Essay 39: How Do Regional Organisations Contribute to the Shaping of Regional Epistemic Communities? An Invitation for Further Research

Abstract In 1992, epistemic communities as an object of research were given their definition by Peter Haas. He defines them as “a network of professionals with recognised expertise and competence in a particular domain and an authoritative claim to policy-relevant knowledge within that domain or issue-area” (Haas, 1992, p. 3). They bring together professionals from different disciplines, but whose members share (1) a set of normative beliefs and principles that provide a basis for action; (2) causal beliefs about the origin of the problem and the solutions to it; (3) criteria for the validity of the knowledge involved in addressing the issue; and finally (4) proposals for public action based on common practices associated with the problem that is the subject of their expertise (Haas, 1992).