Recursive recognition in the international political economy

Abstract

How are the tools that govern the world economy legitimated? Here we discuss how governance tools-such as policy scripts, templates, and benchmarks-are developed to contain particular types of knowledge. Such tools contain blueprints of how the world economy should work. Understanding how they are produced and legitimated is important if we are to comprehend how they replicate particular bodies of knowledge, policy languages, and norms. We suggest that 'recursive recognition' is an important trend in the international political economy, where different types of organizations legitimate particular governance tools; especially ones producing common metrics. For example: a private foundation releases a study on best practices in policy area X, which is then referred to as best practice by an intergovernmental organization, an NGO, a firm, and a global professional service firm. Investigating the extent of this phenomenon requires addressing two blind spots. The first blind spot is conceptual in the reification of agency and authority based on organizational types. The second blind spot is empirical in identifying how pervasive recursive recognition has become, and how it affirms the reproduction of power asymmetries.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals as a North Star: How an intermediary network makes, takes, and retrofits the meaning of the Sustainable Development Goals

“…A shared understanding that requires specific action would conflict with the practices of some members of the group; so, either those intermediaries would leave the network – as WBCSD did – or would be co‐opted into pursuing the universalistic perspective – as happened with Volans – showing the incentive to exclude those who do not agree with this shared perspective (see Seabrooke & Henriksen 2017). The generalist and universalistic perspective of the SDGs provides flexibility for all intermediaries to stipulate their own SDG actions underneath the broader SDG umbrella (see work on “recursivity,” Broome & Seabrooke 2020).…”

Consultancies in public administration

“…In sum, interactions between consultancies and public administrations center around how status, expertise, and ethos are recognized within the relationship. When aggregated, such recognition becomes an important source of claims to authority, as well as normalized relations that enable governance tools (Broome & Seabrooke, 2021). In general, we can see that consultancies' claims to best practice and access to unique knowledge are recognized by public administrations as a status attribute linked to their market position and global reach (e.g.…”

Bridging international political economy and public policy and administration research on central banking

“…In terms of diffusion, it can be claimed that emulation and learning played a critical role in the financial stability pursuit of the CBRT. Moreover, by framing its unconventional, experimental policies as macroprudential tools, the CBRT aimed to legitimate its policy framework in the eyes of domestic and international observers (Broome & Seabrooke, 2020). Nevertheless, CBRT's active financial stability orientation created a political backlash.…”