Governance of Divergence and Convergence in Globalisation
Globalization poses new challenges to governance as a process of coordination and controlling of interdependent actions of social actors. While economic globalisation is due to the decentral logic of the market, political globalisation affects new forms of governance by international and national institutions with old and new lines of conflict and democracy deficits beginning to show. A reform of national economic models and international organisations as well as the new transnational coordination mechanisms are subject to the double challenge of having to achieve legitimacy and efficiency of new governance under globalisation conditions.
The social dimension of globalisation consists of two problem fields: Transnational forms of labour migration generate permanent and dense everyday and organisation relations between the regions of origin and arrival; these transnational social environments are on the one hand shaped by existing governance structures (e.g. citizenship-concepts) and at the same time they are the basis for new forms of governance. National gender regimes open up and change under the influence of globalisation; thus gender conflicts develop e.g. in the context of organisations or fundamentalist religions, but also compensatory or unifying approaches of global governance.
In cultural globalisation discourses under global influence arise (e.g. on the relation between religion and modernization) and forms of knowledge (e.g. Internet-based communities) as well as individual and collective expectations of normality (e.g. regards human rights and minimum living standards) and social practices (e.g. of media consumption); despite the global influence these do not immediately lead to a homogenisation and universalisation, but to processes of divergence and convergence full of tension and conflicts.
All in all you can say that the various forms of globalisation are characterised by convergences and divergences, which poses new challenges to governance. Beside the outlined dimensions this research emphasis investigates the forms of development of convergence and divergence in particular in following topics:
- political institutions of governance in the global multi-level system,
- private and "third sector"- entrepreneurial organisations,
- conventional collective actors (associations, political parties), which are forced to link transnationally and
- social movements, NGOs and the international civil society
- governance, development and gender in global change.
Important existing individual activities involved in this line of research are:
Gelebte Grenze Gibraltar - Transnationalismus, Lokalität und Identität in kulturanthropologischer Perspektive (Prof. Dr. Dieter Haller; Projekt und mehrere einschlägige Publikationen; Fortführung geplant als: "Wo Orient und Okzident aufeinander treffen – Das Mittelmeer als Ressource für Identität und Praxis im Barcelona Prozess")
Global Governance und Gender: soziale Bewegungen und Wohlfahrtsstaaten im Vergleich (Prof. Dr. Ilse Lenz; einschlägige Publikationen und Graduiertenkolleg 200-2005; Förderung Heinrich-Boell-Stiftung 2000-2004; 2007-8)
Expatriats - Lebensläufe und soziale Konstruktionen in transnationalen Kontexten (Prof. Dr. Heiner Minssen; DFG-Projekt und einschlägige Publikationen)
Rückwirkung Europäischer Integration auf nationale Parteien (Prof. Dr. Thomas Poguntke; ESRC-Projekt und einschlägige Publikationen)
Herausbildung supranationaler Parteien (Europarteien) auf europäischer Ebene (Prof. Dr. Thomas Poguntke; DFG-Projekt und einschlägige Publikationen)
Emergenz transnationaler Erwerbsregulierung als Teil globaler Governance (Prof. Dr. Ludger Pries; DFG-Projekt und einschlägige Publikationen sowie betreute Dissertationen)
Der Europäische Betriebsrat als transnationale Organisation? (Prof. Dr. Ludger Pries; DFG-Projekt und einschlägige Publikationen sowie betreute Dissertationen)
Global Economic Governance: Nationale Positionen zur Reform internationaler Wirtschaftsorganisationen/IWF, WTO (Prof. Dr. Stefan Schirm; DFG-Projekt und einschlägige Publikationen)
Wirkungen ökonomischer Globalisierung auf Staat und Gesellschaft, nationale Antworten auf Globalisierung im Vergleich (Prof. Dr. Stefan Schirm; Thyssen-Projekt und einschlägige Publikationen)