Governing differentiation
On standardisation as political steering
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6060880 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alejandro M Peña (0000-0002-7317-9246, Brunel University, UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 52-75 |
| Publication date | 2015-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | European Journal of International Relations (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1354-0661 • E-ISSN: 1460-3713 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1354066114523657 |
| OpenAlex | W2099715236 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 138 |
The introduction of Luhmann’s System Theory to International Relations has been long overdue. In the last few years, articles by Donnelly (2012) and Buzan and Albert (2010) have started to discuss the application of the concept of differentiation to International Relations theory, and an edited book by Albert et al. (2010) has examined how systemic thought can reinvigorate the study of world politics. This article welcomes and continues these developments by proposing a Luhmannian reinterpretation of the evolution and functioning of governance via standards. The article argues that standardisation — involving the proliferation of standards but also of standardised instruments such as rankings, indicators and benchmarks — can be understood as a mechanism of political steering in a growingly differentiated (world) society. By considering standardisation as a systemic adaptation of the political system to a multifunctional environment, this article contests conventional economistic and power-based explanations where the ‘standardisation turn’ in global governance is a mere consequence of neoliberal globalisation, power struggles among states or some type of hegemonic logic. In this manner, the article suggests that Luhmann’s Systems Theory can provide a more encompassing framework to understand the operation of standards as an extension of politics beyond territory, and to frame the challenges of governing an increasingly complex world
Corporate governance · Economics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Global governance · Globalization · Hegemony · International relations · International relations theory · Law and economics · Management · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Reinterpretation · Sociology · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research
A Theory of World Politics
The Standardization of “Good Governance” in the Age of Reflexive Modernity
Lateral Relations in World Politics
Examining the discourse of ‘delay’ in urban governance
The politics of meta-governance in transnational private sustainability governance
Permanent neutrality
Regional integration in Central Asia
Legitimation Strategies of Transnational Private Institutions
Making paradoxes invisible
Social movements and international relations
Diplomatic complexity and long-tailed distributions
Presenting the StanDat database on international standards
Luhmann, Latour and global petroleum governance
International Relations as a Social System
Risk Society
Political Theory in the Welfare State
The Emerging Consensus in Social Systems Theory
All Politics Is Global
Debating Governance
The Audit Society
Transnational Governance
The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance
Multi-level Governance and Multi-level MetagovernanceChanges in the European Union as Integral Moments in the Transformation and Reorientation of Contemporary Statehood
CHAPTER TWO. The Governance Triangle
Transnational Governance as the Layering of Rules
Can Non‐state Governance ‘Ratchet Up’ Global Environmental Standards? Lessons from the Forest Sector
The Private Regulation of Global Corporate Conduct
The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields
Ökologische Kommunikation
The system of modern societies.
Structure of Social Action
System and process in international politics
Governance without Government
The Study of World Politics
Standardization, Globalization and Rationalities of Government
The theory of communicative action
Making sense of global standards
Niklas Luhmann’s Theory of Politics and Law
The Reality of the Mass Media
Governance by Indicators
From International to World Society
Insistence on Systems Theory
The rise of governance and the risks of failure
Theories of Complexity, Complexities of Theory
Rethinking political structures
Global multi-stakeholder standard setters
The Fragmentation of Global Governance Architectures
Inside Copenhagen
The Limits of Planning
Making serious measures
Global_governance.net
The Internet and Global Governance
Securitization, sectors and functional differentiation
Core Labour Standards' and the Transformation of the International Labour Rights Regime
Neoliberal Governance of States
Multi-stakeholder regulation
Capitalist globalization, corporate social responsibility and social policy
Trust
The Polanyian Way? Voluntary Food Labels as Neoliberal Governance
Mechanism, Organism, and Society
The Functional Differentiation of Governance
International Organization and Industrial Change
Globalization
The NGO-Industrial Complex
Campaign of the International Association of Rotary Clubs for the Writing of Codes of Standards of Practice for Each Business and Profession
Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law
Obstacles to a world state in the shadow of the world market
Paradigms of Poverty
Radical(ly) political economy
Risk society
La sociedad de la sociedad
Transnational Organizations in World Politics
Setting International Standards
Governance without a state
The Corporation as Government
The New Governance
Games Real Actors Could Play
Games Real Actors Could Play
The supply and demand of governance in standard-setting
The Evolution of a Global Labor Governance Regime
The Institutionalization of Private Governance
Rules that Many Use
Accountability‐by‐Proxy in Transnational Non‐State Governance
Deliberative Democracy and International Labor Standards
Critical Theory of World Risk Society
The Constitutionalization of International Law and the Legitimation Problems of a Constitution for World Society
Globalization or World society
What Is Global Governance
The Privatization of Global Environmental Governance
The differentiation of international societies
World Politics and Organizational Fields
Can non-state global governance be legitimate? An analytical framework
Sociology and international relations
Reconstituting the Global Public Domain - Issues, Actors, and Practices
Differentiation
World Culture in the World Polity
Models, Systems and Science
The Iron Cage Revisited
The ILO
Toward a Non-Foundationalist Epistemology
How the Law Thinks
Politics and Economy
Substantive and Reflexive Elements in Modern Law
Global Governance
CSR and the Limits of Capital
Globalization
Limits of Steering
Intersystemic Discourse and Co-Ordinated Dissent
Reflexivity as Non-Linearity
Is Re-modernization Occurring - And If So, How to Prove It
Certifying Forests and Factories
World Society, Social Differentiation and Time
Toward a Sociology of the International? International Relations between Anarchy and World Society
Global Civil Society' and the Political Depoliticization of Global Governance
| Unique citing works | 14 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,27 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2026 (12) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 14 |