Professor Nicola Piper

This project’s focus is on the leadership potential of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in a world of deepening institutional fragmentation around global migration governance and continuing erosion of (migrant and non-migrant) workers’ rights. It is based on the hypothesis that through the adoption of a network approach to its internal and external operations, the ILO would be able to better coordinate its efforts across the changed landscape of global migration governance with two results: (1) strengthening a rights-based approach (normative, regulation-based), and (2) re-asserting itself as the key actor (political, action-oriented).

Conceptually, this is captured by the theory of 'nodal governance' at the intersection of global governance studies and sociological network analysis. Empirically, the project will deliver a detailed study of the ILO to chart changes in the character of governance of migration through the lens of decent work.