Political Change (political + change)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences


Selected Abstracts


MUSEUMS AS AGENTS FOR SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGE,

CURATOR THE MUSEUM JOURNAL, Issue 3 2001
DAWN CASEY
First page of article [source]


REGIONAL TIES AND DISCRIMINATION: POLITICAL CHANGE, ECONOMIC CRISIS, AND JOB DISPLACEMENTS IN SOUTH KOREA, 1997,99

THE DEVELOPING ECONOMIES, Issue 1 2007
Changhui KANG
J71; O53; C25 Probing into the incidence of job displacements during the 1997,99 recession period, this study offers theoretically grounded micro-causal explanations for regional ties and regional discrimination in South Korea. Our statistical analysis reveals the significant impact of a worker's birth region (the basis of regional ties and discrimination) on the layoff process. Native Kyongsang workers are found to have faced higher rates of layoff in Seoul-Kyongki regional firms than native Jolla workers during the recession period. The Kyongsang,Jolla layoff rate gap is mainly due to differential treatment rather than a difference in observable characteristics. The findings suggest that the problem of regional ties and regional discrimination is more deep-rooted and widespread in South Korea than previously reported. [source]


Ethnography in Unstable Places: Everyday Lives in Contexts of Dramatic Political Change

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 3 2005
DAN BRADBURD
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Confronting the Johnson Administration at War: The Trial of Dr. Spock and Use of the Courtroom to Effect Political Change

PEACE & CHANGE, Issue 1 2003
Michael S. Foley
The Johnson administration's 1968 decision to indict Dr. Benjamin Spock and four others for conspiracy to aid and abet draft resisters thrilled the antiwar movement because it demonstrated that the government could no longer ignore the growing number of Americans opposed to the Vietnam War. In the months leading up to the trial, expectations ran high as the antiwar movement looked forward to a courtroom confrontation in which they hoped to see the government's policies put on trial. This article argues that the trial did not live up to its billing, however, because the defendants and their attorneys pursued both political and civil libertarian trial strategies that were, in practice, mutually exclusive. Although the trial disappointed the peace movement, its shortcomings warrant renewed attention for the lessons it offers those who again will seek a courtroom confrontation with their governments during wartime. [source]


Whatever Happened to Thatcherism?

POLITICAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 2 2007
Colin Hay
Throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s the pages of journals such as this were filled with debate , invariably heated , on the nature, extent, significance and reversibility of Thatcherism. Today the echoes of a once deafening clamour have largely subsided. Thatcherism has all but disappeared from the lexicon of British political analysis. My aim in what follows is to reflect on this passing and what it indicates about the state of our understanding of this once most contentious of phenomena. I do so by considering the two most significant recent additions to the vast literature on the subject, Peter Kerr's Postwar British Politics: From Conflict to Consensus (2001) and Richard Heffernan's New Labour and Thatcherism: Political Change in Britain (2000).1 [source]


Development Section, April 2008

GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2008
Cheryl McEwan
EDITORIAL It is a great privilege to serve as Editor for the Development section of Geography Compass. The journal is an exciting new venture in electronic publishing that aims to publish state-of-the-art peer-reviewed surveys of key contemporary issues in geographical scholarship. As the first Editor of this section, it is my responsibility to establish the key aims and innovations for this section of the journal. These include: publishing reviews of scholarship on topics of contemporary relevance that are accessible and useful to researchers, teachers, students and practitioners; developing the range of topics covered across the spectrum of development geography; helping to set agendas in development geography by identifying gaps in existing empirical and conceptual research; commissioning articles from both established and graduate/early career researchers who are working at the frontiers of development geography; and communicating the distinctiveness of Geography Compass. Part of this distinctiveness is in publishing articles that are both of scholarly excellence and accessible to a wide audience. The first volume of Geography Compass was published in 2007, covering a wide range of topics (e.g. migration, children, technology, grassroots women's organizations, civil society, biodiversity, tourism, inequality, agrarian change, participatory development, disability, spirituality) in a number of specific geographical areas (e.g. Africa/southern Africa, Caribbean, China, Peru). Forthcoming in 2008/2009 are articles on the Gambia, Latin America, the Philippines, Southeast Asia, Bangladesh and South Africa, focusing on topics such as food security, comparative post-socialism, foreign aid and fair trade. Building on these diverse and excellent articles, I plan to communicate the distinctiveness of Development in a number of ways. First, I encourage an ecumenical approach to the notion of ,development geography' and welcome contributions from scholars across a range of social science disciplines whose work would be useful to a geography audience. This is important, not least because both development and geography, in disciplinary terms, are largely European inventions. Many scholars in Latin America, Africa and Asia, for example, do not refer to themselves as either development specialists or geographers but are producing important research in areas of direct relevance to students and researchers of ,development geography'. As the first editions illustrate, I also seek to publish articles that reflect ,development' in its broadest sense, encompassing economic, (geo)political, social, cultural and environmental issues. 2008 will be an interesting year for development, with a number of important issues and events shaping discourse and policy. These include: the Beijing Olympics and increasing focus on China's role in international development; political change in a number of African countries (Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa); the US presidential elections and potential shifts in policy on climate change, trade and security; the impacts of the Bali roadmap on climate change in the current economic context; the increasing number of impoverished people in Asia (notably China and India), sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America (notably Brazil) that even the World Bank has acknowledged; the implications of the increasing role of philanthropic foundations (e.g. the Gates Foundation and those emerging in India and Russia) in international development. I hope to see some of these issues covered in this journal. Second, I am keen to break down the association between ,development' and parts of the world variously categorized as ,Third World', ,Global South' or ,Developing World' by publishing articles that cut across North and South, East and West. The intellectual and disciplinary practices within (Western) geography that separate those researching issues in the South and post-socialist contexts from those researching similar issues in advanced capitalist economies are, it seems, no longer sustainable or sensible. Moreover, while studies of transnational and ethical trade, neoliberalism, household economies and ,commodity chains', for example, incorporate a multitude of case studies from across the world, these tend to be understood through conceptual lenses that almost always have their theoretical antecedents in Western theorization. The notion of ,learning from' debates, policy and practice in other parts of the world is still relatively alien within the discipline. There are thus issues in how we research and teach ethically and responsibly in and about different parts of the world, and in which this journal might make a contribution. Third, and related, part of my responsibility is to ensure that Compass reflects the breadth of debate about ,development' by publishing articles written by a truly international range of scholars. This has proved to be a challenge to date, in part reflecting the newness of the journal and the difficulties posed by English language publication. However, an immediate aim is to publish the work and ideas of scholars based outside of Anglophone contexts, in the Global South and in post-socialist contexts, and to use international referees who are able to provide valuable commentaries on the articles. A longer-term aim is to also further internationalize the Editorial Board. Currently, one-third of the Editorial Board is non-UK and I plan to increase this to at least 50% in future. Fourth, I plan to ensure that the Development section takes full advantage of electronic publication and the opportunities this offers. Thus, while I am keen to retain a word limit in the interest of publishing accessible articles, the lack of constraint regarding page space enables authors to include a wide range of illustrative and other material that is impossible in print journals. I plan to encourage authors to make greater use of visual materials (maps, photographs/photo-essays, video, sound recordings, model simulations and datasets) alongside text as well as more innovative forms of presentation where this might be appropriate. Finally, in the coming year, I intend to work more closely with other Compass section Editors to realize the potential for fostering debate that cuts across subdisciplinary and even disciplinary boundaries. The journal publishes across the full spectrum of the discipline and there is thus scope for publishing articles and/or special issues on development-related topics that might best be approached through dialogue between the natural and social sciences. Such topics might include resources (e.g. water, oil, bio-fuels), hazard and risk (from environmental issues to human and state security), and sustainability and quality of life (planned for 2008). Part of the distinctiveness of Compass is that electronic-only publication ensures that articles are published in relatively quick time , in some cases less than 3 months from initial submission to publication. It thus provides an important outlet for researchers working in fast-changing contexts and for those, such as graduate and early-career researchers, who might require swift publication for career purposes. Of course, as Editor I am reliant on referees both engaging with Manuscript Central and providing reports on articles in a relatively short space of time to fully expedite the process. My experience so far has been generally very positive and I would like to thank the referees for working within the spirit of the journal. Editing a journal is, of course, a collaborative and shared endeavour. The Development Editorial Board has been central to the successful launch of Development by working so generously to highlight topics and potential authors and to review articles; I would like to take this opportunity to thank Tony Bebbington, Reg Cline-Cole, Sara Kindon, Claire Mercer, Giles Mohan, Warwick Murray, Richa Nagar, Rob Potter, Saraswati Raju, Jonathan Rigg, Jenny Robinson and Alison Stenning. The Editors-in-Chief , Mike Bradshaw and Basil Gomez , have provided invaluable advice while adding humour (and colour) to the editorial process. Colleagues at Wiley-Blackwell have provided superb support, in particular, Helen Ashton who is constantly on hand to provide advice and assistance. I look forward to working closely with these people again in the coming year, as well as with the authors and readers who are vital to ensuring that Geography Compass fulfils its remit. [source]


The Crisis in the Investiture Crisis Narrative

HISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 6 2009
Maureen C. Miller
Recent research has undermined the connection between lay investiture and the iconic event usually seen as the most dramatic expression of the investiture conflict: the encounter of Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV of Germany at Canossa. This is just one, however, of many interpretive problems plaguing historical narratives of the investiture crisis. This essay briefly summarizes the classic interpretations that have dominated 20th-century understanding of these events and sets out the major problem raised in more recent research. Arguing that a new interpretive framework is necessary, the author suggests two paths forward: a radical reconsideration of the papacy from a truly post-confessional perspective and a reevaluation of the conflict in the context of new understandings of lordship and political change. [source]


The Paradoxes of Indian Politics

HISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 4 2007
Achin Vanaik
This article by one of India's foremost writers on contemporary politics surveys twelve paradoxes. These are the key themes which have shaped domestic political change in India in recent decades and particularly since the mid-eighties. It outlines how social and economic changes have intersected with political possibilities and especially stresses the way in which India's continued social inequalities have been played out in a democratic setting. It is very useful for anybody wanting to understand the present day politics of India or who is interested in the consequences of colonial economies for postcolonial states. [source]


Finding the Middle-Ground: The Middling Sort in the Eighteenth Century

HISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 2 2006
Perry Gauci
Since the 1980s the debate on the impact of the middle classes in eighteenth-century Britain has helped to transform current interest and thinking on the period. No consensus has been reached on the degree of social and political change at this time, but our understanding of middling experience has been enhanced by a range of new themes and approaches, the resonance of which continues to enliven the field. [source]


From Limited to Active Engagement: Mexico's Emigration Policies from a Foreign Policy Perspective (2000,2006)

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW, Issue 4 2009
Alexandra Délano
Mexico's emigration policies , including the state's engagement with the diaspora, the discourse in relation to emigrants, the responses to U.S. migration policies and legislation, and the priority given to the issue in the national and bilateral agendas , have undergone a process of transformation since the late 1980s and particularly after 2000. From a history of generally limited engagement in terms of responding to U.S. policies and a traditional interpretation of consular protection activities, Mexico has gradually developed more active policies in relation to the diaspora and began a process of redefining its position on emigration. In addition to the processes of political change in Mexico and the growing impact of migrants' transnational activities, changes in Mexico's emigration policies are also a result of transformations in foreign policy principles and strategies, mainly as a result of the evolution of U.S.-Mexico relations since the late 1980s and particularly since NAFTA. These findings demonstrate the significance of international factors , namely host state , sending state relations and foreign policy interests, discourse, and traditions , in the design and implementation of migration policies and the need to develop multi-level analyses to explain states' objectives, interests, and capacities in the management of migration. [source]


Healthcare financing reform and the new single payer system in the Republic of Korea: Social solidarity or efficiency?

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 1 2003
Soonman Kwon
In July 2000, national health insurance in the Republic of Korea was transformed into a single insurer system. This major reform in healthcare financing resulted from the merger of more than 350 health insurance societies. Inequity in healthcare financing and the chronic financial situation of the health insurance societies for self,employed workers in rural areas have been the driving forces leading to the unified health insurance system. The unique institutional context together with political change opened the window of policy change, and various stakeholders such as politicians, rural self,employed workers, trade unions and civic groups were involved in the healthcare reform process. Fair income assessment of the self,employed and the role of the single insurer as a prudent purchaser of medical care will be vital for the new system to achieve its intended goal and improve social solidarity and efficiency of healthcare. [source]


State-led Democratic Politics and Emerging Forms of Indigenous Leadership Among the Ye'kwana of the Upper Orinoco

JOURNAL OF LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2006
Matthew LauerArticle first published online: 28 JUN 200
En este artículo analizo la política Ye'kwana del Alto Orinoco para revelar como sus nociones de liderazgo, autoridad, y comunidad han sido transformadas con la intrusión política nacional de Venezuela. Comparo las respuestas de indigenistas, misioneros, políticos regionales, e indígenas Ye'kwana sobre la ascensión al poder político de Jaime Turón, un líder polémico Ye'kwana y alcalde del municipio Alto Orinoco. Sostengo que la política de descentralización y democratización conducida por muchos estados de América Latina son procesos que simultáneamente excluyen e incorporan a líderes indígenas y plantean desafíos complicados para aquellos que buscan legitimidad entre los pueblos indígenas y organizaciones indigenistas. Ésta situación es especialmente pertinente al caso de Venezuela, un país petrolero donde líderes indígenas entran a la esfera política nacional como políticos elegidos con presupuestos municipales relativamente grandes bajo su control y no como lideres asociados a federaciones interétnicas. Este estudio revela los aspectos emergentes del liderazgo indígena contemporáneo y los criterios híbridos necesarios para la legitimidad política entre indígenas Amazónicas. Además, agrega a una comprensión más plural y multi-vocal de la política indígena en América Latina. PALABRAS CLAVES: indígenas Amazónicas, política de etnicidad, liderazgo, cambio política,Venezuela. KEYWORDS: Amazonian Indians, cultural politics, leadership, political change,Venezuela. [source]


Relationships between the constructs of a theory of curriculum implementation

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 3 2005
John Rogan
Planned educational change occurs regularly throughout the world. With the enormous political change the 1994 elections brought to South Africa, a complete change in education policies was called for. The new Curriculum 2005 (C2005; Department of Education, RSA, 1997) embraced new teaching and learning approaches such as outcomes-based education and learner-centered teaching practices. To explore the progress of the implementation of C2005, a theoretical framework specifically designed to elucidate curriculum implementation in developing countries was applied to 10 case studies. The framework consists of interrelating constructs with subconstructs which impact on curriculum implementation. It enables one to look at the levels of implementation achieved both in terms of the capacity of the school and the extent to which outside support and pressure is provided. The case studies were carried out in a representative sample of schools in Mpumalanga, one of the nine South African provinces. The aim of this article is to investigate the possible interrelationships of the constructs and the subconstructs. Some predictable relationships emerged from the data while other expected relationships failed to materialize. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 313,336, 2005 [source]


Emerging Patterns of Social Identification in Postapartheid South Africa

JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 2 2010
Elirea Bornman
Theorists acknowledge the possibility of multiple group identification where groups are imbedded in hierarchical structures that can change as the environment changes. This article investigates national, subnational, and supranational identification and the possible impact of social and political change on identity structures in South Africa. The results of three surveys conducted in 1994, 1998, and 2001 are discussed. While national and African identities have apparently strengthened among Blacks since 1994, national identification seems to have diminished among Afrikaans-speaking Whites in favor of ethnic identification. Some potential consequences of and directions for future research are discussed. [source]


FOLLOWING THE SIGNS: APPLYING URBAN REGIME ANALYSIS TO A UK CASE STUDY

JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 5 2007
NANCY HOLMAN
ABSTRACT:,As the debate continues regarding the applicability of urban regime analysis in a UK context, three aspects stand out as highly significant: the target for analysis, the mode of scrutiny, and the context of local governing arrangements with its implications for interdependence as an impetus for co-operation. This article will examine urban regime analysis and the move from government to governance in order to answer why and how the private, voluntary and public sectors might be inclined to collaborate in regimes. In addition, the regime analysis will provide the parameters for examination whilst the issue of governance will afford context for local governing arrangements. Although some issues require slight reframing to reflect the UK context, the article will follow a rigorous framework for examination utilizing the full weight of regime analysis as articulated by Stone such that it could not be accused of "concept stretching." Far from it: Through the examination of an informal partnership, a coalition of actors from the public, private, and voluntary sectors that has been in existence for more than 13 years, the article focuses, specifically, on the long-term, less visible aspects of local governance. As such, it is able to demonstrate how economic and political change can have a tangible effect on the manifestation of interdependence as an impetus for co-operation, not only for this specific locale but also for other cities facing similar challenges. [source]


National identity in Northern Ireland: stability or change?

NATIONS AND NATIONALISM, Issue 4 2007
JOHN COAKLEY
ABSTRACT. This article addresses a set of fundamental, long-term factors associated with the Northern Ireland conflict: the pattern of underlying values and attitudes, especially those related to identity, that have helped to shape the nature of intercommunal competition. Using all generally available public opinion data, the article explores in particular the nature of national identity and of related forms of belonging for political behaviour. It notes the mutually reinforcing character of political loyalties within the Protestant community (where national identity, communal affiliation, constitutional preference and party support tend to coincide in a ,Protestant-unionist' package) and the failure of this to be matched within the Catholic community (where the components of the ,Catholic-nationalist' package are less closely interrelated). It concludes by speculating about the implications of these value configurations for political development, suggesting that they are unlikely to contribute to any fundamental political change in Northern Ireland in the short or medium term. [source]


10.,The Universal Concept of Human Rights as a Regulative Principle: Freedom Versus Paternalism

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
Article first published online: 18 FEB 200, Edward Demenchonok
This essay examines the current debates regarding the politics of human rights. The universal concept of human rights is considered as a regulative principle for the possible critique of any state, including a democratic one. Moreover, the philosophical justification of the universal regulative principle for evaluating these states is vital for progressive political change and for the politics of human rights. At the heart of the analysis is Kant's concept of human rights as freedom. It is opposed to a more utilitarian interpretation of rights and political paternalism. Kant's philosophy helps us to better understand the meaning of the definition of human rights as inherent, sacred, and inalienable, as formulated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. Kant makes these meanings explicit, and he elaborates on the moral-philosophical explanations of humanitarian rights. His philosophy of law was developed in a process of a systematic criticism of political paternalism (which is the flip side of dependence). Kant developed his definition of individual freedom in opposition to authoritarian paternalism, utilitarian arbitrariness, and the "despotism of paternalistic benevolence." The categorical imperative is threefold: the imperatives of morality, right, and peace. Thus it could be interpreted as "the categorical imperative of peace." The analysis shows the ongoing relevance of Kant's ideas and their recent development by the theorists of "discourse ethics" and of "cosmopolitan democracy." It affirms that the solution to the problems of securing peace and protecting human rights can only be achieved by peaceful means, based on the international rule of law. [source]


DOES POLITICAL CHANGE AFFECT SENIOR MANAGEMENT TURNOVER?

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 1 2010
AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF TOP-TIER LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN ENGLAND
In many political systems the political neutrality of senior managers' tenure is often cherished as a key part of the politics-administration dichotomy and is subject to formal safeguards. We test hypotheses about the impact of political change on senior management turnover drawn from political science, public administration and private sector management theory. Using panel data to control for unobserved heterogeneity between authorities, we find that changes in political party control and low organizational performance have both separate and joint positive effects on the turnover rate of senior managers. By contrast, the most senior manager, the chief executive, is more sheltered: the likelihood of a chief executive succession is higher only when party change and low performance occur together. Thus the arrival of a new ruling party reduces the tenure of senior managers, but chief executives are vulnerable to political change only when performance is perceived as weak. [source]


IDENTIFYING CAUSALITY IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE: THE ADAPTATION OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY FOR WALES TO THE EUROPEAN UNION

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 2 2008
CAITRÍONA A. CARTER
The aim of this article is to identify causes and effects of public institutional change. Analysis is centred on those endogenous, not exogenous, sources of political change that account for the institutional metamorphosis of the Welsh Assembly in its engagement with UK-EU processes since 1999. The central research question addressed is to explain a qualitative shift in the logic of action of Assembly engagement, resulting in the conduct of a territorially sensitive ,parliamentary' EU scrutiny, but within a model of executive devolution. To capture agency and change, and to engage with sociological institutionalist debates, the article develops analytical tools of ,framing' and ,operationalizing' institutions to study the interplay between informal and formal processes of institution building since devolution. In so doing, we place refined sociological conceptions of institutions at the heart of analyses of political discontinuity and theorization of public institutional change. [source]


POLITICAL LIBERALIZATION OR ARMED CONFLICTS?

THE DEVELOPING ECONOMIES, Issue 2 2007
COLD WAR AFRICA, POLITICAL CHANGES IN POST
F5 The African political scene after the end of the Cold War has been characterized by two major issues: the development of political liberalization and frequent outbreaks of armed conflict. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the relationship between these two issues. Although political liberalization cannot directly explain the outbreak of armed conflicts, the relationship can be understood by taking patrimonial characteristics of the post-colonial African states into account. The economic crisis and the change of the international environment after the 1980s compelled African states to launch the transformation, during which three results emerged: countries advancing successfully toward transformation into "polyarchy"; countries having fallen into severe armed conflicts; and countries in which authoritarian rulers managed to survive through introducing superficial measures of political liberalization. The characteristics of political change after the end of the Cold War can be therefore understood as transition processes of the post-colonial African states. [source]


ON THE POST-UNIFICATION DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PAY IN GERMANY,

THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue 4 2007
AXEL HEITMUELLER
German post-unification in the 1990s is a period marked by substantial economic and political change, a crucial part of which was a largely politically motivated attempt to build East German wages towards the much higher West German wages. We study the development of the public,private sector pay gap in Germany in the 1990s. We show that throughout the 1990s the overall pay gap between the public and private sectors remained stable in the West and increased considerably in the East. Wage decompositions show a small and stable negative public sector premium in the West, and a large and increasing positive public sector pay premium in the East. Decompositions also show a considerable deterioration in the skill base of the private sector in the East which the paper attributes in part to the improved attractiveness of the public sector. The paper argues that the development in the size and composition of the public,private sector pay gap in the East is an indication of the public sector crowding out the private sector and raises concerns about the future competitiveness of the East. [source]


Emergency Medicine and Political Influence

ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 10 2009
Robin R. Hemphill MD
Abstract The 2008 election brought sweeping political change to Washington, DC. For a variety of reasons, there is also substantial political momentum for reform of our health care system. At the 2008 Association of American Medical Colleges meeting in San Antonio, Texas, the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine, meeting in conjunction with the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, chose to examine the topic of "advocacy and political influence." This article summarizes comments made at the meeting and develops the argument that expertise in health policy and political advocacy are valuable skills that should be considered legitimate components of scholarly activity in academic emergency medicine. Strategies for effective advocacy of issues relevant to emergency medicine and emergency patient care are also discussed. [source]


Determinants of Organizational Flexibility: A Study in an Emerging Economy

BRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2006
Andrés Hatum
This paper examines the processes of organizational adaptation and competitiveness of firms in an emerging economy. The study is set in the Argentinian context of the 1990s when a combination of economic and political change triggered a massive change in the competitive context of indigenous firms. Two highly flexible firms and two less-flexible firms are studied from the pharmaceutical and edible oil industries and longitudinal data are supplied to explore the determinants of organizational flexibility in those organizations. [source]


Explaining the Rise of Class Politics in Venezuela

BULLETIN OF LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH, Issue 2 2009
OLIVER HEATH
The sudden rise to power of leftist former coup leader Hugo Chávez and the subsequent politicisation of social class raises a number of interesting questions about the sources of class politics and political change in Venezuela. Using nationally representative survey data over time, this article considers different explanations for the rise of class politics. It argues that explanations for the politicisation of class can best be understood in terms of ,top-down' approaches that emphasise the role of political agency in reshaping and re-crafting political identities, rather than more ,bottom-up' factors that emphasise the demands that originate within the electorate. The economic crises during the 1990s undermined support for the existing parties, but it did not create a politically salient class-based response. Rather, it created the electoral space that facilitated new actors to enter the political stage and articulate new issue dimensions. [source]


Resettlement, Rights to Development and the Ilisu Dam, Turkey

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2004
Behrooz Morvaridi
A cursory attempt to measure the extent of displacement over the past two decades indicates significant increases in conflict-induced displacement and displacement resulting from development projects. At the same time a growing opposition to the latter form of displacement has raised questions over its legitimacy through a variety of media, including public campaigns and protests. This article focuses on some of the challenges that this presents to the displacement and resettlement discourse. In particular it considers the influences of the rights to development agenda on the spatial context of displacement and its associated economic and political changes. There appears to be a disjuncture between the practices of mainstream development, which tend to interpret development policy as it is defined and applied by a nation state and to assess inequalities within clear geographical definitions, and the universality of a rights based approach to development. This article examines these tensions in the context of displacement and resettlement management, drawing on evidence from a case study of the Ilisu dam in South East Anatolia, Turkey. [source]


Convergence within the EU: Evidence from Interest Rates

ECONOMIC NOTES, Issue 2 2000
Teresa Corzo Santamaria
The economic and political changes which are taking place in Europe affect interest rates. This paper develops a two-factor model for the term structure of interest rates specially designed to apply to EMU countries. In addition to the participant country's short-term interest rate, we include as a second factor a ,European' short-term interest rate. We assume that the ,European' rate follows a mean reverting process. The domestic interest rate also follows a mean reverting process, but its convergence is to a stochastic mean which is identified with the ,European' rate. Closed-form solutions for prices of zero coupon discount bonds and options on these bonds are provided. A special feature of the model is that both the domestic and the European interest rate risks are priced. We also discuss an empirical estimation focusing on the Spanish bond market. The ,European' rate is proxied by the ecu's interest rate. Through a comparison of the performance of our convergence model with a Vasicek model for the Spanish bond market, we show that our model provides a better fit both in-sample and out-of sample and that the difference in performance between the models is greater the longer the maturity of the bonds. (J.E.L.: E43, C510). [source]


Environmental and economic development issues in the Polish motorway programme: a review and an analysis of the public debate

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2002
E. J. Judge
This paper examines the development of the Polish motorway programme, though the lessons apply generally throughout the central and east European (CEE) region. This has particular significance for European transport policy as three major corridors of the Polish motorway network also form crucial links of the Trans European Network (TEN). Thus, until recently, motorways have been presented on the one hand (by the Polish government and its supporters) as a boost to national and regional development, and on the other (by its detractors, principally the environmental lobby) as a threat that will suck development out of the country, while saddling it with substantial environmental costs. Environmental pressure groups have sought to refute economic development arguments using Western research, and have seen such research as influential in public debate and decision making. Based on evidence drawn from official reports and documents and a content analysis of the public debate on motorway development using the media archive of the Polish Motorways Agency, this paper suggests that these arguments have so far in fact been overshadowed by environmental considerations, and even more by financing issues. However, the future direction of policy is uncertain because of political changes after the September 2001 election. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


Malagasy and Western Conceptions of Memory: Implications for Postcolonial Politics and the Study of Memory

ETHOS, Issue 2 2006
Jennifer Cole
In this article, I analyze the social dynamics of memory during two electoral crises that took place in Madagascar in 1993 and 2002, respectively. These crises were accompanied by intense surges of memory. For some participants, the surge of remembering was simultaneously discursive, emotional, and embodied; for others it remained primarily discursive, with important consequences for how people related to the political changes taking place. Rather than turn to Western social theories of memory, which tend to separate the discursive, embodied, and emotional dimensions of memory, I suggest that the Malagasy practice of memory,mahatsiaro,offers a better analytic, one that combines the different aspects of memory together. The highly contingent ways in which the political, emotional, and embodied dimensions of memory converge to motivate political action suggests the need to integrate attention to personal experience with wider sociopolitical events and structures of power in particular historical settings. [Madagascar, discursive memory, emotion, embodiment, politics] [source]


Re-imaging the City Centre for the Middle Classes: Regeneration, Gentrification and Symbolic Policies in ,Loser Cities'

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2009
MAX ROUSSEAU
Abstract This article aims to show how the governments of two industrial cities in France and the UK have now come to the view that middle-class reinvestment in the city centre offers a solution to urban economic decline, and so have encouraged the middle class to move in by implementing ,symbolic policies'. Their objective is to transform the image of the post-industrial city through cultural and urban planning policy, in order to adapt it to the supposed taste of potential gentrifiers. This development in strategy results from both external constraints and internal political changes in these cities. The failure of earlier redevelopment strategies is also a factor in explaining this paradoxical phenomenon, in which a social group that is, in fact, almost absent from the central spaces of these cities has now been accorded the status of ,systematic winners'. Résumé Cet article a pour objectif de montrer comment les gouvernements de deux villes industrielles, en France et en Grande-Bretagne, considèrent désormais que le réinvestissement du centre-ville par les classes moyennes constitue une solution au déclin économique urbain, et en viennent ainsi à favoriser leur arrivée par la mise en oeuvre de «politiques symboliques»: par des actions sur la culture et l'urbanisme, l'objectif est de transformer l'image de la ville postindustrielle pour l'adapter au goût supposé des gentrifieurs potentiels. Cette évolution stratégique est tout à la fois le résultat de contraintes externes et de transformations politiques internes aux villes. L'échec des précédentes stratégies de re-développement est également un facteur explicatif de ce phénomène paradoxal qui rend «systématiquement gagnant» depuis peu un groupe social pourtant quasiment absent de l'espace central de ces villes. [source]


Experiencing Globalization: Active Teaching and Learning in International Political Economy

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES PERSPECTIVES, Issue 1 2001
Louise Amoore
This article explores the teaching and learning challenges for the discipline of international studies (IS) that arise from the contemporary social, economic, and political changes usually labeled "globalization." The focus is upon the challenge posed to IS by a transformation in the nature of the relationship of teachers and students to the subject matter that they study: that is, teachers and students increasingly experience and contribute to globalization in the course of their daily lives as they simultaneously teach and learn about it. Significantly for the study of globalization in IS, pedagogical debates surrounding active teaching and learning highlight the potential for strategies that actively engage students' interests and everyday experiences with the subject itself. On this basis, the article outlines some potential routes into the active teaching and learning of globalization in the field of international political economy, illustrating these with examples from classroom activities and exercises. [source]