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Think Tanks: The Quest to Define and to Rank Them
ID: 1151918
ink Tanks: The Quest to Define and to Rank Them
Over the past decade, various organizations and publications have started to rank
think tanks, mostly at the national level. Top-ranked think tanks like to announce their
standings in promotional material and on their websites. While such ranking indexes
help to draw attention to the growing think tank scenes across the globe and are thus
to be welcomed, the existing rankings are fraught with problems; conceptual and
methodological difficulties in particular are abound. Current attempts to rank think
tanks therefore need to be approached with caution.
- There is no agreement on what essentially defines a think tank. Many definitions
have been offered, but not one is entirely satisfactory. Given the prevailing ambiguity
and also vagueness of think tank conceptualizations, we often do not really know
which organizations should be considered thinks tanks and which ones should not.
-
The national contexts in which think tanks operate differ and so do the ways in which
they perform their various activities and roles in pursuing their manifold missions.
Think tank rankings at the regional or global levels are thus always dubious.
- Output, public outreach or other performance-based criteria are usually offered to
buttress think tank rankings, but these criteria are often not weighed or properly
operationalized.
- It is especially difficult to assess think tanks? policy-oriented influence. Various
rankings try to measure some of the output produced by think tanks - output that
can be understood as "intermediary products.? Counting such products can help to
get a better idea of think tanks? visibility, but not of their actual impact on public
policy.
Das GIGA gibt Focus-Reihen zu Afrika, Asien, Lateinamerika, Nahost sowie zu globalen Fragen heraus. Kostenloser Zugang zu allen Heften über:
http://www.giga-hamburg.de/giga-focus.
GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Neuer Jungfernstieg 21
20354 Hamburg
Telefon: +49 (0)40 - 428 25-593
Telefax: +49 (0)40 - 428 25-547
Mail: info@giga-hamburg.de
URL: http://www.giga-hamburg.de
(pressrelations) - Quest to Define and to Rank Them
Over the past decade, various organizations and publications have started to rank
think tanks, mostly at the national level. Top-ranked think tanks like to announce their
standings in promotional material and on their websites. While such ranking indexes
help to draw attention to the growing think tank scenes across the globe and are thus
to be welcomed, the existing rankings are fraught with problems; conceptual and
methodological difficulties in particular are abound. Current attempts to rank think
tanks therefore need to be approached with caution.
- There is no agreement on what essentially defines a think tank. Many definitions
have been offered, but not one is entirely satisfactory. Given the prevailing ambiguity
and also vagueness of think tank conceptualizations, we often do not really know
which organizations should be considered thinks tanks and which ones should not.
-
The national contexts in which think tanks operate differ and so do the ways in which
they perform their various activities and roles in pursuing their manifold missions.
Think tank rankings at the regional or global levels are thus always dubious.
- Output, public outreach or other performance-based criteria are usually offered to
buttress think tank rankings, but these criteria are often not weighed or properly
operationalized.
- It is especially difficult to assess think tanks? policy-oriented influence. Various
rankings try to measure some of the output produced by think tanks - output that
can be understood as "intermediary products.? Counting such products can help to
get a better idea of think tanks? visibility, but not of their actual impact on public
policy.
Das GIGA gibt Focus-Reihen zu Afrika, Asien, Lateinamerika, Nahost sowie zu globalen Fragen heraus. Kostenloser Zugang zu allen Heften über:
http://www.giga-hamburg.de/giga-focus.
GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Neuer Jungfernstieg 21
20354 Hamburg
Telefon: +49 (0)40 - 428 25-593
Telefax: +49 (0)40 - 428 25-547
Mail: info(at)giga-hamburg.de
URL: http://www.giga-hamburg.de
PresseKontakt / Agentur:
GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Neuer Jungfernstieg 21
20354 Hamburg
Telefon: +49 (0)40 - 428 25-593
Telefax: +49 (0)40 - 428 25-547
Mail: info(at)giga-hamburg.de
URL: http://www.giga-hamburg.de
  
  
  
Datum: 17.12.2014 - 23:15 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 1151918
Anzahl Zeichen: 5289
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