Social Economies Research Articles

GUEST EDITORS’ NOTE AND INTRODUCTION

The current aging of the global population is unrivaled in human history. According to United Nations projections, by 2050 the number of people over the age of 60 will have increased from its current level of 600 million to over two billion-more than doubling the percentage of the world's population over 60 from 10 to 22 percent (United Nations Secretariat, 2008). Not only is the number of elders increasing but the fastest growing segments of the elder population are persons aged 80 or older. These oldest old will account for 20 percent of the elder population by 2050.There is little agreement regarding how global aging will impact social institutions and economies. Some researchers and commentators wow that increased numbers of elders will result in increased demands on health and social welfare systems, dependency ratios and income transfers from working age to elder populations, resulting in overwhelming tax burdens on younger generations (e.g., Kotlinkoff & Scott, 2004). Other analyses dismiss such doom and gloom scenarios (e.g., Schulz & Binstock, 2008) and argue that the elders of the future will be healthier, more productive, and less of a social burden than previous generations.There is, however, general agreement that the increased elder population will impact interfamily relationships (Caro, 2006; Administration on Aging, 2008). This is not surprising as even in the wealthiest of nations, families often provide the majority of care and serve as a primary source of support for the elder population. In May 2008.65 members of the Committee on Family Research (RC06) of the International Sociological Association gathered at Lasell College in Newton Massachusetts to discuss how aging is impacting families and households in a global context. The 10 papers included in this special issue of the Journal of Comparative Family Studies resulted from presentations and discussions from the Lasell College meeting.The 10 papers in this issue reflect a range of analytic methods and cover a range of topics of growing importance for families and the field of family studies. Seven papers focus on family relationships and possible motivations among family members to provide elder care, one paper focuses on professional care providers and the need for culturally competent care services, another focuses on violence against aged persons, while one focuses more broadly on the construct of generation. We've ordered the papers to start with Susan McDaniel's discussion of the social construct of generation as it not only provides an instructive overview of the concept but her suggestion that (G)eneration as a relational, familial concept, opens policy to exploring who does what in relation to whom, and for whom, provides a stage for the papers that follow.The next six papers consider social contexts and interpersonal relationships and their effects on family caregiving to elder relations. Immediately following the McDaniel's paper is a comparison of kinship relations in Germany, Russia, and the People's Republic of China by Bernhard Nauck. Nauck's theoretical model integrates the institutional approach of cultural anthropology and the interactionist approach of family sociology and social gerontology to test the dimensions of structural, emotional, and functional solidarity of kin relationships. His analysis suggests not only the importance of combining macro and micro perspectives but also provides a useful framework for subsequent family relationship research.Following Nauck, Chin-chun Yi and Ju-ping Lin examine type5 of relationships between adult children and elderly parents in Taiwan and whether declining intergenerational coresidence will diminish the traditional filial norm of caring for one's parents. Daniela Klaus analyzes the relative explanatory power of attachment and obligation to one's parent, altruism, and reciprocity as reasons why adult children support their parents using a German sample. …

The Fate of the Post-Revolutionary Poet in Rimbaud's 'Mauvais Sang'

The following article presents a close reading of 'Mauvais sang' — the first long section of Une saison en enfer. It explores Rimbaud's use of a historically-situated narrator, a nineteenth-century commoner who suffers from a 'perfidious tongue' that is the mark of his 'bad blood'. I argue that Rimbaud uses this trope of stigmatized speech to explore the relationship between poetry and social roles in post-revolutionary France. He challenges the ideal of a 'langue en liberté' — the poetic equivalent to the Republican principle of universalism espoused by poets from Hugo to Mallarmé — by demonstrating that language, in poetry as elsewhere, cannot be liberated from our social economies.

The Impact of the Welfare State and Social Policy on the Working Population: The Recent British Experience

This paper focuses on financing the welfare state expenditures in the UK. It offers a comprehensive analysis of social expenditures and taxes paid by the working population families, and an estimation of the net benefits received by them. While the subsequent analysis of the welfare state and its development primarily concentrates on the British experience, it has a broader application to other OECD countries. The UK as the most egalitarian “liberal market economy,” offers an interesting case for the study of the interaction between the welfare state expansion and economic growth. In terms of her capitalist economic structure, (interaction between market and economy) she is relatively closer to the USA and other Angelo-Saxon (liberal market) economies. In terms of her level of social expenditures, she is much closer to the European “social market economies” than the USA and other more egalitarian “liberal market economies.”

Good governance principles for the cultural heritage sector: lessons from international experience

Purpose – The collapse of some prominent corporations over the last ten years has been attributed to poor governance. Not-for-profit agencies are now examining their own governance policies and practices in an attempt to prevent the calamities that have plagued the private sector. Because heritage sites, conservation organizations and heritage-based tourism are significant factors in the social life and economies of many countries, the proper management of cultural heritage initiatives is vital. This paper seeks to undertake the development of a set of good governance principles applicable to the oversight and operation of cultural heritage institutions. Design/methodology/approach – The fifth World Parks Congress, in South Africa in 2003, encouraged the development of governance principles for protected areas based on the UNDP document Governance for Sustainable Human Development. Using these standards as a reference for the cultural heritage setting, UNESCO and ICOMOS charters and conventions, along with documents from National Trusts in specific countries are examined with regard to their relevance to good governance. Findings – A set of good governance criteria and principles including legitimacy and voice, direction, performance, accountability, and fairness, is developed. Practical implications – The paper addresses governance issues and principles relevant to non-governmental and public sector governance in the cultural heritage sector. Originality/value – The paper draws on principles of good governance from several international heritage related agencies, trusts and organizations to develop a set of principles that can be recommended for use in the cultural heritage sector.

"But what if I can't change?": Desire, Denial, and Melancholia in Randall Kenan's A Visitation of Spirits

African American novel has an established tradition of depicting grieving characters to comment on socio-political circumstances; moreover, the melancholic's grief in African American literature often signifies resistance to a historiography that has systematically neglected the African American experience in antebellum southern history (1). Given this historical context, melancholia in African American literature should not be read as a symptom of a pathological mind, as a traditional Freudian reading might imply, but rather as a sign of cultural resistance that effectively questions exclusionary practices of historiography and identity politics. black melancholic character in African American literature who cannot or will not stop longing for a specific lost object safeguards what would otherwise be lost to history were it not for the individual's commitment to memorializing a particular person or event. Melancholia in black literature is thus frequently political and often serves to build community around the shared acknowledgment of and commitment to who or what has been lost. Randall Kenan's A Visitation of Spirits continues this tradition of employing melancholia as a form of cultural resistance. Trudier Harris writes about Kenan's short story collection Let the Dead Bury Their Dead: The southern soil of Let the Dead Bury Their Dead is the soil of the past influencing the present, of realistic and extranatural characters, of morality and immorality, of striking restrictions and excessive liberties (107). Certainly this statement holds true for A Visitation of Spirits. One might even view Kenan's act of writing itself as melancholic, since he has expressed that his North Carolina-based fiction in part aims to create some sort of record of his ancestors' and relatives' oral culture so that their would be guaranteed to be known to other people (qtd in Rowell 139). At the same time, Kenan's novel also departs from the model of African American literary melancholia that locates loss as something from which a group or community can paradoxically derive its bonds and its strength. Instead, in A Visitation of Spirits, melancholia becomes the feeling of an isolated and painfully lonely person who has no one with whom to share his loss of identity because he cannot and must not admit in a heteronormative patriarchy that he is a gay black man. Invoking Judith Butler's theories on melancholic loss to illuminate the role of denied homoerotic desire in Horace Cross' development, I offer a reading of the melancholic losses plaguing both Horace and his community and investigate how these social economies of melancholia interact with one another. Set in the fictional small town of Tims Creek, A Visitation of Spirits recounts scenes from three particular, noncontiguous days, relying on multiple perspectives and narrators (including first-person narrators and omniscient narrators). novel revolves around two stories that are woven together. main story chronologically narrates the final hours of the main character, Horace Thomas Cross. Possessed by a demon, Horace takes his own life in the morning hours of April 30, 1984. His story is periodically interrupted by the chronological narrative of a winter day in 1985 in the lives of his relatives: his grandfather Ezekiel Cross, his aunt Ruth Davis Cross, and his cousin James Malachai Greene. His relatives are portrayed spending a day filled with grief, bitterness, and tension on December 8, 1985; this day is not closely linked to Horace's experiences. Furthermore, the chapters detailing Horace's and his relatives' actions are interrupted by the journal-like confessions of James Greene, Horace's first-person memory log, and two sections addressing the reader, recounting scenes from the past of a tight-knit community. Using this elaborate scheme of narration, the novel suggests that Horace's melancholia is rooted not only in his family history--the development of the Cross generations since slavery--but also in his inability to admit to his sexual identity in the face of an exclusive and heteronormative community. …

TARASCAN CERAMIC PRODUCTION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CERAMIC DISTRIBUTION

AbstractResearch on the emergence of social complexity and state economies tends toward an understanding of either political economies or market economies as the privileged economic form and with producer specialization emerging contemporaneously with the state. Markets and political control need not be seen as oppositional; rather, they are part of the continuum of multiple strategies elites use to create the larger political economy of a state. The Late Postclassic period Tarascan state is known for its strong centralizing tendencies, and an overview of previous research indicates political involvement in various aspects of the larger economic coordination of metal, obsidian, and agricultural production and distribution. Tarascan state ceramics are highly distinctive in form and decoration. Ethnohistoric evidence suggests that they were produced under court control, yet no direct evidence for ceramic production has been found in the Tarascan core, the Lake Patzcuaro Basin. A mix of compositional and statistical analyses of the ceramic assemblage from Urichu, Michoacan, Mexico, indicates that ceramics were not under centralized political control but, instead, were produced at a local level and distributed using the market mechanisms of the larger mixture of economic strategies on the part of the Tarascan political elite.

Towards an evaluation framework for telecare services

Telecare is a new form of assistive technology that has the potential to offer benefits to a wide range of stakeholders including the service user, informal carers and formal care services. It is a complex intervention, combining selected items of technology and telecommunications equipment in combination with conventional community services in order to support independent living. An overview of a robust evaluation framework is presented that will enable services to be compared from several viewpoints. It also offers a means of considering individual service elements and their integration into an effective service delivering cost benefits to the health and social care economies as well as improved quality of life to service users.

Community Benefit Tourism Initiatives—A conceptual oxymoron?

Community Benefit Tourism Initiatives—A conceptual oxymoron?

Picturing economic childhoods: Agency, inevitability and social class in children's picture books

This article considers ideological, pedagogical and constitutive functions of children's picture books, with particular emphasis on the ways in which texts construct children and childhood in economic terms. Through an analysis of Lauren Childs' Hubert Horatio Bartle Bobton-Trent and Anthony Browne's Voices in the Park, the article interrogates the ways in which these texts' depictions of individuals and families function to locate children and childhood as central to notions of individual, family and social economies. Drawing on insights from feminist poststructuralist research concerned with the textual production of gendered subjectivities, I consider how gendered notions of childhood agency and the inevitability of social class location are implicated in the production of subject positions that are defined by the navigation of socioeconomic circumstances. The argument is made that the subjective, relational, and social processes associated with picture book reading map onto and (re)produce discourses of children and childhood as explicitly economic categories.

Бремя вызубренных уроков: Егор Гайдар и деконструкция империи

SUMMARY: Egor Gaidar, a leading Russian economist and an architect of the post-1991 economic reforms, has recently published two books dedicated to the Russian past: “Long Time. Russia in the World: Sketches of Economic History” and “The Fall of Empire: Lessons for Contemporary Russia.” Ilya Gerasimov attempts to answer the question, what brought the renown economist to historical studies, and what is a contribution of these studies to the field of economic history of Russia and the world? With regard to the latter question, the answer is pessimistic: not only does Egor Gaidar largely ignore the rich and multifaceted tradition of writing economic history, but he seems to be completely unaware of the modern state of the discipline, methods, and problems that are being employed by historians. It is the leitmotif of both books that betrays the true motivation and genre of Gaidar’s writings: using historical examples as self-evident teaching aids, Gaidar advocates a certain political agenda for modern Russia and defends his own role in the Russian transition of the early 1990s. This utilitarian use of history is hardly unique in the writings of politicians and public activists. What is interesting in Gaidar’s case is that his historical treatises tell more about his political and economic thinking than anything else. The way Gaidar applies his expertise to the episodes of the past reveals his fundamental methodological blindness to the problems of social transition and mixed economies – something one would not expect from the Director of the Institute for the Economy in Transition. It is his treatment of history that allows one to understand Gaidar’s peculiar sense of temporality. For Gaidar, the modern economies of the most advanced capitalist societies present the ideal norm, the future already institutionalized, up and running. The entire history of mankind is seen as a prologue to this normative reality. Hence “transition” is understood by Gaidar as a leap from the irrational, inefficient, and unjust past to the rational and righteous future-present. This makes him indifferent to everything not fitting into the idealized capitalist model, and to everything that constitutes the object of economic history. By the same token, this idealized image of advanced capitalism reveals methodological shortcomings of Gaidar as economist; for example, he is unaware of the tradition originating in gender studies of conceptualizing the enormous potential of “informal” and “non-capitalist” sectors of economy in the most advanced capitalist countries. This idealism coupled with a fundamental lacunae in modern economic theory made Gaidar indifferent if not hostile to entire sectors of economy and social groups that did not fit his ideal picture of the brave new capitalist world: non-monetary spheres of social services, welfare subsidised categories of population (e.g. senior citizens), and others. The “methodological blindness” of Gaidar compelled him to castigate as reactionary such phenomena as complex multiethnic polities, mixed economies, and everything else that did not fit into his oversimplified ideal model. Gerasimov concludes that these shortcomings have had grave consequences for contemporary Russia, going well beyond the sphere of academic debates. Gaidar and the cohort of his fellow economists with similar theoretical backgrounds have become firmly identified with “Western” and “liberal” socioeconomic and political agendas, and are responsible for compromising these values in the Russian public opinion due simply to their theoretical crudeness and dogmatism.

Creating Jobs, Fighting Inequality: Who's Best

achieving relatively high levels of material equality? Do the liberal market economies excel in economic efficiency while producing substantial income inequalities? Or, alternatively, is the classic equity-efficiency tradeoff muted by institutions and policies of one or both varieties of capitalism, and, if so, does this suggest important crossnational lessons for the policymakers and citizens of democratic market economies? These are the general questions that motivate Jonas Pontusson's Inequality and Prosperity-an impressive and useful new survey of comparative political economy. Indeed, it is important to mention at the outset that even though Inequality and Prosperity contains some original analyses of recently available data, the book is selfconsciously a survey and synthesis of what we know about the answers to these questions. New empirical analysis is limited to tabular presentations of data, bivariate scatterplots, and simple linear regression models. More precisely, Inequality and Prosperity primarily provides an insightful integration of theories of varieties of capitalism (Hall and Soskice 2001), democratic corporatism (Katzenstein 1985), and welfare state regimes (Esping-Andersen 1990) as well as surveys of some of the best recent research on the focal questions and hypotheses from these theoretical streams. Pontusson's central analytic framework is built around the notion that, for the most part, contemporary capitalist democracies bifurcate into social market and liberal market economies. Social market economies are characterized by high levels of cooperation among private firms in order to achieve collective goods (for example, skills formation, stable labor-management and finance-producer relations, research and development, and technology transfer). They are also characterized by high levels of centralization or coordination of collective wage bargaining among densely organized and centralized labor and employers' associations. In addition, social market economies have welfare states that combine generous social provisions with extensive employment protections. As a group, Pontusson further divides social market economies into Nordic and continental variants (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, on the one hand, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, on the other). The principal distinction here is that Nordic social market economies have relatively strong trade union movements and universalistic welfare states that combine generous transfers with publically provided social services for families, the elderly, and the unemployed. Although large in terms of shares of gross domestic product, continental social market economy welfare states are corporatist conservative, or dominated by generous occupationally based income transfer programs. Liberal market economies are, by contrast, characterized by low levels of

Political economy and population health: is Australia exceptional?

BackgroundIt is accepted knowledge that social and economic conditions – like education and income – affect population health. What remains uncertain is whether the degree of inequality in these conditions influences population health and if so, how. Some researchers who argue that inequalities are important, say there is a relationship between political economy, inequality and population health. Their evidence comes from comparative studies showing that countries with neo-liberal political economies generally have poorer population health outcomes than those with social or Christian democratic political economies. According to these researchers, neo-liberal political economies adopt labour market and welfare state policies that lead to greater levels of inequality and poorer population health outcomes for us all.DiscussionAustralia has experienced considerable social and economic reforms over the last 20 years, with both major political parties increasingly adopting neo-liberal policies. Despite these reforms, population health outcomes are amongst the best in the world.SummaryAustralia appears to contest theories suggesting a link between political economy and population health. To progress our understanding, researchers need to concentrate on policy areas outside health – such as welfare, economics and industrial relations. We need to do longitudinal studies on how reforms in these areas affect levels of social and economic inequality, as well population health. We need to draw on social scientific methods, especially concerning case selection, to advance our understanding of casual relationships in policy studies. It is important to find out if, and why, Australia has resisted the affects of neo-liberalism on population health so we ensure our high standards are maintained in the future.

The Natural History of Man and the Politics of Medical Portraiture in Manchester

Visual practices play a role in the making of scientific careers and theories that is not always straightforward. Several portraits of the Manchester surgeon Charles White, along with scientific illustrations associated with him, interfered with Sir Joshua Reynolds's portrait of John Hunter in ways that reveal the messy diversity of practices, uses, and contexts of images during the Enlightenment The increased mobility of Enlightenment visual culture straddled the fields of art and science, reflected their social economies, and enabled images to maintain a meaningful role simultaneously in systems of knowing, projects of professional empowerment, and forms of political commentary.

Cross-National Differences in the Skills-Earnings Relationship: The Role of Labor Market Institutions

This study examines cross-national differences in returns to literacy skills and explores possible explanations for such differences. Data from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) are analyzed using multilevel models. Returns to literacy skills are higher in liberal market economies (LMEs) than in social market economies (SMEs). Collective bargaining coverage emerges as the most potent predictor of cross-national variation in returns to skill. Cross-national differences in workers' skill demands, skill profiles and welfare state regimes do not explain the observed differences in returns to skill.

Developing Diversity in SMEs: collaboration between a city, a business school and employers

This paper explores the question of whether there is an ethical business case for SMEs employing a more diverse workforce. Regan and Stanley (2003: p. v) have argued that employers should look beyond their legal obligations in respect of disadvantaged groups. What attitudes do SME employers have to such proposals, what are their current practices and how can they be supported to meet skills shortages through employing a more diverse workforce? The primary data has been derived from focus group sessions with local SMEs and interviews with the procurement managers of large employers in Southampton. Examples of good practice in employment policies of SMEs, methods of engagement, attitudes to diversity and business benefits are discussed in relation to the literature on inclusion strategies for disadvantaged groups in employment. The feasibility of using supply chains to encourage employment diversity in SMEs is evaluated. Looking to future research, the paper considers how research, evaluation, benchmarking and analysis might support the exchange of ideas, knowledge, information and experience between local organisations. In concluding it reflects on how Southampton's labour market intelligence capability and the capacity of local organisations to deliver effective support services to businesses and individuals could be built. Finally, the paper initiates discussion on the feasibility of addressing low economic activity and participation rates among women and disadvantaged individuals and communities, while increasing the supply of skills and entrepreneurs to expand the small business and social economies.

Economic Transformation Outside the Law: Corruption, Trust in Public Institutions and the Informal Economy in Transition Countries of Central and Eastern Europe

This article considers the role of the informal economy in Central and Eastern European post-communist countries. The informal economy is defined as the ‘black’ economy, which is monetised but outside the law (often illegal) on the one hand and the ‘household’ and ‘social’ economies which are non-monetised and non-legal in the sense that they are outside of legislation. The article shows that in some countries the black economy is very important for supporting household incomes (Serbia and Croatia) and in other countries the household or social economies are predominant (especially Romania and Ukraine). In a third group of countries the formal economy predominates over other economies (especially the Czech Republic and Hungary). The article goes on to look at what kinds of people participate in these different economies and concludes that whilst the household and social economies are a social safety net for the poor, the elderly and those in rural areas, the black economy is more likely to be an option for those who are already better off to improve their incomes. The article considers the implications of this for attitudes to the legitimacy of the public realm and finds that greater participation in the informal economy is associated with both loss of trust in public institutions and increased perception of corruption. Therefore it is hypothesised that economic activities that take place ‘outside the law’ could lead to a decline in confidence in the state, although there are important variations between countries.

Assessing Efficacy and Therapeutic Claims in Emerging Indications for Recombinant Factor VIIa: Regulatory Perspectives

Assessing Efficacy and Therapeutic Claims in Emerging Indications for Recombinant Factor VIIa: Regulatory Perspectives

Collectivism, Universalism, and Struggles over Common Property Resources in the 'New' Europe

<section class="abstract"> Anyone who studies post-socialist political economy probably has to begin a discussion of ‘the commons’ and common property resources by explaining the relationship between common property and collectivism, and the enormous impact that liberal and neo-liberal thought and institutions have had on the social economies of the Eastern European commons. In this article, I want to do this in three ways. First, I argue that contemporary accounts of socialist and post-socialist common property resources and practices have been shaped by the commitments of neo-liberalism and have had the very particular effect (and perhaps intent) of discrediting certain kinds of collective action and common property institutions. Second, I illustrate the ways in which a new definition of the commons has emerged in Europe—one that struggles to harmonize juridical and political aspirations for a peaceful and inclusive European Union with a common economic project and space of harmonized markets and trade policy. These twinned projects of this new ‘common economic union’ and their own versions of what constitutes a public, a commons, as well as their universal value, are increasingly conflated with post-colonial notions of a return to Europe and with deeply historical and racialized views of identity and commonality. The building of markets through the institutions and projects of structural adjustment and shock therapy has resulted in a thoroughgoing integration of the economies of the region with those of the broader international market and a fundamental recomposition of class forces in the region. </section>

Application of neural network to analyses of CCD colour TV-camera image for the detection of car fires in expressway tunnels

Application of neural network to analyses of CCD colour TV-camera image for the detection of car fires in expressway tunnels

Global warming in a basic endogenous growth model

This article studies the relation between anthropogenic global warming and economic growth. It is assumed that deviations from the preindustrial average global surface temperature negatively affect aggregate output and utility. The government levies a tax on output and a tax on greenhouse gases. Assuming a basic endogenous growth model, the effects of varying the tax rates are analyzed as concerns economic growth, economic welfare, and the rise in average global surface temperature. Using simulations, it is demonstrated that higher emission taxes may raise economic growth and welfare while reducing the extent of global warming. In addition, situations exist where a rise in emission taxes reduces economic growth but raises welfare. Furthermore, the social optimum economies with cleaner technologies have fewer emissions than economies with fewer clean production technologies.