Abstract
We look closer at the particular forms of expertise and knowledge that inform compliance, and the technocratic and algorithmic architectures built to deliver it. We reflect on the fetishization of data and transparency and on flawed visions of objectivity and neutrality—and on consensus building and multistakeholderism. We look at the struggles for professional legitimacy and the translation of particular forms of expertise (at the expense of others) into the currency of private and voluntary self-regulation, standardization, and standard setting which promise to deliver universal ‘best practices’. We consider how come that the repeated failures of these forms of expertise only stimulate demand for more of the same—for more control, more compliance, more rules, more guidelines—rather than a serious rethinking of these practices.
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Notes
- 1.
https://www.acams.org/en (last accessed May 5, 2022).
- 2.
https://www.acfcs.org/all-news/ (last accessed May 5, 2022).
- 3.
https://www.corporatecompliance.org/conferences/academies (last accessed May 5, 2022).
- 4.
See, for instance, the description here of the situation in Norway, where the local Financial Intelligence Unit is massively outnumbered by the private sector investigators, both within and outside organizations, and where prosecutions for financial crime are notoriously low: https://forskning.no/finans-kriminalitet-politikk/politiet-overlater-etterforskningen-av-okonomisk-kriminalitet-til-de-mistenkte/1841798 (last accessed August 20, 2022).
- 5.
https://www.iso.org/news/ref2772.html (last accessed April 22, 2022).
- 6.
https://www.iso.org/news/ref2238.html (last accessed August 20, 2022).
- 7.
https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/store/en/PUB100397.pdf (last accessed April 27, 2022).
- 8.
https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/archive/pdf/en/codeethics_2004-en.pdf (last accessed April 27, 2022).
- 9.
https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/store/en/PUB100397.pdf (last accessed April 27, 2022).
- 10.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/perfect-storm-at-petrobras-the-worlds-most-indebted-oil-company-1447944976 (last accessed August 19, 2022).
- 11.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/petrobras-concludes-bribery-settlement-with-u-s-justice-department-11633450508 (last accessed August 19, 2022).
- 12.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/petr-leo-brasileiro-sa-petrobras-agrees-pay-more-850-million-fcpa-violations (last accessed August 19, 2022).
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Kuldova, T.Ø. (2022). Compliance-Industrial Complex and Its Experts. In: Compliance-Industrial Complex. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19224-1_6
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