Abstract
<jats:p>Evident since the dawn of Greek democracy and Plato’s conception of the philosopher king, the links between power and knowledge have recently been brought to mind with the rise of populism or the development of artificial intelligence. This collective work explores the issues surrounding such links from the eigtheenth century to today; it examines the extent to which knowledge can establish, legitimise or discredit forms and figures of political, economic and intellectual power, and how these forms of power, in turn, shape and influence what counts as knowledge. How has the development of knowledge shaped the multiple forms of government we know today? How have theory and technology contributed to establishing the legitimacy of an ideology or a government? How have those in power mobilised knowledge to justify or perpetuate short-lived interventions, long-term practices or status quo? From eighteenth-century conceptions of a social order based on knowledge to the learned societies that emerged in the nineteenth century and still seek to influence politicians and public opinion today as well as the more diffuse structures of knowledge creation and power lying at the heart of neoliberalism, this book uses distinct and complementary methodologies to identify points of convergence and divergence in various contexts and at different times.</jats:p>