Professional Networks in the International Political Economy

Who writes the rules for the governance of the world economy? This paper looks beyond the usual suspects of states, NGOs and firms to attempt to map how ideas and skills travel between professional ecologies to solve long-term socioeconomic problems. The paper identifies professional networks in variety
of science-heavy, and social science related, issue-areas and identifies how variation in network structure may shape processes of idea formation, skills transfer and policy solutions and implementation. The paper also outlines the framework for visualizing professional ecologies and how they compete and
cooperate through a variety of novel concepts and technologies.
The issue-areas discussed in relation to professional networks include: the creation of a viable bio-fuels industry; addressing low fertility rates in the OECD; risk weighting and regulatory segmentation in financial reform debates; and the creation of ‘human capital controls’ to prevent the poaching of skilled migrants. The paper directly contributes to the STS literature in locating how professional practices and, their work content, are linked to science and technology while embedded in sociocultural frameworks in national and transnational contexts.