Corporate Power Research Articles

Discussion of Dhaliwal, Goodman, Hoffman, and Schwab (2019): Revisiting Tax-Related Reputational Costs

Discussion of Dhaliwal, Goodman, Hoffman, and Schwab (2019): Revisiting Tax-Related Reputational Costs

¡Presente! The Politics of Presence by Diana Taylor

Reviewed by: ¡Presente! The Politics of Presence by Diana Taylor Claire Pamment Taylor, Diana. ¡Presente! The Politics of Presence. Durham: Duke UP, 2020. 319 pp. Diana Taylor’s theoretically provocative, artful, and politically rich new book asks, “What to do when it seems that nothing can be done, and doing nothing is not an option?” (2). Amidst the continually unfolding violence and acts of disappearance throughout the Americas, undergirded by colonial histories, imperialist interventions, and neoliberal extractivist practices—that many of us in academia are embedded in— Taylor invokes artists, activists, and scholars to presence, or to be presente! Presente in this monograph is multivalent—it’s the act of taking a basin of blood between the Guatemalan Constitutional Court to the National Palace by performance artist José Galindo in her office-job lunch break upon hearing of former dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt’s running for parliament in 2003 (124), through to the armed action of the Zapatistas of Chiapas with their iconic masks and “noisy silence” (76). Meandering through the many presencings of this book, is the continually reflective scholar-activist-artist present at the scene—as witness, protestor, collaborator, provocateur, engaged in the reciprocal process of acting with others. Taylor reminds us that political interventions require a complex play of embodied [End Page 145] doings and relationalities between scholars, artists, and activists. Building from Dwight Conquergood’s urge for a shift in performance studies from objectivity to proximities and embodiment, Taylor’s urgent call to presente is relational, situated, reflective, low to the ground, and rooted in decolonial practice (Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, among others). Her interdisciplinariness is expansive, without being expansionist, joining “fugitives, artists, scholars and activists” (24) interested in other forms of worldmaking. Comprising nine chapters, readers are invited to walk and talk with Taylor over her expansive life line of work, encounters that often unfold around her time as founding director of the Hemispheric Institute (1998–2020), but sometimes take other temporalities, in journeys in and across Mexico, Guatemala, São Paulo, Santiago de Chile, Montreal, and the United States. She cautions that this is not autobiography. Indeed, the individuated I, as she persuasively theorizes, is a product of the colonial enterprise, one that annuls reciprocity and relationality. There are frictions in these journeys—the discussion of trans hurt following the queer play Juana la Larga (2014) in chapter six feels too quickly glossed for a call for “we-ness.” However, Taylor on the whole critically unfurls the challenges and different ways of being present through embodied and discursive acts of transfer. My personal favorite is the final chapter, which features Taylor’s encounter with the GM food corporation Monsanto and her collaboration with artivists The Yes Men (Jesusa Rodrίguez, Jacques Servin) in an act of environmental activism. Impersonating the company through a fake web site and news release, led to legal threats and demands from Monsanto for an apology from New York University, Taylor’s institutional home. Taylor’s interaction with university lawyers and senior administrators exposed the fragility of academic freedom in the neoliberal academy and its embeddedness in structures of corporate power and violence. The book’s many scenes, from tour-guiding in sites of trauma, theatre in shopping malls, to Monsanto and the US university, fold in to each other, interrelated in the colonial-neoliberal cartographies. Yet where violence is interconnected, Taylor suggests so too is resistance. Taylor does not settle into foreclosing notions of performance efficacy and subversion, concepts that have often been the mainstay of performance studies. Instead, she engages in more generative acts of transfer— untethering colonial epistemologies and signposting ways for the production and performance of knowledge to be more present in political struggles—thereby making this book widely relevant across geographical and disciplinary boundaries. [End Page 146] Claire Pamment William & Mary Copyright © 2022 Center of Latin American Studies the University of Kansas

Understanding the long-term policy influence strategies of the tobacco industry: two contemporary case studies

ObjectiveThis paper explores transnational tobacco companies’ (TTCs) long-term policy influence strategies using two case studies, harm reduction and illicit tobacco, to identify lessons for the tobacco control movement and wider...

Evaluation of Strength Properties of the Concrete Prepared from Class F Fly Ash

Cement is a hazardous and expensive material that is used in the production of concrete, where the cost of the concrete is minimized by replacing the cement with similar cementitious materials. According to the report of the national thermal power corporation, the production of fly ash is rising each year as a result of increasing demand for electricity. In this research paper, an attempt has been done by replacing cement with fly ash as an alternative material. The concrete samples are prepared with different compositions by using different percentages (0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, and 60%) of fly ash. In this research, the behaviour of the fly ash concrete is investigated by different strength-related properties; compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and flexural strength at various curing time periods of 7, 28, 56, 90, and 180 days. In the experimental section, the developed fly ash concrete obtained maximum compressive strength of 83.50N / mm 2, a flexural strength of 6.60N / mm 2 and a splitting tensile strength of 4.90N / mm 2 on the 180th day in the composition of 450kg/m 3 and 0.4W/B ratio. Percentage gain of compressive, split tensile and flexural tests for 450 kg/m3 at 0.4 W/B ratio at 180 days curing is 13%, 9% and 13% with 30% fly ash replacement when compared to 350 kg/m3 binder content. Proportional increase of cement content also leads to increase fly ash content in concrete. Fly ash has potential of filling pores because of having finer particles and performs pozzolanic action which resulted in attaining high strength even after optimum replacement when compared to conventional concrete.

계통 연계형 3레벨 TNPC 인버터의 LVRT & HVRT

With the increase in renewable power generation facilities, strict regulations on grid connection standards are being presented. The standards of Low Voltage Ride Through(LVRT) and High Voltage Ride Through(HVRT), which are representative grid connection standards to improve grid stability by maintaining grid connection in low and high voltage situations when a grid failure occurs, are gradually being subdivided. In this paper, the LVRT and HVRT control algorithms suggested in the transmission and distribution system connection regulations of KEPCO(Korea Electric Power Corporation) are applied to the grid-connected 3-level TNPC(T-Type Neutral Point Clamped) inverter. And in the VRT situation, the active and reactive current injection strategies were applied to the grid connected inverter algorithm. In addition, various simulation cases were analyzed, such as LVRT & HVRT conditions of transmission and distribution system. In the distribution system LVRT simulation, the grid voltage operated at 150ms and 1500ms, respectively, within 0.5p.u. and 0.75p.u. In the transmission system simulation, the LVRT operation and the HVRT operation were also simulated. By analyzing various simulation cases, the characteristics of the VRT cases was analyzed in detail and VRT control performance of the designed TNPC inverter was verified.

Veganism as political solidarity: Beyond ‘ethical veganism’

Veganism as political solidarity: Beyond ‘ethical veganism’

Strategies to expand corporate autonomy by the tobacco, alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverage industry: a scoping review of reviews

BackgroundNoncommunicable diseases contribute to over 70% of global deaths each year. Efforts to address this epidemic are complicated by the presence of powerful corporate actors. Despite this, few attempts have been made to synthesize existing evidence of the strategies used to advance corporate interests across industries. Given this, our study seeks to answer the questions: 1) Is there an emergent taxonomy of strategies used by the tobacco, alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) industries to expand corporate autonomy? 2) How are these strategies similar and how are they different?MethodsUnder the guidance of a framework developed by Arksey and O’Malley, a scoping review was carried out whereby six databases were searched in June 2021 to identify relevant peer-reviewed literature. To be included in this review, studies had to explicitly discuss the strategies used by the tobacco, alcohol, and/or sugar-sweetened beverage multinational corporations and be considered review articles aimed to synthesize existing evidence from at least one of the three industries. Eight hundred and fifty-eight articles were selected for full review and 59 articles were retained for extraction, analysis, and categorization.ResultsResults identified six key strategies the industries used: 1) influencing government policy making and implementation, 2) challenging unfavorable science, 3) creating a positive image, 4) manipulating markets, 5) mounting legal challenges, and 6) anticipating future scenarios. Despite these similarities, there are few but important differences. Under the strategy of influencing government policy making and implementation, for example, literature showed that the alcohol and SSB industries have been “privileged with high levels of participation” within international public health organizations.ConclusionsUnderstanding how industries resist efforts to control them is important for public health advocates working to reduce consumption of and death and diseases resulting from harmful commodities. Moreover, there is a greater need for the public health community to generate consensus about how to ethically engage or not engage with industries that produce unhealthy commodities. More studies are also needed to build the evidence base of industry tactics to resist regulation, particularly in the case of SSB, and in low-and middle-income countries.

Barriers and Enablers for Healthy Food Systems and Environments: The Role of Local Governments.

Purpose of reviewFood systems at all levels are experiencing various states of dysfunction and crisis, and in turn their governance contributes to other intensifying crises, such as climate change, biodiversity loss and the rapid expansion of dietary-related non-communicable diseases. In many jurisdictions governments at local, state and national levels are taking action to tackle some of the key challenges confronting food systems through a range of regulatory, legislative and fiscal measures. This article comprises a narrative review summarising recent relevant literature with a focus on the intersection between corporate power and public health. The review sought to identify some of the principal barriers for the design and support of healthy food systems and environments, as well as key reforms that can be adopted to address these barriers, with a focus on the role of local governments.Recent findingsThe review found that, where permitted to do so by authorising legislative and regulatory frameworks, and where political and executive leadership prioritises healthy and sustainable food systems, local governments have demonstrated the capacity to exercise legislative and regulatory powers, such as planning powers to constrain the expansion of the fast food industry. In doing so, they have been able to advance broader goals of public health and wellbeing, as well as support the strengthening and expansion of healthy and sustainable food systems.SummaryWhilst local governments in various jurisdictions have demonstrated the capacity to take effective action to advance public health and environmental goals, such interventions take place in the context of a food system dominated by the corporate determinants of health. Accordingly, their wider health-promoting impact will remain limited in the absence of substantive reform at all levels of government.

Travelling Noodles and Migrating Pieces of Raw Fish

Travelling Noodles and Migrating Pieces of Raw Fish

‘Go Home, Get a Job, and Pay Some Taxes to Replace a Bit of What You’ve Wasted’: Stigma Power and Solidarity in Response to Anti-Open-Cast Mining Activism in the Coalfields of Rural County Durham, UK

This article explores the nexus of stigmatisation and environmental activism in the Campaign to Protect Pont Valley against open-cast mining in the northeast of England. Drawing on Imogen Tyler’s work, our analysis examines stigma power as embedded in wider efforts to police and repress environmental dissent and defend core neoliberal values. Examination of qualitative interviews with campaigners, drive-past insults shouted at activists, online police statements and public responses, and online trolling of activists by mining employees and the wider public reveals stigmatisation to be a process of power, informed by neoliberal ideologies (of the threat and danger of worklessness), and reproduced through neoliberal power structures (the state, corporate power, and popular culture), shaped by the insecurities that are specific to social and political contexts. We show how the state mobilises stigma through ideologies associated with austerity and the hostile environment to delegitimate activism through association with worklessness/idleness and the inaccurate representation of activists as part of broader processes of criminalisation, policing, and management of protest. In an area renowned for its work ethic and high levels of unemployment, the work of environmental activists is dismissed as illegitimate, drawing on tropes associated with the disciplining of the so-called deviant working classes. The historical importance of coal and activism in the defence of the ‘mining way of life’ feeds into dominant narratives associated with work and individualism. Pride associated with coal mining is reconfigured and forms the basis of insults against those (working class and otherwise) who are recast as ‘outsiders’, ‘wasting time and money’ in resisting environmental destruction. Finally, we examine how activists were able to largely deflect stigmatisation through collective engagement, solidarity, and political analysis of the process they were subject to.

Wind Speed Forecasts of a Mesoscale Ensemble for Large-Scale Wind Farms in Northern China: Downscaling Effect of Global Model Forecasts

To facilitate wind power integration for the electric power grid operated by the Inner Mongolia Electric Power Corporation—a major electric power grid in China—a high-resolution (of 2.7 km grid intervals) mesoscale ensemble prediction system was developed that forecasts winds for 130 wind farms in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The ensemble system contains 39 forecasting members that are divided into 3 groups; each group is composed of the NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) real-time four-dimensional data assimilation and forecasting model (RTFDDA) with 13 physical perturbation members, but driven by the forecasts of the GFS (Global Forecast System), GEM (Global Environmental Multiscale Model), and GEOS (Goddard Earth Observing System), respectively. The hub-height wind predictions of these three sub-ensemble groups at selected wind turbines across the region were verified against the hub-height wind measurements. The forecast performance and variations with lead time, wind regimes, and diurnal and regional changes were analyzed. The results show that the GFS group outperformed the other two groups with respect to correlation coefficient and mean absolute error. The GFS group had the most accurate forecasts in ~59% of sites, while the GEOS and GEM groups only performed the best on 34% and 2% of occasions, respectively. The wind forecasts were most accurate for wind speeds ranging from 3 to 12 m/s, but with an overestimation for low speeds and an underestimation for high speeds. The GEOS-driven members obtained the least bias error among the three groups. All members performed rather accurately in daytime, but evidently overestimated the winds during nighttime. The GFS group possessed the fewest diurnal errors, and the bias of the GEM group grew significantly during nighttime. The wind speed forecast errors of all three ensemble members increased with the forecast lead time, with the average absolute error increasing by ~0.3 m/s per day during the first 72 h of forecasts.

The Corporate Baby in the Bathwater: Why Proposals to Abolish Corporate Personhood Are Misguided

The fear that business corporations have claimed unwarranted constitutional protections which have entrenched corporate power has produced a broad social movement demanding that constitutional rights be restricted to human beings and corporate personhood be abolished. We develop a critique of these proposals organized around the three salient rationales we identify in the accompanying narrative, which we argue reflect a narrow focus on large business corporations, a misunderstanding of the legal concept of personhood, and a failure to distinguish different kinds of constitutional rights and the reasons for assigning them. Corporate personhood and corporate constitutional rights are not problematic per se once these notions are decoupled from biological, metaphysical, or moral considerations. The real challenge is that we need a principled way of thinking about the priority of human over corporate persons which does not reduce the efficacy of corporate institutions or harm liberal democracies.

‘We’re in the coal business’: Maintaining fossil fuel hegemony in the face of climate change

Despite the worsening climate crisis and market shifts towards decarbonization, Australia remains heavily invested in carbon-intensive activities. As one of the world's largest exporters of coal and gas, Australian political economy has been dominated over the last several decades by fossil fuel expansionism. In this article, we explore how Australian corporate and political elites have defended the continuation of fossil fuel extraction and use in the face of calls for a transition to a low-carbon energy future. Through an analysis of public statements by industry associations, corporate leaders, politicians and trade union officials, we identify how these actors have constructed a hegemonic temporal narrative stressing the historical importance of fossil fuels and that a transition to renewable energy represents a threat to Australia's future. Our analysis contributes to the growing literature within the field of industrial relations attending to the complex industrial dynamics underlying the maintenance of fossil fuel hegemony. We also contribute to recent discussions on hegemony by demonstrating the importance of temporality in linking diverse actors together in defending hegemony. Finally, we highlight the critical importance of corporate power in fundamentally shaping climate and energy politics.

Rethinking Corporate Power to Tackle Grand Societal Challenges: Lessons from Political Philosophy

Rethinking Corporate Power to Tackle Grand Societal Challenges: Lessons from Political Philosophy

Grid Connection Studies for Large-Scale Offshore Wind Farms Considering High Penetration of Regional Renewables

There is a global focus on adding renewable energy sources to the mix of energy supplies. In this study, the grid connections for large-scale offshore wind farms in areas that have high penetration of renewable energy sources were examined. System strength evaluation considering the interaction of wind farms and inverter-based resources (IBRs) was performed; the fault current was then analyzed to determine their contribution to the total fault current at a bus level. These studies revealed that the interaction between offshore wind farms and IBRs may make the power system weaker, and it is possible that fault current contributions from offshore wind farms can violate the capacity limit of existing circuit breakers. The results of steady-state analysis were verified through case studies focused on the southwest area of the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) system where large-scale offshore wind farms are planned to be established and connected. Power system planners will benefit from the results of this study with a better understanding of the factors to consider when integrating large-scale wind farms in areas with high penetration of renewables.

Coercion, Freedom, and Democracy in Hayek, Dewey, and Commons

This article examines the conflict between Frederick A. Hayek’s ideas about freedom, coercion, and democracy and those of John R. Commons and John Dewey. It starts with Hayek’s attacks on Dewey and Commons, summarizes their positions on freedom, coercion, and democracy, contrasts their views on social justice, and ends with the objections that Dewey and Commons might lodge against Hayek. The article concludes that they held different beliefs about power in capitalist democracies. Dewey and Commons were concerned about the consequences of corporate power and Hayek about the political power of majorities and legislatures. Hayek proposed limiting with abstract laws the rights of voters and the discretion of legislators. Commons and Dewey proposed policies designed to increase participation, deliberation, inquiry, and intelligence in public affairs.

The Oligarchic Courthouse: Jurisdiction, Corporate Power, and Democratic Decline

The Oligarchic Courthouse: Jurisdiction, Corporate Power, and Democratic Decline

Corporate Power and the Constitutionalisation of the EU Internal Market Project

Corporate Power and the Constitutionalisation of the EU Internal Market Project

The Sabbath Observer, the Idiosyncratist, and the Religious Organization: How the EEOC Imagines Religion at Work

ABSTRACTCharged with enforcing Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission plays an overlooked but profoundly important role in shaping American religious life. While scholars of religion, law, and American culture have devoted a great deal of energy to analyzing the ways that federal courts define religion for the purposes of protecting it, they have paid less attention to the role of administrative agencies, like the EEOC. In this article, I argue that the private workplace offers a critical site for understanding how the state regulates and manages American religious life. I look to the EEOC's regulatory guidelines and compliance manuals as important sources for understanding the shifting relationship between religion, law, and work in the United States. I identify three modes of religiosity—or three types of religious actors—existing in tension in the EEOC archive, each bearing a distinct genealogy: the Sabbath Observer, the Idiosyncratist, and the Organization. While gesturing to very different notions of what religion is, the figures of the Idiosyncratist and the Organization both assume that demands of religion and work can be neatly reconciled. They presume that religion can be seamlessly integrated into the workplace without disrupting the functioning of capitalism. However, for those concerned about economic inequality, corporate power, and neoliberal working conditions, I suggest that it may be useful to revisit the EEOC's Sabbath Observer, who insists on the right to collective forms of life and value outside of work and the market.

Online Propaganda, Censorship and Human Rights in Russia's War Against Reality

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has exposed the capriciousness of state and corporate power over human rights online. Events since the invasion have demonstrated the coercive power of the state over online expression, privacy, and public protest. Russia's longtime “war against reality” has deepened in its repression and is dependent on the raw power of criminal law enforcement, surveillance by security forces, censorship by its media regulator, and legal and extralegal demands against internet platforms. Without drawing an equivalence, the European Union has imposed a comprehensive ban on Russian state-controlled media outlets, encouraged in part by the Ukrainian government, whose moral authority under the circumstances has been particularly strong. Notwithstanding state power over them, technology companies continue to be capable of causing or mitigating, if not preventing, human rights harms. Foreign companies and local partners have heroically maintained internet access in Ukraine and resisted Russian censorship and propaganda, the latter resulting in the blocking of key internet platforms by Russia. It is the latest chapter in the struggle among governments, companies, and individuals to control online space. But it is also an opportunity for reflection, for while the Kremlin has flouted its international obligations, governments and companies committed to human rights law cannot so behave. They should exercise their power over public space according to transparent rule of law standards of non-discrimination, legality, necessity, and legitimacy. A headlong rush to Russia-specific rules and enforcement, unmoored from public articulation of human rights standards, risks corroding the global normative framework for fundamental rights online.