Power, Politics and Contestation in Global Technical Standard-Setting

The governance of global technical standard-setting is in the midst of unprecedented transformation and contestation.

Long dominated by wealthy industrialized countries, international standardization organizations have been shaken by the emergence of rising standards powers, above all China.

Alongside China, several other Global South countries are now breaching the high barriers to entry in this field.TECHtonics will contribute two theoretical innovations addressed to both the international standardization literature and scholars of global governance more broadly.

One aim of the project is development of a framework to study how and why some developing countries manage to acquire standards power, against the odds.

A second contribution is introduction of the concept of governance rupture to study the multifaceted forms of contestation unfolding in global technical standard-setting.

Since both topics addressed by these frameworksinstitutionalized inequality and complex governance challengesare not unique to technical standard-setting, the findings will advance theory-building on power, politics and contestation in the global governance literature.

The project employs mixed methods to provide empirically rich, granular analyses of rising standards powers and governance ruptures in international standardization.

One work package features case studies of rising standards powers at different levels of influence in international standardizationaspiring (Kenya), rising (India) and risen (China).

A second work package will study the dynamics of governance rupture in global digital standard-setting unfolding across four theatres: power, practice, authority and bloc formation. TECHtonics will directly transfer insights to the practitioners world.

A practitioner lab and secondments to standardization organizations will be established in order to directly fuse academic insights with practitioners needs, ensuring a high degree of research impact beyond academia.