The Governing and Organizing Global Markets course is aimed at doctoral students developing theories and empirical work related to scholarship in International Political Economy, Economic Sociology, Global Public Policy, and Global and Transnational Sociology; especially that related to organizational behavior in the governance of global markets. Familiarity with theories within these fields is an advantage but not a prerequisite for participation. Affinities in theories and empirical cases across these fields will be discussed in depth during the course.

Students are expected to submit a written paper (15 pages) on their individual original research project to be discussed by faculty and fellow students and providing a basis for discussion about project development within the context of themes in the PhD course. PhD students must attend the entire course to receive a course diploma.

Participants will be required to submit their memos by 1 August, 2023.

The aim of the course is to provide doctoral students with a state of the art in current theories and methods in scholarly fields concerned with the examination of how global markets are governed and organized. This includes International Political Economy where this is the key focus, work in Economic Sociology on the relationships and networks supporting international markets, research in Global Public Policy on the transnational administrative architecture undergirding markets, and scholarship in Global and Transnational Sociology on how norms influence market-based phenomena. The course focuses on five key themes: authority, expertise, growth models, standards, and norms. By exploring these themes, the course will help doctoral students develop their own research.

The course is instructed by leading researchers, who have published in top journals in these respective fields (for example, American Sociological Review, Governance, Review of International Political Economy, World Politics, among many others). They are academic specialists on governing and organizing global markets, especially on issue-areas such as global health, environmental standards, financial crises, peacebuilding, international taxation, and demographic challenges.

The course is arranged around five themes: authority; expertise; growth models; standards; and norms. These themes are central to the fields noted above and critical in the governance and organization of global markets. The course speaks directly to CBS’s engagement in ongoing academic and policy discussions about how authorities, businesses, and professionals organize markets across borders.

The course is constructed around five questions for how global markets are governed and organized.

• How is authority exercised?
• How is expertise arranged?
• How are growth models developed?
• How are standards formed?
• How do norms evolve?

The format is seminar presentations on the state of the art around the core concepts (authority, expertise, growth models, standards, and norms), followed by faculty presentations on how these themes inform their own research. Morning sessions will be devoted to the state of the art and faculty-developed research.

The afternoon sessions are devoted to discussing student projects based on circulated memos, with students presenting work for group discussion and one faculty member and designated students acting as discussants to kick off the conversations. Students are expected to spend a considerable amount of preparation time on not only their own short presentations (15 minutes) but also on their discussant roles and by providing written comments (0.5-1 page) on all papers. For their presentations, students are expected to discuss their research project, including research question, competing theories, research design and data collection, and an outline of the case empirics. The presentation must connect to the five themes discussed in the course. Students will receive faculty comments on the content (based on the presentation and written material) as well as on the format of the presentation itself. Students will also receive extensive feedback through the peer mechanism of written comments from all attending. In this manner students develop their skills in not only presenting their own work but critiquing and helping others.  

An additional element of the course is an ‘abstract games’ tournament. The exercise is to work in pairs in developing an abstract for a journal publication based on one of the five themes in the course. Participants will need to work together to produce an abstract that signals the main argument, theoretical position, methodology, type of data collected, and contribution to a defined field. The abstract games exercise helps students enhance their academic craftsmanship. As the abstracts being developed are imagined, but tied to the students’ research areas, this exercise is a kind of fun academic tournament for exploration and skills development.

Day 1

9:00-10:30 - Diane Stone on authority seminar

10:45-12:00 – Ole Jacob Sending on authority claims in intergovernmental organizations seminar

Suggested background reading for morning seminars: 

1. Kentikelenis, A. E., & Seabrooke, L. (2017). The politics of world polity: Script-writing in international organizations. American Sociological Review, 82(5), 1065-1092.
   
   
2. Sending, O. J. (2017). Recognition and liquid authority. International Theory, 9(2), 311-328.
   
   
3. Stone, D. (2019). Making Global Policy. Cambridge University Press.

Lunch, with ‘Abstract Games’ explained by Seabrooke

13:15-14:45 Presentations and discussion, led by Blyth

15:00-16:30 Presentations and discussion, led by Kentikelenis

16:30-17:30 Abstract Games development session

Day 2

9:30-11:00 – Ole Jacob Sending on expertise seminar

11:15-12:30 - Diane Stone presentation on think tanks and mechanisms of policy influence seminar

Suggested background reading for morning seminars: 

1. Hernando, M. G., Pautz, H., & Stone, D. (2018). Think tanks in ‘hard times’–the Global Financial Crisis and economic advice. Policy and Society, 37(2), 125-139.
   
   
2. Sending, O. J. (2015). The politics of expertise: Competing for authority in global governance. University of Michigan Press, ch.1.
   
   
3. Stone, D. (2019). Transnational policy entrepreneurs and the cultivation of influence: Individuals, organizations and their networks. Globalizations, 16(7), 1128-1144.

Lunch

13:00-14:30 Presentations and discussion, led by Blyth

14:45-16:15 Presentations and discussion, led by Seabrooke

16:30-17:30 Abstract Games development session

Day 3

9:30-11:00 - Mark Blyth on Growth Models seminar

11:15-12:30 - Alex Kentikelenis on economic crisis seminar

Suggested background reading for morning seminars: 

1. Lucio Bacarro, Mark Blyth and Jonas Pontusson (eds.) The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation (New York: Oxford University Press 2022 - Introduction)
   
   
2. Mark Blyth, Nicolo Fraccaroli and Aiden Regan, “The Ties that Blind: How International Financial Flows Shape Domestic Growth Models (SASE Conference Paper 2021)
   
   
3. Kentikelenis, A. E. (2018). The social aftermath of economic disaster: Karl Polanyi, countermovements in action, and the Greek crisis. Socio-Economic Review, 16(1), 39-59.

Lunch

13:00-14:30 Presentations and discussion, led by Sending

14:45-16:15 Presentations and discussion, led by Stone

16:30-17:30 Abstract Games development session

18:00 – Collective Dinner

Day 4

9:30-11:00 – Lasse Henriksen and Len Seabrooke on standards seminar

11:15-12:30 - Lasse Henriksen and Len Seabrooke on transnational environmental standards seminar

Suggested background reading for morning seminars: 

1. Fransen, L., Schalk, J., & Auld, G. (2020). Community structure and the behavior of transnational sustainability governors: Toward a multi‐relational approach. Regulation & Governance, 14(1), 3-25.

1. Green, J. F. (2017). The strength of weakness: pseudo-clubs in the climate regime. Climatic Change, 144(1), 41-52.
   
   
2. Henriksen, L. F., & Seabrooke, L. (2016). Transnational organizing: Issue professionals in environmental sustainability networks. Organization, 23(5), 722-741.

Lunch with ‘Abstract Games’, led by Seabrooke

13:45-14:30 Presentations and discussion, led by Blyth

14:45-16:15 Presentations and discussion, led by Kentikelenis

Day 5

9:30-11:00 – Alex Kentikelenis on norm evolution seminar

11:15-12:30 – Mark Blyth on good and bad policy ideas seminar

Suggested background reading for morning seminars: 

1. Kentikelenis, A. E., & Babb, S. (2019). The making of neoliberal globalization: norm substitution and the politics of clandestine institutional change. American Journal of Sociology, 124(6), 1720-1762.
   
   
2. Matthijs, M., & Blyth, M. (2018). When is it rational to learn the wrong lessons? Technocratic authority, social learning, and euro fragility. Perspectives on Politics, 16(1), 110-126.
   
   
3. Oren, T., & Blyth, M. (2019). From big bang to big crash: the early origins of the UK’s finance-led growth model and the persistence of bad policy ideas. New Political Economy, 24(5), 605-622.

Lunch with ‘Abstract Games’, led by Seabrooke

13:45-14:30 Presentations and discussion, led by Henriksen

14.45-16:15 Presentations and discussion, led by Seabrooke

After completing the course the students will:

• Have an expanded conceptual and theoretical vocabulary that works across fields and disciplines interested in the governance and organization of global markets.
  
  
• Be able to critically discuss fundamental concepts in the social sciences concerned with governing and organizing markets. They will be able to assess how these concepts apply to behaviour at international, transnational and global levels.
  
  
• Be able to formulate research designs that link research questions to core theoretical propositions, the gathering of appropriate empirics, and the construction of rigorous arguments.
  
  
• Be able to critically discuss others’ work as well as engage with feedback on their own work from peers and senior faculty.

Course literature

Suggested readings:

Blyth, M. (2013). Austerity: The history of a dangerous idea. Oxford University Press.

Blyth, M., & Matthijs, M. (2017). Black Swans, Lame Ducks, and the mystery of IPE's missing macroeconomy. Review of International Political Economy, 24(2), 203-231.

Harrington, B., & Seabrooke, L. (2020). Transnational Professionals. Annual Review of Sociology, 46, forthcoming.

Henriksen, L. F. (2015). The global network of biofuel sustainability standards-setters. Environmental Politics, 24(1), 115-137.

Henriksen, L. F., & Seabrooke, L. (2016). Transnational organizing: Issue professionals in environmental sustainability networks. Organization, 23(5), 722-741.

Kentikelenis, A., & Rochford, C. (2019). Power asymmetries in global governance for health: a conceptual framework for analyzing the political-economic determinants of health inequities. Globalization and Health, 15(1), 1-10.

Kentikelenis, A. E., & Seabrooke, L. (2017). The politics of world polity: Script-writing in international organizations. American Sociological Review, 82(5), 1065-1092.

Seabrooke, L., & Henriksen, L. F. (Eds.). (2017). Professional networks in transnational governance. Cambridge University Press.

Seabrooke, L., & Tsingou, E. (2015). Professional emergence on transnational issues: Linked ecologies on demographic change. Journal of Professions and Organization, 2(1), 1-18.

Stone, D. (2019). Making Global Policy. Cambridge University Press.

Tsingou, E. (2015). Club governance and the making of global financial rules. Review of International Political Economy, 22(2), 225-256.Course Literature