Transnational Governance: Transforming Global Environmental Politics?

Location: Durham University, United Kingdom

Date: 27-28 September 2010

A growing number of scholars have documented the rise of new forms of ‘transnational’ governance, through which public and private actors seek to exercise authority and shape the actions of others. Transnational governance arrangements take many forms, including networks, partnerships, and quasi-markets, and deploy various governmental techniques and policy tools. The growing number of such arrangements, and their potential influence, has raised questions concerning the ways in which power and authority are exercised in global governance, the nature of agency and the role of non-state and private actors in governing global affairs, the political economy and north-south politics of these new forms of governance, and their implications for issues of legitimacy, effectiveness and accountability.

This workshop will be organised and sponsored jointly by Working Group 1 with The Leverhulme Transnational Climate Governance international research network. By drawing together scholars from the climate change community with those working in other areas of environmental governance and its transformations, the workshop aims to:

  • Analyse the role and significance of transnational governance arrangements in the climate change domain
  • Compare and contrast the transnational governance of climate change with other areas of global (environmental) politics
  • Discuss the consequences of transnational arrangements for the future development and implementation of global climate policy
  • Examine the implications of transnational governance for the conceptualisation of global politics

In order to address these aims, the workshop will bring together up to thirty scholars and practitioners working in the field to present papers on the following themes:

  • Theorising transnational governance
  • The history and emergence of transnational governance
  • The processes and practices of governing transnationally
  • Agency, authority and power in transnational governance
  • North-South politics
  • Legitimacy and accountability
  • The impacts and effectiveness of transnational governance

Contact:
Harriet Bulkeley, Durham University, h.a.bulkeley[at]durham.ac.uk
Victoria Milledge, Durham University, v.j.milledge[at]durham.ac.uk