Nadine Benedix as Visiting Fellow

Founded in 1927, the Graduate Institute is one of the oldest institutions researching International Relations in Europe. Due to its international orientation and proximity to the United Nations, the Institute is an eminent address for research on transnational governance.

During her stay in Geneva, Nadine Benedix will focus on self-organised working children engaging with international norms against child labour. Dealing with the question of how local practices of self-organisation relate to the political campaign of the transnational network of working children, she aims at gaining insights into their role in and for (international) political processes.

To this end, she will study the role of working children in international norm negotiation processes. The Geneva-based International Labour Organisation (ILO) is an important research site in this context, as it is one of the main norm-setting actors in the field. The effective abolition of child labour is one of its fundamental principles and is codified by two of its core labour standards.

Moreover, she aims at further exploring practice theoretical and critical perspectives on the analysis of agency in International Relations. As the Graduate Institute’s Global Governance Centre conducts pioneering research on international norm dynamics and decolonial perspectives in International Relations, it offers important impulses for her project.