| 1. |
- Garsten, Christina, et al.
(författare)
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Secret Societies, Opaque Routes: Advancing Corporate Politics through the World Economic Forum
- 2014
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- LAEMOS 2014Subtheme 8The Corporatization of Politics and the Politicization of Corporations The Politicization of Corporations: The Case of the World Economic ForumChristina Garsten and Adrienne Sörbom Abstract This paper departs from an interest in the involvement of business leaders in the sphere of politics, in the broad sense. At a general level, we are seeing a proliferation of usages of non-market corporate strategies, such as testimony, lobbying, interlocking of positions and other means to influence policymakers at all levels of government and international institutions as an adjunct to the firm’s market strategies. This paper brings to the fore the role of corporations in the World Economic Forum (WEF), and how firms act through the WEF to advance their interests, financial as well as political. What is the role of business in the WEF, and how do business corporations advance their interests through the WEF? Inspired by Stephen Barley's (2010) work on how corporations have systematically built an institutional field to exert greater influence on the US Federal government, we aim to enhance knowledge on how the WEF and the 1,000 corporations that are active within it influence the larger socio-cultural context in which they are embedded. Empirically we depart from ethnographic field studies of the World Economic Forum, drawing on observations from WEF-events and interviews with participants and organizers. Theoretically we will employ an organizational perspective, using the concept of "partial organization" as introduced by Göran Ahrne and Nils Brunsson (2011). The results show that corporations find a strategically positioned amplifier for their non-market interests in the WEF. The WEF functions to enhance and gain leverage for their ideas and priorities in a highly selective and resourceful environment. In the long run, both the market priorities and the political interests of business may be served by engagement in the WEF. However, the WEF cannot only be conceived as the extended voice of corporations. The WEF also makes strategic use of the corporations to organize and expand their own agency, which not necessarily coincides with the interests of multinational corporations. By way of corporate financial resources, the tapping of knowledge and expertise, and access to vast networks of business relations, the WEF is also able to amplify its own voice. The organized network, in the format of partial organization, which is the preferred form of organization of the WEF, comes with weakened power in the form of oversight and sanctions for the member corporations, but may allow for a concentration of resources at the center. The periphery has little sanctioned insight into the core of the organization, and a weak voice in influencing the operations of the organization. Actors in the partially organized environment thus have to rely on the goodwill of the leadership.
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| 2. |
- Garsten, Christina, et al.
(författare)
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The Politicization of Corporations: The Case of the World Economic Forum
- 2014
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Politicization of Corporations: The Case of the World Economic ForumChristina Garsten and Adrienne Sörbom Abstract This paper departs from an interest in the involvement of business leaders in the sphere of politics, in the broad sense. At a general level, we are seeing a proliferation of usages of non-market corporate strategies, such as testimony, lobbying, interlocking of positions and other means to influence policymakers at all levels of government and international institutions as an adjunct to the firm’s market strategies. This paper brings to the fore the role of corporations in the World Economic Forum (WEF), and how firms act through the WEF to advance their interests, financial as well as political. What is the role of business in the WEF, and how do business corporations advance their interests through the WEF? Empirically we depart from ethnographic field studies of the World Economic Forum, drawing on observations from WEF-events and interviews with participants and organizers. We propose that corporations find a strategically positioned amplifier for their non-market interests in the WEF. The WEF functions to enhance and gain leverage for their ideas and priorities in a highly selective and resourceful environment. In the long run, both the market priorities and the political interests of business may be served by engagement in the WEF. By way of corporate financial resources, the tapping of knowledge and expertise, and access to vast networks of business relations, the WEF is also able to amplify its own voice and agency in the field of global governance.
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| 3. |
- Garsten, Christina, et al.
(författare)
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Think tanks as policy brokers in partially organized fields: The case of World Economic Forum
- 2014
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As has been noted in research on think tanks it is difficult to describe what a think tank is, and to pinpoint what it is in think tank activities that generates powerful relationships towards other actors. This is even more the case when talking of transnational think tanks. In this report we give a theoretical account of how relationships organized by transnational think tanks may be analyzed.In the report we are drawing on empirical findings from the World Economic Forum (WEF), seen as a transnational think tank addressing a non-national audience. We are suggesting that think-tank experts are engaged in the brokerage of ideas and knowledge, implying anintermediary activity, wherein ideas are translated, shaped and formatted. Operating at the interfaces of various actors, think-tank experts formulate and negotiate ideas with and among actors, encouraging them to adopt and use those ideas.The main argument in the report is that this brokerage can be seen to generate ‘partially organized fields’. The think tank organizes other actors not by constructing a complete organization, but by establishing and maintaining a decided network, drawing upon such organizational elements as membership, monitoring and sanctions. This allows think tanks to maintain a degree of flexibility, whilst gaining control of valuable resources.In the case of the WEF the report show that the combination of a small core of completeorganization with a larger environment of only partial organizing essentially allows the WEF to be bigger than they actually are. The decided networks, i.e. the partnerships, the working groups, and the communities, significantly extends the reach of the WEF, allowing it to reach across organizational boundaries.We suggest that this form of organizing is the prime way for transnational think tanks toorganize outside themselves, thereby exerting political influence. The potential influence it may exert resides in its influence over the shaping of agendas in other organizations, the formulation of pressing political issues, and by mobilizing actors in their decided networks to carry the issues further, on other organizational platforms and with other organizational mandates.
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| 5. |
- Sörbom, Adrienne, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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A Matter of ‘Extremism’? : Ideas about democracy and political change within Anarchist and Autonomist activists in Sweden
- 2013
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this paper is to identify the relationship towards democracy amongst anarchist and autonomist movement activists. Using the case of activists in Sweden, we scrutinize the relationship to the idea and practice of democracy found in contemporary radical left. How is democracy framed in groups such as these? By so doing we wish to add to and develop the research field on left movements and parties that sometimes are labeled “extreme”. We believe that the “extremism” concept is troublesome in several ways, mainly since it is an ‘asymmetrical concept’ in Koselleck’s sense. In spite of this acknowledgement, we will tentatively use it, in order to mirror and thereby capture how “democracy”, as an idea and practice, is framed by anarchist and autonomous activists.In the paper we compare the notion of extremism with the ideas of autonomous and anarchist activist activists in Sweden. The five common elements attributed to the concept of extremism could not be found in the interviews. To the contrary, using the concept in order to find extremism showed a pattern of values usually attributed to the concept of ”deliberative democracy”.
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| 10. |
- Sörbom, Adrienne, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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His Master’s Voice? The Role of Business in the World Economic Forum
- 2013
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper departs from an interest in the involvement of business leaders in the sphere of politics, in the broad sense. Many global business leaders today do much more than engage narrowly in their own corporation and its search for profit. At a general level, we are seeing a proliferation of usages of non-market corporate strategies, such as testimony, lobbying, interlocking of positions and other means to influence policymakers at all levels of government and international institutions as an adjunct to the firm’s market strategies. Conversely, there is an enhanced interest on the part of policymakers to influence firm behaviour through multi-stakeholder involvement, public – private agreements and networks forms of governance. The paper brings to the fore the role of corporations in the World Economic Forum, and how firms act through the WEF to advance their interests, financial as well as political. What is the role of business in the World Economic Forum, and how do business corporations advance their interests through the WEF?The results show that corporations find a strategically positioned amplifier for their non-market interests in the WEF. The WEF functions to enhance and gain leverage for their ideas and priorities in a highly selective and resourceful environment. In the long run, both the market priorities and the political interests of business may be served by engagement in the WEF.However, the WEF cannot only be conceived as the extended voice of corporations. The WEF also makes use of the corporations to organize and expand their own agency, which not necessarily coincides with the interests of multinational corporations. By way of corporate financial resources, the tapping of knowledge and expertise, and access to vast networks of business relations, the WEF is also able to amplify its own voice.
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| 12. |
- Sörbom, Adrienne, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Organizational innovation and political impact in the Swedish movement context: : The case of the Anarchist and Autonomist movement
- 2011
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- ADRIENNE SÖRBOM Associate professor, Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research, Stockholm University and Stockholm School of Economics adrienne.sorbom@score.su.se MAGNUS WENNERHAG PhD, Södertörn University magnus.wennerhag@sh.se Organizational innovation and political impact in the Swedish movement context: The case of the Anarchist and Autonomist movement From the 1960s until the contemporary protests of the global justice movement, one can claim that the broader leftist movement milieu of many Western countries increasingly have been inspired by the general legacy of Anarchism and the libertarian Marxism of ’autonomia’, and their critique of capitalism, the state and modern social organization. As have been discussed by various scholars, parts of the libertarian and anti-hierarchical critique have also led to changes in both the public debate and society as such. For instance, new questions have entered the political agenda, political parties changed their mode of organizing, new models of work organization entered industry, cultural production, and ‘post-material values’ broadly impacted society (cf. Boltanski and Chiapello 2005; Inglehart 1990; Kitschelt 1993). However, despite this impact on values, forms of critique and modes of organization, some scholars (cf. Day 2005; Graeber 2007; Epstein 2001) note that the political claims and utopias of the traditional Anarchist legacy have not attracted the same degree of attention. Analyzing the case of the contemporary Swedish Anarchist and Autonomist movement, using interviews and survey data, this paper scrutinizes the role of this movement context in Sweden during the last 20 years, regarding its impact on politics, the general debate, and the broader leftist movement milieu of the country. Despite Sweden’s traditions of consensus politics and integration of movements in the decision-making of the state, as well as the quite short history of the Anarchist/Autonomist movement in the country, it is argued that this movement context have had an impact on both intra-movement innovation and organizational values, and general debates and decision-making in society. Furthermore, it is discussed whether this ‘radical flank’ (eg. Haines) of the broader left milieu through this impact, and the reaction of the state and other actors, have left the original Anarchist legacy and adapted to the mode of traditional civil society politics, or rather introduced a new kind of contentiousness in Swedish politics. References: Boltanski, Luc and Ève Chiapello (2005) The New Spirit of Capitalism. London: Verso. Day, Richard J. F. (2005) Gramsci is dead: Anarchist currents in the newest social movements. London: Pluto. Epstein, Barbara (2001) ’Anarchism and the Anti-Globalisation Movement’, Monthly Review 53(4): 1–14. Graeber, David (2007) Direct action: An ethnography. Edinburgh: AK Press. Haines, Herbert H. (1988). Black radicals and the civil rights mainstream, 1954–1970. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. Inglehart, Ronald (1990) Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Kitschelt, Herbert (1993) ‘Social Movements, Political Parties, and Democratic Theory’, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 528(1): 13–29.
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| 14. |
- Sörbom, Adrienne, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Policy brokers in partially organized fields : the case of World Economic Forum
- 2013
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Ingår i: 8th International Conference in Interpretive Policy Analysis 2013 in Vienna from July 3rd- to July 5th, 2013.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As has been noted in research on think tanks it is difficult to describe what a think tank is, and to pinpoint what it is in think tank activities that generates powerful relationships towards other actors (Ricci 1993). This is even more the case when talking of international think tanks. In this paper we give a theoretical account of how these relationships organized by international think tanks may be analyzed.Think tanks are often established as non-profit organizations, and hence part of civil society. But because corporations and private foundations often fund them they operate across organizations and organizational spheres, as ‘boundary-spanning organizations’ (cf. Medvetz 2012). In the cross-boundary environment established by think tanks, ideas are disseminated to other actors: governments, authorities, the media and the public.Drawing on empirical findings from the World Economic Forum (WEF), seen as a think tank like organization, we suggest that think-tank experts are engaged in the brokerage of ideas and knowledge, implying an intermediary activity, wherein ideas are translated, shaped and formatted (c.f. Smith 1991; Ingold & Varone 2012). Operating at the interfaces of various actors, think-tank experts formulate and negotiate ideas with and among actors, encouraging them to adopt and use those ideas (cf. Mosse 1985; Wedel 2009).This brokerage can be seen to generate ‘partially organized fields’ (cf. Ahrne & Brunsson 2011). It organizes other actors not by constructing a complete organization, but by establishing and maintaining a decided network and drawing upon such organizational elements as membership, monitoring and resources. This allows the think tanks to maintain a degree of flexibility, whilst gaining control of valuable resources.The WEF is a not-for profit organization, based in Geneva Switzerland. It was founded in 1971 by Professor Klaus Schwab. Today the organization has approximately 500 employees, financed by the organization’s 1000 members, coming from the largest corporations in the world. WEF is most known for its annual meeting in Davos, but it hosts a vast number of private meetings around the world, and has built a world wide network of people and organizations coming from many parts of society, such as corporations, churches, NGOs as well as national and international authorities.
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| 16. |
- Sörbom, Adrienne, 1967-
(författare)
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Politikens gränser : Globalisering, socialdemokrati och banden till nationen
- 2012. - 1
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Varför fortsätter politiken att vara nationell i en tid av stark globalisering? politiska organisationer talar gärna om gränslösa samarbeten, men det politiska landskapet ser i stort sett likadant ut idag som för 100 år sedan. Med utgångspunkt i den socialdemokratiska arbetarrörelsen i Sverige diskuterar Adrienne Sörbom frågan om politikens långsamma avnationalisering. Rörelsens internationalism till trots visar hon att den binds av starka idéer om Sverige som den självklara platsen för politik. Delvis styrs detta av ideologiskt färgade uppfattningar omvad rörelsen ska och kan göra. Vad som är politik och vem den ska omfatta har inte förändrats, fastän globalisering står högt upp på rörelsens dagordning. Bokens baseras på forskning om socialdemokratin, men här finns intressanta slutsatser för alla som vill lyfta politiken utanför nationen.
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