ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that debates emanating from the globalization literature need complementary approaches more attuned to local context. The study of industrial disasters and the regulatory reform they generate brings together two separate academic debates: those of globalization and of regulation. The generalized debates around globalization could be fused with the ‘benchmarking’ findings of regulatory theory to assess which of the predictions of the globalization theorists are right. Economic and political realities can block regulatory change, change that would lessen the risk of future disasters. Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization World Bank are instrumental in maintaining economic globalization and thus remain responsible, in large part, for the resulting devastation in its current form. By ascertaining the content and the reasons behind reform, research into the aftermath of Kader can explore the economic and social processes of globalization, the nature of sovereignty, and how the interaction between the two affected the reform process.
