
  • Barry, Andrew (2001). Political Machines. Governing a Technological Society. London: Athlone. Bijker, W., Hendriks, R., & Bal, R. (2009). The Paradox of Scientific Authority. Boston: MIT. Pp. 1-46; (71-106); 107-135.
  • Callon, Michel; Lascombe, Pierre; Barthe, Jannick (2009): Acting in an Uncertain World. An Essay on Technological Democracy. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
  • Chilvers, Jason & Matthew Kearnes (eds.) Remaking Participation. Science, environment and emergent publics (pp. 32-63). London: Routledge.
  • Dean, Mitchel (1999) Governmentality. Power and Rule in Modern Society. London: Sage.
  • Frickel, Scott & Kelly Moore (eds) The New Political Sociology of Science (pp. 3-35). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
  • Jasanoff, Sheila (2004) States of Knowledge: the co-production of Science and the Social Order. Routledge.
  • Knorr-Cetina, K. K. (1999). Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge. Harvard University Press.
  • Kourany, J., & Carrier, M. (Eds.). (2020). Science and the production of ignorance: When the quest for knowledge is thwarted. MIT Press.
  • Owen, R.L. & M. Bessant & M. Heintz (eds.) (2014): Responsible Innovation. Managing the Responsible Emergence of Science and Innovation in Society. Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Voss, Jan-Peter & Richard Freeman, eds. (2016): Knowing Governance. The Epistemic Construction of Political Order. London: Macmillan.
  • Winner, Langdon “Do artefacts have politics?” Daedalus 109 (1980), 121-136.

Name and Email Address of Specialisation Coordinator

Dr. Dani Shanley, danielle.shanley@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Staff Involved in the Elective

  • Dr. Matthew Archer: political ecology, environmental anthropology, environmental humanities
  • Prof. Dr. Karin Bijsterveld: Sound and technology, music (classical, jazz, popular) and technology, sensory skills in the sciences, sensory museum exhibits, surveillance techniques, measurement and standardisation (in automotive industries)
  • Dr. Raf de Bont: History of the biological and the environmental sciences; cultures of nature conservation; animal history; science, technology and culture in the Anthropocene
  • Dr. Joeri Bruyninckx: Science and Technology Studies; History of science, technology, and environment; sound studies; amateur and citizen science; time; bodily skill; cultures of work and technology
  • Dr. Darryl Cressman: The Philosophy of technology; actor-network theory; science and technology studies; critical theory; sound studies
  • Prof. Dr. Anna Harris: Ethnography, materiality, medical technologies/professionals/practices, skills, craftsmanship, hospitals, making, sensing, embodiment/body theories, history-anthropology collaborations, food, medical humanities, pneumatic tube systems
  • Dr. Ruud Hendriks: Artistic interventions and material design in (mental) health care; Autism spectrum disorders; Disability studies; Dementia; Empirical ethics; Expert policy advice; Health Council of the Netherlands; Science and technology studies
  • Prof. Dr. Anique Hommels: vulnerability, cities as sociotechnical ensembles, urban resilience, obduracy of sociotechnology, innovation management, critical infrastructures, standardisation, history and sociology of technology
  • Dr. Vincent Lagendijk: History of technology, transnational dimensions of international rivers, history of energy/electricity, development history, international organisations, technology and race
  • Prof. Dr. Harro van Lente: the dynamics of emerging technologies; technology assessment, foresight, politics of knowledge production; innovation management; science and innovation policy; nanotechnology; RRI; sociology of expectations; sustainabilityDr. Jessica Mesman: Patient Safety: Science and Technology Studies STS; Ethnography of Intensive Care Units; Video-ethnography; Neonatology; Decision-making processes in critical care medicine; qualitative methods
  • Dr. Odin Melsted: transnational history energy, technology, and environment, with a special focus on historical sustainability transitions.
  • Prof. Dr. Darian Meacham: political philosophy, phenomenology, philosophy of technology, and bioethics, questions surrounding the concept of Europe and post-national political institutions.
  • Prof. Dr. Jessica Mesman: Science, Technology & Medicine Studies; Video-Reflexive Ethnography (VRE); Exnovation; Medical Anthropology/ Sociology; Complexity; Patient Safety
  • Prof. Dr. Cyrus Mody: history and sociology of the physical and engineering sciences, with particular attention to the commercialization of academic research, university-industry-government cooperation, and emerging technologies such as nanotechnology
  • Dr. Pouya Sepehr: digital transformation of spatial and urban planning, politics of expertise and knowledge in governance, citizen science and participatory infrastructures, multispecies justice and environmental humanities, urban digital platforms, AI, and datafication
  • Dr. Danielle Shanley: responsibility in technoscience (feminist STS, care ethics, anticipatory governance), hype studies, refusal, technology governance and participation (responsible innovation, constructive technology assessment, public engagement)
  • Dr. Geert Somsen: history of science / science and international relations / history of technoscientific imaginariesDr. Alexandra Supper: Science and technology studies; academic disciplines and interdisciplinarity; sound studies; science and art; academic conferences; scholarly identities; bodily practices and skills
  • Dr. Alexandra Supper: the role of sound, listening and other bodily skills in scientific practice; the construction of scientific authority; and the formation and consolidation of (inter)disciplinary communities, including the practices and performances through which new members become socialised and encultured into these communities.
  • Prof. Dr. Tsjalling Swierstra: Philosophy of Technology, NEST-ethics; Techno-Moral Change; Techno-Moral Scenarios; Hard and Soft Impacts of Technology; Public Debate; RRI
  • Dr. Mariëlle Wijermars: Platform governance, Internet policy, Digital authoritarianism, Human rights, Russia
  • Dr. Ragna Zeiss: standardisation, classification, regulation and governance in/of science and technology; science-policy boundary work and knowledge brokerage; science and technology in and for development; upset(ting) boundaries around bio(logical) objectsDr. Matthew Archer: political ecology, environmental anthropology, environmental humanities
  • The EU’s reconfiguration of cybersecurity risk assessments in a weaponized digital order
  • Protection or Censorship? A Critical Discourse Analysis of EU and USA Approach to Digital Regulation in 2025
  • Making Carbon Governable: Assetization of the European Union Emissions Trading System
  • Digital Sovereignty as a Political Project: Networks, Discourses, and Tech-Authoritarian Convergences
  • Constructing Risk within Open Strategic Autonomy – Technopolitics and China within EU Electrification Policy
  • Gaining clarity in the field of non-knowledge to help navigate complexity in healthcare
  • Behind Innovation: a Maintenance and Repair Studies Approach of the Grand Paris Express Project
  • Atoms of influence: Tracing Russian nuclear colonialism through the Astravets nuclear power plant
  • Reconceptualizing Boundary Theory: How Structure and Culture Shape Open Data Policy Translation

Language of Instruction

The specialisation is given in English. All literature for the core sessions and the sessions themselves are in English. All faculty members will use English as the medium of communication with the students throughout this course.

Maximum Number of Students

None

Circumstantial Information

On FASoS: maastrichtuniversity.nl/about-um/faculties/faculty-arts-and-social-sciences

On STS in Maastricht: maastrichtuniversity.nl/node/37280/maastricht-university-science-technology-and-society-studies

On Maastricht University: maastrichtuniversity.nl

On housing possibilities: maastrichthousing.com

On housing and other practicalities: mymaastricht.nl; UM Guesthouse information for students coming to Maastricht University from abroad

Tourist information: visitmaastricht.com

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