Business Regulation and Non-State Actors: Whose Standards? Whose Development?

This volume assesses the achievements and limitations of a new set of non-state or multistakeholder institutions that are concerned with improving the social and environmental record of business, and holding corporations to account. It does so from a perspective that aims to address two limitations that often characterize this field of inquiry. First, fragmentation: articles or books typically focus on one or a handful of cases. Second, the development dimension: what does such regulation imply for developing countries and subaltern groups in terms of well-being, empowerment and sustainability? This volume examines more than 20 initiatives or institutions associated with different regulatory and development approaches, including the business-friendly corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda, 'corporate accountability' and 'fair trade' or social economy.

This is an impressive collection of essays by leading authorities in the field. The book covers over 20 governance arrangements that involve non-state actors as central players in holding corporations to account. The chapters are rich with detail and provide key insights on how these governance initiatives function and their implications for broader questions of development, human rights and sustainability. The book will be an important source for anyone interested in these new forms of governance. Jennifer Clapp, University of Waterloo, Canada

The editors have produced a timely collection that offers new perspectives on increasingly important institutions regulating both trade and development. It rightly questions cosy assumptions about who benefits and how transformational these institutions may be, but more significantly they ask what lies beyond standards and monitoring. One for my reading list! Anne Tallontire, University of Leeds, UK

Contents
Introduction: Multistakeholder Regulation in a Development Perspective, Peter Utting
1. Development and the Problematic of Non-State Regulation, Darryl Reed
2. Activism, Business Regulation and Development, Peter Utting
3. Assessing the ETI Codes of Labour Practice, Stephanie Barrientos and Sally Smith
4. Social Accountability 8000 and Socioeconomic Development, Andreas Rasche and Dirk Ulrich Gilbert
5. The International Organization for Standardization, Stepan Wood
6. The United Nations Global Compact and Development, Catia Gregoratti
7. The Global Reporting Initiative: Promise and Limitations, David L. Levy and Halina Szejnwald Brown
8. Balanço Social and Sustainability Reporting in Brazil, Eduardo R. Gomes and Ana Maria Kirschner
9. The Forest Stewardship Council, Graeme Auld and Benjamin Cashore
10. The Marine Stewardship Council, Graeme Auld
11. The Global G.A.P., Agni Kalfagianni and Doris Fuchs
12. Global Retail Accululation Strategies and Wal-Mart's CSR Regime, Ngai-Ling Sum
13. Applying the Atlanta Agreement on Child Labour in South Asia, Peter Lund-Thomsen and Khalid Nadvi
14. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Carola Kantz
15. Blood Diamonds, Non-State Actors and Development: The Kimberley Process and Beyond, Ian Smillie
16. Peoples' Tribunals in Latin America, Marcelo Saguier
17. The Worker Rights Consortium, Don Wells
18. International Framework Agreements and Development, Nikolaus Hammer
19. IFOAM and the Instiutionalization of Organic Agriculture, René Audet and Corinne Gendron
20. 'Fair Trade Gold': Prospects for Africa's Artisanal Miners, Gavin Hilson and Paul Kamlongera
21. The World Fair Trade Organization: From Trust to Compliance, Eileen Davenport and William Low
22. Fairtrade International (FLO), Darryl Reed
23. Comercio Justo México: Potential Lessons for Fairtrade? Alistair M. Smith and Francisco VanDerHoff Boersma
24. From Non-State Regulation to Governance? Shifting the Site of Contestation, Darryl Reed and Ananya Mukherjee-Reed

To read the Introduction and Conclusion, please use the links under Additional information on the right.

The two chapters are authors' own materials for the book: Business Regulation and Non-State Actors: Whose Standards? Whose Development?, Routledge/UNRISD, 2012, pages 1-18 and 326-337. Posted with permission from Routledge.