This article examines recursive processes in the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a nonstate forest standard-setting and accreditation organization. The FSC has developed numerous organizational structures and procedures that help it pool and analyze stakeholder input and feedback in standard-setting and implementation. We conceptualize recursive processes of stakeholder input and feedback and organizational responsiveness as recursivity by design. The article focuses on organizational legitimacy as a driver of recursive processes. The FSC's extensive participation procedures and structures present opportunities for incorporating stakeholder input and feedback in standard-setting and make it a responsive, legitimate, and effective governance scheme. It also enables the FSC to deal with challenges to its legitimacy and effectiveness. Whereas challenges associated with stakeholder participation and on-the-ground standard implementation are conceptualized in the literature as sources of organizational fragility and crisis, we argue that FSC's recursive structures help it accommodate criticism of and information about its performance and adjust its system to continuously emerging demands for more credibility and quality.1 Recursivity by organizational design: A conceptualization 2 The Forest Stewardship Council 3 The FSC's recursive standard-setting structures 4 Meta-standardization: The WTO and the ISEAL Alliance 5 Recursivity in implementation and quality assurance Conclusion
This special section analyzes the variety of recursivity in transnational regulatory governance. We conceptualize recursivity as a complex cycle through which addressees’ response to transnational rules continuously feeds back into the rulemaking process and triggers rule revision. In the introduction to the special section, we emphasize that recursivity varies across governance organizations and governance fields and develop an analytical framework to capture this variation. We also propose a typology of recursive governance organizations. Finally, we preview five case studies included in the special section and summarize their key findings and conclusions, with particular attention to the implications for accountability and legitimacy.Conceptualizing recursivity Analytical framework Typology of forms of recursivity Contributions and key findings Conclusion
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