Governing through standards: an introduction / Stefano Ponte, Peter Gibbon, Jakob Vestergaard -- The rise of banking standards and their limits / Kevin L. Young -- The new standard in banking regulation: from Basel II to Basel III / Jakob Vestergaard, Martin Højland -- Reforming global banking standards: back to the future? / Ranjit Lall -- Moving beyond nuts and bolts: the complexities of governing a global profession through international standards / Christopher Humphrey, Anne Loft -- On the pre-history of ISO 9000: the making of a neo-liberal standard / Peter Gibbon, Lasse Folke Henriksen -- ISO 26000, alternative standards, and the 'social movement of engineers' involved with standard setting / Craig N. Murphy, JoAnne Yates -- Standard-setting, certifying and benchmarking: a governmentality approach to sustainability standards in the agro-food sector / Marcel Djama, Eve Fouilleux, Isabelle Vagneron -- Multi-stakeholder Initiatives for sustainable agriculture: limits of the 'inclusiveness' paradigm / Emmanuelle Cheyns -- Competition, 'best practices' and exclusion in the market for social and environmental standards / Stefano Ponte, Lone Riisgaard -- The local instrumentality of global standards: how Mexican indigenous communities use FSC certification to foster a furniture production network / Dan Klooster -- Conclusion: the current status, limits and future of 'governing through standards' / Stefano Ponte, Peter Gibbon, Jakob Vestergaard.