Theorising multistakeholder partnerships as a space between fields Moira Faul & Jordan Tchilingirian

The Global Development Institute Lecture Series is pleased to present Moira V. Faul, Université de Genève, Switzerland and Jordan Tchilingirian, University of Bath, to talk about: Theorising multistakeholder partnerships as a space between fields: integrative and dissociative dynamics

The Global Development Lecture Series brings experts involved in global development to The University of Manchester. It aims to facilitate dialogue and discussion, providing a space for leading development thinkers to share their latest research and ideas.

The recent expansion from multilateral cooperation among relatively homogeneous actors (states) to multistakeholder arrangements prioritises the inclusion of non-state actors in global governance. Thus, a multiplicity of heterogeneous stakeholders are mobilised into new, multi-stakeholder, ‘spaces’ between their home fields. Yet this central feature of the multi-stakeholder phenomenon is mainly overlooked and under-theorised. This article extends the current multi-stakeholder governance literature by theorising multi-stakeholder global governance as a space between fields. Theorising multi stakeholder governance as a space between fields draws attention to the co-existing dynamics that pull stakeholders back towards their home fields (dissociative) and also towards the space between fields (integrative). We approach theory building with three preliminary hypotheses drawing on literatures in the multi-stakeholder global governance of climate, education and health. The hypotheses consider dissociative dynamics (focused on the interaction of multi-stakeholder arrangements with stakeholders’ home fields); integrative dynamics (focused on the ways in which multi-stakeholder interactions affect global governance); and how these may affect the construction of the objects of global governance (sustainable development in this instance). Our theorisation of multi-stakeholder global governance as a ‘space between fields’ explains multi-stakeholder governance as an essentially inter-field, inter-discursive and inter-personal phenomenon, which holds consequences for both global governance and sustainable development.