School of Social and Political Sciences - Research Publications

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    Accountability in global economic governance
    MacDonald, K ; Brown, C ; Eckersley, R (Oxford University Press, 2018-04-05)
    Contemporary theoretical debates surrounding accountability in global economic governance have often adopted a problem-focused analytical lens—centred on real-world political controversies surrounding the accountability of global governing authorities. This chapter explores four distinctive problems of global accountability for which empirical inquiry has usefully informed normative analysis: first, the problem of unaccountable power within global governance processes; second, the problem of decentred political authority in global governance; third, problems establishing appropriate foundations of social power through which normatively desirable transnational accountabilities can be rendered practically effective at multiple scales; finally, problems associated with the need to traverse significant forms of social and cultural difference in negotiating appropriate normative terms of transnational accountability relationships. In relation to each, this chapter examines how systematic engagement between empirical and normative modes of analysis can both illuminate the theoretical problem and inform practical political strategies for strengthening accountability in global economic governance.
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    Containing conflict: Authoritative transnational actors and the management of company-community conflict
    MacDonald, K ; Malet, D ; Anderson, M (Georgetown University Press, 2017-01-01)
    Amidst intensified competition for land available to private investors in sectors such as mining, agribusiness and forestry, disputes over land between transnational investors and local communities are emerging in many parts of the world as an increasingly visible form of transnational conflict. Whereas land conflicts were once seen as a quintessentially ‘local’ problem, to be managed by national or sub-national political authorities, they are now becoming transnationally politicized. Such conflicts may be expressed in episodes of violent confrontation between members of local communities and police, military or private security officials. At other times, they take the form of non-violent resistance or protest, or are channeled through formal political, administrative or legal channels for managing social and political contestation.
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    Restricted entitlements for skilled temporary migrants: the limits of migrant consent
    Boese, M ; Macdonald, K (Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2017-01-01)
    Temporary labour migration programmes have often attracted significant controversy, particularly with regard to provisions that restrict the social entitlements available to temporary migrant workers, compared with other categories of residents. Advocates of such restrictions have argued that migrants freely choose to participate in temporary migration schemes on the prevailing terms, and are free to leave at any time if such participation no longer serves their interests. Our central goal in this paper is to critically evaluate such consent-based justifications for restricted social entitlements of temporary migrant workers, with reference to empirical evidence concerning the practical social and economic conditions of choice experienced by these temporary migrants. Drawing on evidence from one major receiving country – Australia – we show that consent-based justifications for restricted social entitlements fail to fully account for either the practical complexity of individual migration choices, or the de facto operation of Australia’s skilled temporary migration programme as a ‘test run’ for potential future permanent residents or citizens. By bringing sociological analysis of lived migrant experiences into critical engagement with normative debates about restricted social entitlements, we contribute to the bridging of empirical and normative migration debates, which too often evolve in parallel.
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    Social governance in a global economy: Introduction to an evolving agenda
    Macdonald, K ; Marshall, S (Ashgate, 2010-12-01)
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    Experiments in globalizing justice: Emergent lessons and future trajectories
    Macdonald, K ; Marshall, S ; Macdonald, K ; Marshall, S (Ashgate Publishing, Limited, 2010-01-01)
    Civic, corporate and state-based governance initiatives that seek to promote norms of social or global ‘justice’ are achieving steadily rising levels of reach and influence in the global economy. More seem to be emerging every day, and their legitimacy as mechanisms of local, national and transnational regulation is achieving increasing acceptance in many quarters. They perform a range of functions – from delivering social services and facilitating economic redistribution and poverty reduction, to establishing, monitoring and enforcing social and labour standards within global production systems across large parts of the industrialized and developing worlds. Although the patterns of their diffusion are still limited and highly uneven, it is important to understand the forces that drive them, the mechanisms and actors through which they operate, and the factors that condition their success or failure.
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    Re-thinking market governance
    Macdonald, K ; Marshall, S ; Pinto, S (Routledge, 2012-12-01)
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    Global democracy for a partially joined-up world: Toward a multi-level system of public power and democratic governance?
    Macdonald, K ; Archibugi, D ; Koenig-Archibugi, M ; Marchetti, R (Cambridge University Press, 2011-01-01)
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    Fair Labor Association
    Macdonald, K ; Hale, T ; Held, D (Polity Press, 2011)
    The Fair Labor Association (FLA) is a US-based voluntary governance arrangement in which a number of high profile apparel and sportswear companies work together with universities and NGOs to promote compliance with core international labour standards within their supply chains. Since its establishment in the late 1990s, the Association has attracted significant attention and debate. Advocates of the Association regard it as a leader in developing innovative approaches to promoting compliance with international labour standards, pointing to its progress toward building independent auditing and complaints processes, and its efforts in recent years to strengthen the capacity building dimensions of its compliance program. In contrast, critics question both the Association’s accountability and its effectiveness, highlighting what they perceive to be its corporate-dominated governance structure, and its ongoing failure to achieve compliance with international labour standards within the supply chains of many FLA members.
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    The Fair Trade System
    Macdonald, K ; Hale, T ; Held, D (Polity Press, 2011)
    The contemporary fair trade system has a distinctive, hybrid character as a production and trading network, a social governance arrangement, and a transnational social movement. From the perspective of global governance innovation, it can perhaps be best conceptualised as an ‘alternative’ normative and institutional system to both organise and govern production and trade. Its central purpose is to operate an alternative market through which commodities can be produced and traded on terms that promote sustainable social development among marginalized workers and producers, particularly those in the global South.
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    The Socially Embedded Corporation
    Macdonald, K ; Mikler, J (Wiley, 2013-03-26)