Transnational multi-stakeholder standardization : organizing fragile non-state authority

This enriching book provides a novel analysis of the organizational processes behind the establishment, maintenance, and challenges of non-state authority. In doing so, it compares three transnational, multi-stakeholder standard-setting processes: those of the Forest Stewardship Council, the Marine Stewardship Council, and the International Organization for Standardization on the subject of social responsibility (ISO 26000). The authors theorize the fragility of authority defined as legitimate power. They examine the problematic nature of the long-term transnational multi-stakeholder work upon which this authority is based, including the risks of being ruled out by competing rule setters or being split apart by the centrifugal forces inherent in the multi-stakeholder logics. Scholars of organization studies, sociology, political science, and related disciplines will find this eloquent book of great importance to their field. Practitioners, including standardization experts, managers, management consultants, movement intellectuals, as well as policymakers, should not be without this important book.