From Diffusion to Transplant. Let's Talk about Metaphors...

LORENA POBLETE

Princeton

Seminario; Fung Global Fellow Program Internal Seminar, Princeton University; 2014

Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies, Princeton University

Chinese Whispers metaphor seems to be useful to describe a more complex diffusion process, in which, even if there is a single (initial) source, it is possible to understand the changes of the policy during different steps of the process. The door is also open to analyze who are the players, and why they can (or cannot) repeat the message correctly without transform it. Also, we can ask: When the transformation is the consequence of an error and when it is the result of a deliberate action? Because this game has not winners or losers, the intention to change the message must have a different explanation. Even if this metaphor seems to be very rich, the question about why one particular message is deliver has not place. Thus, not emulation or learning can be included in that analyze. Every metaphor opens certain doors, in the way that allow us to study new aspects of a subject, but, at the same time, close others.The invitation here is to talk about metaphors, analyzing in each one which doors are opened and which are closed. I propose you to choose three different metaphors: one within Legal Transplant Theory, one within Diffusion Studies, and one used in your own work. Even if I think that one of the problems in Legal Transplant Theory is that the scholars take metaphors very seriously (much more than they should), I invite you to do so. I hope that the analysis of the implicit assumptions carried by metaphors help us to look Diffusion Theory with different eyes.