"Djelic and Quack have assembled an outstanding volume on transnational communities and how they ... more "Djelic and Quack have assembled an outstanding volume on transnational communities and how they shape global economic governance. It will be the key point of reference in the field for some time to come", David Held, London School of Economics
"Djelic and Quack are to be warmly congratulated on drawing together a group of scholars to explore an understudied yet significant phenomenon - the emergence and evolution of transnational 'communities'. This is an important work and should be widely read". Royston Greenwood, University of Alberta
"Is global governance possible at all? While all signs seem to point towards a conclusion that centralized global political governance is both impossible and undesirable, the editors and chapter authors of this book explore a fascinating alternative. Far from being local, communities now extend beyond national and organizational borders, thus constructing forms of economic governance that are hidden from scrutiny of scholars intent on studying formal structrues. This innovative and informative volume will interest political scientists, sociologists, organization theorists and economists alike. Well written and well edited, it presents an array of specific issues, which are strictly subordinated to the main theme". Barbara Czarniawska, University of Gothenburg.
Transnational communities are social groups that emerge from mutual interaction across national boundaries, oriented around a common project or 'imagined' identity. This common project or identity is constructed and sustained through the active engagement and involvement of at least some of its members. Such communities can overlap in different ways with formal organizations but, in principle, they do not need formal organization to be sustained. This book explores the role of transnational communities in relation to the governance of business and economic activity. It does so by focusing on a wide range of empirical terrains, including discussions of the Laleli market in Istanbul, the institutionalization of private equity in Japan, the transnational movement for open content licenses, and the mobilization around environmental certification. These studies show that transnational communities can align the cognitive and normative orientations of their members over time and thereby influence emergent transnational governance arrangements.
"National regimes which have long held sway over most arenas of political, economic, and social l... more "National regimes which have long held sway over most arenas of political, economic, and social life are being supplemented and challenged by the rise of a multitude of transnational institutions. This welcome volume by an international group of scholars explores where, how and by whom these influential new governance systems are being constructed."
W. Richard Scott, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University
"Karl Polanyi argued sixty years ago that the development of national capitalism required increasing levels of regulation. Transnational Governance shows impressively that the same thing is happening today at the international level. With the rise of globalization, nation-states, NGOs, central bankers, multinational corporations, and others are developing a host of new international modes of regulation and governance. This insightful volume will be of great interest to sociologists, political scientists, and organization."
John L. Campbell, Dartmouth College and Copenhagen Business School
"From a world society perspective and with a rich set of case studies this intriguing volume traces how transnational governance is emerging as a vital field of innovative scholarship and a vigorous domain of regulatory politics."
Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University
"Rule making has exploded everywhere. National boundaries and institutions are challenged by transnational networks of agents creating new norms of governance. World level organizations increasingly reorder traditional regulatory patterns and communities of expert practice, and the distinction between managerial and regulatory action is no longer clear. In this collection, Djelic and Sahlin-Andersson have assembled an all star-cast to explore these different facets of the explosion in transnational regulation."
Michael Power, London School of Economics
"The contributors to this book increase by a dimension our knowledge and understanding of the sheer complexity and restlessness of the institutions, processes, actors and cultures that are shaping transnational governance."
British Journal of Industrial Relations
Globalization involves a profound re-ordering of our world with the proliferation everywhere of rules and transnational modes of governance. This book examines how this governance is formed, changes and stabilizes. Building on a rich and varied set of empirical cases, it explores transnational rules and regulations and the organizing, discursive and monitoring activities that frame, sustain and reproduce them. Beginning from an understanding of the powerful structuring forces that embed and form the context of transnational regulatory activities, the book scrutinizes the actors involved, how they are organized, how they interact and how they transform themselves to adapt to this new regulatory landscape. A powerful analysis of the modes and logics of transnational rule-making and rule-monitoring closes the book. This authoritative resource offers ideal reading for all academic researchers and graduate students of governance and regulation.
"Truly a blockbuster book, Exporting the American Model reveals why and how the American model of... more "Truly a blockbuster book, Exporting the American Model reveals why and how the American model of corporate capitalism spread across parts of Europe after WWII and why and how it was resisted. Djelic's powerful and wideranging analysis will be essential reading for comparative sociologists, institutional political scientists and students of business - indeed for anyone who wonders why large-scale American corporate firms took on such an air of "inevitability" in the later twentieth century. She shows that a lot more than blind market forces was at work". Theda Skocpol, Harvard University
"This is the best book on the evolution of the European corporate landscape during the Marshall plan era. The author's theoretical sophistication and skilful use of documentary sources assures this book a place next to the recent historical analyses of European industry by Alfred Chandler and Frank Dobbin". Mauro Guillen, Wharton School.
Professor Djelic's book fills a huge gap in our understanding of comparative business systems by demonstrating how post-second world war politics shaped the rules governing business in Europe. the historical institutional analysis, which focuses on American influences and European resistance, helps make sense of the differences evident today." Neil Fligstein, University of California, Berkeley.
Exporting the American Model places in historical perspective the apparently universal appeal of the model of corporate capitalism. Marie-Laure Djelic explores the patterns of evolution that have characterized Western European business systems in the postwar period. She identifies two seemingly conflicting trends -- one leading to convergence, the other perpetuating national differentiation. To account for this apparent contradiction, she first documents the large-scale transfer to Western Eruope of a model of corporate capitalism with clear American origins, showing the key role in the process of the Marshall Plan administration. Focusing on France, West Germany, and Italy, she then looks at the specific conditions in which the transfer took place in each case. One key finding is that this transfer had varying degrees of success in each of the three countries and that the American model was partially adapted to national conditions when it was not strongly resisted. The book underscores the socially constructed and historically contingent nature of structural arrangements shaping conditions of industiral production in capitalist countries today. National systems of industrial production are not given or necessary; they are constructed through time by economic but also political actors with particular goals and resources, often in direct confrontation with other intersts. This shaping is embedded within specific national institutional contexts but it also takes place in unique geopolitical conditions. Thus foreign actors, it is argued, can have in certain circumstances a significant impact on the process of definition of a given national system of industial production.
‘This valuable edited volume will move forward the debate on national business systems/varieties ... more ‘This valuable edited volume will move forward the debate on national business systems/varieties of capitalism in the context of globalization and provide new directions for it. Both in its persuasive theoretical sections and in its empirical chapters, the work shifts our focus to the transnational space and its interaction with national and sub-national levels. It moves away from a determinist institutionalist analysis and puts more emphasis on actors at sub-national level and their contribution to a complex and multi-directional process of non-linear change. The volume is particularly preoccupied with rule-making at the transnational level and the impact of new rules on national institutions. In contrast to many conference volumes, this one excels through a genuine integration of theory with empirical chapters and through a selection of authors who all tackle new and highly topical aspects of economic globalization.’
– Christel Lane, University of Cambridge and St John’s College, Cambridge, UK
‘The rapid rise of supra-national institutions, in Europe and worldwide, has had a great impact on the ways business organizes and operates. New rules and regulations, professions, organizations, and models arise and become established. They provide new uncertainties and opportunities, but in any case greatly change the conditions businesses confront. Marie-Laure Djelic and Sigrid Quack have put together a set of most impressive studies analyzing the whole process as it occurs in different economic sectors, and have presented these in a conceptual frame that helps the reader make sense of them. The studies here focus on the two main issues at hand in globalization or Europeanization. They analyze the rise, nature, and spread of the new institutional systems. And they analyze the impact of these systems on formerly-national businesses and economic arrangements. Readers concerned with the impact of globalization and the new Europe on business and economic organization will find the studies here invaluable.’
– John Meyer, Stanford University, US
This volume investigates the relationship between economic globalization and institutions, or global governance, challenging the common assumption that globalization and institutionalization are essentially processes which exclude each other. Instead, the contributors to this book show that globalization is better perceived as a dual process of institutional change at the national level, and institution building at the transnational level. Rich, supporting empirical evidence is provided along with a theoretical conceptualisation of the main actors, mechanisms and conditions involved in trickle-up and trickle-down trajectories through which national institutional systems are being transformed and transnational rules emerge.
"Djelic and Vranceanu have put together a valuable collection of studies on the normative justifi... more "Djelic and Vranceanu have put together a valuable collection of studies on the normative justifications underlying modern managerialism, as well as on its roots in economic and organizational theories. Students of the rise of business schools, and business education in particular, will find the book s analyses of current normative frames most useful. But so will those interested in the prospects for future changes in management doctrines. John W. Meyer, Stanford University, US
This book offers an eloquent critical analysis of the moral foundations of management and economics. The essays in it are well-grounded in a variety of disciplines and philosophic traditions. Together the contributors offer provocative insights into how and why morality nourishes and sustains businesses and the people who work in them. Joanne B. Ciulla, University of Richmond, US
Exploring the ethical foundations of the different subfields of managerial thought, this book brings a thoroughly new light on the issue of sustainability and responsibility in management theory and practice. Departing from the traditional scientific neutrality viewpoint, its contributors start from the bold premise that management is not ethically or morally neutral. They investigate the validity of various perspectives on business ethics and their implications for economics, theories of leadership and team management as well as the study of complex management systems. Between them, these contributions bring the reflection on management and ethics to a new frontier. This pathbreaking book is compelling reading for all those who want to go beyond a technocratic vision of management. Michel De Vroey, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
This book sheds light on hidden aspects of management theory by questioning its moral foundations: ethical and moral principles tend to become over time, deeply embedded, if not buried, in the intellectual and disciplinary subfields of management, particularly when the latter vie for scientific status. In the process, they often become invisible or indecipherable both to those who advance and diffuse knowledge as well as to those who receive, interpret and apply it. The contributors to this book explore in various subfields of management thought a number of important moral and ethical issues. What is the definition of good behaviour and hence of bad behaviour implicit behind the theories we use and produce? Can we find, historically, a trace of moral and ethical dilemmas and debates in those intellectual subfields that tend to posture today as morally neutral? What is the conception of human nature and social reality embedded in modern management thought and theories? How do those implicit and hidden cognitive schemes influence the development of research and knowledge in those various subfields? How do they prevent certain issues from emerging? How do they shape debates, practices and beliefs leaving little room to approach the world differently and to depart from mainstream perspectives? This unique treatment of the moral foundations of knowledge management will provide a stimulating read for academics, students and professionals focusing on business and management, business administration, sociology, organizational behaviour and moral philosophy."
The study of the development of accounting standards, as a process of accounting change, involves... more The study of the development of accounting standards, as a process of accounting change, involves understanding why and how accounting evolves through time and in consideration of its context. This paper aims to understand the phenomenon of global accounting change which is taking place through the development of a single set of accounting standards accepted for worldwide market regulation. In doing so, this paper considers the process of global accounting change as it has evolved over time and within a complex space occupied by a multitude of actors by focusing on a single, comprehensive case. Based on existing evidence and secondary data on the selected case, we use Greenwood and Hinings’ (1993) archetype theory to explain the process of global accounting change through the concepts of archetypes, coherence and tracks. The case reveals the process to follow a variable and irregular trajectory over time, ultimately representative of an unresolved excursion towards an alternative ar...
In The Intellectuals and Socialism, a text written in 1949, Friedrich von Hayek argued for the ti... more In The Intellectuals and Socialism, a text written in 1949, Friedrich von Hayek argued for the tight collaboration between a small group of liberal Utopians and a broader network of what he called “secondhand dealers in ideas”. In the long laundry list he then proceeded to give, he did not mention think tanks for the good reason that this type of actors barely existed then. It is unmistakable, though, that think tanks have become important elements in the intellectual structure that has carried the neoliberal agenda forward – moving it from marginal utopia to mainstream ideology. Today, a dense network of neoliberal think tanks is playing a significant role in spreading, entrenching and (in those times of crisis) defending the neoliberal doxa. Within this dense web, one actor has been and remains highly significant and interesting – the Atlas Economic Research Foundation (Atlas).In 1981, Sir Anthony Fisher founded Atlas in the USA. In 1955, the man had already set up in London the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). As is well known, the IEA played a pivotal role in the spreading of neoliberal ideology within British politics and public opinion in the 1970s and 1980s. With Atlas, Anthony Fisher wanted to take the next step – the mission of Atlas would be to “to litter the world with free-market think tanks”. Atlas, in other words, has been pushing for and helping with, seeding, staffing and coaching of neoliberal think tanks across the world. When there were only a couple of neoliberal think tanks thirty years ago, today there are close to four hundred in more than 70 nations across the world.Throughout this striking development, Atlas has played two main roles. On the one hand, it has worked as a “business angel” or “venture capitalist” for all those individual think tanks, helping them to build themselves. In parallel, it has also played a second role – as a “meta” think tank, it has been and still is structuring a transnational community of neoliberal think tanks. In this paper, I will focus on this double role, trying to underscore the mechanics deployed for each of those roles. My interest here is to deconstruct the ways in which this particular kind of “secondhand dealers” in ideas comes to influence opinion making and how in turn this reflects upon policy-making. I am particularly keen to understand the transnational articulation of this influence that is so specific to the case of Atlas.
Transparency has its roots in the Enlightenment, deemed a key precondition for emergence of the s... more Transparency has its roots in the Enlightenment, deemed a key precondition for emergence of the self-governing and liberal individual. During the past forty years, simultaneous with the global neoliberal push, transparency has fast emerged as a world society norm of information disclosure for public accountability and for functioning of the markets. In this paper, we show the institutional context under which transparency emerged as a world society norm in the 20th century. This study first provides an overview of the different paths that the democratic and market based information demands have taken from enlightenment to early 20th century. Through a study of the transnational emergence of transparency, it then shows how transnational organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the OECD, brought together marketization and democratization under their broader neoliberal political agenda. It is in this context that the term transparency started to represent a wide range of info...
"Djelic and Quack have assembled an outstanding volume on transnational communities and how they ... more "Djelic and Quack have assembled an outstanding volume on transnational communities and how they shape global economic governance. It will be the key point of reference in the field for some time to come", David Held, London School of Economics
"Djelic and Quack are to be warmly congratulated on drawing together a group of scholars to explore an understudied yet significant phenomenon - the emergence and evolution of transnational 'communities'. This is an important work and should be widely read". Royston Greenwood, University of Alberta
"Is global governance possible at all? While all signs seem to point towards a conclusion that centralized global political governance is both impossible and undesirable, the editors and chapter authors of this book explore a fascinating alternative. Far from being local, communities now extend beyond national and organizational borders, thus constructing forms of economic governance that are hidden from scrutiny of scholars intent on studying formal structrues. This innovative and informative volume will interest political scientists, sociologists, organization theorists and economists alike. Well written and well edited, it presents an array of specific issues, which are strictly subordinated to the main theme". Barbara Czarniawska, University of Gothenburg.
Transnational communities are social groups that emerge from mutual interaction across national boundaries, oriented around a common project or 'imagined' identity. This common project or identity is constructed and sustained through the active engagement and involvement of at least some of its members. Such communities can overlap in different ways with formal organizations but, in principle, they do not need formal organization to be sustained. This book explores the role of transnational communities in relation to the governance of business and economic activity. It does so by focusing on a wide range of empirical terrains, including discussions of the Laleli market in Istanbul, the institutionalization of private equity in Japan, the transnational movement for open content licenses, and the mobilization around environmental certification. These studies show that transnational communities can align the cognitive and normative orientations of their members over time and thereby influence emergent transnational governance arrangements.
"National regimes which have long held sway over most arenas of political, economic, and social l... more "National regimes which have long held sway over most arenas of political, economic, and social life are being supplemented and challenged by the rise of a multitude of transnational institutions. This welcome volume by an international group of scholars explores where, how and by whom these influential new governance systems are being constructed."
W. Richard Scott, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University
"Karl Polanyi argued sixty years ago that the development of national capitalism required increasing levels of regulation. Transnational Governance shows impressively that the same thing is happening today at the international level. With the rise of globalization, nation-states, NGOs, central bankers, multinational corporations, and others are developing a host of new international modes of regulation and governance. This insightful volume will be of great interest to sociologists, political scientists, and organization."
John L. Campbell, Dartmouth College and Copenhagen Business School
"From a world society perspective and with a rich set of case studies this intriguing volume traces how transnational governance is emerging as a vital field of innovative scholarship and a vigorous domain of regulatory politics."
Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University
"Rule making has exploded everywhere. National boundaries and institutions are challenged by transnational networks of agents creating new norms of governance. World level organizations increasingly reorder traditional regulatory patterns and communities of expert practice, and the distinction between managerial and regulatory action is no longer clear. In this collection, Djelic and Sahlin-Andersson have assembled an all star-cast to explore these different facets of the explosion in transnational regulation."
Michael Power, London School of Economics
"The contributors to this book increase by a dimension our knowledge and understanding of the sheer complexity and restlessness of the institutions, processes, actors and cultures that are shaping transnational governance."
British Journal of Industrial Relations
Globalization involves a profound re-ordering of our world with the proliferation everywhere of rules and transnational modes of governance. This book examines how this governance is formed, changes and stabilizes. Building on a rich and varied set of empirical cases, it explores transnational rules and regulations and the organizing, discursive and monitoring activities that frame, sustain and reproduce them. Beginning from an understanding of the powerful structuring forces that embed and form the context of transnational regulatory activities, the book scrutinizes the actors involved, how they are organized, how they interact and how they transform themselves to adapt to this new regulatory landscape. A powerful analysis of the modes and logics of transnational rule-making and rule-monitoring closes the book. This authoritative resource offers ideal reading for all academic researchers and graduate students of governance and regulation.
"Truly a blockbuster book, Exporting the American Model reveals why and how the American model of... more "Truly a blockbuster book, Exporting the American Model reveals why and how the American model of corporate capitalism spread across parts of Europe after WWII and why and how it was resisted. Djelic's powerful and wideranging analysis will be essential reading for comparative sociologists, institutional political scientists and students of business - indeed for anyone who wonders why large-scale American corporate firms took on such an air of "inevitability" in the later twentieth century. She shows that a lot more than blind market forces was at work". Theda Skocpol, Harvard University
"This is the best book on the evolution of the European corporate landscape during the Marshall plan era. The author's theoretical sophistication and skilful use of documentary sources assures this book a place next to the recent historical analyses of European industry by Alfred Chandler and Frank Dobbin". Mauro Guillen, Wharton School.
Professor Djelic's book fills a huge gap in our understanding of comparative business systems by demonstrating how post-second world war politics shaped the rules governing business in Europe. the historical institutional analysis, which focuses on American influences and European resistance, helps make sense of the differences evident today." Neil Fligstein, University of California, Berkeley.
Exporting the American Model places in historical perspective the apparently universal appeal of the model of corporate capitalism. Marie-Laure Djelic explores the patterns of evolution that have characterized Western European business systems in the postwar period. She identifies two seemingly conflicting trends -- one leading to convergence, the other perpetuating national differentiation. To account for this apparent contradiction, she first documents the large-scale transfer to Western Eruope of a model of corporate capitalism with clear American origins, showing the key role in the process of the Marshall Plan administration. Focusing on France, West Germany, and Italy, she then looks at the specific conditions in which the transfer took place in each case. One key finding is that this transfer had varying degrees of success in each of the three countries and that the American model was partially adapted to national conditions when it was not strongly resisted. The book underscores the socially constructed and historically contingent nature of structural arrangements shaping conditions of industiral production in capitalist countries today. National systems of industrial production are not given or necessary; they are constructed through time by economic but also political actors with particular goals and resources, often in direct confrontation with other intersts. This shaping is embedded within specific national institutional contexts but it also takes place in unique geopolitical conditions. Thus foreign actors, it is argued, can have in certain circumstances a significant impact on the process of definition of a given national system of industial production.
‘This valuable edited volume will move forward the debate on national business systems/varieties ... more ‘This valuable edited volume will move forward the debate on national business systems/varieties of capitalism in the context of globalization and provide new directions for it. Both in its persuasive theoretical sections and in its empirical chapters, the work shifts our focus to the transnational space and its interaction with national and sub-national levels. It moves away from a determinist institutionalist analysis and puts more emphasis on actors at sub-national level and their contribution to a complex and multi-directional process of non-linear change. The volume is particularly preoccupied with rule-making at the transnational level and the impact of new rules on national institutions. In contrast to many conference volumes, this one excels through a genuine integration of theory with empirical chapters and through a selection of authors who all tackle new and highly topical aspects of economic globalization.’
– Christel Lane, University of Cambridge and St John’s College, Cambridge, UK
‘The rapid rise of supra-national institutions, in Europe and worldwide, has had a great impact on the ways business organizes and operates. New rules and regulations, professions, organizations, and models arise and become established. They provide new uncertainties and opportunities, but in any case greatly change the conditions businesses confront. Marie-Laure Djelic and Sigrid Quack have put together a set of most impressive studies analyzing the whole process as it occurs in different economic sectors, and have presented these in a conceptual frame that helps the reader make sense of them. The studies here focus on the two main issues at hand in globalization or Europeanization. They analyze the rise, nature, and spread of the new institutional systems. And they analyze the impact of these systems on formerly-national businesses and economic arrangements. Readers concerned with the impact of globalization and the new Europe on business and economic organization will find the studies here invaluable.’
– John Meyer, Stanford University, US
This volume investigates the relationship between economic globalization and institutions, or global governance, challenging the common assumption that globalization and institutionalization are essentially processes which exclude each other. Instead, the contributors to this book show that globalization is better perceived as a dual process of institutional change at the national level, and institution building at the transnational level. Rich, supporting empirical evidence is provided along with a theoretical conceptualisation of the main actors, mechanisms and conditions involved in trickle-up and trickle-down trajectories through which national institutional systems are being transformed and transnational rules emerge.
"Djelic and Vranceanu have put together a valuable collection of studies on the normative justifi... more "Djelic and Vranceanu have put together a valuable collection of studies on the normative justifications underlying modern managerialism, as well as on its roots in economic and organizational theories. Students of the rise of business schools, and business education in particular, will find the book s analyses of current normative frames most useful. But so will those interested in the prospects for future changes in management doctrines. John W. Meyer, Stanford University, US
This book offers an eloquent critical analysis of the moral foundations of management and economics. The essays in it are well-grounded in a variety of disciplines and philosophic traditions. Together the contributors offer provocative insights into how and why morality nourishes and sustains businesses and the people who work in them. Joanne B. Ciulla, University of Richmond, US
Exploring the ethical foundations of the different subfields of managerial thought, this book brings a thoroughly new light on the issue of sustainability and responsibility in management theory and practice. Departing from the traditional scientific neutrality viewpoint, its contributors start from the bold premise that management is not ethically or morally neutral. They investigate the validity of various perspectives on business ethics and their implications for economics, theories of leadership and team management as well as the study of complex management systems. Between them, these contributions bring the reflection on management and ethics to a new frontier. This pathbreaking book is compelling reading for all those who want to go beyond a technocratic vision of management. Michel De Vroey, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
This book sheds light on hidden aspects of management theory by questioning its moral foundations: ethical and moral principles tend to become over time, deeply embedded, if not buried, in the intellectual and disciplinary subfields of management, particularly when the latter vie for scientific status. In the process, they often become invisible or indecipherable both to those who advance and diffuse knowledge as well as to those who receive, interpret and apply it. The contributors to this book explore in various subfields of management thought a number of important moral and ethical issues. What is the definition of good behaviour and hence of bad behaviour implicit behind the theories we use and produce? Can we find, historically, a trace of moral and ethical dilemmas and debates in those intellectual subfields that tend to posture today as morally neutral? What is the conception of human nature and social reality embedded in modern management thought and theories? How do those implicit and hidden cognitive schemes influence the development of research and knowledge in those various subfields? How do they prevent certain issues from emerging? How do they shape debates, practices and beliefs leaving little room to approach the world differently and to depart from mainstream perspectives? This unique treatment of the moral foundations of knowledge management will provide a stimulating read for academics, students and professionals focusing on business and management, business administration, sociology, organizational behaviour and moral philosophy."
The study of the development of accounting standards, as a process of accounting change, involves... more The study of the development of accounting standards, as a process of accounting change, involves understanding why and how accounting evolves through time and in consideration of its context. This paper aims to understand the phenomenon of global accounting change which is taking place through the development of a single set of accounting standards accepted for worldwide market regulation. In doing so, this paper considers the process of global accounting change as it has evolved over time and within a complex space occupied by a multitude of actors by focusing on a single, comprehensive case. Based on existing evidence and secondary data on the selected case, we use Greenwood and Hinings’ (1993) archetype theory to explain the process of global accounting change through the concepts of archetypes, coherence and tracks. The case reveals the process to follow a variable and irregular trajectory over time, ultimately representative of an unresolved excursion towards an alternative ar...
In The Intellectuals and Socialism, a text written in 1949, Friedrich von Hayek argued for the ti... more In The Intellectuals and Socialism, a text written in 1949, Friedrich von Hayek argued for the tight collaboration between a small group of liberal Utopians and a broader network of what he called “secondhand dealers in ideas”. In the long laundry list he then proceeded to give, he did not mention think tanks for the good reason that this type of actors barely existed then. It is unmistakable, though, that think tanks have become important elements in the intellectual structure that has carried the neoliberal agenda forward – moving it from marginal utopia to mainstream ideology. Today, a dense network of neoliberal think tanks is playing a significant role in spreading, entrenching and (in those times of crisis) defending the neoliberal doxa. Within this dense web, one actor has been and remains highly significant and interesting – the Atlas Economic Research Foundation (Atlas).In 1981, Sir Anthony Fisher founded Atlas in the USA. In 1955, the man had already set up in London the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). As is well known, the IEA played a pivotal role in the spreading of neoliberal ideology within British politics and public opinion in the 1970s and 1980s. With Atlas, Anthony Fisher wanted to take the next step – the mission of Atlas would be to “to litter the world with free-market think tanks”. Atlas, in other words, has been pushing for and helping with, seeding, staffing and coaching of neoliberal think tanks across the world. When there were only a couple of neoliberal think tanks thirty years ago, today there are close to four hundred in more than 70 nations across the world.Throughout this striking development, Atlas has played two main roles. On the one hand, it has worked as a “business angel” or “venture capitalist” for all those individual think tanks, helping them to build themselves. In parallel, it has also played a second role – as a “meta” think tank, it has been and still is structuring a transnational community of neoliberal think tanks. In this paper, I will focus on this double role, trying to underscore the mechanics deployed for each of those roles. My interest here is to deconstruct the ways in which this particular kind of “secondhand dealers” in ideas comes to influence opinion making and how in turn this reflects upon policy-making. I am particularly keen to understand the transnational articulation of this influence that is so specific to the case of Atlas.
Transparency has its roots in the Enlightenment, deemed a key precondition for emergence of the s... more Transparency has its roots in the Enlightenment, deemed a key precondition for emergence of the self-governing and liberal individual. During the past forty years, simultaneous with the global neoliberal push, transparency has fast emerged as a world society norm of information disclosure for public accountability and for functioning of the markets. In this paper, we show the institutional context under which transparency emerged as a world society norm in the 20th century. This study first provides an overview of the different paths that the democratic and market based information demands have taken from enlightenment to early 20th century. Through a study of the transnational emergence of transparency, it then shows how transnational organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the OECD, brought together marketization and democratization under their broader neoliberal political agenda. It is in this context that the term transparency started to represent a wide range of info...
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"Djelic and Quack are to be warmly congratulated on drawing together a group of scholars to explore an understudied yet significant phenomenon - the emergence and evolution of transnational 'communities'. This is an important work and should be widely read". Royston Greenwood, University of Alberta
"Is global governance possible at all? While all signs seem to point towards a conclusion that centralized global political governance is both impossible and undesirable, the editors and chapter authors of this book explore a fascinating alternative. Far from being local, communities now extend beyond national and organizational borders, thus constructing forms of economic governance that are hidden from scrutiny of scholars intent on studying formal structrues. This innovative and informative volume will interest political scientists, sociologists, organization theorists and economists alike. Well written and well edited, it presents an array of specific issues, which are strictly subordinated to the main theme". Barbara Czarniawska, University of Gothenburg.
Transnational communities are social groups that emerge from mutual interaction across national boundaries, oriented around a common project or 'imagined' identity. This common project or identity is constructed and sustained through the active engagement and involvement of at least some of its members. Such communities can overlap in different ways with formal organizations but, in principle, they do not need formal organization to be sustained. This book explores the role of transnational communities in relation to the governance of business and economic activity. It does so by focusing on a wide range of empirical terrains, including discussions of the Laleli market in Istanbul, the institutionalization of private equity in Japan, the transnational movement for open content licenses, and the mobilization around environmental certification. These studies show that transnational communities can align the cognitive and normative orientations of their members over time and thereby influence emergent transnational governance arrangements.
W. Richard Scott, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University
"Karl Polanyi argued sixty years ago that the development of national capitalism required increasing levels of regulation. Transnational Governance shows impressively that the same thing is happening today at the international level. With the rise of globalization, nation-states, NGOs, central bankers, multinational corporations, and others are developing a host of new international modes of regulation and governance. This insightful volume will be of great interest to sociologists, political scientists, and organization."
John L. Campbell, Dartmouth College and Copenhagen Business School
"From a world society perspective and with a rich set of case studies this intriguing volume traces how transnational governance is emerging as a vital field of innovative scholarship and a vigorous domain of regulatory politics."
Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University
"Rule making has exploded everywhere. National boundaries and institutions are challenged by transnational networks of agents creating new norms of governance. World level organizations increasingly reorder traditional regulatory patterns and communities of expert practice, and the distinction between managerial and regulatory action is no longer clear. In this collection, Djelic and Sahlin-Andersson have assembled an all star-cast to explore these different facets of the explosion in transnational regulation."
Michael Power, London School of Economics
"The contributors to this book increase by a dimension our knowledge and understanding of the sheer complexity and restlessness of the institutions, processes, actors and cultures that are shaping transnational governance."
British Journal of Industrial Relations
Globalization involves a profound re-ordering of our world with the proliferation everywhere of rules and transnational modes of governance. This book examines how this governance is formed, changes and stabilizes. Building on a rich and varied set of empirical cases, it explores transnational rules and regulations and the organizing, discursive and monitoring activities that frame, sustain and reproduce them. Beginning from an understanding of the powerful structuring forces that embed and form the context of transnational regulatory activities, the book scrutinizes the actors involved, how they are organized, how they interact and how they transform themselves to adapt to this new regulatory landscape. A powerful analysis of the modes and logics of transnational rule-making and rule-monitoring closes the book. This authoritative resource offers ideal reading for all academic researchers and graduate students of governance and regulation.
"This is the best book on the evolution of the European corporate landscape during the Marshall plan era. The author's theoretical sophistication and skilful use of documentary sources assures this book a place next to the recent historical analyses of European industry by Alfred Chandler and Frank Dobbin". Mauro Guillen, Wharton School.
Professor Djelic's book fills a huge gap in our understanding of comparative business systems by demonstrating how post-second world war politics shaped the rules governing business in Europe. the historical institutional analysis, which focuses on American influences and European resistance, helps make sense of the differences evident today." Neil Fligstein, University of California, Berkeley.
Exporting the American Model places in historical perspective the apparently universal appeal of the model of corporate capitalism. Marie-Laure Djelic explores the patterns of evolution that have characterized Western European business systems in the postwar period. She identifies two seemingly conflicting trends -- one leading to convergence, the other perpetuating national differentiation. To account for this apparent contradiction, she first documents the large-scale transfer to Western Eruope of a model of corporate capitalism with clear American origins, showing the key role in the process of the Marshall Plan administration. Focusing on France, West Germany, and Italy, she then looks at the specific conditions in which the transfer took place in each case. One key finding is that this transfer had varying degrees of success in each of the three countries and that the American model was partially adapted to national conditions when it was not strongly resisted. The book underscores the socially constructed and historically contingent nature of structural arrangements shaping conditions of industiral production in capitalist countries today. National systems of industrial production are not given or necessary; they are constructed through time by economic but also political actors with particular goals and resources, often in direct confrontation with other intersts. This shaping is embedded within specific national institutional contexts but it also takes place in unique geopolitical conditions. Thus foreign actors, it is argued, can have in certain circumstances a significant impact on the process of definition of a given national system of industial production.
– Christel Lane, University of Cambridge and St John’s College, Cambridge, UK
‘The rapid rise of supra-national institutions, in Europe and worldwide, has had a great impact on the ways business organizes and operates. New rules and regulations, professions, organizations, and models arise and become established. They provide new uncertainties and opportunities, but in any case greatly change the conditions businesses confront. Marie-Laure Djelic and Sigrid Quack have put together a set of most impressive studies analyzing the whole process as it occurs in different economic sectors, and have presented these in a conceptual frame that helps the reader make sense of them. The studies here focus on the two main issues at hand in globalization or Europeanization. They analyze the rise, nature, and spread of the new institutional systems. And they analyze the impact of these systems on formerly-national businesses and economic arrangements. Readers concerned with the impact of globalization and the new Europe on business and economic organization will find the studies here invaluable.’
– John Meyer, Stanford University, US
This volume investigates the relationship between economic globalization and institutions, or global governance, challenging the common assumption that globalization and institutionalization are essentially processes which exclude each other. Instead, the contributors to this book show that globalization is better perceived as a dual process of institutional change at the national level, and institution building at the transnational level. Rich, supporting empirical evidence is provided along with a theoretical conceptualisation of the main actors, mechanisms and conditions involved in trickle-up and trickle-down trajectories through which national institutional systems are being transformed and transnational rules emerge.
This book offers an eloquent critical analysis of the moral foundations of management and economics. The essays in it are well-grounded in a variety of disciplines and philosophic traditions. Together the contributors offer provocative insights into how and why morality nourishes and sustains businesses and the people who work in them. Joanne B. Ciulla, University of Richmond, US
Exploring the ethical foundations of the different subfields of managerial thought, this book brings a thoroughly new light on the issue of sustainability and responsibility in management theory and practice. Departing from the traditional scientific neutrality viewpoint, its contributors start from the bold premise that management is not ethically or morally neutral. They investigate the validity of various perspectives on business ethics and their implications for economics, theories of leadership and team management as well as the study of complex management systems. Between them, these contributions bring the reflection on management and ethics to a new frontier. This pathbreaking book is compelling reading for all those who want to go beyond a technocratic vision of management. Michel De Vroey, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
This book sheds light on hidden aspects of management theory by questioning its moral foundations: ethical and moral principles tend to become over time, deeply embedded, if not buried, in the intellectual and disciplinary subfields of management, particularly when the latter vie for scientific status. In the process, they often become invisible or indecipherable both to those who advance and diffuse knowledge as well as to those who receive, interpret and apply it. The contributors to this book explore in various subfields of management thought a number of important moral and ethical issues. What is the definition of good behaviour and hence of bad behaviour implicit behind the theories we use and produce? Can we find, historically, a trace of moral and ethical dilemmas and debates in those intellectual subfields that tend to posture today as morally neutral? What is the conception of human nature and social reality embedded in modern management thought and theories? How do those implicit and hidden cognitive schemes influence the development of research and knowledge in those various subfields? How do they prevent certain issues from emerging? How do they shape debates, practices and beliefs leaving little room to approach the world differently and to depart from mainstream perspectives? This unique treatment of the moral foundations of knowledge management will provide a stimulating read for academics, students and professionals focusing on business and management, business administration, sociology, organizational behaviour and moral philosophy."
"Djelic and Quack are to be warmly congratulated on drawing together a group of scholars to explore an understudied yet significant phenomenon - the emergence and evolution of transnational 'communities'. This is an important work and should be widely read". Royston Greenwood, University of Alberta
"Is global governance possible at all? While all signs seem to point towards a conclusion that centralized global political governance is both impossible and undesirable, the editors and chapter authors of this book explore a fascinating alternative. Far from being local, communities now extend beyond national and organizational borders, thus constructing forms of economic governance that are hidden from scrutiny of scholars intent on studying formal structrues. This innovative and informative volume will interest political scientists, sociologists, organization theorists and economists alike. Well written and well edited, it presents an array of specific issues, which are strictly subordinated to the main theme". Barbara Czarniawska, University of Gothenburg.
Transnational communities are social groups that emerge from mutual interaction across national boundaries, oriented around a common project or 'imagined' identity. This common project or identity is constructed and sustained through the active engagement and involvement of at least some of its members. Such communities can overlap in different ways with formal organizations but, in principle, they do not need formal organization to be sustained. This book explores the role of transnational communities in relation to the governance of business and economic activity. It does so by focusing on a wide range of empirical terrains, including discussions of the Laleli market in Istanbul, the institutionalization of private equity in Japan, the transnational movement for open content licenses, and the mobilization around environmental certification. These studies show that transnational communities can align the cognitive and normative orientations of their members over time and thereby influence emergent transnational governance arrangements.
W. Richard Scott, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University
"Karl Polanyi argued sixty years ago that the development of national capitalism required increasing levels of regulation. Transnational Governance shows impressively that the same thing is happening today at the international level. With the rise of globalization, nation-states, NGOs, central bankers, multinational corporations, and others are developing a host of new international modes of regulation and governance. This insightful volume will be of great interest to sociologists, political scientists, and organization."
John L. Campbell, Dartmouth College and Copenhagen Business School
"From a world society perspective and with a rich set of case studies this intriguing volume traces how transnational governance is emerging as a vital field of innovative scholarship and a vigorous domain of regulatory politics."
Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University
"Rule making has exploded everywhere. National boundaries and institutions are challenged by transnational networks of agents creating new norms of governance. World level organizations increasingly reorder traditional regulatory patterns and communities of expert practice, and the distinction between managerial and regulatory action is no longer clear. In this collection, Djelic and Sahlin-Andersson have assembled an all star-cast to explore these different facets of the explosion in transnational regulation."
Michael Power, London School of Economics
"The contributors to this book increase by a dimension our knowledge and understanding of the sheer complexity and restlessness of the institutions, processes, actors and cultures that are shaping transnational governance."
British Journal of Industrial Relations
Globalization involves a profound re-ordering of our world with the proliferation everywhere of rules and transnational modes of governance. This book examines how this governance is formed, changes and stabilizes. Building on a rich and varied set of empirical cases, it explores transnational rules and regulations and the organizing, discursive and monitoring activities that frame, sustain and reproduce them. Beginning from an understanding of the powerful structuring forces that embed and form the context of transnational regulatory activities, the book scrutinizes the actors involved, how they are organized, how they interact and how they transform themselves to adapt to this new regulatory landscape. A powerful analysis of the modes and logics of transnational rule-making and rule-monitoring closes the book. This authoritative resource offers ideal reading for all academic researchers and graduate students of governance and regulation.
"This is the best book on the evolution of the European corporate landscape during the Marshall plan era. The author's theoretical sophistication and skilful use of documentary sources assures this book a place next to the recent historical analyses of European industry by Alfred Chandler and Frank Dobbin". Mauro Guillen, Wharton School.
Professor Djelic's book fills a huge gap in our understanding of comparative business systems by demonstrating how post-second world war politics shaped the rules governing business in Europe. the historical institutional analysis, which focuses on American influences and European resistance, helps make sense of the differences evident today." Neil Fligstein, University of California, Berkeley.
Exporting the American Model places in historical perspective the apparently universal appeal of the model of corporate capitalism. Marie-Laure Djelic explores the patterns of evolution that have characterized Western European business systems in the postwar period. She identifies two seemingly conflicting trends -- one leading to convergence, the other perpetuating national differentiation. To account for this apparent contradiction, she first documents the large-scale transfer to Western Eruope of a model of corporate capitalism with clear American origins, showing the key role in the process of the Marshall Plan administration. Focusing on France, West Germany, and Italy, she then looks at the specific conditions in which the transfer took place in each case. One key finding is that this transfer had varying degrees of success in each of the three countries and that the American model was partially adapted to national conditions when it was not strongly resisted. The book underscores the socially constructed and historically contingent nature of structural arrangements shaping conditions of industiral production in capitalist countries today. National systems of industrial production are not given or necessary; they are constructed through time by economic but also political actors with particular goals and resources, often in direct confrontation with other intersts. This shaping is embedded within specific national institutional contexts but it also takes place in unique geopolitical conditions. Thus foreign actors, it is argued, can have in certain circumstances a significant impact on the process of definition of a given national system of industial production.
– Christel Lane, University of Cambridge and St John’s College, Cambridge, UK
‘The rapid rise of supra-national institutions, in Europe and worldwide, has had a great impact on the ways business organizes and operates. New rules and regulations, professions, organizations, and models arise and become established. They provide new uncertainties and opportunities, but in any case greatly change the conditions businesses confront. Marie-Laure Djelic and Sigrid Quack have put together a set of most impressive studies analyzing the whole process as it occurs in different economic sectors, and have presented these in a conceptual frame that helps the reader make sense of them. The studies here focus on the two main issues at hand in globalization or Europeanization. They analyze the rise, nature, and spread of the new institutional systems. And they analyze the impact of these systems on formerly-national businesses and economic arrangements. Readers concerned with the impact of globalization and the new Europe on business and economic organization will find the studies here invaluable.’
– John Meyer, Stanford University, US
This volume investigates the relationship between economic globalization and institutions, or global governance, challenging the common assumption that globalization and institutionalization are essentially processes which exclude each other. Instead, the contributors to this book show that globalization is better perceived as a dual process of institutional change at the national level, and institution building at the transnational level. Rich, supporting empirical evidence is provided along with a theoretical conceptualisation of the main actors, mechanisms and conditions involved in trickle-up and trickle-down trajectories through which national institutional systems are being transformed and transnational rules emerge.
This book offers an eloquent critical analysis of the moral foundations of management and economics. The essays in it are well-grounded in a variety of disciplines and philosophic traditions. Together the contributors offer provocative insights into how and why morality nourishes and sustains businesses and the people who work in them. Joanne B. Ciulla, University of Richmond, US
Exploring the ethical foundations of the different subfields of managerial thought, this book brings a thoroughly new light on the issue of sustainability and responsibility in management theory and practice. Departing from the traditional scientific neutrality viewpoint, its contributors start from the bold premise that management is not ethically or morally neutral. They investigate the validity of various perspectives on business ethics and their implications for economics, theories of leadership and team management as well as the study of complex management systems. Between them, these contributions bring the reflection on management and ethics to a new frontier. This pathbreaking book is compelling reading for all those who want to go beyond a technocratic vision of management. Michel De Vroey, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
This book sheds light on hidden aspects of management theory by questioning its moral foundations: ethical and moral principles tend to become over time, deeply embedded, if not buried, in the intellectual and disciplinary subfields of management, particularly when the latter vie for scientific status. In the process, they often become invisible or indecipherable both to those who advance and diffuse knowledge as well as to those who receive, interpret and apply it. The contributors to this book explore in various subfields of management thought a number of important moral and ethical issues. What is the definition of good behaviour and hence of bad behaviour implicit behind the theories we use and produce? Can we find, historically, a trace of moral and ethical dilemmas and debates in those intellectual subfields that tend to posture today as morally neutral? What is the conception of human nature and social reality embedded in modern management thought and theories? How do those implicit and hidden cognitive schemes influence the development of research and knowledge in those various subfields? How do they prevent certain issues from emerging? How do they shape debates, practices and beliefs leaving little room to approach the world differently and to depart from mainstream perspectives? This unique treatment of the moral foundations of knowledge management will provide a stimulating read for academics, students and professionals focusing on business and management, business administration, sociology, organizational behaviour and moral philosophy."