BIGSSS-departs Ph.D. Fellow, Cohort 2017

Research Interests

I conduct research on Global Regulatory Governance, focusing on the intermediary actors operating in transnational and state regulation process of labor standards. I am particularly interested in studying the strategic behaviours employed by the stake-holding actors, including work on governance tactics, legislative instruments, and the role that constitutional characteristics and contemporary industrial relations play in shaping these strategies.

My ongoing project looks at relations among key actors (e.g. Ministry of Labor, the tripartite representatives and International Labor Organisation (ILO), international organisations (IOs), ad-hoc initiatives, international and national non-governmental organisations (INGOs & NGOs), and contemporary social movements…). I further investigate how the network of these actors shapes their strategic intervention towards the promotion of labor standards in specific institutional settings.

Dissertation topic
Global Regulatory Governance of Labor Standards - The Intermediaries in Transnational and National Regulation Process

Dissertation abstract
“ Global Regulatory Governance of Labor Standards: the Intermediaries in Transnational and State Regulation Process” is an interdisciplinary research project that examines the domestic institutional settings, the (non) achievement in de jure and de facto labor standards in developing countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam. The research explores the networked governance among stake-holding actors in these two countries from 2008 to 2018. It sheds light on governance strategies, strategic interventions and technical instruments employed by these actors in the aftermath of Rana Plaza and during the negotiation of free trade agreement with EU partners.

Academic Supervisors
Susanne K. Schmidt
Werner Eichhorst