Governance and Development Working Group

Session title: Multilevel governance, development and security

Download the French version of the call for papers here

The range of actors involved in development and security policy issues has broadened to include governmental organisations above and below the state, as well as non-state actors such as NGOs, think tanks, multinational companies and so forth. Global, regional and local levels of decision-making have gained importance alongside the national one, with networks and agencies other than the sovereign state playing an increasingly significant role. The concept of multilevel governance (MLG) represents one possibility to approach this new reality.

The MLG approach was initially developed to grasp the evolving decision-making system in the EU, but the intention here is to explore its wider applicability. MLG is based on the idea that there has been a shift from the domination of the nation-state to the relative autonomy of actors at other levels, with the state delegating or losing sovereignty to other levels or actors. Nevertheless, state authorities can also assume new kinds of powers by co-ordinating the activities of various institutions for the benefit of their own policy goals.

We plan to hold panel sessions on multilevel governance and its implications for understanding and analysing the interplay between current development and security policies. We welcome paper proposals that look at either a specific level of MLG, (for instance, regional organisations or decentralisation), or that raise critical questions concerning the MLG model (such as issues of participation, or capacity and influence of different actors). We look forward to receiving paper proposals on a range of governance agencies and issues.

Conveners:
Liisa Laakso
Masters' Programme in Development and International Co-operationDepartment of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of Jyväskylä
Finnland
E-mail: liisa.laakso@yfi.jyu.fi

Tim Shaw
Institute of Commonwealth Studies
United Kingdom
E-mail: tim.shaw@sas.ac.uk

Gordon Crawford
Centre for Development Studies
United Kingdom
E-mail: g.crawfordleeds.ac.uk

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