ABSTRACT
James Rosenau was central in establishing global governance as a theme or field of study. He introduced the concept of ‘spheres of authority’ as an analytical tool to explore world politics without unduly privileging state actors. Karens and Karen Mingst review extant global governance arrangements and reflect on how to understand and manage a world characterized by increased complexity. Contributions that draw on different insights from an international political sociology have generally approached global governance in a different way, not only zooming in on power relations but advancing a distinct conception of power in their analyses. The problem that Jens Bartelson brings up concerns more than the fusion of the analytical with the normative in research on civil society organizations. It extends to the very treatment of some of the most central analytical tools of students of global governance, such as authority and the identification of actors with distinct attributes.
