Social Fragmentation in Global Governance Complexes

This paper provides a conceptualization of social fragmentation of global governance regimes which takes a network perspective. Global governance issue areas are marked by dynamic actor constellations which shape their individual underlying social structure. To be able to measure and compare how these social structures within different issue areas have changed over time, I propose to think of these structures as three dimensional social networks in which states, international organizations (IOs) but also private actors socially interact with each other struggling for recognition. These instances of direct and indirect interaction among collective actors engaging in the governance of a certain issue constitute and shape dynamic recognition networks exhibiting potentially varying degrees of social fragmentation. Networks are structured alongside (1) an IO‐IO dimension, which captures patterns of reciprocal interaction among the institutional actors of the field, (2) an IO‐private actor dimension which grasps patterns of social interaction among IOs and nongovernmental actors and (3) an IO‐state dimension which reflects dynamic social relations among IOs and states engaging in a respective issue area. The social structure within each of the three dimensions then determines the overall social structure of different issue areas of global governance. Based on this concept, I map three dimensions of the global energy governance network.