This series of events showcases recent research from across the interdisciplinary field of global governance. They are organised by the Global Governance Centre on behalf of all the partners of the Global Governance Research Centre Consortium.
Global governance is not just an arcane concept but also a very tangible set of tasks performed by countless individuals daily.
The book manuscript behind this talk argues that the global governance workforce has become contractualised over recent decades, transforming the politics of international organisations. Focusing on the United Nations, it first documents and explains the sharp decline in continuing staff and concomitant rise of non-staff and outsourced personnel. It then theorises the global governance job market around two structuring principles, job (in)security and (im)mobility, distinguishing three working classes among contingent workers: insecure and immobile proletarians; a versatile yet precarious middle class; and a hypermobile transnational elite.
Today, contractualisation operates through practices such as staff augmentation, corporate consulting, and steering committees. Finally, the talk draws out the political stakes at the micro, meso, and macro levels: contractualisation vulnerabilises workers, weakens IOs, and pushes global governance from bureaucratic authority toward market-based delegation, accountability and legitimacy.