ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the integrated theoretical framework on Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives (MSIs). It explains why West Africa and South Asia as regional contexts are particularly important for the study of the political evolution and effects of sustainable cotton value chain MSIs. The chapter argues that two different lines of research have so far dominated academic and policy-level thinking about MSIs aimed at improving sustainable value chain management. In the chapter, a preliminary theoretical framework was outlined for combining these types of analysis: horizontal analysis of the spaces, places, pathways, and power relations in legislative, judicial, and executive governance of MSIs, and vertical analysis of the power relations, upgrading, and standard-setting functions in global value chains. The institutional contexts in which MSIs become embedded may also play an important role in co-determining the income, work, and environmental conditions of small-scale producers and workers in developing countries.
