ABSTRACT

How do international organisations (IOs) govern the present based on claims about the coming impacts of technological change? Drawing on primary documents and participant observation, this article traces how the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) anticipates automation emanating from the growing integration of blockchain technologies in global governance. We find that promises of radical, rapid, and reckless automation advanced by promoters of Bitcoin and other ‘defiant’ applications of the technology are steered by this IO towards more incremental and carefully managed forms of automation. The OECD relies on two managerialist practices to anticipate “reckless automation” through the promotion of what we identify as “responsible disruption”. In combination, OECD practices of scenario building and shared orientation framework construction deepen and extend managerial forms of global governance today whose technocratic and expert-led nature limits democratic possibilities and perpetuates global inequalities.

摘要

国际组织 (IO) 如何根据有关技术变革即将产生的影响的主张来管理当前？本文利用原始文件和参与者观察，追溯了经济合作与发展组织 (OECD) 如何预测区块链技术在全球治理中日益融合所产生的自动化。我们发现，由比特币和其他“挑衅”技术应用程序的推动者提出的激进、快速和鲁莽自动化的承诺被这个 IO 引导到更加渐进和精心管理的自动化形式。经合组织依靠两种管理主义实践，通过推广我们认为的“负责任的颠覆”来预测“鲁莽的自动化”。结合，