dr. (Farhad) F Mukhtarov

Dr. Farhad Mukhtarov is Assistant Professor of Governance and Public Policy at International Institute of Social Sciences (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam. Dr. Mukhtarov is specialised in interpretive policy analysis and environmental policy. He is fascinated by the politics of knowledge, problem framing, knowledge pluralism, and the role of context in shaping (environmental) policy.

Farhad is also an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Water Policy, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Dr. Mukhtarov held faculty and (visiting) appointments at the University of Oxford, Utrecht University, Delft University of Technology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and ADA University. His Ph.D. is from Central European University (magna cum laude, 2009) and MSc. is from Manchester University and Central European University. He regularly blogs at www.policytranslation.eu. Farhad's latest research is available at Researchgate and Google Scholar.

Research Interests

I study the intersection of public policy and the environment in the context of international development. Broadly speaking, I am interested in understanding the role of knowledge in politics, especially in a transnational context where global policy ideas influence national and local policy practices. My research and teaching have a strong interpretive predisposition and are informed by the values of equity, social justice, pluralism and the importance of the context in politics.

Over the years, I developed three major lines in my research and supervised various research projects (including over 30 Master theses and a number of on-going Ph.D. projects). I would be open to opportunities to supervise Ph.D. researchers whose topic falls within one or more of the following broad themes.

1. Policy Mobility, Translation and Discourses

What originally started as an interest in how environmental and water policy models travel across various borders (often from the Global North to the Global South), has now developed into the interest in interrogating policy-making as "always on the move", "eternally unfolding" and hence fundamentally fluid as opposed to stable. I am interested in researching policy designs and implementation through this lens of mobility and fluidity. I have a hunch that seeing policy as a flowing plurality of meanings and designs allows for new insights into the political processes, and I am very interested in exploring the how and why of this phenomenon.

2. Knowledge Pluralism and Policy (Institutional) Design

I am interested in how policy-makers and public managers can make use of multiple ways of knowing in public policy and governance. Scientific knowledge is one type of knowledge, there is indigenous knowledge, knowledge based on rituals, practices, and values. They all are valuable and need to be included in the policy-making process. The big question is how.

The role of discourses and framing of knowledge make an important part of this research line, including the struggles over meanings and their plasticity. However, the key challenge in policy-making, in my understanding, is the ability of a political system to allow for stitching together knowledge claims that come from different sources (e.g. knowledge based on experience as opposed to knowledge based on theory), not only different frames/perspectives on the same issue. Hence knolwedge pluralism moved beyong the project of reconciling policy frames.

3. Behavioural Approaches to Public Policy

I am interested in the role of emotions and nudging in changing environmental (as well as policy) attitudes and promoting sustainable public policies. I approach emotions and behavioral science from a public policy perspective and ask questions about the transition to sustainability through the so-called "libertarian paternalism". Taken broader, this theme includes my interest in understanding the role of emotions, cognition and behavioural aspects in public policy, be it in an environmental domain or any other policy domain.

4. Global Water Governance and Neo-liberalism

This is the most recent research interest of mine that sprung out of the empirical obervation of various ethical and political dilemmas around the use of global water governance and international water cooperation by the Global North to pursue the twin goals of a) development in recipient countries (in the contes of Sustainable Development Goals); and b) profits for themselves. The rise of neo-liberalism in international aid, aid and trade and, arguably, global water governance, raises serious issues around effectiveness, equity, fairness and power relations that need to be researched and critically discussed. Within this line of inquiry, I am interested in understanding the role of branding, networking and soft-power leveraging in the global field of water governance.

If you are interested to pursue Master or Ph.D. research along one of these research lines, please do not hesitate to get in touch.