UA Ruhr GC: UA Ruhr GC Research Project Sets Out for the First Field Research Phase

Two researchers of the research project team embark on an initial field trip to Bangladesh and Cambodia.

The interdisciplinary research project on "Political Authority in Transnational Governance Arrangements" fundend by the Mercator Research Center Ruhr (MERCUR) enters into a new phase, with two researchers traveling to Bangladesh and Cambodia to conduct an initial round of expert interviews.
While the first months of this research project were devoted to preparing the pilot study on political authority in the regulation of labour, social, and environmental standards in the Bangladeshi and Cambodian textile and apparel industry, it is time to take an initial dive into the field in November and December 2015. The team of researchers traveling to Bangladesh and Cambodia comprises political scientist, Christian Scheper from the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF) at the University Duisburg-Essen, and legal research fellow Johannes Norpoth from the IEE. This first round of interviews with experts from different stakeholder groups aims at deepening the understanding of the relevant context of transnational regulation of labour, social, and environmental standards in Bangladesh and Cambodia. Additionally, it focuses on deriving first confirmed conceptions of how different relevant actors position themselves towards state-based and private forms of regulation, and their interaction with these regulations. The school of practice theories provides the specific theoretical lens for the empirical research. Further interviews with European stakeholders and experts, as well as a second research period in Bangladesh and Cambodia next year will complement the data gathered in this initial field research phase. Further information about the project can also be found on the new project website.
Thanks to previous contacts of the INEF a link with the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh could be established. Tim Chipperfield, an MADM student from Canada, who is writing his master's thesis in the context of the project, went to Bangladesh for his field research already in September. He was already able to make use of this contact and we hope that with the research stay in November and December, this relationship can be further developed. Tim's thesis on a comparison of the perceptions by different stakeholders groups in Bangladesh and Europe on a business-driven initiative to phase-out the discharge of hazardous chemicals in the textile industry is expected to deliver valuable research results, complementary to the overall project.

Johannes Norpoth, LL.M.
Research Fellow
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