The Structuration of World Society: The Case of the United Nations Global Compact

• In Event: 3555 - Section on the Political Economy of the World-System Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 3. Global Dynamics and Local Struggles

Abstract

Pressing problems that are international in scope have spawned numerous public-private governance frameworks to regulate the behavior of cross-national actors. How these governance frameworks emerge and evolve, however, has remained poorly understood. Gaps in our knowledge have been especially apparent in world society theory, which has tended to focus on the diffusion of governance models at the expense of their origination and continual reconstruction. Addressed to these gaps, we advance a structuration theory that proposes that organizational actors use existing institutional models to reproduce, change, and bolster governance frameworks. We suggest a nonteleological process that admits social skill, is conditioned by an actor’s previous experience, and is contingent on the larger institutional stock. Our case is the flagship initiative of the global movement for corporate social responsibility, the UN Global Compact, which has undergone a dramatic, highly contested evolution even as it has successfully diffused worldwide.

Authors

• Shawn Michael Pope, Stanford University

• Gili S. Drori, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem