The Emerging power of services standards in the global political economy

Jean-Christophe Graz, Institut d'études politiques et internationales Université de Lausanne, Eva Hartmann, Institut d'études politiques et internationales Université de Lausanne, Marcel Heires, Institut d'études politiques et internationales Université de Lausanne, Nafy Niang, Institut d'études politiques et internationales Université de Lausanne, and Alexandre Sutlian, Institut d'études politiques et internationales Université de Lausanne

3/04/2008
(Original Publish Date: 5/9/2007)

This paper explores the political implications of the growing influence of international standards on society, taking the case of the service sector as a distinct field of study. The analysis relies on global political economy approaches, which try to identify constitutive patterns of authority mediating between the political and the economic spheres on a transnational space. It extends to the area of service standards the assumption that the process of globalisation is not opposing states and markets, but a joint expression of both of them including new patterns and agents of structural change through formal and informal power and regulatory practices. It presents preliminary results of a major research project, which combines cross-institutional and sectoral analyses. It examines the most important international institutions involved in the power of service standards and provides an account of common patterns in initial developments affecting the diametrically opposed cases of call/contact centres and transport systems.