Rationale:

Globalization has been heralded as one of the most important processes affecting the contemporary world. A huge amount of research is being published on various aspects of this process, but only a small, though valuable, literature (eg.Signs (2001) and Feminist Economics (2001) special issues, and the Pettman (1996), and Peterson and Runyan, (1999) volumes) considers how globalization is gendered. In particular, literature that develops themes of gender, governance and globalization and points out the linkages between them is very limited (Meyer and Prugl, 1999). As yet there is little produced which brings together the work on the gendered nature of global civil society and governance with the gendered political economy of globalization (Rai, 2002). Feminists have engaged with and critiqued the state/government in order to open up the public political sphere to gendered scrutiny with important consequences. A similar close analysis of global governance can also alert us to the gendered nature of this concept and to the importance of the shift from government to governance for feminist political practice in different arenas. This workshop aims to explore the gendered global political economy of governance in the context of globalization.

The workshop will seek to draw together key work undertaken by feminist scholars both from the UK and rest of the world to order to outline the most important themes and debates that are pertinent to the gendered political economy of globalisation and governance. Feminist concerns with the politics of restructuring, transitions and globalisation have reflected the multi-layered nature of the global economy as well as the changing nature of governance. Some contribution will focus more on the theoretical issues and others will illustrate these with more empirically based analysis. The papers will synthesise key insights from the political economy of globalization literature with the relevant insights from work on global regulation and governance that has focused more on the political aspects of globalization without considering economic factors. As such we see the workshop as both agenda setting/issue raising one, and a mapping one. It grows out of a successful ESRC seminar series organized by the convenors between Sept 2002 and June 2003. This workshop will expand the remit of its precursor both in terms of the intellectual agenda that it pursues and in terms of the range of participants as it will involve leading international scholars. We therefore expect that the workshop will explore the new research agendas that are needed to further expand and understand this rapidly growing field.

With its focus on issues of globalisation and governance and its purpose to identify ways in which a constructive engagement between IPE and governance literature and Gender in International Political Economy (GIPE) literature might be built the workshop agenda fits the overall remit of the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation.