Transnational Feminism, Global Governance, and the Reimagination of the Organization-Society Relationship: A Case Study of the Women's Environment and Development Organization

Abstract

This study further destabilizes the traditional view of the organization–society relationship in which organizations are largely divorced from the publics they represent. A critical case study of the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), a transnational feminist organization working across national and geographic borders for inclusive global governance, reveals that its global governance discourse mediates: (a) Western liberalism's neglect of difference by centering typically peripheral voices; and (b) postmodernity's moral relativism by developing and implementing global norms. A global intermediary between powerful decision-making bodies and historically underrepresented citizens, WEDO is an exemplar of how transnational feminist organizations are reconfiguring the organization–society relationship in a postmodern era.