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

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.