My research is at the interface between international political economy, public policy analysis, and philosophy. Empirically, I focus on the institutionalization of property rights in multi-level systems, ranging from the local to the global level, and including the digital world. I am interested in the interplay between international norm-making, transnational self-regulation, and domestic implementation patterns, most notably in highly dynamic contexts such as emerging economies and the internet. In theoretical terms, I mainly draw on international political economy approaches, but I also use insights from the global governance literature, comparative policy analysis, and post-structuralism. Phone: +31-(0)24-3615870 Address: Radboud University Nijmegen School of Management Department of Political Science P.O. Box 9108 6500 HK Nijmegen The Netherlands
Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the Belgian Association for Political Science (VPW) and the Dutch Political Science Association (NKWP) 13 and 14 June 2019, Antwerp (Belgium), 2019
In public debates, the dark net is usually demonized as a trafficking platform and occasionally p... more In public debates, the dark net is usually demonized as a trafficking platform and occasionally praised as a free haven for whistleblowers and dissidents from authoritarian regimes. The highly normative debate, however, obfuscates that the dark net is a space in which property rights are effectively enforced without and often against the will of state authorities. In our paper, we take this observation as a starting point. We show that drug transactions within the dark net are regulated by a combination of several distinguishable, yet interacting modes of governance. Market mechanisms play an important role to motivate participants to engage in dark net drug trafficking. The functionality of markets, however, is sustained by hierarchical steering modes, including subjectively legitimate monopolies of (virtual) violence and fee collection for the forum hosts and administrators. Both the authority of hierarchical steering and the uncertainties of market transactions are counterbalanced by network governance, which allows for the mutual exchange of information about the behavior of the actors involved. At the same time, the interplay between markets, hierarchies, and networks is facilitated by community governance, which helps to maintain a common identity and shared beliefs among all participants. In our paper, we illustrate the interplay of the different governance modes by an ethnographic "thick description" which is based on our observations and online chats with forum providers, administrators, and users of dark net drug platforms.
Paper presented at the workshop “International Political Economy”, organized by the Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft, Arbeitskreis IPÖ June 6-7, 2019, Frankfurt a.M., 2019
Payment for ecosystem services (PES) are strongly contested. Supporters claim that market-based p... more Payment for ecosystem services (PES) are strongly contested. Supporters claim that market-based policy instruments and the inherent transnational multi-stakeholder approach help to improve the living conditions of local communities, whereas critics refer to the commodification of indigenous livelihoods and forceful evictions for the sake of nature conservation. To overcome the prevailing polarization of the debate, this paper shifts the focus from an impact assessment towards an in-depth analysis of local political dynamics which evolve around the implementation of PES. It shows that the implications of market-based environmental policy instruments strongly depend on specific socioeconomic context conditions and power constellations. While PES may indeed be misused by local power holders, they can also create at least temporary opportunity structures for indigenous communities to defend their land claims. The paper is based on an in-depth field study of PES politics in Mato Grosso do Sul, where these dynamics can be observed in a very early stage.
This article explores the success chances of subaltern political agency.
Empirically, it investig... more This article explores the success chances of subaltern political agency. Empirically, it investigates how indigenous groups can prevent unwanted access to their traditional knowledge regarding biological resources. The article compares indigenous politics in Brazil and India. Brazilian movements effectively defend regulations to deny the disclosure of their knowledge, whereas comparable demands of the Adivasis in India have remained fairly neglected. To explain these differences, the article connects the insights of social movements and postcolonial theories. It shows that a synopsis of both literatures helps to explain both the potential and the limitations of indigenous political agency.
International biodiversity politics is traced from the Brundtland Report (1987) to the Paris clim... more International biodiversity politics is traced from the Brundtland Report (1987) to the Paris climate agreement of 2015. While continuously expanding in scope, international biodiversity regulations are gradually losing substance and tend to relinquish the self-determination rights of indigenous peoples with regard to natural resources. The simultaneity of expansion and erosion is surprising in view of the increased participation of indigenous spokespersons at international meetings. These dynamics are explained by the introduction of intellectual property rights for biological resources. The commodification of life forms has triggered an ongoing dynamic by which governments from industrialized and developing countries, transnational corporations, and some NGOs push for the legal codification of neoliberal environmentalism. These findings suggest the emergence of a new environmental constitutionalism, which subdues all spheres of life to economic imperatives and simultaneously co-opts dissenting voices to increase the stability of inherently exploitative structures.
In many countries of the Global South, indigenous communities have learned how to make use of the... more In many countries of the Global South, indigenous communities have learned how to make use of the local biodiversity. Meanwhile, their traditional knowledge has aroused the attention of scientists, corporations, and environmental groups. Most of these actors only perceive tradi-tional knowledge as utile raw material for their own purposes and disregard indigenous cus-tomary rights which are associated with its dissemination. The resulting conflicts are shaped by national regulations and an international regime complex of environmental and commercial law. This paper addresses the impact of the international regime complex on national tradi-tional knowledge regulations. It compares the eco-capitalist approach in India with the more inclusive concept in Brazil with regard to their political priorities and their respective effec-tiveness against the backdrop of international agreements.
To many observers, the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol was expected to enhance the ownership righ... more To many observers, the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol was expected to enhance the ownership rights of traditional and indigenous communities, which had only been vaguely addressed in the Convention on Biodiversity. In Brazil, however, the ratification process of the protocol has motivated reforms which move in the opposite direction. Recent changes in law are likely to diminish the self-determination rights of local communities with regard to their biological resources and traditional knowledge. This paper attempts to explain the paradoxical effects of the international agreement by the interplay of international and domestic factors. It is argued that the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in industrialized countries triggers a reorientation of governmental priorities in Brazil, which in turn leads to a rearrangement of institutional competencies and changing patterns of access modalities for societal actors. Ultimately, the ratification of the Nagoya Protocol bears unintended consequences which eventually undermine some of its original goals. Our case study illustrates that international agreements may impact domestic public policies even before (if ever) they are ratified. The mere existence of new international context conditions may weaken the rights of those who were expected to benefit most from the international wording.
In our paper, we trace the evolution of the biodiversity regime complex from the Convention on Bi... more In our paper, we trace the evolution of the biodiversity regime complex from the Convention on Biodiversity (1992) to the Paris climate agreement of 2015. While the scope of international regulations is continuously expanding, the originally intended protection of indigenous groups is increasingly relinquished despite their participation at international negotiations. We show that these processes can be explained by the introduction of intellectual property rights for biological resources. The commodification of life forms has triggered an ongoing dynamic by which corporate actors, governments from industrialized and developing countries, and even environmental NGOs push for an expansion of the market logic. Indigenous representatives are only admitted to the international negotiations as long as they do not undermine the prevailing consensus. Our findings suggest the emergence of a new environmental constitutionalism, which subdues all spheres of life to economic imperatives and co-opts dissenting voices to increase the stability of inherently exploitative structures.
When accessing traditional knowledge, life scientists often violate the customary non-disclosure ... more When accessing traditional knowledge, life scientists often violate the customary non-disclosure rules of indigenous communities. This article investigates how indigenous groups can prevent an unwanted access of their knowledge. It therefore compares biodiversity politics in Brazil and India. Brazilian indigenous movements effectively defend regulations to deny the disclosure of their knowledge, whereas the Adivasis in India have not achieved any statutory recognition of their customs. To explain these differences, the article draws on social movement theory. It shows that this approach has the potential to both explain the success chances and to carve out the constraints on indigenous political agency in environmental politics.
Global public goods are frequently defined in horizontally overlapping and vertically interconnec... more Global public goods are frequently defined in horizontally overlapping and vertically interconnected institutional arrangements. It is frequently assumed that the flexible malleability and procedural inclusiveness of regime complexes can mitigate at least the worst forms of power politics and hereby contribute to more comprehensive policies on a global scale. This paper challenges the prevailing assumptions by reintroducing the caveat of structural power. It argues that mutual anticipations of preferences and policy spaces shape the definition, production , and implementation of global public goods, which eventually leads to the dispossession of those whose consent is not needed for an agreement. The critique is empirically illustrated by the analysis of the regime complex on biodiversity, which is commonly portrayed as the world's most advanced institutional framework to reconcile the sustainable use of natural resources , economic as well as scientific progress, and human (indigenous) rights. Based on the conceptual critique and its empirical illustration, the paper concludes that regime complexes are less likely to produce global public goods but can rather be expected to create globalized club goods. 2 " Denn die Verhältnisse, die sind nicht so. " (Bertolt Brecht)
ABSTRACT Most university courses on transnationalization encourage students to learn about the fa... more ABSTRACT Most university courses on transnationalization encourage students to learn about the facets of the phenomenon only from selected readings. This article suggests using participant observation of public events as a complementary didactic means to reduce students' experiential distance from transnational politics. In a master-level course at the Freie Universität Berlin in the 2011 summer term, our students undertook 1 day of fieldwork in the German capital on May 1, the International Workers' Day. The unusual design of our course allowed them to relate cognitive insights into transnationalization to affective, though methodologically informed, field experiences. There is thus significant didactic potential in designing courses with opportunities for experiential learning in the field.
Even more than industrialised countries, developing states are confronted with the epidemic sprea... more Even more than industrialised countries, developing states are confronted with the epidemic spread of HIV/AIDS. Due to a lack of sufficient financial resources, they depend critically on regulatory policies to rise to that challenge. Evidence shows, however, that varying approaches have emerged to cope with the humanitarian, social, and economic consequences of the disease. In our contribution, we focus on two competing governance models that provide for the HIV/AIDS medication in India and Brazil. Within the framework of its recent patent reforms, the Indian government has paved the way for a market-driven innovation process in the field of pharmaceutical research. The Indian generics industry has entered into numerous cooperation agreements with Western research-based corporations. Decisions on the development and production of new prescription drugs are taken in a self-regulatory private network, where the Indian state refrains from direct intervention. In Brazil, however, the go...
Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the Belgian Association for Political Science (VPW) and the Dutch Political Science Association (NKWP) 13 and 14 June 2019, Antwerp (Belgium), 2019
In public debates, the dark net is usually demonized as a trafficking platform and occasionally p... more In public debates, the dark net is usually demonized as a trafficking platform and occasionally praised as a free haven for whistleblowers and dissidents from authoritarian regimes. The highly normative debate, however, obfuscates that the dark net is a space in which property rights are effectively enforced without and often against the will of state authorities. In our paper, we take this observation as a starting point. We show that drug transactions within the dark net are regulated by a combination of several distinguishable, yet interacting modes of governance. Market mechanisms play an important role to motivate participants to engage in dark net drug trafficking. The functionality of markets, however, is sustained by hierarchical steering modes, including subjectively legitimate monopolies of (virtual) violence and fee collection for the forum hosts and administrators. Both the authority of hierarchical steering and the uncertainties of market transactions are counterbalanced by network governance, which allows for the mutual exchange of information about the behavior of the actors involved. At the same time, the interplay between markets, hierarchies, and networks is facilitated by community governance, which helps to maintain a common identity and shared beliefs among all participants. In our paper, we illustrate the interplay of the different governance modes by an ethnographic "thick description" which is based on our observations and online chats with forum providers, administrators, and users of dark net drug platforms.
Paper presented at the workshop “International Political Economy”, organized by the Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft, Arbeitskreis IPÖ June 6-7, 2019, Frankfurt a.M., 2019
Payment for ecosystem services (PES) are strongly contested. Supporters claim that market-based p... more Payment for ecosystem services (PES) are strongly contested. Supporters claim that market-based policy instruments and the inherent transnational multi-stakeholder approach help to improve the living conditions of local communities, whereas critics refer to the commodification of indigenous livelihoods and forceful evictions for the sake of nature conservation. To overcome the prevailing polarization of the debate, this paper shifts the focus from an impact assessment towards an in-depth analysis of local political dynamics which evolve around the implementation of PES. It shows that the implications of market-based environmental policy instruments strongly depend on specific socioeconomic context conditions and power constellations. While PES may indeed be misused by local power holders, they can also create at least temporary opportunity structures for indigenous communities to defend their land claims. The paper is based on an in-depth field study of PES politics in Mato Grosso do Sul, where these dynamics can be observed in a very early stage.
This article explores the success chances of subaltern political agency.
Empirically, it investig... more This article explores the success chances of subaltern political agency. Empirically, it investigates how indigenous groups can prevent unwanted access to their traditional knowledge regarding biological resources. The article compares indigenous politics in Brazil and India. Brazilian movements effectively defend regulations to deny the disclosure of their knowledge, whereas comparable demands of the Adivasis in India have remained fairly neglected. To explain these differences, the article connects the insights of social movements and postcolonial theories. It shows that a synopsis of both literatures helps to explain both the potential and the limitations of indigenous political agency.
International biodiversity politics is traced from the Brundtland Report (1987) to the Paris clim... more International biodiversity politics is traced from the Brundtland Report (1987) to the Paris climate agreement of 2015. While continuously expanding in scope, international biodiversity regulations are gradually losing substance and tend to relinquish the self-determination rights of indigenous peoples with regard to natural resources. The simultaneity of expansion and erosion is surprising in view of the increased participation of indigenous spokespersons at international meetings. These dynamics are explained by the introduction of intellectual property rights for biological resources. The commodification of life forms has triggered an ongoing dynamic by which governments from industrialized and developing countries, transnational corporations, and some NGOs push for the legal codification of neoliberal environmentalism. These findings suggest the emergence of a new environmental constitutionalism, which subdues all spheres of life to economic imperatives and simultaneously co-opts dissenting voices to increase the stability of inherently exploitative structures.
In many countries of the Global South, indigenous communities have learned how to make use of the... more In many countries of the Global South, indigenous communities have learned how to make use of the local biodiversity. Meanwhile, their traditional knowledge has aroused the attention of scientists, corporations, and environmental groups. Most of these actors only perceive tradi-tional knowledge as utile raw material for their own purposes and disregard indigenous cus-tomary rights which are associated with its dissemination. The resulting conflicts are shaped by national regulations and an international regime complex of environmental and commercial law. This paper addresses the impact of the international regime complex on national tradi-tional knowledge regulations. It compares the eco-capitalist approach in India with the more inclusive concept in Brazil with regard to their political priorities and their respective effec-tiveness against the backdrop of international agreements.
To many observers, the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol was expected to enhance the ownership righ... more To many observers, the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol was expected to enhance the ownership rights of traditional and indigenous communities, which had only been vaguely addressed in the Convention on Biodiversity. In Brazil, however, the ratification process of the protocol has motivated reforms which move in the opposite direction. Recent changes in law are likely to diminish the self-determination rights of local communities with regard to their biological resources and traditional knowledge. This paper attempts to explain the paradoxical effects of the international agreement by the interplay of international and domestic factors. It is argued that the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in industrialized countries triggers a reorientation of governmental priorities in Brazil, which in turn leads to a rearrangement of institutional competencies and changing patterns of access modalities for societal actors. Ultimately, the ratification of the Nagoya Protocol bears unintended consequences which eventually undermine some of its original goals. Our case study illustrates that international agreements may impact domestic public policies even before (if ever) they are ratified. The mere existence of new international context conditions may weaken the rights of those who were expected to benefit most from the international wording.
In our paper, we trace the evolution of the biodiversity regime complex from the Convention on Bi... more In our paper, we trace the evolution of the biodiversity regime complex from the Convention on Biodiversity (1992) to the Paris climate agreement of 2015. While the scope of international regulations is continuously expanding, the originally intended protection of indigenous groups is increasingly relinquished despite their participation at international negotiations. We show that these processes can be explained by the introduction of intellectual property rights for biological resources. The commodification of life forms has triggered an ongoing dynamic by which corporate actors, governments from industrialized and developing countries, and even environmental NGOs push for an expansion of the market logic. Indigenous representatives are only admitted to the international negotiations as long as they do not undermine the prevailing consensus. Our findings suggest the emergence of a new environmental constitutionalism, which subdues all spheres of life to economic imperatives and co-opts dissenting voices to increase the stability of inherently exploitative structures.
When accessing traditional knowledge, life scientists often violate the customary non-disclosure ... more When accessing traditional knowledge, life scientists often violate the customary non-disclosure rules of indigenous communities. This article investigates how indigenous groups can prevent an unwanted access of their knowledge. It therefore compares biodiversity politics in Brazil and India. Brazilian indigenous movements effectively defend regulations to deny the disclosure of their knowledge, whereas the Adivasis in India have not achieved any statutory recognition of their customs. To explain these differences, the article draws on social movement theory. It shows that this approach has the potential to both explain the success chances and to carve out the constraints on indigenous political agency in environmental politics.
Global public goods are frequently defined in horizontally overlapping and vertically interconnec... more Global public goods are frequently defined in horizontally overlapping and vertically interconnected institutional arrangements. It is frequently assumed that the flexible malleability and procedural inclusiveness of regime complexes can mitigate at least the worst forms of power politics and hereby contribute to more comprehensive policies on a global scale. This paper challenges the prevailing assumptions by reintroducing the caveat of structural power. It argues that mutual anticipations of preferences and policy spaces shape the definition, production , and implementation of global public goods, which eventually leads to the dispossession of those whose consent is not needed for an agreement. The critique is empirically illustrated by the analysis of the regime complex on biodiversity, which is commonly portrayed as the world's most advanced institutional framework to reconcile the sustainable use of natural resources , economic as well as scientific progress, and human (indigenous) rights. Based on the conceptual critique and its empirical illustration, the paper concludes that regime complexes are less likely to produce global public goods but can rather be expected to create globalized club goods. 2 " Denn die Verhältnisse, die sind nicht so. " (Bertolt Brecht)
ABSTRACT Most university courses on transnationalization encourage students to learn about the fa... more ABSTRACT Most university courses on transnationalization encourage students to learn about the facets of the phenomenon only from selected readings. This article suggests using participant observation of public events as a complementary didactic means to reduce students' experiential distance from transnational politics. In a master-level course at the Freie Universität Berlin in the 2011 summer term, our students undertook 1 day of fieldwork in the German capital on May 1, the International Workers' Day. The unusual design of our course allowed them to relate cognitive insights into transnationalization to affective, though methodologically informed, field experiences. There is thus significant didactic potential in designing courses with opportunities for experiential learning in the field.
Even more than industrialised countries, developing states are confronted with the epidemic sprea... more Even more than industrialised countries, developing states are confronted with the epidemic spread of HIV/AIDS. Due to a lack of sufficient financial resources, they depend critically on regulatory policies to rise to that challenge. Evidence shows, however, that varying approaches have emerged to cope with the humanitarian, social, and economic consequences of the disease. In our contribution, we focus on two competing governance models that provide for the HIV/AIDS medication in India and Brazil. Within the framework of its recent patent reforms, the Indian government has paved the way for a market-driven innovation process in the field of pharmaceutical research. The Indian generics industry has entered into numerous cooperation agreements with Western research-based corporations. Decisions on the development and production of new prescription drugs are taken in a self-regulatory private network, where the Indian state refrains from direct intervention. In Brazil, however, the go...
In een paar weken tijd heeft een virus, dat aanvankelijk door politici werd gebagatelliseerd, het... more In een paar weken tijd heeft een virus, dat aanvankelijk door politici werd gebagatelliseerd, het hele Europese continent knarsend tot stilstand gebracht. Nu heel Europa op slot is of gaat, zien veel Europeanen zich niet alleen geconfronteerd met een volksgezondheidscrisis, maar ook met een dreigende recessie. Overheidsinstellingen en zorgsystemen die de schokken veroorzaakt door het virus kunnen opvangen zijn meer dan ooit nodig. De werkelijkheid ziet er anders uit. De laatse decennia hebben teruglopende overheidsinvesteringen en het steeds verdergaande marktdenken de capaciteit van onze zorgsysteem uitgehold. Tegelijkertijd gaat een groeiende groep flexwerkers die geen sociaal vangnet kent een onzekere toekomst tegemoet. Politieke elites nemen met grote voortvarendheid noodmaatregelen ter financiële ondersteuning van ondernemingen en banken, maar de structurele problemen die aan deze crisis ten grondslag liggen, worden nauwelijks aangekaart. In plaats van de werkelijke oorzaken aan te pakken is de elite in politiek en ondernemersland begonnen met de 'securitizatie' van de crisis. Securitizatie is een term die politicologen sinds de jaren '90 gebruiken om een proces te beschrijven waarbij politieke en sociale actoren een kwestie als het coronavirus voorstellen als een zo extreem gevaarlijke situatie dat buitengewone maatregelen niet alleen gelegitimeerd zijn, maar ook afgeschermd mogen worden van het publieke debat.
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Papers & articles by Thomas R Eimer
Empirically, it investigates how indigenous groups can prevent
unwanted access to their traditional knowledge regarding biological
resources. The article compares indigenous politics in Brazil and India.
Brazilian movements effectively defend regulations to deny the disclosure of their knowledge, whereas comparable demands of the Adivasis in India have remained fairly neglected. To explain these differences, the article connects the insights of social movements and postcolonial theories. It shows that a synopsis of both literatures helps to explain both the potential and the limitations of indigenous political agency.
Empirically, it investigates how indigenous groups can prevent
unwanted access to their traditional knowledge regarding biological
resources. The article compares indigenous politics in Brazil and India.
Brazilian movements effectively defend regulations to deny the disclosure of their knowledge, whereas comparable demands of the Adivasis in India have remained fairly neglected. To explain these differences, the article connects the insights of social movements and postcolonial theories. It shows that a synopsis of both literatures helps to explain both the potential and the limitations of indigenous political agency.