Lars Dorren is an assistant professor at the Institute of Public Administration (Leiden University), interested in knowledge use in processes of reasoning and decision-making. As an ethnographer, Lars approaches reasoning as a dynamic group activity; a spontaneous practice in which individuals rely on intuition and impulses as much as logic and reason. In this practice, knowledge plays a myriad of roles, from a provider of political ammunition to a device for therapeutic reflection. Lars’ research aims to understand these roles and assess their impact on policy processes by drawing on rich empirical accounts of the micro-interactions between individuals that constitute a policy process, as well as philosophical theory on the nature of knowledge and legitimacy.

Publications