Discreet Power: How the World Economic Forum Shapes Market Agendas (Emerging Frontiers in the Global Economy) - Softcover

Garsten, Christina; Sörbom, Adrienne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 150360604X ISBN 13: 9781503606043

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 2018

Synopsis

In Discreet Power, Christina Garsten and Adrienne Sörbom undertake an ethnographic study of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Accessing one of the primary agenda-setting organizations of our day, they draw on interviews and participant observation to examine how the WEF wields its influence. They situate the WEF within an emerging system of "discretionary governance," in which actors craft ideas and entice formal authorities and top leaders in order to garner significant sway. Yet in spite of its image as a powerful, exclusive brain trust, the WEF has no formal mandate to implement its positions. It must convince others to advance chosen causes and enact suggestions, rendering its position quite fragile.

Garsten and Sörbom argue that the WEF must be viewed relationally as a brokering organization that lives between the market and political spheres and that extends its reach through associated individuals and groups.They place the WEF in the context of a broader shift, arguing that while this type of governance opens up novel ways of dealing with urgent global problems, it challenges core democratic values.

About this title

About the Author

Christina Garsten is Professor of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University. She is the author of Workplace Vagabonds (2008).Adrienne Sörbom is Associate Professor of Sociology at Stockholm University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 150360604X
• ISBN 13: 9781503606043
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240