Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-k72x6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-27T00:14:34.342Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Introduction: multiplicity and plurality in the world of standards

Symposium on multiplicity and plurality in the world of standards

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Marie Laure Djelic  and
Frank den Hond
Marie Laure Djelic
Affiliation:
ESSEC Business School – Management Department, Cergy-Pontoise, France
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Globalization is often described as a chaotic process which signals the end of national institutions’ ability to regulate markets. However, a closer look reveals a new world of standards and regulations, often with a transnational scope and reach. Contemporary rule making and rule monitoring increasingly take place in the context of transnational arenas that bring around the table many different types of actors, all of whom have or feel to have a “stake” in the regulatory project at hand, yet often for quite diverse reasons and with varying interests. While standardization would seem to suggest regularity, rationalization, and a reduction of diversity if not the advance of homogeneity and convergence, we can easily document a surprising multiplicity and plurality in our transnational world of standards. In most industries, fields and arenas, we find multiple standards and standard setting coalitions. Even so, scholars have only barely started to explore this multiplicity and plurality. Building upon what we know on technical standards, this Symposium describes and explains important patterns in the world of transnational standard-setting, revealing the nature of this plurality and the ways in which it impacts upon and is impacted by different groups of actors involved.

Information

Type
Symposium on ‘Multiplicity and Plurality in the World of Standards’, Guest Editors: Frank den Hond and Marie-Laure Djelic
Information
Business and Politics , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , April 2014 , pp. 67 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © V.K. Aggarwal 2014 and published under exclusive license to Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ahrne, Göran, and Brunsson, Nils. 2006. “Organizing the World.” In Transnational Governance: Institutional Dynamics of Regulation, edited by Laure Djelic, Marie and Sahlin-Andersson, Kerstin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bartley, Tim. 2007. “Institutional Emergence in an Era of Globalization: The Rise of Transnational Private Regulation of Labor and Environmental Conditions.” American Journal of Sociology 113 (2): 297–351.Google Scholar
Beck, Ulrich. 1992. Risk Society. Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Boli, John. 2006. “The Rationalization of Virtue and Virtuosity in World Society.” In Transnational Governance, edited by Laure Djelic, Marie and Sahlin-Andersson, Kerstin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Botzem, Sebastian, and Dobusch, Leonhard. 2012. “Standardization Cycles: A Process Perspective on the Formation and Diffusion of Transnational Standards.” Organization Studies 33 (5–6): 737–762.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, John, and Drahos, Peter. 2000. Global Business Regulation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brunsson, Nils. 1989. The Organization of Hypocrisy: Talk, Decisions and Actions in Organizations. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Brunsson, Nils, and Jacobsson, Bengt. 2000. A World of Standards. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brunsson, Nils, Rasche, Andreas, and Seidl, David. 2012. The Dynamics of Standardization: Three Perspectives on Standards in Organization Studies. Organization Studies 33 (5–6): 613–32.Google Scholar
Büthe, Tim. 2010. “Private Regulation in the Global Economy: A (P)Review.” Business and Politics 12 (3): 1–38.Google Scholar
Büthe, Tim, and Mattli, Walter. 2011. The New Global Rulers: The Privatization of Regulation in the World Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Davis, Kevin, Fisher, Angelina, Kingsbury, Benedict, and Engle Merry, Sally, eds. 2012. Governance by Indicators: Global Power through Classification and Rankings. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
den Hond, Frank, Frank, G. de Bakker, A., and Neergaard, Peter. 2007. “Introduction to Managing Corporate Social Responsibility in Action.” In Managing Corporate Social Responsibility in Action: Talking, Doing and Measuring, edited by den Hond, Frank, Frank, G. de Bakker, A. and Neergaard, Peter. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Djelic, Marie Laure. 2011. “From the Rule of Law to the Law of Rules: The Dynamics of Transnational Governance and their Local Impact.” International Studies of Management and Organization 41 (1): 35–61.Google Scholar
Djelic, Marie Laure, and Quack, Sigrid, eds. 2010. Transnational Communities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Djelic, Marie Laure, and Quack, Sigrid. 2012. “Transnational Governance through Standard Setting: The Role of Transnational Communities.” In Capitalisms and Capitalism in the 21st Century, edited by Morgan, Glenn and Whitley, Richard. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Djelic, Marie Laure, and Sahlin-Andersson, Kirsten, eds. 2006. Transnational Governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dobusch, Leonhard, and Quack, Sigrid. 2012. “Framing standards, mobilizing users: Copyright versus fair use in transnational regulation.” Review of International Political Economy 20 (1): 52–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egan, Michelle. 2001. Constructing a European Market. Standards, Regulation, and Governance. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Endres, Jody M. 2010. “Clearing the Air: The Meta-Standard Approach to Ensuring Biofuels Environmental and Social Sustainability.” Virginia Environmental Law Journal 28 (73): 73–120.Google Scholar
Funk, Jeffrey L. 2002. Global Competition Between and Within Standards: The Case of Mobile Phones. London: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. 2000. Runaway World: How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Graz, Jean-Christophe, and Nölke, Andreas, eds. 2008. Transnational Private Governance and its Limits. Milton Park: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hall, Rodney B., and Biersteker, Thomas J., eds. 2002. The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Richard, Mansell, Robin, and Skea, Jim, eds. 1995. Standards, Innovation, and Competitiveness: Politics and Economics of Standards in Natural and Technical Environments. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Higgott, Richard, Underhill, Geoffrey R. D., and Bieler, Andreas. 2000. Non-State Actors and Authority in the Global System. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
ISO/IEC. 2004. “ISO/IEC Guide 2:2004: Standardization and related activities – General vocabulary.” Available through http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=39976, accessed November 2013.Google Scholar
Jacobsson, Bengt. 2006. “Regulated Regulators. Global Trends of State Transformation.” In Transnational Governance, edited by Laure Djelic, Marie and Sahlin-Andersson, Kerstin, pp. 205–24. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kirton, John J., and Trebilcock, Michael J. 2004. Hard Choices, Soft Law: Voluntary Standards in Global Trade, Environment and Social Governance. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Levi-Faur, David, and Jordana, Jacint. 2005. “Globalizing Regulatory Capitalism.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 598 (1): 6–9.Google Scholar
Mattli, Walter, and Woods, Ngaire, eds. 2009. The Politics of Global Regulation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, John, and Rowan, Brian. 1977. “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony.” American Journal of Sociology 83 (2): 340–63.Google Scholar
Mörth, Ulrika, ed. 2004. Soft Law in Governance and Regulation: An Interdisciplinary Analysis. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Reinecke, Juliane, Manning, Stephan, and Hagen, Olivier von. 2012. “The Emergence of a Standards Market: Multiplicity of Sustainability Standards in the Global Coffee Industry.” Organization Studies 33 (5–6): 789–812.Google Scholar
Rose, Niklas, and Miller, Peter. 1992. “Political Power beyond the State: Problematics of Government.” British Journal of Sociology 43 (2): 173–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, Andrew L. 2005. “Standardization in History: A Review Essay with an Eye to the Future.” In The Standards Edge: Future Generations, edited by Bolin, Sherrie. Ann Arbor: Sheridan Books.Google Scholar
Sahlin, Kerstin, and Wedlin, Linda. 2008. “Circulating Ideas: Imitation, Translation and Editing.” In Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, edited by Greenwood, Royston, Olivier, Christine, Suddaby, Roy and Sahlin, Kerstin. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Shaffer, Gregory, ed. 2013. Transnational Legal Ordering and State Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Susanne K., and Werle, Raymund. 1998. Coordinating Technology: Studies in the International Standardization of Telecommunications. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Tamm-Hallström, Kristina. 2004. Organizing International Standardization. ISO and the IASC in Quest of Authority. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Tamm-Hallström, Kristina, and Boström, Magnus. 2010 Transnational Multi-Stakeholder Standardization: Organizing Fragile Non-State Authority. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Timmermans, Stefan, and Epstein, Steven. 2010. “A World of Standards but not a Standard World: Toward a Sociology of Standards and Standardization.” Annual Review of Sociology 36 (1): 69–89.Google Scholar
Vogel, Steven K. 1996. Freer Markets, More Rules: Regulatory Reform in Advanced Industrial Countries. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
von Burg, Urs. 2001. The Triumph of Ethernet: Technological Communities and the Battle for the LAN Standard. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Zürn, Michael. 2012. “Global Governance as Multi-level Governance.” In The Oxford Handbook of Governance, edited by Levi-Faur, David. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar