Policy-oriented scholarship serves political exigencies rather than new knowledge.
Evidence
Not that this has always meant poor writing and scholarship: as an informative general account which answers principally to political exigencies and not mainly to the need for new knowledge about Islam, there is Martin Kramer, Political Islam (Washington, D.C.: Sage Publications, 1980). This was written for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and therefore belongs to the category of policy, not of “objective,” knowledge. — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 381
Categorization
- DEFINE: Distinguishes policy-driven knowledge from ‘objective’ scholarship by institutional affiliation.
- XREF: Echoes Said’s sustained critique in Orientalism of knowledge production tied to power centers. — connects to: Some policy debates feature one side uninterested in truth where scholarship is propaganda — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 829
Related
- Scholarship cannot be politically neutral (similarity 0.80)
- The ideal of nonpolitical scholarship is unattainable in practice. (similarity 0.79)
- Islamic scholarship functions as an arm of state power, not disinterested learning (similarity 0.79)
- Area-studies seminar design shaped Islam as a manageable policy object (similarity 0.79)
- Understanding Islam’s coverage requires demystifying the power-knowledge link (similarity 0.78)
- Some policy debates feature one side uninterested in truth where scholarship is propaganda (similarity 0.78)
- Both the security state and its opponents mobilize scholarship for political ends (similarity 0.78)