This interdisciplinary project integrates global governance, political demography, cultural anthropology, sociology, gender studies, and science and technology studies. It applies ANT to examine how entities such as people, research evidence, technologies, financial resources, institutions, and regulations jointly shape global governance. The project focused on EU-funded, UN-led Global Programmes addressing FGM, child marriage, and gender-biased sex selection. A mixed-methods approach was employed, including: a literature review on ANT and global programmes; participant observation at international conferences (e.g. CSW66 and CSW67); key informant interviews with global, regional, national, and local stakeholders; and Social Network Analysis using Twitter (now X) data to visualize knowledge mobilization within online networks. The analysis identified four key processes through which global programmes influence policy production:
1. Knowledge management: Creating, assembling, and synthesizing knowledge, storing it in repositories, and sharing it via knowledge hubs.
2. Knowledge brokering: Engaging in policy advocacy and advice.
3. Knowledge uptake: Providing technical assistance and capacity development.
4. Knowledge translation: Supporting the design, implementation, and evaluation of context-specific policies.
The empirical model accounts for enablers of knowledge transfer such as strong actor-network constellations and advanced knowledge management systems that are resilient to fluctuations (i.e. staff, leadership, political will, funding). However, constraints like limited resources, short programme durations, insufficient monitoring and evaluation, as well as barriers linked to language, technology, power dynamics, and resistance hinder global programmes impact on policy production.
The results of this project have been widely disseminated via peer-reviewed and open-access publications, conference and research presentations, and public outreach activities. The most important publication on this research is a forthcoming monograph, contracted by Bristol University Press, titled ‘Ending Gender-Based Violence: The Global Governance of Harmful Practices,’ In Transnational Administration and Global Policy, (Series Eds. Kim Moloney, Michael W. Bauer, Meng-Hsuan Chou), Bristol University Press, Bristol.
