معرفی
Jacqueline Best is a Full Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Social Sciences, where she conducts research at the intersection of international relations, political economy, and social theory. She serves as coordinator of the International Political Economy Network at the Centre for International Policy Studies and is widely recognized for her incisive analysis of economic governance, central banking, and the politics of neoliberalism.
Her research focuses on three interconnected themes: economic exceptionalism, quiet failures, and varieties of ignorance in policy-making. Best examines how economic ideas shape governance practices, particularly through historical analysis of moments like the early days of neoliberalism under Reagan and Thatcher. She investigates why some policy failures lead to dramatic changes while others are ignored, and how ignorance operates as a political phenomenon in economic governance. Her work consistently challenges taken-for-granted assumptions about economic expertise and the relationship between democracy and economic policy.
Best's publications reveal a consistent intellectual trajectory examining blind spots in international political economy. Her recent scholarship analyzes central banking practices, inflation dynamics, and the visibility dilemmas facing economic experts. Rather than focusing narrowly on traditional economic metrics, her work illuminates the social and political processes through which economic knowledge is produced, contested, and deployed in governance.
As an engaged public intellectual, Best regularly contributes blog posts and opinion pieces on contemporary economic issues, including the political economy of the COVID-19 crisis and current inflation dynamics. Her commentary in outlets like The Globe and Mail demonstrates her ability to translate complex theoretical insights into accessible analysis of pressing economic challenges facing Canadians and the global community.
Best has supervised numerous graduate students and collaborated extensively with scholars worldwide, particularly through her work on special issues examining blind spots in International Political Economy. Her book Governing Failure: Provisional Expertise and the Transformation of Global Development Finance (Cambridge University Press, 2014) represents a significant contribution to understanding how policy failures reshape governance practices.
Her research has been supported by various academic grants enabling historical and comparative analysis of economic governance. Best actively participates in scholarly networks focused on international political economy and regularly presents her work at major academic conferences, contributing to ongoing debates about the future of economic governance in an era of multiple, interlocking crises.
