Projecting the Local into the Global: Trajectories of Participation in Transnational Standard-Setting

Abstract

In this chapter, we explain why and how a set of global ideas of stakeholder/constituency participation, inclusiveness, and fair representation are built into transnational standard-setting organizations’ structures and procedures and how local ideas and concerns are reflected in them. We show that this does not occur in one single manner across various governance fields and identify two trajectories along which transnational governance fields emerge and develop — monopolistic and pluralistic. We demonstrate in two empirical case-studies — financial accounting and forest management standards — how three sets of factors, including initial organizational design, challenges and contestation, and organizational responsiveness, shape these trajectories. We ground our analysis on the notion of glocalization and the literature on transnational standard-setting emphasizing the contested nature of governance fields.