The Gloss of Harmony

'This fascinating book is an anthropological foray into international institutions' -- Sally Engle Merry, author of Human Rights and Gender Violence 'Highly recommended' -- Tania Murray Li, author 'The Will to Improve' 'Brings new perspectives in the anthropology of transnational organisations' -- Marc Abeles, Research Director CNRS/EHESS Paris, author of 'The Politics of Survival' 'These ethnographic studies shed valuable light on how UN agencies work, how global norms are constructed and negotiated, and how the veneer of consensus is manufactured, often in ways that serve to reproduce the authority of these UN agencies themselves' -- Cris Shore, The University of Auckland 'This book cannot be missed by any scholar or citizen trying to get a grasp on how today's world is - or should be - governed' -- Global Policy Forum

Birgit Muller is a senior researcher at the CNRS and teaches at the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales in Paris. She is the author of many books including Disenchantment with Market Economics (Berghahn Books, 2008) and The Gloss of Harmony (Pluto, 2013).

1. Introduction: Lifting the Veil of Harmony: Anthropologists approach International Organisations by Birgit Muller Part 1: Making a World that is Governable 2. The Power of Perseverance. Exploring the Negotiation Dynamics at the World Intellectual Property Organisation by Regina Bendix 3. The Making of Global Consensus. Constructing Norms on Refugee Protection at UNHCR by Marion Fresia 4. The Politics of Technicality. Guidance Culture in Environmental Governance by Peter Bille Larsen Part 2: Diluting Conflict - Creating Harmony 5. Before Audit Culture: A Genealogy of International Oversight of Rights by Jane K. Cowan 6. Politics of Shame: The Bureaucratisation of International Human Rights Monitoring by Tobias Kelly 7. Entangled in Artifacts. Governing Diverging Claims and Rights to Cultural Objects at UNESCO by Brigitta Hauser-Schaublin Part 3: Participation and Actor Building across Scales 8. "We Indigenous Peoples..." Global Activism and the Emergence of a New Collective Subject at the United Nations by Irene Bellier 9. The Loss of Harmony. FAO Guidance for Food Security in Nicaragua by Birgit Muller 10. Nature for Money. The Configuration of Transnational Institutional Space for Environmental Governance by Kenneth Iain MacDonald Notes on Contributors Index