IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v2y2016i1d10.1057_palcomms.2015.44.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Confusion is a fundamental state of mind”—On the peculiar intellectual career of global governance in international relations

Author

Listed:
  • Matthias Hofferberth

    (Department of Political Science and Geography, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, USA.)

Abstract

More than 20 years after global governance was introduced to the discipline of International Relations (IR), confusion about its conceptual status remains. In fact, how to even speak and think global governance—whether as a description of world politics, as a theoretical perspective to explain it, or as a normative notion to be realized through global policy—remains debated. This state of confusion affects debates within the Political Science subfield of IR as well as dialogue between different disciplines beyond IR. More specifically, the article argues that the current state of confusion exists not because of a lack of debate but rather because of different understandings of global governance that were attached to the concept during its emergence and which are still advanced and reproduced within debates today. These different understandings have their origin in certain real-world and disciplinary dynamics and constitute global governance in present discourse as a “condensation symbol” of different meanings. It is argued that precisely because of this status, global governance has obtained its “celebrity status”, within and beyond IR. By structuring different understandings of global governance and by reconstructing real-world and disciplinary contexts of emergence, the article goes beyond stating the obvious and provides a discussion of various sources and consequences of the confusion surrounding global governance. On the basis of this state-of-the-art overview, it is argued that to realize the full potential of global governance in IR and ensure interdisciplinary dialogue beyond it, one needs to engage with the concept and its immanent confusion in a reflective and cautious way by becoming aware of different meanings attached to it instead of arbitrarily reducing the concept to a single meaning to define its conceptual status. This article is published as part of a thematic collection on global governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthias Hofferberth, 2016. "“Confusion is a fundamental state of mind”—On the peculiar intellectual career of global governance in international relations," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:2:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1057_palcomms.2015.44
    DOI: 10.1057/palcomms.2015.44
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palcomms.2015.44
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/palcomms.2015.44?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tanja A. Börzel & Thomas Risse, 2010. "Governance without a state: Can it work?," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(2), pages 113-134, June.
    2. Annamaria Simonazzi & Michele Faioli, 2015. "Introduction," Economia & lavoro, Carocci editore, issue 2, pages 7-10.
    3. Ruggie, John Gerard, 2004. "Reconstituting the Global Public Domain: Issues, Actors and Practices," Working Paper Series rwp04-031, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    4. Ruggie, John Gerard, 1998. "What Makes the World Hang Together? Neo-utilitarianism and the Social Constructivist Challenge," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(4), pages 855-885, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eero Palmujoki, 2009. "Global principles for sustainable biofuel production and trade," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 135-151, May.
    2. Glen Whelan & Jeremy Moon & Marc Orlitzky, 2009. "Human Rights, Transnational Corporations and Embedded Liberalism: What Chance Consensus?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 367-383, August.
    3. Hamish van der Ven & David Barmes, 2023. "The uneasy marriage of private standards and public policies for sustainable commodity governance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5161-5173, December.
    4. Adela Toscano-Valle & Antonio Sianes & Francisco Santos-Carrillo & Luis A. Fernández-Portillo, 2022. "Can the Rational Design of International Institutions Solve Cooperation Problems? Insights from a Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-22, June.
    5. Christian Kaunert & Sarah Leonard & Ori Wertman, 2022. "Securitization of COVID-19 as a Security Norm: WHO Norm Entrepreneurship and Norm Cascading," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-19, June.
    6. Roxana Bobulescu, 2011. "Critical Realism versus Social Constructivism in International Relations," The Journal of Philosophical Economics, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, vol. 4(2), pages 37-64, May.
    7. Eduardo Ortas & Igor Álvarez & Ainhoa Garayar, 2015. "The Environmental, Social, Governance, and Financial Performance Effects on Companies that Adopt the United Nations Global Compact," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-25, February.
    8. Ecker-Ehrhardt, Matthias, 2013. "Why do they want the UN to decide? A two-step model of public support for UN authority," TranState Working Papers 171, University of Bremen, Collaborative Research Center 597: Transformations of the State.
    9. Andreas Follesdal, 2011. "The distributive justice of a global basic structure: A category mistake?," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 10(1), pages 46-65, February.
    10. Philipp Pattberg & Johannes Stripple, 2008. "Beyond the public and private divide: remapping transnational climate governance in the 21st century," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 367-388, December.
    11. Felix Heiduk, 2015. "What is in a name? Germany’s strategic partnerships with Asia’s rising powers," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 131-146, June.
    12. Nina Seppala, 2009. "Business and the International Human Rights Regime: A Comparison of UN Initiatives," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 401-417, August.
    13. Mikkel Kruuse & Kasper Reming Tangbæk & Kristjan Jespersen & Caleb Gallemore, 2019. "Navigating Input and Output Legitimacy in Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: Institutional Stewards at Work," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-27, November.
    14. Elliott Ash & Sharun Mukand & Dani Rodrik, 2021. "Economic Interests, Worldviews, and Identities: Theory and Evidence on Ideational Politics," NBER Working Papers 29474, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Kenneth Abbott & Duncan Snidal, 2010. "International regulation without international government: Improving IO performance through orchestration," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 315-344, September.
    16. Benedict C. Doepfer & André Habisch & Harald Pechlaner & Xenia-Isabel Poppe & Christoph Schwarz, 2016. "Entrepreneurship, shared values and the region - assessing the conditions for regional social performance of entrepreneurial behaviour," International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(1), pages 36-56.
    17. Kaminski Joseph Jon, 2019. "Rethinking Realism and Constructivism Through the Lenses of Themes and Ontological Primacy," Croatian International Relations Review, Sciendo, vol. 25(85), pages 6-29, November.
    18. van der Ven, Hamish & Sun, Yixian & Cashore, Benjamin, 2021. "Sustainable commodity governance and the global south," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    19. Büthe Tim, 2010. "Private Regulation in the Global Economy: A (P)Review," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 1-40, October.
    20. Shenkar Oded & Arikan Ilgaz, 2010. "Business as International Politics: Drawing Insights from Nation-State to Inter-Firm Alliances," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 11(4), pages 1-33, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:2:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1057_palcomms.2015.44. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.