International expertise in the transformation of public policy : the OECD as a laboratory for the reformulation of public health policy
The transformations of public health policies since the XIXth century can be seen as the result of shifts in the organization of States and the evolutions of scientific and medical knowledge. Since 1945, international organisations such as the WHO, the UN, the OECD, the World Bank and the EEC and EU have contributed to reframing health as a global issue and have promoted and diffused models and instruments which have impacted national public health policies.
The thesis will be centred on the OECD, an organisation created in 1961 which replaced the OEEC. Nothing predisposed the OEEC/OECD, which has no direct regulatory powers, to play an important role in the redefinition of public health issues. However, since the 1960’s, the OECD has become an essential international platform for the production and circulation of expertise around two important questions: First, the OECD established strong contacts with the pharmaceutical industry and contributed to the creation of guidelines for best practice and international standards. Second, the OECD promoted policies to promote public health in developing countries and diffused models to developed nations which provided levers for reform.

In a perspective combining the political sociology of international organizations and the history of science, the thesis will seek to provide answers to some of the following questions.
1) When, how and in which political context did the OECD move into the field of public health? What were the driving forces behind the successive redefinitions of OECD policy in this area?
2) What types of actors were involved (academic experts, industrial actors, think thanks, national top civil servants…) in the production of knowledge and policy recommendations?
3) Based on the analysis of the pool of international experts gravitating around the OECD, a sociographical approach on careers and networks will seek to empirically study the diffusion of knowledge and models of action to other international organizations and to private and public actors.

The thesis will broadly seek to gain better knowledge on the relations between the OECD and other institutional actors such as the WHO, the World Bank and the European Union. It will seek to further the understanding of the transformations of health policy, the sociology of international institutions and the relationship between scientific knowledge, expertise and public policy.

Requirements and research skills
The candidate must be a holder of a Masters degree in the fields of history or sociology of science or political science. A masters thesis on international or European public policy or on the history of medicine or science demonstrating a mastery of research techniques and the scientific literature on the subject is a plus. The candidate must demonstrate the mastery of research techniques in social sciences: archival work, sociological interviews, the construction and analysis of quantitative data, and sound analysis of textual sources. The candidate must be able to work and write in English and French. The thesis can be written in English or French.

Context and working conditions
The PhD student will receive a net monthly salary of 1.347€ for 36 months (1.10.2014-31.9.2017)
The thesis will be directed by Christian Bonah (Professor of medical history) and Jay Rowell (CNRS Research Director in Political sociology). It will be carried out at the Societies, Actors and Government in Europe research centre at the University of Strasbourg (http://sage.unistra.fr). Students will be enrolled in the Social and Human Sciences doctoral school at the University of Strasbourg. The project also involves close collaboration with the ERC GLOBHEALTH project directed by Jean-Paul Gaudillière at the University of Paris Descartes.

Candidature
Candidates for the position are asked to send a letter of motivation, a detailed CV and a PDF of their Masters thesis by email to Christian Bonah (bonah@unistra.fr) and to Jay Rowell (Jay.Rowell@misha.fr) before August 27, 2014

A skype interview will be conducted with the preselected candidates on September 01, 2014

A jury of the College of Doctoral schools will audition the selected candidate on September 11, 2014 in Strasbourg.