London School of Economics and Political Science

About: London School of Economics and Political Science is a education organization based out in London, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Politics & Population. The organization has 8759 authors who have published 35017 publications receiving 1436302 citations.

Accounting for Flexibility and Efficiency: A Field Study of Management Control Systems in a Restaurant Chain*

Abstract: In this paper we seek to demonstrate that the design principles presented by Adler and Borys 1996 are directly relevant to the study of management control systems. We do this by showing that they provide a concise and powerful way of drawing together the complex and overlapping approaches to management control that we observed in an exploratory field study.

Understanding Modern Banking Ledgers Through Blockchain Technologies: Future of Transaction Processing and Smart Contracts on the Internet of Money

Abstract: In this chapter we provide an overview of the concept of blockchain technology and its potential to disrupt the world of banking through facilitating global money remittance, smart contracts, automated banking ledgers and digital assets. In this regard, we first provide a brief overview of the core aspects of this technology, as well as the second-generation contract-based developments. From there we discuss key issues that must be considered in developing such ledger based technologies in a banking context.

Decentring Regulation: Understanding the Role of Regulation and Self-Regulation in a ‘Post-Regulatory’ World

Abstract: This article addresses three basic analytical questions: what is 'decentring regulation', what is 'self regulation' and how does it fit in the decentring analysis, and what meaning is given to 'regulation' to allow it analytically to be 'decentred' - how do we know 'decentred regulation' when we see it? Decentring is a term which is often used to encompass a number of notions, and has both positive and normative dimensions. It is used to express the observation that governments do not, and proposition that they should not, have a monopoly on regulation and that regulation is occurring within and between other social actors: there is 'regulation in many rooms'. Decentring is also part of the globalisation debate on the one hand, and of the debate on the developments of mezzo-levels of government (regionalism, devolution, federalism) on the other. Decentring is also used in a positive sense to describe the consequence of a particular analysis of social systems, in which politics and administration are, like law or economics, are described as being self referentially closed sub-systems of society, incapable of observing other systems except through their own distorted lenses; decentring is thus the removal of government and administration from the conceptual centre of society. Finally, developing from these observations (and mixing metaphors), decentring can be used, positively and normatively, to express 'de-apexing': the removal of the state from the conceptual hierarchy of state-society, and the move to a heterarchical relationship in which the roles of governors and governed are both shifting and ill-defined. The themes of 'decentring' are reflected in a changed understanding of regulation. In that changed understanding, self regulation plays a particular role both in practical policy debates and in more conceptual discussions. The role ascribed to self regulation, however, differs quite fundamentally in those debates. For some self regulation is the solution to the limits of 'centred' regulation; for others it is the challenge that has to be addressed: regulation of self regulation is the new challenge. The prescription is for governments to regulate self regulation in a 'post regulatory' way. But what conception of 'regulation' is thereby entailed? The article deconstructs the notion of 'regulation' and attempts to build an understanding of 'regulation' that can withstand 'decentring'.

Regional economic integration

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter presents details on regional economic integration. It reviews and evaluates some of the voluminous literature, theoretical and applied, on the economic effects of regional integration agreements (RIAs). These effects are organized into three types: allocation effects, accumulation effects, and location effects. The first consists of RIAs' impact on the static allocation of resources, in settings with both perfect and imperfect competition. The second encompasses RIAs' impact on the accumulation of productive factors and covers both medium- and long-run growth effects. The third studies the impact of an RIA on the spatial allocation of resources; this analysis draws on the recent economic geography literature. The chapter also discusses the methods and results of empirical evaluations of RIAs, concentrating on North American free trade area NAFTA and the European community (EC). It also elaborates other issues, including the structure of RIAs and the implications of RIAs for the world trading system.

Feminist theories of technology

Abstract: Feminist theories of technology have come a long way over the last quarter of a century. The expanding engagement at the intersection of feminist scholarship and science and technology studies (STS) has enriched both fields immeasurably, and I will largely focus my reflections on the literature associated with these sites. I begin by highlighting the continuities as well as the differences between contemporary and earlier feminist debates on technology. Current approaches focus on the mutual shaping of gender and technology, in which technology is conceptualised as both a source and consequence of gender relations. In avoiding both technological determinism and gender essentialism, such theories emphasise that the gender-technology relationship is fluid and situated. These deliberations highlight how processes of technical change can influence gender power relations. A feminist politics of technology is thus key to achieving gender equality.