My work in this thematic area focuses on the implications of interactions between global and local regulatory processes for understandings of responsibility, accountability and legitimacy in global economic governance. This area of work attempts to bring analysis of detailed empirical field research into engagement with normative, theoretical debates in global democracy, accountability, legitimacy and applied ethics.

One strand of my work in this area has examined the accountability and legitimacy of global governance processes, focusing variously on the legitimation of global business regulation, the accountability of transnational governance systems to marginalised affected groups, and on implications of emerging governance practices for theoretical understandings of democratic accountability and representation in global governance.

Another significant strand of work in this thematic area relates to corporate responsibility and consumer ethics, where my work has sought to extend accounts of business responsibility beyond the boundaries of the enterprise to encompass broader ‘spheres of responsibility’.

A third strand of work concerns transnational accountability of international NGOs and other international aid and development organisations. This area of work highlights cross-cultural tensions in understandings of accountability, and dilemmas faced by global organisations seeking to act accountably and legitimately, in political contexts where their involvement is often controversial.