Discreet Power: How the World Economic Forum Shapes Market Agendas

Christina Garsten

ISBN 10: 0804794146 / ISBN 13: 9780804794145

Published by Stanford University Press, 2018

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # B9780804794145

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Discreet Power: How the World Economic Forum Shapes Market Agendas
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0804794146
• ISBN 13: 9780804794145
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 526 grams

About this title

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 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.