Professional Networks in Transnational Governance

This book provides an original framework to examine how professionals control transnational issues, commonly considered the concern of organizations.

Leonard Seabrooke (Edited by), Lasse Folke Henriksen (Edited by)

9781107181878, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 October 2017

362 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 2.4 cm, 0.63 kg

'Professional judgement has always mattered in policy making. Yet, as this volume argues and outlines, in transnational governance the professions may matter more in devising rules, benchmarks and standards, or in exercising their technical and epistemic authority via new governance architectures of networks. This is a compelling set of studies that provides a different and more nuanced conceptual vantage point for social scientists concerned with not only how transnational problems are managed, but also with the wider range of professional actors who seek to define and control them. The book is a 'must-read' for anyone interested in professional network power.' Diane Stone, Centenary Research Professor, Institute of Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra, and University of Warwick

Who controls how transnational issues are defined and treated? In recent decades professional coordination on a range of issues has been elevated to the transnational level. International organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and firms all make efforts to control these issues. This volume shifts focus away from looking at organizations and zooms in on how professional networks exert control in transnational governance. It contributes to research on professions and expertise, policy entrepreneurship, normative emergence, and change. The book provides a framework for understanding how professionals and organizations interact, and uses it to investigate a range of transnational cases. The volume also deploys a strong emphasis on methodological strategies to reveal who controls transnational issues, including network, sequence, field, and ethnographic approaches. Bringing together scholars from economic sociology, international relations, and organization studies, the book integrates insights from across fields to reveal how professionals obtain and manage control over transnational issues.

Part I. Frames and Methods: 1. Issue control in transnational professional and organizational networks Leonard Seabrooke and Lasse Folke Henriksen
2. In the 'field' of transnational professionals: a post-Bourdieusian approach to transnational legal entrepreneurs Yves Dezalay and Michael Rask Madsen
3. Studying elite professionals in transnational settings Brooke Harrington 4. Networks and sequences in the study of professionals and organizations Lasse Folke Henriksen and Leonard Seabrooke
Part II. Professionals and Non-Government Organizations: 5. Contested professionalization in a weak transnational field Ole Jacob Sending
6. The Ford Foundation: building and domesticating the field of human rights Wendy H. Wong, Ron Levi and Julia Deutsch
7. Accounting-NGO professional networks: issue control over environmental, social and governance reporting Jason Thistlethwaite
8. All the trader's men: professionals in international trade policymaking Matthew Eagleton-Pierce
9. Professional activists on tax transparency Duncan Wigan and Adam Baden
Part III. Professionals and International Organizations: 10. Esteem as professional currency and consolidation: the rise of the macroprudential cognoscenti Andrew Baker
11. Treating market failure: access professionals in global health Adriana Nilsson
12. Professions and policy dynamics in the transnational carbon emissions trading network Matthew Paterson, Matthew Hoffman, Michele Betsill and Steven Bernstein
13. Quasi-professionals in the organization of transnational crisis mapping John Karlsrud and Arthur Mühlen-Schulte
Part IV. Professionals and Market Organisations: 14. Global professional service firms and institutionalization James Faulconbridge and Daniel Muzio
15. Global professional service firms, transnational organizing and core/periphery networks Mehdi Boussebaa
16. Professional management consultants in transnational governance Bessma Momani
17. Professional and organizational logics in internet regulation James Perry and David Kempel
18. Conclusion: issue professionals and transnational organizing Lasse Folke Henriksen and Leonard Seabrooke.

Subject Areas: Corporate governance [KJR], Non-governmental organizations [NGOs JPWH], International relations [JPS], Political science & theory [JPA]