Description
This panel examines how power, care, and legitimacy are negotiated within contemporary governance, questioning who is included in decision making processes and on what terms. Bringing together perspectives from international studies, the papers explore how welfare and redistributive policies circulate across regions and historical periods, revealing enduring hierarchies between the Global North and South. The panel also considers how care work is experienced and sustained amid neoliberal restructuring of public institutions, highlighting the everyday labour that underpins social welfare. Further attention is given to the growing role of algorithmic and generative technologies in shaping political representation and gatekeeping, raising new questions about democratic accountability. Finally, the panel interrogates how power operates within research partnerships between communities and academic institutions, exposing the limits of inclusion without equity.