Final Report Summary - PIPES (Professions in International Political Economies)
The Professions in International Political Economies (PIPES) project explored how professionals and professions compete and cooperate to address long-term socio-economic problems in the international political economy. The project included a range of cases, including post-crisis financial reform, transnational wealth management, tax justice activism, low fertility in OECD countries, international patent pools for essential medicines, private forms of international diplomacy, the pricing of internet services, and the growth of carbon markets and bio-fuel markets. The general findings from the project are threefold: i) transnational governance is strongly informed by professionals who are decoupled from national professional associations; ii) career structure is important for who is recognised as powerful in professional networks, with mixed careers being particularly important; and iii) among transnational professionals there is a shift from professionalism being an occupational value (based on formal training and professionals associations) to an organisational value (being viewed as knowing how to organise across different groups), leading to a rise of ‘issue professionals'. These findings informed three key concepts from the project. The first is ‘epistemic arbitrage’, which occurs when professionals mediate between different pools of knowledge for strategic advantage to position themselves, and their preferred skill set and knowledge, as knowing the best way to address problems. The second is ‘identity switching’, where professionals deliberately switch their identities to gain advantage in professional knowledge, moving between ‘worlds’ of policy, science, activism, and corporations. The third is 'organising not organisations', that forms of organising are more important than organisational forms. The PIPES project found ‘epistemic arbitrage’ and ‘identity switching’ in many cases, as well as cases where professionals deliberately organised in ways contrary to established assumptions about behaviour from International Organizations, Firms, and Non-Govermmental Organisations. These three findings and key concepts helped the research team develop a range of theories on how professionals compete and cooperate to define long-term socio-economic problems in the international political economy.