Ordering Epistemic Diversity in Global Governance: The Case of Climate Change

The knowledge politics of global governance have become increasingly diverse in recent decades through the recognition of culturally specific ways of knowing, often labelled “local”, “traditional”, or “Indigenous” knowledges. Although epistemic authority has become an established concept in International Relations and the sociology of expertise, the question of epistemic diversity remains undertheorised. Prevailing approaches continue to rely on science–policy models that inadequately capture the politics of epistemic diversity. This paper addresses this gap by developing a framework that conceptualises the ordering of knowledge as a process through which authority and diversity are co-constituted. A focus on ordering reorients inquiry towards the production of authorised forms of epistemic difference and its consequences. The argument is developed through an analysis of global climate governance, examining the politics of epistemic diversity within UN governance and transnational Indigenous mobilisation around forest-based policies in Amazonia.