Ivan Lesay

Recent discussions have emphasized the need for multilateral development banks to embrace intellectual diversity and to avoid the hegemony of a single view of economic development. (Ocampo, Kregel, and Griffith-Jones: International finance and development, p. 8)

 The aim of this paper is to identify which current of development economics thinking inspires the programming of European Investment Bank's (EIB) development investments outside the European Union. Despite the growing significance of the EIB's development mandate, economico-politico-ideological sources of this relevant developmental institution have not been mapped out so far.

 My preliminary hypothesis based on observing the EIB's developmental discourse is that the institution's inspirations in the area of economic development are fairly limited. After selecting the key documents authored by the Bank and related to development, I will be asking with which of the outlined (simplified) theoretical currents of thinking in development economics EIB policies (i. e. declaratory level of the Bank's activity) could be identified. Do they draw from 1. the early development economics, 2. the Washington Consensus, 3. post-Washington Consensus, 4. heterodox development economics, or some combination of the four?

 I am trying to approach the research question drawing on methods and knowledge of more social science disciplines. In the core part, I am trying to apply the critical text discourse analysis rooted in the economic sociology - focusing on economic phenomena from the perspective of their actors and their cognitive and perception inspiration sources, but also their limits. In this sense, I also draw from the similar cross-sectional discipline of political economy. It is particularly relevant in the theoretical part, where I work with various theories of economic development, as they, in their essence, emanate from various ideas on human nature, organisation of society and working of economy. My research thus balances on the edge of more social sciences, such as economics, sociology, and political science. The greatest challenge - and if I succeed, also an original contribution - of the paper would be to identify, formally reconstruct and interpret EIB's 'cognitive map of developmental thinking'.

Yuan-Ming Chiao

  This paper addresses the interaction between state and business elites in the formulation of trade policy between divided, antagonizing states, where protracted sovereignty disputes preclude the establishment of normal and formalized diplomatic relations.  First, by noting how the treatment of economic relationships between antagonized states have been predominantly appropriated under the security dimensions of statecraft and artificially segregated from "high politics" it argues the need for a critical analysis of the effects of competing and complementary "localizations" of globalization discourses in analyzing the concurrent framing, justification and legitimization of trade policy in these cases as well as research within International Political Economy (IPE). 

By identifying hegemonic discourses of policy elites in Taiwan in time of democratic transitions of power, this paper also examines the effects of competing and complementary globalization discourses (neo-liberal structural readjustment policies, trade liberalization, etc.) and the role of domestic elites in the framing of national identity and economic sovereignty issues with regard to trade.  Using a frame-critical approach, the sustainability and durability of selected storylines created by policy elites in political parties and the business community in the articulation of trade policy including the use of identity politics, methodological nationalism and the integration of competing and alternative discourses are analyzed.  Special emphasis is placed on the important role of narrative framing at the heels of the negotiation and signing of a historical trade agreement ('Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement', or ECFA) between rivals China and Taiwan later this year.  As a comparative reference point, the similarities of political divisions and interactions between the Democratic Republic of Germany (GDR, former East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, former West Germany) as well as between South (ROK) and North Korea (DPRK) will also be briefly touched upon.

Joscha Wullweber

Gülay Caglar (Humboldt Universität Berlin)

IPE has undergone a significant shift from the analysis of asymmetric interdependence and power relations in the global economy to a paradigm, referred to as Open Economy Politics (OEP), which seeks to explain how institutions "aggregate conflicting societal interests" (Lake 2009) at national level and how this structures international bargaining. This, what Robert O. Keohane (2009) calls, 'new' IPE is characterized by a methodological reductionism and rigor inspired by neoclassical economics. In the context of this theoretical and methodological development within the field of IPE two approaches still remain in the margins: historical materialist approaches as well as post-structuralist approaches. As post-positivist theories, they both challenge methodological individualism and they both highlight the close links between ideas and practices. However, as Andreas Bieler and Adam D. Morton (2008) point out, they differ in the way how they conceptualize the role of ideas or intersubjective meaning, respectively and power relations in the global economy.

The objective of this paper is twofold: Firstly, it seeks to give an overview on the current state of theoretical debates within IPE. Secondly, by thoroughly discussing the commonalities and differences between materialist and post-structuralist IPE, the paper aims at developing an approach which takes account of the constitutive role of ideas on the one hand and the underlying power structures on the other hand, without collapsing into the problems of either voluntarism or determinism.

Eva Hartmann (University of Lausanne)

Towards a new strategy of the transationalisation of the state? Insights from the sphere of social policy

Social policy has been crucial in establishing the nation as an „imagined community" (Anderson). This sphere has been one of the few remaining bulwarks of national sovereignty in the European integration process organised by the European Community. Accordingly changes in this field will provide insights in the enabling conditions of an emerging postnational state with its own imagined community. Drawing on Michel Foucault and his concept of governmentality I will argue in this paper that the market has become instrumental in the postnationalisation of statehood. The delegation of certain control functions to non-state actors are thus to be seen not as an end in itself but as a major enabling condition for the Europeanisation of this policy field. Its regulatory framework includes major control mechanisms that used to be in many countries at the core of nation state's competences.

Bejamin Stephan (Universität Hamburg)

REDD - this acronym stands for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. This was the most hotly discussed topic at COP15, the most recent international climate negotiations, in Copenhagen. It is the newest step in expanding the global carbon market, in this case: turning nondeforestation into a tradable good and establishing a market for it. In this conference contribution I will develop a discourse analytical perspective on the process of market constitution, with which I will analyze the evolution of the REDD mechanism.

 The idea that markets are not a natural phenomena but should rather be conceived as social institutions, put into place by political decisions and based on specific social practices, has been around for decades. More recently, a number of contributions from political economy and economic sociology tried to shed new light on the preconditions and practices necessary for market constitution. What has still only been sparsely developed however, is a discourse analytical approach of the process.

 In this paper I will develop such a perspective by reviewing the most influential contributions to the debate made by political economists or economic sociologists. The intention is to re-read them from a discourse analytical perspective. I will show that discourse analytical concepts can give additional insights on the process of market constitution and are especially helpful to understand the process of disentangling objects and making them commensurable goods, both preconditions for a market to come into existence.

 I will base my reading of the literature on two analytical concepts: Michel Foucault's Governmentality approach and Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's discourse theory. The Governmentality approach enables us to identify and highlight rationalities, technologies and subject configurations that are at play when markets are being constituted. Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory and its emphasis on hegemony enables us to identify and analyze the discursive struggles and practices through which these rationalities or logics are being sedimented and "naturalized" in society and markets as social institutions can eventually come into existence.

 The paper will close with an explorative application of this discourse analytical approach on REDD. Emissions from deforestation make up between 12% and 20% of the total global greenhouse gas emissions. Since COP13 at Bali negotiators at the international climate negotiations have been planning to reduce these emissions by linking forest degradation to the carbon market. While a REDD mechanism has not yet been finalized, it is very likely to get agreed upon during 2010. However, there is already an immense activity including a myriad of studies and numerous pilot projects that seem to be setting the standards. These provide plenty material for analysis. Doing this, the paper will identify the rationality and technologies (e.g. calculating the carbon content of forests) the idea of REDD is being based on.

Antonia Graf (Universität Münster)

In the field of International Political Economy discursive power of private actors is defined as the power to influence politics and the policy process as such by shaping ideas and norms (Fuchs 2007). This definition corresponds with Luke's third dimension of power: "The power to shape, influence or determine others' beliefs and desires, thereby securing their compliance" (Lukes 2005). Both descriptions have in common that they avoid giving closed definition, but rather say something about their channels of effect, through highlighting the possibility of influencing politics (Fuchs) and the moment of compliance (Lukes).

Other authors, too, emphasize the channels of effect, when they describe the discursive dimension of power. By using plenty of terms, they try to specify the abstract one. Hence the discursive power operates with beliefs, ideas, desires, preferences and virtues. By using the concept of norms one can identify a missing link in the theories of power: the individuals comprehending reception. Underlying norms in the comprehending reception allow for the exertion of discursive power. They provide a pool of standards for an individual's appropriate behavior (Finnemore, Sikking 1998), which enables the individual to believe, to prefer or to desire.

According to Lukes, the analysis of discursive power needs to focus on the individual reproduction of norms and the theoretical enhancement of a subjective dimension. The term ‚discursive net' (Foucault 1976) stresses the omnipresence and intertwining of power with what is perceived as reality. Butler recurs on Foucault when she uses the term ‚Matrix' in her concept of heteronormativity. By emphasizing the meaning of everyday life and the complexity of power, they stress the productive and performative dimension of power which needs the sustained re-production by the individual.

The analysis of discursive power from a post-structuralist perspective requires the reflection of actor-centric norm arrangements. These norm arrangements achieve meaning in context with other norm arrangements. By elaborating on this process the paper focuses on the felicity conditions of the examination of discursive power, as the effective examination of discursive power is the pre-condition for shaping the policy process.

Christian Sheper (University of Duisburg-Essen )

Beyond economistic and structuralist approaches to transnational production: Power, politics and governance in global production networks

Concepts of transnational production relations have formed a large body of literature within the last two decades. While the two prominent models of global commodity chains and global value chains have derived primarily from transaction cost economics and structural world systems theory, the theoretical concept of global production networks (GPN) aims at a more ambitious representation of social and political dimensions.

Whereas the GPN approach has mainly been developed by economic geographers of the so-called "Manchester School", the paper integrates two aspects that are central to a critical political economy of transnational production systems. First, it links the GPN approach with a concept of the political as the site of basic social antagonisms, thereby spotlighting implications for political contestation. The conceptualisation of global production networks as a ground of the political allows for a more sophisticated consideration of various fundamental social dimensions linked to the "transnationalisation of the factory", and an understanding of global production as a contested field that is characterised by hegemonies of meaning creation and different modalities of power exertion.

 Second, the paper examines different modalities of power that are exerted through production relations. Underlying concepts of power within the debate are often implicit and usually vary between the idea of power as capability "held" by central actors, such as major buyer companies and lead firms, and a structural notion of power in terms of flowing and accumulating transnational capital. However useful these concepts are, they so far do not offer a thorough understanding of the complex inter-firm and intra-firm relations of power entangled with cooperation and conflict. Drawing on actor-network theory, the paper conceptualises power as a spatially and temporally specific practice that is exercised by various actors within a network of production relations. Thereby, not only vertical relations alongside "chains" of value creation are considered, but also horizontal inter-business relations against the background of the wider social and institutional context.

While focusing primarily on the ontological implications of this network perspective, the major conceptual elements are specified by making reference to the governance of transnational business conduct in the electronics industry with regard to voluntary social standards and conditions of labour.