Dr Kate MacDonald
Dr Kate MacDonald
Background
I joined the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne in January 2009. Before coming to Melbourne, I did my DPhil in the Department of International Development at Oxford (jointly supervised in the Department of Politics and International Relations), and I worked as a Fellow of Government (Global Politics) at the London School of Economics and Political Science, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the Australian National University and a Research Officer at the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University.
My research focuses on transnational governance and accountability systems, especially in relation to transnational business regulation, and accountability in the international development sector. I have conducted research and consultancy work on these topics for a range of NGOs including Amnesty International, ActionAid Australia, Oxfam Australia and the UK’s Corporate Responsibility Coalition, and I am currently on the advisory board of the Jubilee Australia Research Foundation.
Research
- Private actors in global governance
- Theories of governance and accountability
- The politics of transnational production and investment
- Regulating transnational business (esp. social, labour and human rights regulation)
- Global social movements for fair trade and corporate accountability
Subjects taught
- Contemporary Issues in Governance
- International Political Economy
- Political Economy
Supervision
- Governance and public policy
- (International) political economy
- Politics of international development
Publications
Books and edited collections
The Politics of Global Supply Chains: Power and Governance Beyond the State, forthcoming with Polity Press
New Visions for Market Governance: Crisis and Renewal, (edited with Shelley Marshall and Sanjay Pinto), forthcoming with Routledge
Fair Trade, Corporate Accountability and Beyond: Experiments in Globalizing Justice, (edited with Shelley Marshall), 2010, Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot
Editor (with Sanjay Pinto and Shelley Marshall) of Special Section on "Global Governance Reconsidered", Politics & Society, September 2011 39: 299-314
Refereed journal articles
"Accountability-by-proxy in transnational governance" (with Mathias Koenig-Archibugi), forthcoming in Governance
"Rethinking Global Market Governance: Crisis and Reinvention?" (with Sanjay Pinto and Shelley Marshall), Politics & Society September 2011 39: 299-314
"Re-thinking "spheres of responsibility": Business, human rights and institutional action", Journal of Business Ethics, 2011, 99:4, 549-563
"Democracy in a Pluralist Global Order: Corporate Power and Stakeholder Representation", (with Terry Macdonald), Ethics and International Affairs, Volume 24 Issue 1, 2010
"The Liberal Battlefields of Global Business Regulation", (with Terry Macdonald), Ethics and Global Politics, Vol.3 No.4, 2010, pp.303-324
"Spheres of Responsibility in a Partially Joined up World: Institutional Action and the Business Responsibility to Respect", Trocaire Development Review, 2009, pp. 117-134
"Globalising justice within coffee supply chains? Fair Trade, Starbucks and the transformation of supply chain governance", Third World Quarterly, vol.25, no.7, Special Issue on "Beyond CSR? Business, Poverty and Social Justice", 2007
"Non-Electoral Accountability in Global Politics: Strengthening Democratic Control within the Global Garment Industry" (with Terry Macdonald), European Journal of International Law, vol. 17, no. 1, Special Symposium Issue on Global Administrative Law, 2006
Book chapters
"Re-thinking Market Governance" (with Shelley Marshall and Sanjay Pinto), in New Visions for Market Governance: Crisis and Renewal, forthcoming with Routledge
"Democratizing power in the global economy: pathways to a multi-level system of global democracy?" in Global Democracy: Normative and Empirical Perspectives, 2011, edited by Daniele Archibugi, Mathias Koenig-Archibugi and Rafaele Marchetti, Cambridge University Press
"Contextualising the Business Responsibility to Respect: How much is lost in translation?" (with Fiona Haines and Samantha Balaton-Chrimes), in Radu Mares (ed), The UN guiding principles on business and human rights: foundations and implementation, 2011, Brill
"Social Justice Beyond Bounded Societies: Unravelling statism within global supply chains?”, in Social Justice, Global Dynamics, edited by Ayelet Banai, Miriam Ronzoni and Christian Schemmel, 2011, Routledge
"The Fair Labor Association", Handbook of Transnational Governance Innovation, edited by David Held and Thomas Hale, 2011, Polity Press
"The Fair Trade System", Handbook of Transnational Governance Innovation, edited by David Held and Thomas Hale, 2011, Polity Press
"Social governance in a global economy: Introduction to an evolving agenda" (with Shelley Marshall), in Macdonald, Kate and Marshall, Shelley (eds), Fair Trade, Corporate Accountability and Beyond: Experiments in Globalizing Justice, 2010, Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot
"Experiments in globalising justice: emergent lessons and future trajectories" (with Shelley Marshall) in Macdonald, Kate and Marshall, Shelley (eds), Fair Trade, Corporate Accountability and Beyond: Experiments in Globalizing Justice, 2010, Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot
"Public accountability within transnational supply chains: A global agenda for empowering southern workers?"In Forging Global Accountabilities: Participation, Pluralism and Public Ethics, edited by Alnoor Ebrahim and Edward Weisband, 2007, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
"Non-state actors" (with Stephen Woolcock) in The New Economic Diplomacy (second edition), edited by Nicholas Bayne and Stephen Woolcock, 2007, Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot
"State actors" (with Stephen Woolcock) in The New Economic Diplomacy (second edition), edited by Nicholas Bayne and Stephen Woolcock, 2007, Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot
Refereed conference papers
"The Social Foundations of Global Democracy: Rethinking Analogies with the Nation-State" (with Adrian Little), Australian Political Science Association Annual Conference 2011
"Regulation by remote control? Motivations behind ethical consumption choices" (with Samantha Balaton-Chrimes and Scott Brenton), Australian Political Science Association Annual Conference 2011
"Holding the invisible hand to account? Beyond individual corporate responsibility for human rights" (with Samantha Balaton-Chrimes and Fiona Haines), Australian Political Science Association Annual Conference 2010
"Pathways to Social Accountability: Empowering processes of institutional change?" (with Tom Davis and Scott Brenton), Australian Political Science Association Annual Conference 2010
"Political inequality in a partially joined-up world: Egalitarian dilemmas of multi-level governance" Australian Political Science Association Annual Conference 2009
Research projects and grants
Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant (2011-2013) for the project Evaluating redress mechanisms governing the human rights practices of transnational business, with Shelley Marshall (Monash University), Fiona Haines (University of Melbourne), Tim Connor (Newcastle University); Sheldon Leader (Essex University) and Annie Delaney (Victoria University). Partner Organisations participating in the application are Oxfam Australia, ActionAid Australia, Corporate Responsibility (CORE) Coalition (UK), Federation of Homeworkers Worldwide and ActionAid UK.
Oxfam-Monash Partnership Grant (2012-2013) for the project Community-Driven Accountability in Cambodia with Shelley Marshall (Monash University), Adam McBeth (Monash University) and Oxfam Australia
University of Melbourne Faculty Research Grant, (2011-2012) for the project The Political Psychology of Ethical Consumerism, with Scott Brenton
University of Melbourne Interdisciplinary Collaboration Grant (2011-2012) for the project Temporary Migrant Workers and Social Justice, with Joo Cheong Tham, Michael McCann, Martina Boese and Winsome Roberts
University of Melbourne Interdisciplinary Collaboration Grant (2010-2011) for the project Social Accountability for Sustainable Development, with Tom Davis and Paul Smyth
University of Melbourne Faculty Research Grant (2009-2010) for the project Regulatory standards to govern the human rights obligations of transnational business: beyond individual corporate liability, with Fiona Haines
Research reports and consultancies
Oxfam Australia, 2010, Oxfam Australia Accountability and Cohesion Report (with Tom Davis, Scott Brenton and Syeed Ali) carried out as part of Oxfam Australia's Mid-Term Review of Strategic Plan
Amnesty International, International Secretariat, 2009-2010, Background report on: Corporate power, state responsibility and access to remedy: Influences and constraints over host country governance of foreign direct investment and the consequences for access to redress.
ActionAid Australia, 2009, report on: From Corporate Social Responsibility to Corporate Accountability? A Briefing Report on International Experiences and the Australian State of Play (co-authored with Zuleika Arashiro)
CORE (Corporate Responsibility) Coalition, 2008-2009, report titled The Reality of Rights: Barriers to Accessing Remedies when Business Operates Beyond Borders, published by London School of Economics and Political Science and the Corporate Responsibility (CORE) Coalition, May 2009
Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2005-2006, case studies on the Fair Labor Association and the Guatemalan country program of ILO-IPEC for the project: Global Institutional Design: How to improve the accountability and effectiveness of global governance.