Private Actors Research Articles

Unveiling The Nexus: Exploring the Impact of Behavioral Finance on Green Finance Initiatives

This research paper delves into the dynamic landscape of global climate finance during the fiscal years of 2021/2022, examining the collaborative efforts of public and private actors in addressing the multifaceted challenges posed by climate change. The equitable distribution of financial resources reflects a shared commitment to transformative action, with a focus on critical sectors such as energy, transport, and buildings and infrastructure. Both sectors emphasize the transition to renewable energy, sustainable transportation, and climate-resilient urban development. Public finance plays a pivotal role by directing support to relatively underserved sectors, including Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU), water and wastewater management, and industry. This targeted intervention ensures inclusivity in climate action and contributes to broader sustainable development goals. The financial commitments not only reduce carbon footprints but also foster innovation, job creation, and economic resilience. The collaborative model of climate finance observed during this period sets a precedent for future endeavors, emphasizing a holistic and inclusive approach. The research suggests potential avenues for future studies, such as assessing the long-term impact of climate finance, evaluating evolving patterns in public-private collaboration, and exploring the integration of climate finance within global policy frameworks. Ultimately, this research contributes to the ongoing discourse on climate resilience, offering insights into the interconnectedness of financial commitments, sustainable development, and the global fight against climate change.

Temporary migration and middle class nation building in Canada

ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between temporary labor migration programs (TLMPs) in the post-war era and middle-class nation-building. The analysis centers on Canada, an exemplary case of balancing the rights of foreign workers and national concerns. By examining two eras of Canadian TLMPs – one Keynesian and the other neoliberal – I foreground how and why temporariness has reemerged as a norm in (im)migration policy. Relative to TLMPs before 1990, contemporary ones emphasize merit, skill, and private actors with implications for how countries like Canada imagine political belonging. In the neoliberal era, the normative emphasis on permanence is challenged by a more transactional view of people’s standing in a political jurisdiction. If this is a global shift, this analysis raises questions about whether we are now experiencing a doubling down on the market logics of migration and national membership, a backlash against it, or something different.

Principals’ and Teachers’ Awareness, Knowledge, and Differentiation of Privatization — A Secondary Publication

Based on the keynote report by Professor Martin Thrupp, this paper discusses the hollowing out of educationprovision by the state and the permeation of managerialism. It was pointed out that principals and boards of trustees in socioeconomically advantaged areas may not be willing to share their benefits with schools in less advantaged areas. The new liberal policies have hollowed out state provision of education, so the education system has come to rely heavily on private actors. This paper also presents the current stage of privatization in Japan and the principals’ and teachers’ perceptions of privatization.

Canadian Nickel for Nazi Germany – How Government-Business Relationships Affected British Blockade Strategies in the 1930s

This article presents a case study of the Canadian-based International Nickel Company (INCO) and its efforts to develop the German market in the 1930s, contributing to Nazi-German war preparations and hampering British blockade strategies. It examines government-business relations in blockade planning and argues that conflicts of interest and information asymmetries between state and business actors affect blockade preparations. In times of peace, trade flows are shaped mainly by private actors. They often have an information advantage, but are primarily pursuing their business interests, which can result in either alignment or conflicts of interest. Understanding the government-business relations in blockades is key to understanding blockades and economic warfare in general. Previous research has found evidence of alignment of interests, such as companies using state autarky policies in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to develop new markets. Similarly, companies employed the strategy of an independent British Empire in strategic raw materials to develop markets. However, government-business relations in the context of British blockade planning have not yet been thoroughly investigated. Drawing on private and public archival material from Britain and Germany, this case study examines the motives and strategies of INCO, British and German war planners.

The political economy of economic upgrading in Central Eastern Europe

ABSTRACT The paper explores the political conditions favourable to economic upgrading in democratic non-corporatist emerging economies with a focus on CEE countries as characteristic examples. While the existing literature has assumed this polity type to be the least favourable for designing and implementing effective industrial policies because of a lack of bureaucratic ‘embedded autonomy’, the paper argues that this is not to suggest that such industrial policies and economic upgrading are rare in these economies, but rather that they involve different mechanisms of political mobilisation and support. To identify these mechanisms, the paper adopts a social bloc-based framework and applies it to an in-depth study of Estonia, a strong upgrader in the region in terms of its increased economic specialisation in ICT-based services. The paper finds that a lack of ‘embedded autonomy’ can effectively be supplanted by the embeddedness of private actors in the state administration and political decision-making through a network-based configuration of the social bloc and a shared upgrading ideology leading to a conflation of private interests with national development goals.

“We Are Just Supposed to Be an NGO Helping”: A Qualitative Case Study of Health Workers’ and Volunteers’ Perceptions of the Government and Civil Society’s Role in Fighting Jiggers in Bungoma County, Kenya

Non-governmental organizations (national and international) are important actors in addressing health issues in Kenya. Sandflea/jigger infections (tungiasis) are a public health challenge that severely affect children, older adults, and other vulnerable people in poor communities worldwide. In Kenya, NGOs have been involved in sandflea eradication for more than twenty years. Without treatment, the flea may cause debilitating infections and sores, resulting in difficulties with walking and grasping, as well as social harassment. This paper aims to shed light on health workers’ and volunteers’ perceptions of the government and civil society’s role in fighting jigger infections. Data were collected through a qualitative case study design, with a three-month fieldwork including participation in mobile jigger removal programs, 18 semi-structured in-depth interviews, informal talks, and observations, in five villages in Bungoma County. The thematic analysis of the data resulted in three recurring themes: (1) the NGO-driven jigger program as a (fragile) resource for local communities, (2) the need for more consistent collaboration between NGOs and public health services, and (3) the local perceptions of the governments’ responsibilities in combatting the plague. The findings imply that the 10-year-old national policy guidelines on the prevention and control of jigger infestations need to be updated; this includes the coordination of the public and private actors’ roles, the incorporation of lessons learned, and the need for a multisectoral One Health approach to combat the jigger menace in the country.

Better safe than sorry? Digital campaigning governance in Germany

ABSTRACT How political speech is regulated has changed, with online spaces presenting new challenges. Private platforms now play a significant role in providing spaces for political speech with their own rules and algorithms. This paper examines the current state of legal regulation for political speech, both online and offline, and identifies gaps in governance. As we navigate the ever-evolving landscape of online political speech, it is essential to consider the changing and stricter rules that are being put in place. Private actors have played a crucial role in providing space for this speech. It is worth examining the similarities and differences between offline and online political speech and advertising regulation to ensure everyone's voices are heard and respected. Analyzing applicable public and private law, we investigate how different compliance pulls from national and EU law (existing and upcoming) influence the commitments made by the parties, using the most recent federal elections in Germany as an example. Thus, we assess the German legislative framework, which is also influenced by EU legislation. These investigations reflect new European rules, including the Digital Services Act. After analyzing how parties engage with national law and (self-regulatory) commitments, the paper provides suggestions for improving online speech governance.

Cross-Border Bank Resolutions and its Challenges

Abstract This article comprehends a very selective analysis of some aspects deemed of extreme relevance to ensure effective cross-border resolution strategies, dealing with global systemically important banks G-SIBS, and also involving financial institutions with no systemic dimension but which operate in multiple jurisdictions. It is discussed, namely, the fact that G-SIBS, as Credit Suisse, and other multi-jurisdictional groups, highlight critical issues of resolution planning when dealing with several jurisdictions. Secondly, this analysis also highlights particular problems in implementing cross-border resolution strategies to be applied to some banking sub-sectors, namely as regards the case study of cooperative banks, which are an important part of the European financial landscape. Thirdly, the article briefly addresses some critical issues of bail-in when dealing with private actors from different jurisdictions. This overall analysis starts from a critical discussion of the financial turmoil of March 2023, debating if this might have affected the relevance and credibility of resolution regimes.

Reinventing the politics of knowledge production in migration studies: introduction to the special issue

ABSTRACT This special issue (SI) calls for reinventing the politics of knowledge production in migration studies. Academic migration research should make knowledge production an essential part of its research agenda if it wants to remain relevant in the transnational field of migration research. A risk of marginalisation stems from three interrelated tendencies: First, non-academic actors producing authoritative knowledge about migration have proliferated in recent years. Secondly, academic knowledge production is challenged both by counter-knowledge produced by social movements as well as new digital methods and information structures owned by policy-oriented and private actors. Thirdly, academics no longer hold a hegemonic position in the transnational field of migration research. The contributions to this SI interrogate the politics of knowledge production on migration along three lines of inquiry: (1) the enactment of migration as an intelligible object of government through practices of quantification, categorisation and visualisation; (2) the production of control knowledge in border encounters about subjects targeted as migrants and (3) the modes of thought seeking to unknow and re-know migration beyond dominant nation-state centric understandings. This introduction elaborates how the nine articles of the SI intervene in the politics of knowledge production in migration studies along these lines of inquiry.

How can intersectoral collaboration and action help improve the education, recruitment, and retention of the health and care workforce? Ascoping review.

Inadequate numbers, maldistribution, attrition, and inadequate skill-mix are widespread health and care workforce (HCWF) challenges. Intersectoral-inclusive of different government sectors, non-state actors, and the private sector-collaboration and action are foundational to the development of a responsive and sustainable HCWF. This review presents evidence on how to work across sectors to educate, recruit, and retain a sustainable HCWF, highlighting examples of the benefits and challenges of intersectoral collaboration. We carried out a scoping review of scientific and grey literature with inclusion criteria around intersectoral governance and mechanisms for the HCWF. A framework analysis to identify and collate factors linked to the education, recruitment, and retention of the HCWF was carried out. Fifty-six documents were included. We identified a wide array of recommendations for intersectoral activity to support the education, recruitment, and retention of the HCWF. For HCWF education: formalise intersectoral decision-making bodies; align HCWF education with population health needs; expand training capacity; engage and regulate private sector training; seek international training opportunities and support; and innovate in training by leveraging digital technologies. For HCWF recruitment: ensure there is intersectoral clarity and cooperation; ensure bilateral agreements are ethical; carry out data-informed recruitment; and learn from COVID-19 about mobilising the domestic workforce. For HCWF retention: innovate around available staff, especially where staff are scarce; improve working and employment conditions; and engage the private sector. Political will and commensurate investment must underscore any intersectoral collaboration for the HCWF.

Into the ether or the state? Legibility theory and the cryptocurrency markets

AbstractThere is substantial cross-national variation in the level of regulatory clarity surrounding cryptocurrencies. What explains these differences? And, more broadly, what drives the divergent historical development of market regulation in different jurisdictions? To answer these questions, we present a new conceptual framework centered on the concept of market legibility. This term, inspired by the sociological literature, refers to the extent to which markets are made legible to the state through standardization. We contend that state supply of, and market demand for, legibility drives the primary political-economic dynamics of market regulation. Specifically, these factors combine to produce ideal type states of legibility that correspond to both distinct stages of market development and the relative level of regulatory clarity in any one jurisdiction. This framework is utilized to conduct a comparative historical analysis of cryptocurrency regulation in the EU, US, UK, and Japan. By performing these tasks, this article corrects the common assumption that states are constantly striving to impose their authority on unwilling markets. It demonstrates instead that state and private actor preferences to make markets legible vary, conditioning, in turn, the political economy of regulatory governance.

Indonesia’s Economic Diplomacy to South Korea in Increasing Coffee Exports in 2016 – 2021

As a coffee-producing country, Indonesia needs help exporting its coffee to South Korea, which has high coffee consumption. It causes the value and volume of Indonesian coffee exports to fall below expectations. This research aims to discuss the export of Indonesian coffee to South Korea by using international trade theory and the concept of economic diplomacy. This study uses descriptive qualitative methods with primary data from semi-structured interviews, while secondary data is obtained from documents and literature related to data collection collected from January – April 2023. The results of this study are economic diplomacy carried out to maximize Indonesian coffee exports in 2016 – 2021, consisting of business matching, coffeeversation, the Seoul coffee expo and Seoul café show, and the role of government and private actors. These efforts significantly increased the value and volume of Indonesian coffee exports to South Korea the following year.

The duty of state to protect the orbital environment

Over the last decade the space sector has expanded with massive growth in investment activity. The increasing utilization of space technology, including by private actors, is causing environmental hazards in space as well as pollution and degradation. Space debris mitigation and removal are under ongoing discussion within international competent fora, including at regional level. The international community has not yet provided future directions for any action related to space environmental safety. This paper intends to deepen our understanding of the State's duty to protect the orbital environment according to the current space body of law. It mainly focuses on how to achieve sustainability thus looking at the impact of space activities performed in space.

Mutual Recognition By Private Actors In Criminal Justice? E-Evidence Regulation And Service Providers As The New Guardians Of Fundamental Rights

A large and constantly growing number of criminal offences, not only cybercrime, is committed in a way that leaves digital traces which can serve as evidence. This data is in the possession of service providers, often located in a different country than the place of an investigation. The available model of cross-border gathering of evidence, based on mutual legal assistance, is considered too cumbersome and lengthy for the digital world. Similar reservations have been made as regards the European Investigation Order. In response, the European Commission proposed the so-called e-evidence package in 2018, which – after 5 years of arduous negotiations – was finally adopted on 12 July 2023. Its main element is the European Production Order, an instrument based on mutual recognition which will allow law enforcement authorities in one Member State to request Internet service providers in another Member State to produce data without or with limited involvement of the authorities of the latter State. This new system is effectively a legal revolution which redefines the concept of mutual recognition and creates a model where service providers will play a significant role in safeguarding their users’ fundamental rights. This article examines the paradigm shift caused by this instrument, analyses the dynamics of interaction between the parties involved – in particular the role private actors will play in it – in order to verify the correctness of the legal basis and reveal the consequences of such a new system for transnational cooperation and service providers in the EU.

Article: Quantification of Harm in EU Consumer Antitrust Actions for Damages

This paper analyses the development of private actions for damages as a significant pillar of private enforcement of EU competition law and discusses the quantification and estimation of harm. Since the adoption of the EU Directive 2014/104/EU on Antitrust Damages Actions, private enforcement in Europe has undergone crucial clarifications in the case law of EU courts, yet the critical issue of quantifying damages in private actions has only recently been addressed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). This paper takes a closer look at the recent ruling in the Tráficos Manuel Ferrer case (C-312/21) and assesses the implications of that case law for private enforcement proceedings. Concerning the allocation of procedural costs, this judgment has established that injured parties may be required to bear a cost risk, even if they are partially successful. This finding needs further reflection in the context of consumer claims for damages, as it is susceptible to add an additional cost burden on plaintiffs. The second intricate finding concerns the relation between the ability of national courts to estimate damages and the exhaustion of evidence disclosure. Taking the example of Spain, the paper advocates for the specific inclusion of the principle of proportionality when determining harm in private actions for damages and especially in cases involving consumers or smaller harmed parties. EU, antitrust, cartels, private enforcement, consumers, damages, quantification, estimation, cost allocation, disclosure of evidence

Migration information infrastructures: power, control and responsibility at a new frontier of migration research

ABSTRACT The nature and production of migration statistics are in flux. State bureaucracies are no longer the primary source of migration data. Instead, there are a myriad unofficial data sources and processing collaborations which produce migration and mobility data as a by-product of both commercial and governmental processes. This has implications both for international processes of migration assessment and control, and for states’ domestic policies with respect to migrants. This paper brings together migration studies with Science and Technology Studies (STS) literature to take stock of these new data sources’ theoretical and empirical implications for both migrants and the links between migration and broader social processes. We identify migration information infrastructures: configurations of data assemblages which involve private and public sector actors, where data originally collected for one purpose (billing customers, sharing social information, sensing environmental change) become repurposed as migration statistics. We explore the implications of such migration information infrastructures for migration researchers: what are the entanglements that such infrastructures bring with them, and what do they mean for the ethics and practicalities of doing migration research?

Black Heritage in the National Register: The Williams Avenue YWCA in Portland, Oregon

This paper examines the nomination of the Williams Avenue YWCA in Portland, Oregon, in the National Register of Historic Places as a crucial event in recognizing and preserving Black heritage within American national history. Our analytical framework combines Black geography and multilevel governance theory (MLG) to examine documents used for the nomination process. We unpack the historic significance of the Williams, illustrating its multifaceted role in Portland's African American community and emphasizing the role of various private and public actors in the nomination process. This analysis reveals that cities play a crucial role in protecting local history and highlights the importance of nurturing connections between cities and other levels of government. Moreover, it illustrates how the documents used for the nomination process are a tool for racial equity and it shows how historic preservation contributes to a more inclusive understanding of cities by celebrating their local, diverse, and pluralistic pasts.

The European Investor State: Its characteristics, genesis, and effects

In the wake of financial, sovereign debt and health crises, public interventions in the European economy have taken on a new level of breadth, marking a reentry in force of the state in economic life that goes beyond the regulatory state. Yet, these interventions do not follow the old Keynesian interventions neither, being shaped through a particular logic of investment that link public and private actors in a particular configuration. The introduction to this special issue lays out this configuration for the case of the EU and its Member States through the concept of “European Investor state.” By this concept, we refer to the redefinition of the role of European states in the economy as an “investor,” in reference to private investment funds, which the state seeks both to imitate and to enroll. The paper embeds this redefinition of state intervention in the context of the 2010s in Europe, characterized by worries about “secular stagnation” and growing concern about an “investment gap,” interpreted as the failure of financial markets to invest in productive sectors, especially when risky. The budgetary constraints and the ideological outlook then shaped the specific financial and off-balanced sheet tools of the investor state. Finally, the paper explores the implications of the Covid-crisis on this intervention model. It concludes that despite major changes in fiscal policy at the EU level, this approach is likely to persist, because of the lasting interpretation in terms of “investment gap,” which only public-private collaborations are seen to be able to fill.

Circular e‐waste ecosystems in necessity‐driven contexts: The impact of formal institutional voids

AbstractRecent studies suggest an ecosystem view is most appropriate for understanding the impact of institutional voids on entrepreneurial activities. Expanding the focus to the entrepreneurial ecosystem is crucial for tackling complex low‐ and middle‐income countries' (LMICs) environmental challenges, as the transition to circular e‐waste management, which are heavily impacted by the institutional environment. Moreover, most entrepreneurs in LMICs engage in circular practices out of economic necessity, rather than environmental reasons. However, scholars have overlooked the effects of institutional voids on entrepreneurial ecosystems' potential to grow and realize environmental benefits. This study investigates how formal institutional voids impact the evolution of circular ecosystems in necessity‐driven contexts in LMICs. We study the evolution of a circular e‐waste ecosystem in Kenya and uncover two key phases: emergence and growth. We show that formal institutional voids' impact differs across phases; regulatory and contract enforcement voids create opportunities for informal and private actors to establish e‐waste collection, repair, remanufacture, and recycle businesses, thereby facilitating the emergence of the circular ecosystem. However, labor market, capital market, product market, regulatory, and contract enforcement voids hamper its growth. Specifically, the lack of skills, equipment, guidelines, and financial incentives hinders advanced repairs and remanufactures and limits recycling opportunities, while the lack of formal e‐waste infrastructure increases illegal dumping and negatively impacts human health and the environment. We develop propositions and a phase model to explain the impact of formal institutional voids on the evolution of circular e‐waste ecosystems and the realization of environmental benefits in necessity‐driven contexts.

Securitizing migration in times of crisis: private actors and the provision of (in)security

Securitizing migration in times of crisis: private actors and the provision of (in)security