This thesis examines how computer modelling matters for policy-making by looking at two case studies of European fisheries management. Based on documentary analysis and ethnographic interviews and observations, the main case is located within the European Union (EU) and centred around the flatfish fishery in the North Sea with a supplementary one from outside the EU and focused on the North East Arctic cod fishery in the Barents Sea. As in other much-contested areas of public policy, fisheries officials in the EU and neighbouring countries seek to develop a universalistic and objective ground by which to depoliticise management decisions. In this sense, modelling has long become their preferred approach to produce policy relevant representations of the otherwise hidden dynamics of a fishery. Social constructivists in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) studying the modelling used in areas of policy-making such as, for instance, climate change have questioned whether models are the right tools for this job given that the modelling may conceal large uncertainties about their accuracy and relevance to policy-making. Some of these scholars argue for producing ‘good’ models for policy-making, and thus more robust policies, by constructively engaging the non-modellers or non-specialists in the quality assurance of the modelling. ‘Fisheries Studies’ literature suggests, however, that modelling can contribute to policy resilience despite its well-known limitations to produce accurate fish counting. It follows that models are doing something else than providing policy-salient real-looking representations. How may modelling count differently for policy-making in fisheries and beyond? Drawing on the ‘co-production’ of science and social order framework from STS, the thesis puts forward three related arguments. First, that the technologies designed to depoliticise decision-making, including modelling, become spaces for political work by policy-makers, stakeholders and scientists. Second, that the role of computer modelling for policy stems from how representational validity and political usefulness are produced together. Third, that the role of modelling for policy is mediated by virtue of being assessed together with other technologies for depoliticising as part of a whole sociotechnical infrastructure to allow evidence-based decisions. As a distinctive contribution, this thesis thus questions the presumption in many social constructivist accounts that modelling alone becomes central to the policy process and its outcomes. The significance of modelling for policy-making should be understood in terms of its contribution to processes of sociotechnical framing. Narratives that foreground the former and background the latter show an analytical bias that needs turning around.

Through studying the adoption of groundwater abstraction technology in the twentieth century in La Mancha, this research investigates the historical role of the state in the development of modern groundwater-fed irrigation in Spain between the 1940s and 1985. By focusing on the Mancha Occidental aquifer and the Las Tablas de Daimiel wetland, this study also scrutinizes how the adoption of groundwater abstraction technology led by the state fed back into the environment through ecosystem degradation and groundwater scarcity at the local and regional level. By examining the historical links between technology adoption, statecraft and ecological change, this study explores the different ways through which the state has taken a prominent role in producing groundwater-fed irrigation socio-ecologies. Additionally, it traces the socio-political mechanisms involved in the progressive desiccation of the Las Tablas de Daimiel wetland and its transformation into a burning dryland.

Despite the lack of consequences for not voting, many Americans do consider it a duty to participate in elections, with the exception of American youth, who have habitually failed to participate. In this study, the efficacy of contact among youth voters is studied as it relates to Election Day turnout and vote choice. Although political parties continue to exhaust vast resources on contact in an effort to mobilize the youth, it was not until the 2008 Presidential Election that American youth showed a significant increase in turnout. Rather than continue to expend resources on forms of contact that do not impact the cohort that most needs a method of mobilization, the useful forms can be identified and employed in the present and future. To determine which traditional form or forms of contact have the greatest positive impact on American youth, data from the 2008 American National Election Study is analyzed. In addition, to determine which new types of technology will most likely be useful in the future of youth mobilization, data was gathered from a sample set of 100 college students. The data from the 2008 ANES determined that Young Democrats were most highly affected by contact in terms of voter turnout. The affect of contact among young voters is to gain a larger portion of their vote than amongst older voters, but the Democratic Party stands out as the party most successful in doing so. Contact proved to have a positive effect on the people who need it least, those who already identify with a political party, and the least positive effect on those who need it most. Change in the methodology of contact alone will not be successful in getting these people to share their political beliefs, learn about candidates and parties, or even to vote on Election Day.

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