IS221-Week FOUR_2024

IS221 Week FOUR Lecture . 2024. Dr Nazanin Shahrokni

Actors of Global Governance

AGENDA

Event Announcement

Studying the State

Actors of Global Governance

PART I

Song of the Week

PART II

Working with the State: To do or not do

SFU International Studies Student Association invites you to Screen Stories & Social Nights!

🎬🧠 Get ready for high-stakes trivia, epic prizes, and an action-packed screening of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol! 💣🔥 Can you crack the toughest questions on global affairs with snacks and drinks before Ethan Hunt saves the day? 📆Date: September 28th, 2024 🕓Time: 4:00 pm 📍Location: MBC Forum ChambersRegister here!

El Vals del Obrero (shared by Marina Barcelona Tortajada)

Lyrics & Translation

Actors of Global Governance

In 1944, 44 allied nations met in Bretton Woods for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference to discuss policies and regulations that would maximize the potential benefits and profits that could be derived from the global trading system. What resulted from the conference were the Bretton Woods Agreement and the Bretton Woods System. Essentially, the agreement called for the newly created IMF to determine the fixed rate of exchange for currencies around the world.

Institutions of global governance- the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO are presented as neutral players seeking maximum economic efficiency for all through attempting to ensure ‘fair dealing’ in the market.

While many proclaimed the weaknesses of the state were leading to a post-statist era, others reflected upon how the state was repositioning itself in order to secure its continued role in mediating between capital and labour. The argument was that capital needs the regulatory power of the state in order to do business, but that the state needs to be committed to economic liberalization in order to fulfil the potential of globalizing markets. What we are witnessing is not the demise of the nation-state but its ‘internationalization’; not its destruction but its transformation.

How do Bretton Woods Institutions Work?

How do Bretton Woods Institutions Work?

Genderingthe State

Feminist Theories of the State

The State is Janus-faced

State Intervention Needed

State Intervention Costly

Disengage from the State

Wendy Brown (1992)Nancy Fraser (2003)Catherine MacKinnon (1989)Ann Orloff (1996)

The State is Male

Formed & Populated by Men

Structured along Gender Lines

Julia Adams (2005)Wendy Brown (1992)

UNDERSTANDINGTHE STATE

You can use the same diagram to think about the state in terms of race & class

GROUP ACTIVITY

Is the state a problematic instrument or arena of feminist, anti-racist, decolonial political change? ​ If the institutions, practices & discourses of the state are as inextricably, however differently, bound up with the prerogatives of manhood in a male dominant society as they are with capital and class in a capitalist society and with white supremacy in a racist society, what are the implications for feminist politics?

Activists' DilemmaSeek change by working with/through the state or by disengaging from it?

Position ONE: Engage with the state critically, because while flawed, it remains a powerful tool for redistributive justice, especially when pushed by strong social movements. Position TWO: Be wary of the state under neoliberalism, as it primarily serves market interests. Rather than relying on the state, focus on building democratic, grassroots alternatives that challenge the hegemony of neoliberal policies.

Studying the State

1

2

3

Disaggregate the State & the Gender Issues

Scale-ing the State

Compare & Contextualize

ompare & ontextualize

C

Compare:​ - One state across time​- One state compared to another

Contextualize:​ - Take into account International norms & treaties​- Regime type (Military vs. Democratic) matters​ - Church-State relationship is important​ - Consider the presence or absence of strong women’s movements

Scale-ing the State

Global

Local

National

The everyday statee.g. Frontline workers

Disaggregate the State

See Kimberly Mogran and Ann Orloff. 2017. The Many Hands of the State: Theorizing Political Authority and Social Control. UK: Cambridge University Press.

Military

Education

Media

Social Welfare

Police

Different Faces of the State

VS

Hard PowerProhibitionRepressive

Soft PowerProtectionIdeoleogical

Have a good week!