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The Disunity of Consensus

International Population Policy Coordination as Socio-Technical Practice

Department of Science and Technology in Society, 232 Lane Hall (0247), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24060, USA; fax: +1 540 231 7013; shalfon{at}vt.edu

Using the 1994 Cairo Conference on Population and Development as a case study, this paper challenges standard approaches to understanding political consensus. Neither cognitive, social, nor strategic, consensus can be rethought as a metaphor for ‘getting along’ within a structured disunity. Structure derives from commitment to a socio-technical network, while disunity arises from the interpretive flexibility and varied practices contained within this network. The Cairo Consensus is then explored through a central site of production: international demographic surveys. These surveys help to build a stable network, and thus facilitate consensus, by helping to establish epistemic communities, producing standard representations of Third World fertility, and standardizing political discourses of legitimacy and accountability.

Key Words: consensus • demographic surveys • epistemic community • international politics • population policy • socio-technical network • women's empowerment

Social Studies of Science, Vol. 36, No. 5, 783-807 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0306312706059745


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