In this talk I will present the results of the Italian branch of the international research project ESCaPE (Evaluating Scientific Advice in a Pandemic Emergency) which I led in 2020-21 and which was aimed at understanding how expert advice was sought, produced, and utilized in the management of the Covid-19 emergency in Italy. This qualitative case study relies on a mix of both primary (stakeholder interviews) and secondary (official documents and communications by expert advisory bodies, ministerial decrees, and policy documents) data collection. This case study provides an overview and encompassing representation of the mobilization of experts, and of selected types of evidence, in Italy in 2020. Their findings suggest that expert politics can lead to the confirmation of knowledge hierarchies that privilege hard sciences, and corroborate prior literature indicating that economic and social expertise has not been well integrated into public health expert advice, constituting a major challenge for policymaking during an emergency. You can find further information here as well as the full article published in nature here.
When: 5 May 2023, 12:00 – 14:00
Where: Conference room (A222), Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Universitätsstr. 7/2nd floor, 1010 Vienna
Dr Silvia Camporesi 
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