Making sense of global governance futures

The purpose of this introductory chapter is to provide an overview for better comprehending future global governance—that is, how we make sense of what is to come. It does so by offering an understanding of global governance wrested from the strictures of traditional conceptualizations and able to appreciate the alternatives that may or could exist in the near and not-so-near future. The chapter draws attention to the need to rethink the temporal and spatial aspects of global governance; it considers the role of seldom appreciated actors in shaping the content and impact of global governance; and it highlights the impact that global governance has on those whose relationship with its outcomes is most intimate but is often underappreciated. The final section sets the scene for the more specialized analyses in the chapters that follow.