David Scott

Research
My research explores how processes of marketization and managerialization affect how society is governed and organized and the political consequences of these processes.
In my research, I have studied how marketization and managerialization come to expression in different ways. In my thesis, I studied the project form as a particular expression of how market and management ideas have increasingly come to influence how contemporary society is organized. With a particular focus on Swedish development aid policy, I show how the project format influences how aid activities are designed and implemented. In particular, I focus on how aid projects are put together and the political effects of this process. I show that aid projects require various forms of "assembly work" to function, such as the creation of conditions for cooperation and coordination, the activation of expertise and bureaucratic practices, the creation of markets, and the organization of time. Through this work of assembling, the project form emerges as a depoliticized form of organization and governing through which bureaucratic and administrative logics displace political conflicts and struggles.
After defending my thesis, I have studied how organizational forms with origins in market and management ideas affect gender equality work and feminism. This research has taken place within a VR-funded project. In the project, my colleagues and I have examined how women's organizations are affected by the limitations of the project format. Furthermore, we have studied how international organizations produce so-called "gender expertise", that is, a form of knowledge that aims to facilitate and support the formulation of gender equality policy.
Alongside these more thematic interests, I also have a keen interest in political science theory and methodology and how different "power-critical" perspectives originating in post-structuralist theorizing (such as discourse theory, governmentality and assemblage thinking) can be translated into fruitful research strategies in political science.
From 2023 to 2026 I will work in the RJ-funded program "A promised land? Drivers, challenges and opportunities related to the (green) industrialization of Northern Sweden". In the programme, I will work in a sub-project which aims to study how local municipalities in Northern Sweden plan for extensive industrial changes.
Teaching
I have taught in the following courses:
Political Science A, Political Participation
Political Science B, Thesis Course
Political Science C, Thesis Course
Introduction to the study of politics
Spatial and Social Planning Programme, Methods and Thesis in Social Science
Feminist Perspectives on Politics
International Security
Political Participation
Bio
I have an M.A. in Political Science consisting of studies in Political Science and Spanish at Karlstad University. Before starting my PhD studies, I worked with evaluation of Swedish development aid and with risk and crisis management research.
Publications
- David Scott, 2023
- David Scott, 2023
- David Scott, Elisabeth Olivius, 2023
- David Scott, Malin Rönnblom, 2023
- David Scott, 2022
- Elisabeth Olivius, David Scott, 2022
- David Scott, Malin Rönnblom, 2022
- David Scott, 2021
- David Scott, 2021
- David Scott, 2021
- David Scott, 2021
- David Scott, Andreas Öjehag-Pettersson, 2019
- David Scott, 2019
- David Scott, 2018
- David Scott, 2017
- David Scott, 2017
- David Scott, Ann Enander, 2017
- David Scott, 2017
- David Scott, 2016
- David Scott, 2016
- David Scott, Carina Brandow, Jennifer Hobbins, Sofia Nilsson, Ann Enander, 2015
