Moral Agency and the Politics of Responsibility ― Challenging Complexity

At a time when globalization has side-lined many of the traditional, state-based addressees of legal accountability, it is not clear yet how blame is allocated and contested in the new, highly differentiated, multi-actor governance arrangements of the global economy and world society. Moral Agency and the Politics of Responsibility investigates how actors in complex governance arrangements assign responsibilities to order the world and negotiate who is responsible for what and how.

The book asks how moral duties can be defined beyond the territorial and legal confines of the nation-state; and how obligations and accountability mechanisms for a post-national world, in which responsibility remains vague, ambiguous and contested, can be established. Using an empirical as well as a theoretical perspective, the book explores ontological framings of complexity emphasizing emergence and non-linearity, which challenge classic liberal notions of responsibility and moral agency based on the autonomous subject. Moral Agency and the Politics of Responsibility is perfect for scholars from International Relations, Politics, Philosophy and Political Economy with an interest in the topical and increasingly popular topics of moral agency and complexity.

Cornelia Ulbert is Executive Director at the Institute for Development and Peace, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

Peter Finkenbusch is a Researcher at the Institute for Development and Peace, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

Elena Sondermann is a Researcher at the Institute for Development and Peace, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

Tobias Debiel is Professor of International Relations and Development Policy at the Institute of Political Science and Director of the Institute for Development and Peace as well as the Kate Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.