Governing through standards

An international symposium

Copenhagen, 24-26 February

Call for abstracts - extended deadline

Governing through standards – rather than mainly through law and regulation - emerged as a trend in industrialized countries in the 1980s and 1990s. This occurred against a background including the rise of idealized market paradigms in the public sector, an unfolding of new discourses concerning governmental transparency and accountability, and the rise of new political actors including issue-focused NGOs. The tendency spans public administration, cultural life and the economy - albeit in different forms in each context, driven by different constellations of actors and circumstances. As a result, while developments in standards may historically still occur as a consequence of changes in regulation, it is more illuminating to see standards as the dominant mode of governance taken by early 21st century regulatory regimes.

This international symposium aims to bring together scholars studying standards, their new content and their new roles, across the substantive areas of: the financial sector (including accountancy), the environment (including climate-related standards), labour, industrial and organizational ‘quality’, public management including welfare management, the agro-food sector, and health and safety. The aim is to bring together social scientists from all disciplines, with a common interest in how and why standards are used as governance tools and with what effects.

Those interested are invited to submit an abstract of 100-150 words by 16th October 2009 to lfo@diis.dk. These will be considered by the organizers and invitations to participate will be issued in late October 2010. The organizers hope to be able to meet the travel expenses and hotel costs of some participants.

Please circulate this invitation to anyone else that you believe may be interested.

Lasse Folke Henriksen (lfo@diis.dk),

On behalf of the Organizing Group

Global Economy, Regulation and Development Research Group

Danish Institute for International Studies

Copenhagen

29 July 2009

Top