Ways of Seeing International Organisations
Ways of Seeing International Organisations
Daniel R. Quiroga-VillamarÃn, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva
$110.00
USDFor decades, the field of scholarship that studies the law and practice of international organisations -also known as 'international institutional law'- has been marked by an intellectual quietism. Most of the scholarship tends to focus narrowly on providing 'legal' answers to 'legal' questions. For that reason, perspectives rarely engage with the insights of critical traditions of legal thought (for instance, feminist, postcolonial, or political economy-oriented perspectives) or with interdisciplinary contributions produced outside the field. Ways of Seeing International Organisations challenges the narrow gaze of the field by bringing together authors across multiple disciplines to reflect on the need for 'new' perspectives in international institutional law. Highlighting the limits of mainstream approaches, the authors instead interrogate international organisations as pivots in processes of world-making. To achieve this, the volume is organised around four fundamental themes: expertise; structure; performance; and capital. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
- Introduces timely debates in international law, International Relations (IR), history and anthropology in relation to the role of international organisations across the world
- Advocates for a decidedly non-doctrinal approach to the study of the 'institutional' dimension in international law
- Brings together multidisciplinary voices from both senior and emerging scholars, demonstrating how different disciplines can interact to enrich the study of global governance
- This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core
Reviews & endorsements
‘In drawing together diverse disciplinary perspectives and traditions of thought to pluralize and complicate 'ways of seeing' international organizations, this wonderfully rich volume advances both scholarship on international organizations themselves, and more wide-ranging inquiries about the connections between legal forms, institutional arrangements and epistemology in international law.’ Megan Donaldson, Associate Professor of Public International Law, University College London
‘Challenging the traditional lens of international institutional law, Ways of Seeing International Organisations brings fresh perspectives to the field. By interrogating expertise, structures, performance, and capital, this work transcends conventional boundaries, inspiring a critical, multidisciplinary understanding of international organisations' socio-technical roles and world-ordering visions.’ Sundhya Pahuja, Melbourne Laureate Professor, University of Melbourne
‘This volume brings together a remarkable set of critical voices, both established and emergent, from the field of international organization studies. The book not only documents the variety and richness of theoretical approaches available for the critical study of international institutions and law, it also provides readers with a wealth of empirical vignettes and case studies to underline their crucial contribution. A great achievement!’ Jens Steffek, Professor of Transnational Governance, TU Darmstadt, Germany
‘Engaging and provocative, this volume shows international organizations as sites of socio-technical struggle. Challenging the dominance of ‘problem-solving thinking’ in international institutional law, Ways of Seeing International Organizations draws from law, history, anthropology, and political science to provide a rich description of institutional practices and their distributive effects. A sophisticated, unconventional, and insightful take on the lives of international organizations.’ René Urueña, Professor of Law, Universidad de los Andes (Colombia)
Product details
June 2025Hardback
9781009552622
320 pages
229 × 152 mm
Not yet published - available from June 2025
Table of Contents
- Part I. Thinking International Organisations Differently:
- 1. Seeing international organisations differently Negar Mansouri and Daniel R. Quiroga-VillamarÃn
- 2. Critical theory and international organisations: the need for an integrated approach B. S. Chimni
- 3. Inter-disciplinarity and the law of international organizations Jan Klabbers
- Part II. Ways of Seeing International Institutions: Expertise, Authority, & Knowledge Production:
- 4. Studying the assembling of expertise in global governance Annabelle Littoz-Monnet
- 5. Experts, practices, power: the work of international criminal court reform Richard Clements
- 6. Drawing the contours of hidden hunger as an object of governance Juanita Uribe
- Structures, Spaces, & Jurisdictions:
- 7. The puzzle of freedom: structure and agency in international adjudication Tommaso Soave
- 8. Reassembling transnational legal conflicts across global institutions: ethnographic perspectives on claims of authority over the Mediterranean Sea Kiri Santer
- 9. Placeholders: an archival journey into the interim histories of international organisations Daniel R. Quiroga-VillamarÃn
- People, Practices, & Performance:
- 10. The micro-politics of international commissions: the case of telegraphic standards Jan Eijking
- 11. Keeping up standards for a better world: anthropological alternatives to the study of international organisations Miia Halme-Tuomisaari
- 12. 'The critic is not the one who debunks, but the one who assembles': on professional performances and material practices Dimitri Van Den Meerssche
- Capital, Class, & Political Economy:
- 13. Laissez faire, state capitalism, and the making of international organizations: the dynamics of a struggle Negar Mansouri
- 14. Deconstructing 'resilience talk' in global governance: toward a critical political economy approach A. Claire Cutler
- 15. A white knight in shining armor? Ethiopia, international organisations, and the global colour line Daniel R. Quiroga-VillamarÃn
- Part III. Conclusion:
- 16: Examining elephants in the dark Guy Fiti Sinclair.
