Participation and inequality ‘beyond the state’. An explorative study on the opportunities for participation of transnational civil society actors based on the example of institutions of global economic governance
Modern and Contemporary History
Final Report Abstract
At the turn of the millennium, there were strong protests against the global economic institutions. In response, the WTO, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) established dialogue forums to meet the demonstrators' demands for participation, transparency and democratic involvement. While previous research on civil society participation in international institutions has looked at them primarily from the perspective of a possible generation of legitimacy through participation or even a potential democratisation of global governance through deliberation, we have analysed dialogue forums in the course of our research project from a perspective critical of domination. This shift in perspective has enabled us to understand the inequalities in power and status asymmetries that prevail in dialogue forums not only as an expression of a misguided attempt to increase the legitimacy of the institutions but also as part of a global order formation in which power relations are actualised. In doing so, we have been able to show that dialogue forums not only fail to deliver on the promise of democratisation and thus fail to contribute to the dismantling of structures of domination in global politics but may even perpetuate them. Following the work of Pierre Bourdieu, we understand domination as a discursive practice that manifests itself in the ability of international institutions to impose meanings (classifications, categories, normative standards) as legitimate. In dialogue forums, the reproduction of relations of domination is evident in the fact that the participating civil society actors accept the conditions of the discourse that prevails in the forums. It is present to the extent that civil society organisations can put forward their concerns, norms and categories or have to adapt to the institutional discourse. The boundaries of this discursive space are marked out by conforming to what is recognised and perceived as legitimate by the institutions. In sum, our research shows that dialogue forums are not only to be understood as pure forums for deliberation and communicative exchange but also as places where global governance discourses are formulated and shaped (under unequal conditions).
Publications
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Dialogue Forums as a Practice of Global Ordering, Workshop “Democracy and Practices of Global Order“, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Juli 2022, Berlin
Christiane Cromm
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Reframing Civil Society Participation in Global Economic Governance: Dialogue Forums as a Practice of Social Ordering, Workshop „Spheres of Citizenship“, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin, November 2022
Christiane Cromm & Christian Volk
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International Organizations Opening up for Civil Society: Between Participation and Cooptation, Jahrestagung der DVPW-Themengruppe Internationale Organisation (TGIO) „Internationale Organisationen in ihrer Umwelt: Wettbewerb, Synergie, Konflikt“, Jena, November 2023
Christiane Cromm & Melanie Coni-Zimmer
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Speaking the Right Language: Transnational Rule and Symbolic Power in Dialogue Forums. Global Society, 38(3), 388-411.
Cromm, Christiane
