SCAS News - 20 August, 2018 (Update: 21 January, 2019)

New Book by SCAS Principal Christina Garsten

The book Discreet Power: How the World Economic Forum Shapes Market Agendas, written by
new SCAS Principal Christina Garsten together with Adrienne Sörbom, was recently published
by Stanford University Press (2018). The book was launched last week at an event at the Stockholm
Centre for Organizational Research (Score), of which Garsten has been the Chair of the Executive
Board since 2011. Christina Garsten succeeded Björn Wittrock as Principal of SCAS on 15 August,
2018.

About the book:

"In Discreet Power, Christina Garsten and Adrienne Sörbom undertake an ethnographic study of
the World Economic Forum (WEF). Accessing one of the primary agenda-setting organizations
of our day, they draw on interviews and participant observation to examine how the WEF wields
its influence. They situate the WEF within an emerging system of "discretionary governance," in
which actors craft ideas and entice formal authorities and top leaders in order to garner significant
sway. Yet in spite of its image as a powerful, exclusive brain trust, the WEF has no formal mandate
to implement its positions. It must convince others to advance chosen causes and enact suggestions,
rendering its position quite fragile. Garsten and Sörbom argue that the WEF must be viewed relationally
as a brokering organization that lives between the market and political spheres and that extends its reach
through associated individuals and groups.They place the WEF in the context of a broader shift, arguing
that while this type of governance opens up novel ways of dealing with urgent global problems, it chal-
lenges core democratic values."


Read more about Christina Garsten >>
Read more about the book >>
Read more: DN Debatt. "Den dolda makten i Davos måste granskas kritiskt" (Dagens Nyheter,
20 January 2019) >>