(Dis)Embeddedness and the Management of Transnational Risk: The Case of Transnational Blood Regulation

B Lange, F Haines and D Thomas (eds), Regulatory Transformations: Rethinking Economy-Society Interactions (Hart 2015) 181-99

20 Pages Posted: 9 Oct 2015

See all articles by Anne-Maree Farrell

Anne-Maree Farrell

University of Edinburgh - School of Law

Date Written: August 1, 2015

Abstract

This book chapter examines how regulation mediates the relationship between the economic and social spheres in the context of managing transnational risk. It does so through the use of a case study examining blood regulation in the post HIV blood contamination era, with a predominant focus on developments at supranational level. The chapter seeks to explore two aspects of Karl Polanyi’s notion of embeddedness: first, how a social sphere becomes embedded in regulation; and second, what the disembedding of the economic from the social sphere in regulatory design might mean for the management of transnational risk. In exploring these issues it is argued that we need to pay close attention to how social spheres are framed for regulatory purposes. What constitutes the social may only be a partial representation, reflective of particular historical and institutional trajectories, as well as professional ideologies. This may be particularly acute at a global level, where institutional decision-making processes are dominated by experts, regulators and industry representatives, and largely insulated from stakeholder activism, democratic politics and accountability mechanisms. In addition, where disembedding of the economic from the social sphere occurs in regulatory design as a result of this partial framing, a ‘double movement’ re-embedding the economic in the social sphere may not be automatic or inevitable. Instead, any countermovement may be politically and institutionally contingent, if it occurs at all. This may have adverse consequences for the effective management of transnational risk, which may prove problematic in politically sensitive policy sectors.

Keywords: risk regulation, transnational risk, embeddedness, Karl Polanyi

Suggested Citation

Farrell, Anne-Maree, (Dis)Embeddedness and the Management of Transnational Risk: The Case of Transnational Blood Regulation (August 1, 2015). B Lange, F Haines and D Thomas (eds), Regulatory Transformations: Rethinking Economy-Society Interactions (Hart 2015) 181-99, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2650954

Anne-Maree Farrell (Contact Author)

University of Edinburgh - School of Law ( email )

Edinburgh
Great Britain

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