Actors and Agency in Global Social Governance

The introduction paves the way for an actor-centred approach to global social governance. The chapter highlights the necessity to think beyond existing conceptualizations and approaches, by combining different analytical tools from social policy, international relations, global governance research and comparative politics research. Different notions of agency and governance mechanisms at the disposal of different groups of actors are introduced, and applied to specific groups of actors. That includes both, individual legitimacy (e.g. institutional characteristics, constitutions, mandates), and structural contexts to global social governance. The chapter introduces the key questions running through the volume: what constitutes global social governance actors? How can global social policy actors be classified? What makes global social policy actors legitimate? What is the relationship between global social policy actors? By what mechanisms do global social policy actors exert influence?