Transforming Global Governance: Contesting Images of the Future from People on the Edge of the Periphery

This thesis aims to bring unconventional perspectives to the global governance debates by developing multiple images of futures from contesting worldviews. Informed by futures research and the perspectives and stories of nations and peoples currently unrepresented in global decision-making forums such as the United Nations General Assembly, the thesis maps global governance philosophies, systems and structures, agencies, and their underlying worldviews and myths to produce possible futures for each of six actor groups contesting the current global governance system. The criteria used to construct these possible futures are then used to construct a model and story for the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (U.N.P.O.) using their materials, collected at their 2010 General Assembly, as content. The model and story represent the preferred global governance future for U.N.P.O. evoking an image of ‘One World’. The thesis in its entirety provides U.N.P.O. with the means to develop a positioning statement on global governance futures and to join the growing international conversation on this topic.Submitted in the fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Sunshine Coast, 2012