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Institutional Frameworks (institutional + frameworks)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

The transformation of post-communist societies in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union: an economic and ecological sustainability perspective

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2008
erban Scrieciu
Abstract Since the collapse of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, the reform process has been considerably influenced by the neoclassical economic approach to transition. This has heavily emphasized competitive markets and economic liberalization measures per se, often ignoring the establishment of adequate institutional frameworks and resulting in high transition costs and the side-lining of environmental concerns. Alternative models of market transformations in post-Communist societies have been forwarded in the literature, though these have been arguably less influential. We explore the role of these economic ideologies in shaping transition paths, with a focus on the Post-Keynesian economic approach as an alternative to the neoclassical paradigm. We further propose a holistic approach to transition to account for appropriate institutional developments in the area of environmental sustainability. We argue that transition economies need to reconsider their ,market transformation' process in order to capitalize on their potential and mark their own contribution to positive shifts in sustainable development paradigms. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]

Neo-Liberalism as Creative Destruction

GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2006
David Harvey
Abstract Neoliberalization has swept across the world like a vast tidal wave of institutional reform and discursive adjustment, entailing much destruction, not only of prior institutional frameworks and powers, but also of divisions of labor, social relations, welfare provisions, technological mixes, ways of life, attachments to the land, habits of the heart, ways of thought, and the like. To turn the neoliberal rhetoric against itself, we may reasonably ask: in whose particular interests is it that the state take a neoliberal stance and in what ways have these particular interests used neoliberalism to benefit themselves rather than, as is claimed, everyone, everywhere? Neoliberalism has spawned a swath of oppositional movements. The more clearly oppositional movements recognize that their central objective must be to confront the class power that has been so effectively restored under neoliberalization, the more they will likely themselves cohere. [source]

Multinationals and institutional competitiveness

REGULATION & GOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2007
Peer Hull Kristensen
Abstract This article discusses how institutional competitiveness and multinationals are mutually enriching concepts. Multinationals transfer capital, technology, and knowledge into new settings. They allow subsidiaries access to new markets, new resources, and new processes. Potentially, therefore, institutional competitiveness can be increased by the presence of multinational corporations (MNCs) and their subsidiaries. However, this depends on the type of multinational and the type of institutional context. By differentiating two types of MNC in terms of short-term and long-term orientations to investment, and two types of host institutional setting in terms of strength of institutional complementarities and interconnectedness, we develop a typology of four types of interaction between MNCs and institutional settings. We then analyze how each type influences institutional competitiveness. We conclude that these outcomes, while structurally shaped, are still dependent on how actors (individuals, firms, collective organizations, and governments) strategize to develop institutional frameworks in the context of highly competitive global markets. [source]

Cities and the Geographies of "Actually Existing Neoliberalism"

ANTIPODE, Issue 3 2002
Neil Brenner
This essay elaborates a critical geographical perspective on neoliberalism that emphasizes (a) the path,dependent character of neoliberal reform projects and (b) the strategic role of cities in the contemporary remaking of political,economic space. We begin by presenting the methodological foundations for an approach to the geographies of what we term "actually existing neoliberalism." In contrast to neoliberal ideology, in which market forces are assumed to operate according to immutable laws no matter where they are "unleashed," we emphasize the contextual embeddedness of neoliberal restructuring projects insofar as they have been produced within national, regional, and local contexts defined by the legacies of inherited institutional frameworks, policy regimes, regulatory practices, and political struggles. An adequate understanding of actually existing neoliberalism must therefore explore the path,dependent, contextually specific interactions between inherited regulatory landscapes and emergent neoliberal, market,oriented restructuring projects at a broad range of geographical scales. These considerations lead to a conceptualization of contemporary neoliberalization processes as catalysts and expressions of an ongoing creative destruction of political,economic space at multiple geographical scales. While the neoliberal restructuring projects of the last two decades have not established a coherent basis for sustainable capitalist growth, it can be argued that they have nonetheless profoundly reworked the institutional infrastructures upon which Fordist,Keynesian capitalism was grounded. The concept of creative destruction is presented as a useful means for describing the geographically uneven, socially regressive, and politically volatile trajectories of institutional/spatial change that have been crystallizing under these conditions. The essay concludes by discussing the role of urban spaces within the contradictory and chronically unstable geographies of actually existing neoliberalism. Throughout the advanced capitalist world, we suggest, cities have become strategically crucial geographical arenas in which a variety of neoliberal initiatives,along with closely intertwined strategies of crisis displacement and crisis management,have been articulated. [source]