Showing papers on "Capitalism published in 1997"

Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University

Abstract: The globalization of the political economy at the end of the twentieth century is destabilizing the patterns of university professional work developed over the past hundred years. One of the major changes that has taken place as a result of globalization is that faculty, who were previously situated between capital and labor, are now positioned squarely in the marketplace. To grasp the extent of changes taking place and to understand the forces of change, Academic Capitalism examines the current state of academic careers and institutions, with a particular focus on public research universities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. In this wide-ranging analysis, Slaughter and Leslie leave no aspect of academic work unexplored: undergraduate and graduate education, teaching and research, student aid policies, and federal research policies. All are part of the equation. The authors pay particular attention to how faculty spend their time, what forces drive their choices of activities, and what this means for higher education.

The Cultural Economy of Cities

Abstract: An increasingly important fraction of contemporary economic activity is devoted to the production of cultural outputs, i.e. goods and services with high levels of aesthetic or semiotic content. This kind of economic activity is especially, and increasingly, associated with a number of large cities scattered over the globe. A conceptual account of this phenomenon is provided on the basis of an exploration of the character of place-specific forms of culture generation and the agglomerative tendencies of many kinds of cultural products industries. The empirical cases of Los Angeles and Paris are briefly discussed. The dynamics of production, distribution and location of major cultural products industries are also examined. The paper ends with a brief allusion to the modalities of spatial differentiation of culture in contemporary capitalism and to a prospective cultural politics.

The unofficial Economy in Transition

Abstract: THE ECONOMIES of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (FSU) escaped communism with a heavy burden. When central planning collapsed, they continued to suffer from widespread political control of economic activity. Such politicization had to be reduced significantly for small business formation and growth to begin. In recent years, some of these countries have succeeded much better than others in replacing political control with functioning market institutions. As this paper shows, they are also the countries that have had the healthiest public finances, the smallest unofficial economies, and the best records of growth. The politicization of economic life can usefully be thought of as the exercise by politicians of control rights over business. ' Such rights may include regulatory powers over privatized and private firms, the ability to regulate and restrict entry, control over the use of land and real estate that private businesses occupy, the determination and collection of taxes

Contemporary capitalism : the embeddedness of institutions

Abstract: Part I: 1. Coordination of economic actors and social systems of production Rogers Hollingsworth and Robert Boyer Part II: Introduction: the variety of institutional arrangements and their complementarity in modern economics Rogers Hollingsworth and Robert Boyer 2. The variety and unequal performance of markets Robert Boyer 3. A typology of cooperative interorganizational relationships and networks Jerald Hage and Catherine Alter 4. Weathering the storm: associational governance in a globalizing era William Coleman 5. Constitutional orders: trust building and response to change Charles F. Sabel Part III: Introduction: how and why do social systems of production change? Robert Boyer and Rogers Hollingsworth 6. Beneficial constraints: on the economic limits of rational voluntarism Wolfgang Streeck 7. Flexible specialization: theory and evidence in the analysis of industrial change 8. Globalization, variety and mass production: the metamorphosis of mass production in the new competitive age Benjamin Coriat 9. Continuities and changes in social systems of production: the cases of Japan, Germany, and the United States Rogers Hollingsworth Part IV: Introduction: levels of spatial coordination and the embeddedness of institutions Philippe Schmitter 10. Perspectives on globalization and economic coordination Wyn Grant 11. Globalization in question: international economic relations and forms of public governance Paul Hirst and Grahame Thompson 12. The formation of international regimes in the absence of a Hegemon: clubs are trump Lorraine Eden and Fen Osler Hampson 13. The emerging Euro-polity and its impact upon national systems of production Philippe Schmitter Part V: Conclusion: from national embeddness to spatial and institutional nestedness Robert Boyer and Rogers Hollingsworth.

The Postcolonial Aura: Third World Criticism In The Age Of Global Capitalism

Abstract: Postcoloniality and the perspective of history culturalism as hegemonic ideology and liberating practice the postcolonial aura - Third World criticism in the age of global capitalism the global in the local Chinese history and the question of orientalism there is more in the Rim than meets the eye - some thoughts on the Pacific idea three worlds or one, or many? - the reconfiguration of global relations under contemporary capitalism postcolonial or postrevolutionary? - the problem of history in postcolonial criticism the postmodernization of production and its organization - flexible production, work and culture the past as legacy and project - postcolonial criticism in the perspective of indigenous historicism

One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism

Abstract: In "One World, Ready or Not, " a national bestseller, Wiliam Greider focuses his incomparable reportorial skills on exposing the myths and the realities of the global ecnomy in terms of human struggle. Drawing on in-depth investigations and interviews with factory workers, corporate CEOs, economists and government officials around the world, he contends that the global economy is sowing "creative destruction" everywhere: while making possible great accumulations of wealth, it is also reviving forms of human exploitation that characterized industry one hundred years ago. Greider warns that if the system isn't reformed it will threaten not only our middle-class lifestyles but also social peace in rich and poor countries alike.

A Dutch Miracle: Job Growth, Welfare Reform and Corporatism in the Netherlands

Abstract: The Dutch polder model recently dubbed a 'success story' by Bill Clinton and Jacques Delors - plays a prominent role in current discussions about possibilities for a new 'capitalism with a social face', and appeals to experts all over the world. Just ten years ago the Swedish sociologist Goran Therborn described the Dutch employment policy as a 'spectacular failure'. The authors single out three policy changes to explain the 'miracle' that has taken place since then. The 'Dutch miracle' shows that it is difficult but not impossible to overcome the drawbacks of the welfare state and that in this age of globalization and integration, it remains necessary to coordinate policy on a national level as well. In the last section the authors investigate the dynamics of social-economic policy which will have to be developed under increasingly stringent international conditions

Natural Causes: Essays in Ecological Marxism

Abstract: Economic growth since the Industrial Revolution has been achieved at great cost both to the natural environment and to the autonomy of communities. What can a Marxist perspective contribute to understanding this disturbing legacy, and mitigating its impact on future generations? Social theorist James O'Connor demonstrates how the policies and imperatives of business and government influence - and are influenced by - environment and social change. Probing the relationship between economy, nature and society, O'Connor argues that environmental and social crises pose a growing threat to capitalism itself. These essays demonstrate the power of ecological Marxist analysis for understanding our diverse environment and social history, for grounding economic behaviour in the real world, and for formulating and evaluating new political strategies.

Political Economy of Modern Capitalism: Mapping Convergence and Diversity

Abstract: Modern capitalism, from neo-liberalism to deregulation, has come to dominate national and international political economy. This major book addresses this convergence and provides a comprehensive overview of the implications for future capitalist diversity. Leading international contributors consider important questions. Is the preference for free markets a well-founded response to intensified global competition? Does this mean that all advanced societies must converge on an imitation of the United States? What are the implications for the institutional diversity of the advanced economies? How do we now evaluate the systems and institutions in East Asia? Political Economy and Modern Capitalism provides a practical and wide-ranging analysis of the public policy choices facing governments and business around the world. It will be invaluable reading for students and researchers of political economy, comparative politics, political science, political sociology, public policy, and administration.

Capitalism and its future: remarks on regulation, government and governance

Abstract: The article relates capitalism's distinctive dynamic to the nature of the wage relation and self-valorization of capital. Capitalism has no final telos: its future remains open in the face of structural changes and social struggles. This source of capitalist dynamism also opens it to external influence. Some key changes in the 'government and governance' of economics and politics are also discussed. These include: the denationalization of statehood, a partial de-statization of politics, and the internationalization of policy regimes. Among counter-trends are the survival of the national state as an instance of meta-governance.

Contemporary Capitalism: Beneficial Constraints: On the Economic Limits of Rational Voluntarism

Abstract: Economists have succeeded in persuading most people that the performance of an economy improves as social constraints on self-interested rational action are removed. In this essay I wish to argue that, to the contrary, socially institutionalized constraints on the rational voluntarism of interest-maximizing behavior may be economically beneficial, and that systematic recognition of this must have far-reaching implications for both economic theory and the conduct of economic policy. Note that I am referring not to social but to economic benefits of social constraints, and to constraint rather than choice. In other words, I am not discussing whether or not societies may or should impose constraints on economic behavior for moral reasons ; even most economists agree that people should not be allowed to sell and buy babies, regardless of whether this was the free will and perceived rational interest of all parties involved. And I am arguing for the economic benevolence not of individual freedom, but of limitations on individual volition and the pursuit of self-interest . To support high economic performance, I am claiming, a society requires a capacity to prevent advantage-maximizing rational individuals from doing things that they would prefer to do, or to force them to do things that they would prefer not to do. The suggestion that social institutions constraining the rational voluntarist pursuit of economic advantage, and thereby interfering with the spread and operation of markets , may be economically beneficial directly contests the leading premises of mainstream economics with its laissez-faire conceptual heritage, and strikes right into the heart of darkness of liberal individualism.

The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital

Abstract: Global in scope, but refusing a familiar totalizing theoretical framework, the essays in The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital demonstrate how localized and resistant social practices—including anticolonial and feminist struggles, peasant revolts, labor organizing, and various cultural movements—challenge contemporary capitalism as a highly differentiated mode of production. Reworking Marxist critique, these essays on Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, and Europe advance a new understanding of "cultural politics" within the context of transnational neocolonial capitalism. This perspective contributes to an overall critique of traditional approaches to modernity, development, and linear liberal narratives of culture, history, and democratic institutions. It also frames a set of alternative social practices that allows for connections to be made between feminist politics among immigrant women in Britain, women of color in the United States, and Muslim women in Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, and Canada; the work of subaltern studies in India, the Philippines, and Mexico; and antiracist social movements in North and South America, the Caribbean, and Europe. These connections displace modes of opposition traditionally defined in relation to the modern state and enable a rethinking of political practice in the era of global capitalism. Contributors . Tani E. Barlow, Nandi Bhatia, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Chungmoo Choi, Clara Connolly, Angela Davis, Arturo Escobar, Grant Farred, Homa Hoodfar, Reynaldo C. Ileto, George Lipsitz, David Lloyd, Lisa Lowe, Martin F. Manalansan IV, Aihwa Ong, Pragna Patel, Jose Rabasa, Maria Josefina Saldana-Portillo, Jaqueline Urla

Alliance Capitalism and Global Business

Abstract: John Dunning is the leading authority in the field of international business. His latest work analyses: * future developments in global business * a comparison of US and Japanese investment in Europe * competitiveness, trade and integration * spatial dimensions of globalization

From a Geography of Labor to a Labor Geography: Labor's Spatial Fix and theGeography of Capitalism

Abstract: Mainstream neoclassical economic geography and its Marxist critique have largely failed to incorporate active conceptions of working class people in their explanations of the location of economic activities. Neoclassical approaches tend to conceive of workers simply as factors of location, whereas Marxist approaches primarily focus on how capital structures the economic landscape in its search for profit and frequently relegate labor to the status of “variable capital.” Both approaches present Geographies of Labor. They have not really examined how workers try to make industrial landscapes. In contrast, I argue that workers have an interest in how the economic geography of capitalism is made; consequently, they seek to impose what we might call “labor's spatial fix” and so play an active role in the unevenly developed geography of capitalism. Examining how workers try to develop their own spatial fixes allows us to incorporate a more active sense of workers as geographical agents into understandings of the production of space under capitalism. Recognizing that workers' efforts to create “labor's spatial fix” are significant allows us to theorize how workers attempt to make space as an integral part of their social existence (a Labor Geography) and so to write less capital-oriented economic geographies.

Globalization and the myth of the powerless state

Abstract: economies and the demise of the state’s domestic power. This article, instead, seeks to show why the modern notion of the powerless state, with its accompanying reports about the demise of national diversity, is fundamentally misleading.1 It is undeniable that striking changes have taken place inside nation-states in recent times. On the social policy front, there has been a decisive move towards fiscal conservatism, whether from the Right or the Left, with reforms to taxation systems and the trimming of social programmes. In the economic sphere, governments have moved towards greater openness in matters of trade, investment and finance. These changes are often represented as prima facie evidence of the emergence of a new global ‘logic of capitalism’. According to this logic, states are now virtually powerless to make real policy choices; transnational markets and footloose corporations have so narrowly constrained policy options that more and more states are being forced to adopt similar fiscal, economic and social policy regimes. Globalists therefore predict

Global capitalism and the state

Abstract: 'Globalization' is a term that has come to be used in recent years increasingly frequently and, arguably, increasingly loosely. In a close analysis of the term, the author focuses on the concept ofglobalization as the transcendence (rather than the mere crossing or opening) of borders arguing that this interpretation offers the most distinctive and helpful insight into contemporary world affairs. The article goes on to explore one of the key questions raised by this trend, namely, how the growth of supraterritorial space has altered capitalism in general, and the role of the state within capitalism in particular. The author concludes by suggesting that ifglobalization poses a threat, it is not (as is often argued) to the state itseff but rather to democracy.

Capitalism in the Age of Globalization: The Management of Contemporary Society

Abstract: * Foreword by John Bellamy Foster * Preface to the critique influence change edition * Introduction * 1. The Future of Global Polarization * 2. The Capitalist Economic Management of the Crisis of Contemporary Society * 3. Reforming International Monetary Management of the Crisis * 4. The Rise of Ethnicity: A Political Response to Economic Globalization * 5. What are the Conditions for Relaunching Development in the South? * 6. The Challenges Posed by Economic Globalization: The European Case * 7. Ideology and Social Thought: The Intelligentsia and the Development Crisis

Capitalism: An Ethnographic Approach

Abstract: Capitalism, ethnography and Trinidad pure capitalism the local-"global" and the global-"local" companies the ethnography of brands - the Trinidadian sweet drink industry the production of advertising the content and consumption of advertisements retail and shopping consumption and capitalism.

Work Under Capitalism

Abstract: Work Under Capitalism synthesizes recent institutionalist and Marxist ideas about the organization of production, situating production within a social context. Starting with the transaction rather than the individual, it builds upon a coherent theory and applies it to a wide range of experience, from household labour to transformations of health c

Social movements for global capitalism: the transnational capitalist class in action

Abstract: The thesis that 'Capitalism does not just happen' is argued with reference to Gramsci, hegemony and the critique of state centrism. This involves a critique of the assumption that ruling classes rule effortlessly, and raises the issue: Does globalization increase the pressures on ruling classes to deliver? Global system theory is outlined in terms of transnational practices in the economic, political, and culture and ideology spheres and the characteristic institutional forms of these, the transnational corporation, transnational capitalist class and the culture-ideology of consumerism. The transnational capitalist class is organized in four overlapping fractions: TNC executives, globalizing bureaucrats, politicians and professionals, consumerist elites (merchants and media). Social movements for global capitalism and elite social movement organizations (ESMOs) are analysed. Each of the four fractions of the TCC has its own distinctive organizations, some of which take on social movement-like characteristics.

The rise of soft capitalism

Abstract: The worlds of academe and capitalism are moving ever closer together as the cultural value attributed to theory by managers increases. This paper documents this process and, at the same time, provides a critique of it. Accordingly, the paper is in three parts. The first part shows how the discursive make‐up of academe and capitalism have become remarkably similar. The second part of the paper then documents the rise of a ‘soft capitalism’ based upon new discourses of management, which, at the same time, provides powerful technology of justification. The final part of the paper shows that the new discourses of management have a hard edge which impoverishes its practices but may also allow the space for other social models to grow.

The Iberian Roots of American Racist Thought

Abstract: T HE question why African slavery emerged as the primary form of exploited labor in the Americas during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has engaged the attention of scholars for years. Although a consensus seems to have emerged that the growth of capitalism played a major role in the establishment and survival of African slavery in the Americas, heated debate continues over the extent to which racism played a part in this development. The issue of which came first, racism or slavery, is central to this debate: some historians accept Eric Williams's assertion that "slavery was not born of racism: rather, racism was the consequence of slavery."1 Though the origins debate may at first glance seem artificial or analytically unimportant, it can reveal fundamental truths about the trajectory of racist ideology in Western culture. Locating the crystallization of racist ideology in Europe before 1492 shifts the focus of the origins debate from American economic explanations to European cultural ones. The search for the roots of a racial ideology might begin in ancient times; this article explores only the immediate foundations of racism in modern Western thought. Many historians of colonial Latin America insist that racism was not present in Iberia before 1492. They argue instead that racial stratification was a product of American economic conditions.2 This article contends that

Corporate Business and Capitalist Classes

Abstract: Large multinational corporations shape our lives to an enormous extent. How is the growth, power, and significance of big business to be explained and understood? Focusing on the issues of ownership, control, and class formation, Corporate Business and Capitalist Classes explores the implications of changes in the nature of big business, which affect both the businesses themselves, and the economic and political milieu in which these multinationals operate. Up-to-date empirical evidence is reviewed in a wide-ranging comparative framework that covers Britain and the United States, Germany, France, Japan, and many other societies, including emerging forms of capitalism in China and Russia. Unlike other specialist texts in the area, Corporate Business and Capitalist Classes relates its concerns to issues of social stratification and class structure. The first and second editions of the book (under the title Corportations, Classes and Capitalism) were enthusiastically received, and the present edition reviews new theoretical ideas and empirical evidence that has emerged in the ten years since the second edition appeared. The text has been completely re-written and re-structured, and it relates its concerns to contemporary debates over 'disorganized capitalism' and post-industrialism.