Governance, Globalisation and Social Justice

1. Governance, Globalisation and Social Justice

2. Objectives • The GGSJ programme aims to produce internationally leading, socially committed and societally relevant research outcomes on issues of governance from an explicitly social justice perspective. • Examine how and to what extent particular governance arrangements help or hinder the achievement of goals of social justice. • The research programme builds on the strong ISS tradition of research in the areas of politics, public administration, public policy and international law, but is committed to cutting across disciplinary boundaries.

3. Theoretical Foundations • Governance arrangements as a crucial (co-) determinant of development outcomes. Governance-beyond-government (Hyden) • The notion of ‘governmentality’: to draw attention to processes of creating ‘subjects’ (as actors) through different regimes of ‘rationality’ • As an explicit political strategy that is used in a struggle over reasoning and sanctioning that applies not only material but also discursive and symbolic devices. • The literature on coloniality (Eurocentrism)

4. Theoretical Foundations • decolonial approach to governance unveils the epistemic privileging of Western thinking and seeks a ‘redefinition/subsumption of citizenship, democracy, human rights, humanity, economic relations beyond the narrow definitions imposed by European modernity’ • Social justice as cross-cutting perspective • Globalisation and deterritorialisation  governance innovations at various institutional levels and arenas

5. Cross-Cutting Research Questions • investigates how and to what extent particular governance arrangements help or hinder the achievement of goals of social justice • assesses the impact of political, social and economic processes on people’s welfare and rights, as well as social equity • Analyses the framing of issues and of ‘social justice’ itself, as well as questions on mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion, and on the underlying ethics of justification

6. Three Research Lines • Human security, human development and international migration; (e.g. current research project on ‘Migration, Gender and Social Justice’ funded by the IDRC; FP7 proposal on ASEAN regionalism) • Global governance and human rights; (donor and multilateral cooperation; regional cooperation schemes and norm-setting; human rights-based approaches and advocacy) • Political participation and public sector transformation (decentralisation, political parties, etc)

7. Draft IPRC (2012) RQA • The quality of the publications of some staff is very good, with an average of 2,75 publications in A-level journals in 2007-2010, but uneven • The productivity of this group is quite high, with a large number of publications in all outlets and across all levels. • But: issues of presenting the existing strong evidence of significant societal relevance, fragmentation, sense of mission, and leadership. • Scores: Quality 4, Productivity 4.5, Relevance 3.5, Vitality and feasibility 4 • The GGSJ aims to address these.

8. Innovation • To study governance issues in relation to a framework of social justice. Whereas much existing governance research is aimed at contributing to the resolution of social and political problems, most do so within the confines of the status quo, while accepting the institutional framework and power distribution as given • Critical rather than problem-solving approach • Political, not normative understanding of governance • Transnational focus on governance and social justice

9. Addressing the four challenges • Current development policy priority includes security and rule of law; collaboration with Institute for Global Justice et al • Using our wide expertise and networks to transform relationships with institutes in the South into research-relevant contacts (and PhDs) • Build on already existing EUR linkages • Resources will be generated: research grants, PhD recruitment, collaboration