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Speaker: Maria Tysiachniouk, PhD, Center for Independent Social Research, St. Petersburg, Russia
This talk provides a novel approach for understanding and analyzing transnational governance by private authority. It brings together theoretical and empirical insights by introducing a new master concept: governance generating networks (GGN). These networks comprise three structural elements: nodes of design — where global standards are developed, forums of negotiation – where stakeholders discuss and negotiate the standards, and sites of implementation — where global rules are transferred into concrete practices on the ground. This concept captures both transnational processes and local practices that take place in the sites of implementation, involving local actors and stakeholders as they react and adjust to the new global standards.
The talk focuses on forest governance through the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification scheme, investigating implementation of FSC standards in Russia. The talk assesses how global governance through the FSC contributes to forest governance in Russia, and to what extent it fills an institutional void by giving voice to private actors and enabling them to foster sustainable forest management.
Scholars of political science, sociology, and related disciplines as well as practitioners, such as NGO activists, company representatives, FSC experts, managers and auditors, will find valuable insights, both theoretical and empirical, in this empirically rich and theoretically innovative study.
Maria Tysiachniouk holds a Master of Science in Environmental Studies from Bard College, NY, a PhD in Biology from the Russian Academy of Sciences, a PhD in Sociology from Wageningen University (2012) and a Certificate in Nonprofit Studies from Johns Hopkins University. She has taught at Herzen Pedagogical University in St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg State University, Johns Hopkins University, Dickinson College, PA, Ramapo College of New Jersey, Towson University, and short courses at several universities in Europe. Since 2004 she studied global governance through FSC certification. Since then she has combined her research with practitioners work in the FSC system. She has written more than 170 publications on topics related to transnational environmental governance, edited several books and has had fieldwork experience in several countries and regions. She is currently chair of the Environmental Sociology group at the Center for Independent Social Research, St. Petersburg, Russia and doing intense field research on global governance of natural resources, including forests, mining and oil.