M.A. (Malcolm) Campbell-Verduyn, PhD

In 2022 I (co-)lead the following alphabetically-listed research projects being undertaken with colleagues based at the University of Groningen as well as at universities in both The Netherlands and abroad.

Blockchains as Finance/Security Technologies

I investigate unfolding applications of this set of emergent technologies at two specific intersections of finance and security. First, is the dual use of blockchains in both enabling the escape and enforcement of international sanctions. This research is being undertaken with IRIO colleague Dr. Francesco Giumelli. A summary of our first peer reviewed output, published here, is available here. Second, is the intersection of ‘decentralized finance’ (DeFi) and ‘centralized finance’ (CeFi). In collaboration with Moritz Huetten (Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and University of Amsterdam) we assess the growing encounter of informal protocol-based governance with formal standards emerging from the activities of the Financial Action Task Force and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Interrogating SusTech

With Dr. Daivi Rodima-Taylor of Boston University and Dr. Nick Bernards of Warwick University, I co-lead an interdisciplinary investigation of the growing 'turn' to novel digital technologies that are being increasingly harnessed in global attempts to address a number of interrelated sustainability challenges, from climate change to labour standards in global supply chains. A peer reviewed agenda-setting article setting out this collaborative research project is avaiable here. 

Polycentric Data Governance

With Dr. Carolina Aguerre of the University of San Andrés in Argentina and Prof. dr. Jan Aart Scholte of Leiden University in The Netherlands, I co-lead an interdisciplinary investigati into the transscalar, transsectoral and transtemporal nature of digital data governance. An overview of this project is available at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg Centre for Global Cooperation, where I was a senior research fellow from September 2020 to August 2021. We have an Open Access edited volume Global Digital Data Governance: Polycentric Perspectives under contract with Routledge that will appear in early 2023. 

RegTech Imaginaries

With Dr. Marc Lenglet of the NEOMA Business School in France I am scrutinizing the collective visions underlying the development and growing application of ‘Regulatory Technologies’ (RegTechs) across global financial governance. A first peer reviewed ouput from this research, published in New Political Economy, considers the implications for democracy and stability of what we characterize as technocratic, techno-solutionist imaginaries being mobilized.

Bad Policy

What makes policy bad? What drives policy towards harm? What prospects  exist for overturning and developing better alternatives to bad policy? Together with Canadian colleagues Heather McKeen-Edwards (Bishop’s University) and Ian Roberge (York University) I am co-leading a comparative analysis of bad policies across financial services, emerging technologies, and environmental activites.