The (missing) subjects of research on gender and global governance: Toward inquiry into the ruling relations of development

• Published date: 01 October 2018
• Author: Marie L. Campbell,Elena Kim
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12189
• Date: 01 October 2018

350  

|

  wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/beer Busines s Ethics: A Eur Rev. 2018;27:350–360.

© 2018 John Wiley & So ns Ltd

|

This Special Iss ue invites new thinking on gen der and governance in

developing econ omies, exten ding how inequal ities, in this ca se, of

gender, can be understood within the interdisciplinary scholarship of

21st century gl obal development. As in ternational business pl ays an

increasingly significant part in development, new dimensions alter

what once was the mo re specialized purview of int ernational devel‐

opment. Blow field and Dol an (2014, p. 23) propose that d evelop‐

ment should be th ought of as:

an immanent and un intentional pro cess through

which national e conomies, huma n well‐being and

household or individual incomes improve, particularly

in poorer countr ies and former colonies (cf. cap italist

development). O r it can refer to intentional acti vities

consciously und ertaken to imp rove lives in those

same countries.

Beyond profit‐makin g and being an engin e for economic grow th,

many businesses doing development now accept that definite social

responsibilit ies are part of th eir mandate (Blow field, 20 05). In coun‐

tries withou t strong national government s and legal systems, the vol‐

untary pra ctice of corporate soci al responsibility (C SR) is seen by Doh,

Husted, Matt en, and Santoro (2010) and Sche rer, Palazzo, and Matten

(2009), among others, as an ethical and/or sustainable framework for

otherwise unregulated cross‐border capitalist enterprise. Multilateral

institution s, some constit uted for just such p rivate regulator y pur‐

poses, formulate standards and generate guidelines, recruit corpo‐

rate cooperation, and sometimes monitor corporate responses to the

challenges aris ing in a rapidly changing wor ld (Vigneau, Humph reys, &

Moon, 2015). Some say that institutionally sanctioned CSR practices

constitute a new fo rm of social regul ation, even, accor ding to Bexell,

Received: 14 Novemb er 2016 

|

  Revised: 19 June 2017 

|

  Accepted: 12 Apri l 2018

DOI: 10 .1111/bee r.12189

SPECIAL ISSUE







1|2

1Faculty of Huma n and Social

Development, University of Victoria,

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

2Department of Psychology, American

Universit y – Central Asia, Bis hkek,

Kyrgy zst an



Professor Mar ie L. Campbell , 1752 Emerson

St., Victor ia, BC, Canada V8 R 2C3.

Email: mariccam@uvic.c a



Responding to the Sp ecial Issue's call for “new thinking” o n gender and governance in

developing societie s, we introduce our rese arch on the social org anization of devel‐

opment knowledge an d its ethical implications . Our feminist‐based approach, ins titu‐

tional ethnograp hy, analyses the ruling relations of developm ent and the standpoints

represented in knowl edge about development and its governance. O ur paper offers

an alternative to what we see a s “the institutio nal standpoint ” prevailing, but t aken

for granted, in busine ss and society scholarship addres sing development. Instead of

theorizing development relationships between institutions and their “stakeholders,”

we illustrate what ca n be learned about t he social relations of devel opment begin‐

ning from the exper iences of local subjec ts. Our analy sis of an environmental re‐

search and developm ent project in Uzbekistan show s that being missed is knowledge

about development su bjects that coul d have revealed what is locall y relevant and

needed. Instea d, we discover gender inequa lity being consti tuted, unknowingl y,

within this projec t's institution ally generated knowl edge and the activ ities it

authorizes.