IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/reggov/v9y2015i2p108-124.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Transnational private governance between the logics of empowerment and control

Author

Listed:
  • Graeme Auld
  • Stefan Renckens
  • Benjamin Cashore

Abstract

Transnational private governance initiatives that address problems of social and environmental concern now pervade many sectors. In tackling distinct substantive problems, these programs have, however, prioritized different problem‐oriented logics in their institutionalized rules and procedures. One is a “logic of control” that focuses on ameliorating environmental and social externalities by establishing strict and enforceable rules; another is a “logic of empowerment” that concentrates on remedying the exclusion of marginalized actors in the global economy. Examining certification programs in the areas of fair trade, organic agriculture, fisheries, and forest management, we assess the evolutionary effects of programs prioritizing one logic and then having to accommodate the other. The challenges programs face when balancing between the two logics, we argue, elucidate specific distributional consequences for wealth, power, and regulatory capabilities that private governance programs seek to overcome.

Suggested Citation

  • Graeme Auld & Stefan Renckens & Benjamin Cashore, 2015. "Transnational private governance between the logics of empowerment and control," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(2), pages 108-124, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:reggov:v:9:y:2015:i:2:p:108-124
    DOI: 10.1111/rego.12075
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12075
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/rego.12075?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bloch, Harry & Sapsford, David, 2000. "Whither the Terms of Trade? An Elaboration of the Prebisch-Singer Hypothesis," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 24(4), pages 461-481, July.
    2. Graeme Auld & Lars H. Gulbrandsen, 2010. "Transparency in Nonstate Certification: Consequences for Accountability and Legitimacy," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 10(3), pages 97-119, August.
    3. Vandergeest, Peter, 2007. "Certification and Communities: Alternatives for Regulating the Environmental and Social Impacts of Shrimp Farming," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1152-1171, July.
    4. Raynolds, Laura T., 2009. "Mainstreaming Fair Trade Coffee: From Partnership to Traceability," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 1083-1093, June.
    5. Fetterman, David M., 1994. "Steps of empowerment evaluation: From California to Cape Town," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 305-313.
    6. Tad Mutersbaugh, 2005. "Fighting Standards with Standards: Harmonization, Rents, and Social Accountability in Certified Agrofood Networks," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(11), pages 2033-2051, November.
    7. Delzeit, R. & Holm-Müller, K., 2009. "Steps to discern sustainability criteria for a certification scheme of bioethanol in Brazil: Approach and difficulties," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 662-668.
    8. Jessica F. Green, 2013. "Order out of Chaos: Public and Private Rules for Managing Carbon," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 13(2), pages 1-25, May.
    9. Tim Büthe & Walter Mattli, 2011. "The New Global Rulers: The Privatization of Regulation in the World Economy," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9470.
    10. Bacon, Christopher M., 2010. "Who decides what is fair in fair trade? The agri-environmental governance of standards, access, and price," Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, Working Paper Series qt8px4f62v, Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, UC Santa Cruz.
    11. Sigrid Quack, 2010. "Transnational communities and governance," Post-Print hal-01891975, HAL.
    12. Ponte, Stefano, 2008. "Greener than Thou: The Political Economy of Fish Ecolabeling and Its Local Manifestations in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 159-175, January.
    13. Chambers, Robert, 1994. "The origins and practice of participatory rural appraisal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(7), pages 953-969, July.
    14. M. K. Haener & Martin K. Luckert, 1998. "Forest Certification: Economic Issues and Welfare Implications," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 24(s2), pages 83-94, May.
    15. Lena Partzsch, 2011. "The legitimacy of biofuel certification," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 28(3), pages 413-425, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stefan Renckens & Graeme Auld, 2022. "Time to certify: Explaining varying efficiency of private regulatory audits," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 500-518, April.
    2. Gallemore, Caleb & Jespersen, Kristjan & Olmsted, Paige, 2022. "Harnessing relational values for global value chain sustainability: Reframing the roundtable on sustainable palm oil's offset mechanism to support smallholders," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    3. Ghori, Shakil & Lund-Thomsen, Peter & Gallemore, Caleb & Singh, Sukhpal & Riisgaard, Lone, 2022. "Compliance and cooperation in global value chains: The effects of the better cotton initiative in Pakistan and India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    4. Jespersen, Kristjan & Grabs, Janina & Gallemore, Caleb, 2024. "Ratcheting up private standards by exploiting coopetition: The curious case of RSPO’s adoption of zero-deforestation criteria," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    5. Sarah Margaretha Jastram & Alkis Henri Otto & Tatjana Minulla, 2023. "Diverse Organizational Adoption of Institutions in the Field of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(4), pages 1073-1088, April.

    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. Janina Grabs & Graeme Auld & Benjamin Cashore, 2021. "Private regulation, public policy, and the perils of adverse ontological selection," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(4), pages 1183-1208, October.
    2. Howard, Rebecca Joy & Tallontire, Anne & Stringer, Lindsay & Marchant, Rob, 2015. "Unraveling the Notion of “Fair Carbon”: Key Challenges for Standards Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 343-356.
    3. Paul Foley & Karen Hébert, 2013. "Alternative Regimes of Transnational Environmental Certification: Governance, Marketization, and Place in Alaska's Salmon Fisheries," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(11), pages 2734-2751, November.
    4. de Man, Reinier & German, Laura, 2017. "Certifying the sustainability of biofuels: Promise and reality," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 871-883.
    5. Bartley Tim, 2010. "Transnational Private Regulation in Practice: The Limits of Forest and Labor Standards Certification in Indonesia," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 1-36, October.
    6. Janina Grabs, 2020. "Assessing the institutionalization of private sustainability governance in a changing coffee sector," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(2), pages 362-387, April.
    7. Renckens, Stefan & Auld, Graeme, 2019. "Structure, path dependence, and adaptation: North-South imbalances in transnational private fisheries governance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Auld Graeme & Cashore Benjamin & Balboa Cristina & Bozzi Laura & Renckens Stefan, 2010. "Can Technological Innovations Improve Private Regulation in the Global Economy?," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 1-42, October.
    9. Lindsay Naylor, 2014. "“Some are more fair than others”: fair trade certification, development, and North–South subjects," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 273-284, June.
    10. Hanna Hilbrandt & Monika Grubbauer, 2020. "Standards and SSOs in the contested widening and deepening of financial markets: The arrival of Green Municipal Bonds in Mexico City," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(7), pages 1415-1433, October.
    11. Schleifer, Philip & Fiorini, Matteo & Fransen, Luc, 2019. "Missing the Bigger Picture: A Population-level Analysis of Transnational Private Governance Organizations Active in the Global South," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    12. Bennett, Elizabeth A., 2017. "Who Governs Socially-Oriented Voluntary Sustainability Standards? Not the Producers of Certified Products," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 53-69.
    13. Daniel Jaffee & Philip H. Howard, 2016. "Who’s the fairest of them all? The fractured landscape of U.S. fair trade certification," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(4), pages 813-826, December.
    14. Marin-Burgos, Victoria & Clancy, Joy S. & Lovett, Jon C., 2015. "Contesting legitimacy of voluntary sustainability certification schemes: Valuation languages and power asymmetries in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in Colombia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 303-313.
    15. Balineau, Gaëlle, 2013. "Disentangling the Effects of Fair Trade on the Quality of Malian Cotton," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 241-255.
    16. George Halkos & Stylianos Nomikos & Antonis Skouloudis, 2021. "Revisiting ISO 14001 diffusion among national terrains: panel data evidence from OECD countries and the BRIICS," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(4), pages 781-803, October.
    17. 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.
    18. Antje Wahl & Gary Bull, 2014. "Mapping Research Topics and Theories in Private Regulation for Sustainability in Global Value Chains," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(4), pages 585-608, November.
    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. Stefano Ponte & Lisa Ann Richey, 2011. "(PRODUCT)RED™: How Celebrities Push the Boundaries of ‘Causumerism’," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(9), pages 2060-2075, September.

    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:wly:reggov:v:9:y:2015:i:2:p:108-124. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1748-5991 .

    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.