Project - Political Authority

Political Authority and Transnational Governance Arrangements: Regulation through Public and Private Labor, Social and Environmental Standards in the Asian Textile and Garment Industry

Globalized production chains as a distinctive feature of the textile and garment industry are only partly captured through forms of regulation that are initiated by states, be it on the national or on the international level. Since actors bypass existing legal norms or exploit the fact that there are no legal norms regulating the field of labor, social and environmental protection in manufacturing countries, we can witness a significant rise of standards based on private authority, established in order to fill the regulatory gap. Adding private (or private-public) norms to public regulation leads to a setting in which interrelated and partially conflicting “polycentric governance systems” arise on different regulatory levels.

One of the primary objectives of this research project is to empirically identify governance arrangements by conducting a pilot study of labor, social and environmental standards in the Asian textile and garment industry (based on the examples of Bangladesh and Cambodia). Moreover, we want to analyze the interaction between public and private norm setting, and the “meta-governance” of transnational regulation under a common analytical framework. This empirical study contributes to an interdisciplinary network on “Practices of polycentric governance and the transformation of power”. Besides INEF (Dr. Cornelia Ulbert, Dr. Christian Scheper), the network includes researchers at the European University Viadrina (Prof. Eva Kocher), Ruhr-University Bochum (Prof. Markus Kaltenborn, Johannes Norpoth, Prof. Sabrina Zajak) and University of Münster (Prof. Doris Fuchs, Anne Hennings).

Funding: Mercator Research Center Ruhr

Selected Publications

► Mondré/Niemann/Scheper/Ulbert 2017 aufnehmen (Mondré, Aletta / Niemann, Holger / Scheper, Christian / Ulbert, Cornelia 2017: Praktiken der Verantwortungszuschreibung: Transnationale Regelsetzung und politische Autorität privater Unternehmen, in: Daase, Christopher / Junk, Julian / Kroll, Stefan / Rauer, Valentin (eds.): Politik und Verantwortung. Analysen zum Wandel politischer Entscheidungs- und Rechtfertigungspraktiken. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 358-382. DOI: 10.5771/9783845271934-359

► Scheper, Christian 2019: Menschenrechte als private Legitimitätspolitik: Politische Autorität und völkerrechtliche Rechtfertigung von Unternehmenspraktiken, in: ZIB Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, 26: 1, 5-27. DOI: 10.5771/0946-7165-2019-1-5

► Scheper, Christian 2019: Assessing Human Rights Impacts in Global Value Chains: Can HRIA go beyond Social Audits in the Apparel Industry?, in: Götzmann, Nora (eds.): Handbook on Human Rights Impact Assessment (Research Handbooks on Impact Assessment Series). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 256-271.

► Scheper, Christian 2018: The Business of Responsibility: Supply Chain Practice and the Construction of the Moral Lead Firm, in: Ulbert, Cornelia / Finkenbusch, Peter / Sondermann, Elena / Debiel, Tobias (eds.): Moral Agency and the Politics of Responsibility. London/New York: Routledge, 122-134.

► Scheper, Christian 2017: Labour Networks under Supply Chain Capitalism: The Politics of the Bangladesh Accord, in: Development and Change, 48: 5, 1069-1088. DOI: 10.1111/dech.12328

Project Management

Executive DirectorDr. Cornelia Ulbert

Room: LS 119
Telefon: +49 (0)203-379-4422
E-Mail: cornelia.ulbert@inef.uni-due.de
Staff Portfolio

Project Staff

Associate FellowLL.M. Johannes Norpoth

Senior ResearcherDr. Christian Scheper

Room: LS 032
Phone: +49 (0)203-379-4424
E-Mail: christian.scheper@inef.uni-due.de
Staff Portfolio