nkortendiek.bsky.social
Political Scientist, Max Weber Fellow EUI
IR Theory, IOs, NGOs, Global Governance, Migration and Asylum
https://www.nelekortendiek.com/
Book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/global-governance-on-the-ground-9780198889120?q=nele%20kortendiek&lang=en&
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Shoutout to @raffaelemstr.bsky.social and the IR Working Group @eui-sps.bsky.social and the Europe in the World Research Programme @eui-schuman.bsky.social for organising and supporting the launch!
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Thanks a lot Antje! 🙏🏻
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Thanks a lot Annabelle!
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7/ Go get it here: global.oup.com/academic/pro...
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6/ Immense thanks go to Jens Steffek, Len Seabrooke, Lisbeth Zimmermann, Christian Kreuder-Sonnen and so many others who helped this book see the light of day
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5/ This, combined with an extensive document analysis, shows that field staff improvise to organize collective action on under-regulated issues and that headquarter staff consolidate and diffuse their operational knowledge.
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4/ It draws on ethnographic fieldwork at the European external border, incl. interviews at the headquarters of 7 organizations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and three humanitarian NGOs.
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3/ The book demonstrates that through field-based practice, IOs directly regulate global issues in the spaces where they become virulent, in different locations across the globe.
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2/ Far less attention has been given to the way IOs use their field access to govern global issues on the ground-without first going through formal policy channels or renegotiating their authority.
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1/ "Global Governance on the Ground" offers a new approach to how international organizations govern. Much scholarship has been devoted to the question of how IOs become autonomous agents and exercise authority to shape governance outcomes.
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Thanks a lot for this! Could you add me too?
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Thanks Ricky! Could I join the club?
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9/ Read the full article (open access!) here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
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8/ Why does this matter? In an era of global disorder, governance through on-the-ground practice, and similar de facto forms of regulating global issues, are increasingly relevant. Yet, this raises critical questions of legitimacy and accountability.
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7/ This challenges IR theories that equate governance with institutional authority. By shifting focus to governing effects rather than authority sources, we see how IOs operate in emerging, contested, or crisis-ridden areas—provisional, informal, but impactful.
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6/ Unlike “authority,” this form of governance stems from competence—personal expertise and professional know-how of staff confronting real-time situational challenges, not from formal mandates.
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5/ These frontline workers improvised asylum procedures, organized search-and-rescue missions, and provided shelter—practices that coordinated behavior, reduced uncertainty, and concretized “mixed migration” as a global policy issue.
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4/ The empirical analysis shows that at the European external border, IO staff—border guards, asylum caseworkers, and humanitarian workers—organized collective action despite lacking mandates for “mixed migration,” the joint, irregular movement of migrants and asylum-seekers.
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3/ Drawing on practice theory and fieldwork during the 2015–16 “migration and refugee crisis”, I show how IO staff govern through street-level decision-making—daily, ad hoc activities that effectively define global policy responses.
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2/ Traditional theories argue IOs govern by exercising authority—setting standards, making laws, or providing expertise. But what happens in issue areas where formal authority is absent or unsettled?
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1/ 🧵 How do IOs govern transnational challenges when formal authority is lacking? My latest work in EJIR conceptualizes governance through practice on the ground—a vital, yet overlooked mode of global governance.
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Looking forward to toasting in Florence soon!
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Congratulations!! 🥳
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🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻