Showing papers on "Restructuring published in 1982"

Gentrification and Uneven Development

Abstract: A debate is emerging over whether gentrification and urban redevelopment are temporary, ephemeral processes or only the beginning of a long-term restructuring of urban space. In order to assess the future of the inner city, it is necessary to understand the origins of the present redevelopment process, yet little or no theoretical work has been done. In fact, gentrification and urban redevelopment are the leading edge of a larger process of uneven development which is a specific process, rooted in the structure of the capitalist mode of production. According to this perspective, gentrification is only a small part of a restructuring of urban space which is, in turn, part of the wider economic restructuring necessitated by the present economic crisis.

Toward a Political Economy of Educational Innovation

Abstract: Many policymakers and researchers still maintain that “modernization” of education through sustained and well-focused investment in educational innovation can improve the quality of education, significantly ameliorate social and economic problems, and lower educational costs as well. By restructuring management and teaching practices, putting more reliance on prepackaged curriculum materials, exploiting the possibilities of computers, radio, and TV, and changing teachers’ roles, it is believed that children and youth would be better prepared to meet the requirements of the modern workplace.We contend, however, that these benefits have failed to materialize. In an attempt to understand why the promise of educational innovation has not been realized, we critically examine educational innovation, its ideological and paradigmatic underpinnings, and the major stages of the innovation process. Review of a large body of research suggests that conventional theory fails to understand the nature of structural and i...

Why Nations Realign: Foreign Policy Restructuring in the Postwar World

Abstract: This book, originally published in 1982, analyzes the process of radical foreign policy change – how states restructure their foreign relations, and why they do so. Using a common analystical framework, the authors examine Bhutan, Burma, Canada, Child, China and Tanzania. They distinguish between piecemeal foreign policy change and adaptation, and the fundamental re-ordering of foreign policy. Their analysis underlines the extent to which non-military and sometimes imagined threats, such as dependency and external economic and cultural penetration, can constitute an important cause of radical realignment activity.

A restructuring off hypothalamic synapses is associated with motherhood.

Abstract: Freeze-fracture analysis of the rat hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus reveals a variety of postsynaptic specializations distinguished both by particle size and by aggregate shape. One particular type of specialization is found only in replicas from females having born offspring. This suggests that, in association with motherhood, either existing synaptic specializations are modified or a new type of connection is formed. Thin section analysis of the postsynaptic density in the cerebral cortex of the rat (Peters and KaisermanAbramof, 1969) and dog (Blomberg et al., 1978; Cohen et al., 1977; Cohen and Siekevitz, 1978) has shown this membrane specialization to be disk shaped, occasionally containing one or more holes or “perforations.” Application of freeze-fracture techniques to the study of the postsynaptic specialization (PSS) reveals a cluster of particles on the protoplasmic fracture face of dendrites (Sandri et al., 1972). Where perforations in the postsynaptic density are seen in thin sections, particle-free zones in the particle aggregate are seen in freeze-fracture (Landis and Reese, 1974; Landis et al., 1974). Quantitative analysis of the size and densities of particles, as well as the presence or absence of particle-free zones, defines morphologically distinct classes of PSSs. It has been suggested that the different shapes of the PSSs represent physiologically distinct synapses or perhaps different structural forms of physiologically similar synapses (Landis and Reese, 1974). In fact, these differences may reflect the age and experience of an animal (Greenough et al., 1978). ’ We thank U. V. Bouchard and D. D. Taitano for typing the manuscript, V. A. Bradshaw for inking the histograms, T. J. Deerinck for photographic assistance, and J. M. LeBeau for performing the statistical analyses. We also thank Dr. P. M. Groves for a thorough critique of an earlier draft of this paper. This work was supported in part by grants to M. H. E. from the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke (Grant NS14718), the Muscular Dystrophy Association of America, and the National Multiple

Restructuring Urban Managerialism: Towards a Political Economy of Urban Allocation

Abstract: This paper is concerned with conceptual frameworks in urban geography. It seeks to reestablish the validity of research at the institutional level albeit set within a broad political economy of urbanism. It also argues the need both to recognise and to explain the high degree of variation which exists within institutions operating in the urban realm.

Activation and restructuring of prior knowledge and their effects on text processing

Abstract: In two experiments effects of a group problem-solving procedure were assessed. In Experiment 1 small groups of subjects were presented with a problem they had to discuss. Compared with a control condition the experimental subjects showed superior reproduction and transfer of information relevant to the problem. These effects were attributed to the activating and restructuring properties of the problem-solving procedure. In Experiment 2 effects of activation and restructuring of prior knowledge on subsequent text processing were examined. A general facilitative effect was found. This result cannot be explained in terms of selective attention induced by prior problem analysis.

Explaining Manufacturing Shift: A Reply to Keeble

Abstract: The paper develops some methodological criticisms of Keeble's recent paper on Britain's changing manufacturing geography. It is argued that causal explanations such as those offered by the literature on restructuring cannot be fairly evaluated if they are recast as putative statistical explanations.

The Future of Telecommunications Regulation

Abstract: Ten years of procompetitive regulation at the Federal Communications Commission and the pending divestiture of AT&T to settle the decade-old government antitrust case against the company have sown the seeds for a fundamental restructuring of the telecommunications industry. Competition, though as yet vigorous only for a handful of services and devices, is nevertheless healthy and growing. The salient regulatory questions are the extent to which the industry can become competitive, the rate at which the AT&T monopoly will erode, and how regulation can ease and speed the transition to a more efficient industry structure. The purpose of this paper is to lay out the role of the FCC during the next decade or two as the industry becomes increasingly competitive but AT&T continues to have a dominant position in long distance telephone and certain key elements of the equipment market.

Social Strategy And Corporate Structure

Abstract: This new work by Neil W. Chamberlain will be of great importance to the business community -- and to all those charged with defining the role large corporations play in the affairs of society. "Social Strategy and Corporate Structure" is an objective, indepth examination of the organizational requirements of a social role for large-scale business. The role Neil Chamberlain presents is one of heroic dimensions: the political choice of goals, the strategic allocation of resources, and the tactical operations of the mechanisms of production. While there has been much discussion of corporate social responsibility, few have investigated the ways its structure will have to change if the corporation is to pursue a strategy that is both economic and social. This timely book integrates a large number of issues involving corporate activities and governance that go directly to the heart of this problem. In step-by-step detail, Chamberlain analyzes the organizational imperatives of this new age of social responsibility: the composition and functions of boards of directors and the relation of their duties to a broad system of national planning; the internal social audit; changes in the characteristics of corporate social planning; and proposals for restructuring ultimate corporate authority, either through public or outside directors. In addition, he examines the potential relevance of federal chartering of corporations, and the effects of international economic interdependence on the development of a new corporate social strategy. This book is not a detailed blueprint for change. Rather, it presents a thorough, systematic study of available courses of action for improvement,based on the principle that conventional notions of corporate independence will have to be modified for any social strategy to work. And while not everyone will agree with Neil Chamberlain, few can afford to ignore his provocative insights into what corporations must do to function effectively in a changed social environment.

Economic reform and foreign trade in Yugoslavia

Abstract: On account of Yugoslavia's position as a small and relatively less-developed country, the plans designed by its leadership for the construction of a socialist society have always emphasised the role of foreign trade in economic growth. In thirty years of economic experi menting, the accepted analysis of the correct nature of foreign trade has been revised dramatically. To simplify somewhat (a more detailed division is given below), there have been three periods, each characterised by the position adopted towards two issues: the connection between foreign trade and growth and the connection between trade and the degree of decentralisation of the domestic economy (see Table 1). The early years, from 1952 (when the administrative Soviet-type model was abandoned) to 1961, were a time of limited decentralisation during which some control over the distribution of enterprise income was shared with enterprises and with governments at the republic and communal (local) level. Industrialisation through import-substitution was adopted as the basis for growth, and its success regarded as dependent upon central control over both domestic production and foreign trade. The second period, the years of reform (1961 to 1976), witnessed a repudiation of the growth strategy and the trade policy of the 1950s. The new approach attempted to use market forces to determine the pattern of trade, and relied on export sectors to propel development.' Reforms included the transfer of decision-making on investment from the federal budget process to banks and enterprises, the removal of restrictions on prices and incomes, and the liberalisation of foreign trade. Before these reforms, decentralisation had meant merely some enterprise and local control over the disposition of revenues still allocated from the centre, while in the post-reform years most of the national product was allocated by firms and non-federal governments. The third period, beginning in 1976, is distinct in its attempt to combine elements of both earlier periods: import-substitution was again to be the strategy for growth and the rationale for trade, but at the same time decentralisation was extended. The key to understanding these changes lies in Yugoslav thought in the reform period. Briefly, the main aim of reforms of the mid 1960s was the restructuring of the foreign trade system to overcome problems whose origins were attributed to the system of the 1950s. Proponents of reform argued that import-substitution had caused several related problems: the high import content of domestic production had necessitated strong export incentives to

The Changing Environment of Urban Transportation

Abstract: A combination of rising operating costs, dwindling federal subsidies, and unfulfilled public expectations about the promise of mass transportation are prompting local jurisdictions to question the logic of existing public transportation arrangements and to search for less costly and more effective alternatives. The outcome of this reappraisal may be nothing less than a fundamental restructuring and reform of urban public transportation. This article discusses the issues that form the backdrop and shape the agenda for the current reexamination of traditional urban transportation premises.

The political economy of socially irrational products

Abstract: In the past long waves have dissipated themselves in an exhaustion of innovations, under spending and/or a shortage of labour, and ensuing upswings depended upon adjustments in the wage/profit relation and a restructuring of the patterns of production and consumption. Whereas monetarist, Keynesian and Marxist perspectives all focus attention on changes in the distributional or former dimension of the present crisis, in this paper I argue that the critical distinguishing feature is grounded more in the latter: the intractable character of post World War II production and consumption. The intractability refers to the resilience of the contemporary structure of production and consumption. Whereas in the past competitive market forces facilitated the restructuring of production and consumption required at the end of a long boom, today the economy remains encumbered with a range of investments and product forms entrenched within the social and political order but which are increasingly costly in real terms. Proposals to resolve these dislocations by government cutbacks and the imposition of selective austerity fail to capture the organisational sources of rising costs and government paralysis. Even if such programmes were to stimulate a renewed spurt of economic growth, they would quickly be accompanied by rising cost pressures and a political backlash; for the austerity would be imposed on a populace imprisoned within an expensive infrastructure of consumption and therefore required to maintain a high level of expenditure. The task of this paper is to explain the intractable character of the current crisis in terms of the contemporary organisation of consumption and production. The argument proceeds in the following order. First, the politicised market, generating irrational patterns of production and consumption in key industries, has driven up the cost of living. Second, these patterns of production and consumption, once they were embedded in political and social institutions, have become highly resistant to the competitive forces which in theory reduce inflationary pressures. Third, the burdens and constraints imposed on the state by the prevailing patterns of production and consumption combine with the relative ineffectiveness of Keynesian and monetarist measures to set up the state as a scapegoat for economic irrationalities lodged more deeply in the contemporary structure of production and consumption.

Gazing Up at the Bottoms: Problems of Minimal Response in the Implementation of Manpower Policy

Abstract: The paper discusses the implementation of manpower policy as viewed from below, and is a partial critique of ‘bottom-up approaches’ to implementation studies. It reports on a Social Science Research Council financed study at the School of Advanced Urban Studies which employed both bottom-up and top-down methods, and explored the hypothesis that the nature of the employment problem tackled by policy affected implementation. Restructuring policy would be easier to implement than policy designed to ‘mop up’ the effects of restructuring, the least easy to implement being policy designed to redistribute rewards in the labour market. The research attempts to include the view from below the ‘bottom’ usually referred to by bottom-up theorists. The paper reports, from the point of view of those affected, the failed implementation of the multiple responses at central and local level to the creation of large-scale redundancies. It shows the presence of ‘garbage can’, ‘symbolic’, ‘crisis-response’, and ‘ambiguity’ elements in the implementation process. It also shows ‘mobilization of bias’, reluctance to assume responsibility for policy decisions, and the power of the market in implementation. It concludes that ‘economic’ is a quality akin to ‘magic’ which makes its manipulation in implementation extremely difficult, and suggests that powerful implementation institutions are needed if those below the ‘bottoms’ are not to suffer from restructuring in the labour market.

The changing role of the state hospital director: Restructuring the top management team

Abstract: This article analyzes turnover in the position of state hospital director. It examines the relationship between role structure, job stress and burnout. Based on this analysis, recommendations are made for the restructuring of a top management team. Buffalo Psychiatric Center, a 750-bed facility operated by the New York State Office of Mental Health, provides the setting for this case study.

Retirement policy in french agriculture

Abstract: A supplementary retirement grant (I. V.D.) has been the most important of a range of measures introduced since 1962 as a solution to social and structural problems in French agriculture. Although one-third of the country's agricultural area has been transferred through the scheme, there has been no revolutionary change in farm sizes. The restructuring required by the policy has been relatively slight and the economic attractions of the retirement grant have declined, particularly since the early 1970's. Problems have also arisen from the uneven spatial adoption of the pension, from internal contradictions within the scheme and from the lack of co-ordination with other aspects of government support for agriculture and regional development policy.

Capital accumulation and regional economic performance: the Australian experience

Abstract: The accumulation of capital is the driving force of the capitalist economy. Various conditions are necessary for accumulation to proceed and each has important spatial aspects. The paper demonstrates that an analysis of these aspects provides a potentially useful framework for understanding the relationship between regional development and economic growth, with particular reference to the Australian experience. Moreover, it is shown that spatial restructuring plays an important role during periods of economic recession in re-establishing the conditions for further growth. This analysis also illuminates some of the limitations of more conventional regional growth theories and debates on convergence versus divergence in regional economic performance.

Developing effective management for the general nursing service

Abstract: Directors of nursing services and their colleagues in the new units created by NHS restructuring face major challenges in developing effective management for the general nursing service. Emerging ideas within the profession on the organization of nursing work, severe pressures arising from financial constraints at a time of growing health care needs, and restructuring itself each demand a carefully planned response. Beginning from the basic management cycle involved in implementing the nursing process, this paper offers a redefinition of the main functions of nursing management as a whole in meeting these challenges and provides a check-list for reviewing existing management practice. The use of this check-list is then illustrated by a case study in one health district. In this example, managers sought external assistance in planning a programme of action to strengthen nursing leadership. Similar efforts elsewhere are likely to rely mainly on a range of self-help methods. This paper is intended to provide a tool for designing and implementing these local strategies of management development.

The education crisis in South Africa: Restructuring the policy discourse

Abstract: This paper examines three key education policy reports which emerged during the public debate over the ‘education crisis’ in South Africa in the early 1980s. The paper argues that the rhetoric of crisis and these particular discourses must be seen as part of the general restructuring of ideological discourse accompanying the process of state reconstruction necessitated by the escalating class struggle and challenges to continued capital accumulation which became particularly apparent in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The discourses reflect both the search for a new reformist consensus on education policy and the conflicts within the state over the most appropriate form of this consensus. The decline of the public debate over education policy suggests that these discourses have been successful in eliciting some consent for limited reformism among the audiences at whom they were directed. And accordingly, public attention has moved on to other conjunctual aspects of the process of state reconstruction ‐ su...

Hospitals reorganize to survive the '80s.

Abstract: Corporate restructuring and development of multi-institutional arrangements can enable hospitals to implement strategies for ensuring quality of care, developing access to capital, developing new sources of revenue, and more. Several models of these two approaches to reorganization are described.