May 19, 2006

CfP: The Evolution of Global Economic Governance: Power and Purpose

Dear colleague,

We are currently organizing a young researchers workshop to accompany the 2007 pan-European Conference on International Relations, to be held in September next year in Turin, Italy, and would like to call for expressions of interest from advanced doctoral students and recent post-doctoral scholars. The workshop will be on the topic of: "The Evolution of Global Economic Governance: Power and Purpose in the Changing Roles of the International Economic Organizations".

A key aim will be to bring together young researchers, who are completing or have recently completed their PhD, with more senior scholars. While the date is some time away, if you are likely to be available at the time (bearing in mind that the workshop will only go ahead if the funding proposal to assist with travel expenses is accepted by the ECPR) and if the project is of interest to you, we would like to invite you to consider attending to give a paper.

We hope to have around 15-20 participants, and aim to subsequently publish a selection of the workshop papers in a special journal issue or edited book collection. Also, if you happen to know of any other advanced doctoral students/early post-doctoral researchers working on the IMF, the World Bank, or the WTO who may be interested this workshop please feel free to pass along the proposal abstract and our contact details to them.

Best regards,
Manuela and Andre


Proposal for a Young Researchers Workshop to accompany the 2007
Pan-European Conference on International Relations

The Evolution of Global Economic Governance:

Power and Purpose in the Changing Roles of the International Economic Organizations



CONVENORS:

André Broome
Manuela Moschella

The Australian National University University of Trento

The international economic system is governed by a set of norms, rules, and principles ranging from the broad ideal of economic multilateralism to specific
policy prescriptions such as open current accounts and exchange rate stability. This shared 'governance complex' - which has both shaped and has in turn been shaped by national, international, and transnational actors - is not rigidly 'fixed', but is subject to a continual process of political contestation and institutional adaptation. While no overarching authority exists above the level of the state with the capacity to enforce compliance within this framework, a remarkable degree of policy convergence and 'institutional isomorphism' has occurred in recent decades, facilitated by international economic organizations (IEOs) who are commonly seen as being at the forefront of economic globalization. Nevertheless, IEOs are not 'fixed' either. Their roles have shifted in response to the evolving needs of developing economies, the changing power relations among industrial economies and the growing relevance of emerging market economies, as well as increasing financial innovation
and economic globalization. This workshop will investigate the relationship
between global economic governance and IEOs through focusing on the connections
between changing political dynamics at three levels: the national, the
international, and the transnational.

Participants are invited to reflect on (a) the evolving institutional structure
of the global economy and (b) the actors that construct and reform this framework, who in turn find themselves shaped by it. Much of the existing scholarship on global economic governance and national economic policy treats the relationship between the international and the domestic as a one-way street, except in the case of the most powerful states who are seen to 'call the tune' in the international political economy. This workshop aims to build on recent international political economy research that has investigated the links between an emerging global standard of 'best practice' in national economic policies; the changing roles, power, and purposes of the IEOs; and the allegedly increasing influence of transnational actors such as non-governmental organizations, transnational corporations, and global credit rating agencies.

Within the ambitious objective of coherently incorporating these multiple levels
of analysis, workshop participants will be invited to present papers that critically address the following broad questions on the changing roles of the IEOs: (1) When does change take place? (2) Who sets the agenda for change? (3) Who benefits from change? (4) Why are some proposals for reform not adopted? (5) How do changes to the roles of IEOs impact on different sets of national and transnational actors? As a forum to reflect on potential answers to these questions, this workshop will draw together a diverse array of young researchers with more senior scholars to investigate the theoretical and empirical dimensions of the changing nature of global economic governance, with a specific focus on the changing roles of the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO. The workshop aims to build on contemporary debates over global economic governance in the field of international political economy, to motivate critical thinking about potential future reforms to the international
economic organizations, and to provide a stimulus to new collaborative and
individual research projects.


André Broome
PhD Candidate
Department of International Relations
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
Australian National University
ACT 0200 AUSTRALIA
E-mail: andre.broome@anu.edu.au
Phone: +61 2 6125 7654
Fax: +61 2 6125 8010
URL: http://rspas.anu.edu.au/



Manuela Moschella
PhD candidate
School of International Studies
University of Trento, Italy
Via Verdi 8/10
38100 Trento
E-mail:
mmoschel@economia.unitn.it
Phone: + 39 0461 883150
Fax: + 39 062 883152
URL:
http://ssi.unitn.it

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