Une privatisation inédite de la norme : le cas de la politique comptable européenne

EU member states have, for a long time, been harmonizing their accounting rules in order to facilitate comparisons among countries. A new regulation in 2002 has suddenly sped up this process. Under it, companies quoted in the stock exchange are, since 2005, required to comply with the standards set by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), a private body without any public mandate. After trying to harmonize its members’ standards, the EU’s decision to resort to private subcontracting is even more puzzling given the Union’s lack of any statutory control over the IASB. In this impressive case of the privatization of a regulatory process, attention is focused on the incorporation of IASB standards in EU law and on the structure and governance of this board. This transfer of power is much broader than usual forms of delegation to the private sector. Although several reasons underlie this relinquishment of public authority, the primary one lies within the EU itself.     

Les politiques d'emploi et la transformation des normes : une comparaison européenne

Given the central orientation of the European employment strategy — adapt unemployment compensation systems so as to broaden access to jobs — the effects of policies in this field are examined by focusing on three axes: the impact on unemployment; the action on employment standards, and trends in the social regulation underlying these policies. A comparative view reveals how much national systems have been able to interpret EU objectives in their own way. This does not invalidate the pertinence of a European level of regulation,but it does expose the conditions for clarifying standards for public actions and leading actors to become involved in EU institutions, a source of legitimacy still to be constructed. This comparison of six national cases (Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom) sheds light on the importance of the social compromises that set the framework for job polices. The quality of occupational transitions is related to the ability of actors to jointly regulate employment policy and labor market standards. — Special issue: New patterns of institutions.     

Collegial oligarchy and networks of normative alignments in transnational institution building

This paper presents a combined relational and cultural approach to transnational institution building by focusing on a network analysis of a small collegial oligarchy and normative alignments among its peers. To contribute to a theory of institutionalization, we propose hypotheses about whom professionals as institutional entrepreneurs are likely to select as members of their collegial oligarchy, about the role of social networks among them in identifying these leaders, and about the costs of alignments on these leaders’ normative choices. We test these hypotheses using mainly Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) applied to a dataset including network information and normative choices collected at the so-called Venice Forum – a field-configuring event that was central in creating and mobilizing a network of European patent judges for the construction of a new transnational institution, the European Unified Patent Court. We track normative alignments on the collegial hierarchy in this network of judges and their divergent interpretations of the contemporary European patent. Highlighting this under-examined articulation of relational infrastructures and cultural framing in transnational institutionalization shows how Northern European forms of capitalism tend to dominate in this institutionalization process at the expense of the Southern European forms. It also helps reflect on the usefulness of analyses of small networks of powerful players in organizational societies, where power and influence are highly concentrated.     

Social Enterprise in the United States and Europe: Understanding and Learning from the Differences

Since the 1980s both the United States and Europe have experienced a simultaneous expansion in social enterprise. However, little has been written comparing and contrasting American and European conceptions of social enterprise resulting in difficulty communicating on the topic and missed opportunities to learn and build on foreign experience. To address this need, this paper compares and contrasts American and European social enterprise through an extensive review of literature from the two regions and discussions with social enterprise researchers on both sides of the Atlantic. It outlines the definitions of social enterprise used by American and European academics and practitioners, identifies historical factors promoting and shaping different conceptions of social enterprise, and highlights the differing institutional and legal environments in which it operates. It concludes by identifying what Americans and Europeans can learn from each others’ experience with social enterprise.

The outcome of institutional youth care compared to non-institutional youth care for children of primary school age and early adolescence: A multi-level meta-analysis

ObjectiveThe outcome of institutional youth care for children is heavily debated. This multilevel meta-analysis aims to address the outcome of institutional youth care compared to non-institutional youth care for children of primary school age and early adolescence in economically developed countries. A gain of knowledge in this area may help the decision for referral of children to institutional youth care or other types of care (e.g., foster care or community-based care), and improve outcomes for children in youth care.MethodsOf 19 controlled studies (15.526 participants), 63 effect sizes of behaviour problems (externalizing, internalizing, and total), skills (social and cognitive) and delinquency were computed based on comparisons between institutional Evidence-Based Treatment (EBT), institutional Care As Usual (CAU), non-institutional EBT, and non-institutional CAU.ResultsInstitutional CAU showed a small-to-medium negative significant effect compared to non-institutional CAU (d = − 0.342). Furthermore, children in institutional care showed slightly more delinquent behaviour compared to children in non-institutional care (d = − 0.329). Significant moderating effects were also found for study design, year of publication and sex of the child.ConclusionsChildren receiving non-institutional CAU (mostly foster care) had slightly better outcomes than children in institutional CAU (regular group care). No differences were found between institutional and non-institutional care when institutional treatment was evidence-based. More research is needed on the conditions that make established treatment methods work in institutional care for (young) children.     

Overcoming neoliberal globalization: social-ecological transformation from a Polanyian perspective and beyond

ABSTRACT

The ecological crisis has intensified in many respects. Prominent proposals to deal with the crisis are discussed under the header ‘sustainability transformations’ or even ‘Great Transformation’. We argue that most contributions suffer from a narrow analytical approach to transformation ignoring the largely unsustainable dynamics of global capitalism and the power relations involved in it. Thus, a ‘new critical orthodoxy’ of knowledge about transformation is emerging which runs the danger to contribute to a spatially and socially highly uneven green capitalism. This article claims that the current debate on social-ecological transformation can be enriched by a Polanyian understanding but also based on regulation theory. We distinguish between three types of transformation: incremental adaptation of the current institutional systems, institutional change in favour of a new ‘green’ phase of capitalism, and a post-capitalist great transformation that implies a profound structural change of the mode of production and living.     

La firme locale-globale : Lyonnaise des Eaux (1980-2004)

This study of the policy of internationalization conducted by Lyonnaise des Eaux (renamed Suez) and, in particular, of its internal transformations during the period from 1980 to 2004 focuses on the stages in these changes, the organizational characteristics and the principles that were applied. One argument is to consider that this company has designed a new type of organization which combines a deep center and the operation of many different services in a large number of countries. It has thus become a « local global” firm. Different from existing types (H, U, M, J) of firms, this new form has four characteristics: the central role played by local units, procedures for reporting toward a compact center, assistance from the center, and direct exchanges between local units following a “principle of connectivity ”. Questions are raised about the capacity for change of this type of firm, which combines organizational dimension and institutional characteristics. Being in the market as well as in the production of the legal environment gives this firm some specific properties in the way to conduct a strategy. — Special issue: New patterns of institutions.     

The regional consequences of economic restructuring: the West Coast, New Zealand (1984–1991)

This paper focuses on the local implications of the state's response to crisis under global capitalism. New Zealand, one of a small number of European settler, primary producer economies, performed relatively poorly through the post-war long boom. A new government in 1984 sought to rectify this through an intensive programme of deregulation and state sector restructuring. This, however, was carried out without consideration of the impacts of policy on people in places, whose interests were assumed to coincide with the ‘national interest’. The local effects of the restructuring of both state and private sector capital are traced through a study of the West Coast of the South Island, a remote rural region, formerly dependent on extractive activity and state sector employment. The importance of understanding the interaction of local, national and global forces in assessing the outcome of restructuring is shown, and the need to understand the specificity of place in accounting for people's reactions to restructuring is underlined. The state is now reliant on a model of ‘enterprise’ to counter continued disinvestment, the validity of which requires ongoing research.     

Aggressive behaviors among Korean children in out-of-home care: The role of placement characteristics

Using data from the Korean Panel Study on Children in Out-of-Home Care, this study examined the impact of placement characteristics on aggressive behaviors among children in out-of-home care by placement type. The sample was divided into three groups based on placement type: institutional care (n = 118), group homes (n = 95), and foster care (n = 212). Results from hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that the length of stay in out-of-home care significantly influenced aggressive behaviors amongst children in institutional care, such that increased duration of out-of-home care decreased the level of aggressive behaviors. Perceptions of stigma/discrimination also significantly influenced aggressive behaviors displayed by children in institutional and foster care. Children with a higher perception of stigma/discrimination were more likely to exhibit severe aggressive behaviors than were their counterparts. On the other hand, placement characteristics had no significant influence on aggressive behaviors of children in group homes. The study findings suggest that children's mental health problems and disabilities should be considered during the placement procedure and interventions focusing on decreasing stigmatization should be developed and provided for children in out-of-home care.     

Moral values and increasing stakes in a dictator game

Using data from a large representative US sample (N = 1519), we compare hypothetical moral fairness values from the Moral Foundations Sacredness Scale with actual fairness behavior in an incentivized dictator game with either low or high stakes. We find that people with high moral fairness values fail to live up to their high fairness standards, when stake size increases. This violates principles from consistency theories according to which moral values are supposedly aligned with moral behavior, but is in line with temptation theories that question the absoluteness of morality values.     

Regulating food safety: the power of alignment and drive towards convergence

Food safety is a complex policy domain: it involves a variety of stakeholders, touches upon a variety of issues and disciplines, and has an important international dimension. While countries are free to set their own standards, their policy autonomy in the process of regulating food safety is restricted by a number of factors. The EU and each member state are confronted with two aspects of compliance: the power of alignment with Codex standards, and the drive towards convergence with standards developed by trading partners. The importance attributed to the WTO and its reference organization, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, sheds light on the institutional constraints inherent in the international framework governing food safety while revealing the indirect power of alignment with international standards. Equally important, on the other hand, are the standards adhered to or required by key trade partners. This is often a stronger factor pointing towards convergence in the mid to long term. These constraints are inherent components of the present-day European regulatory framework governing food safety.     

Disparities in high school completion among Latinos: The role of the age-at-arrival and immigration status

In comparing educational outcomes among Latino immigrants and their native-born peers, prior research has largely overlooked the potential roles of age-at-arrival to the United States and immigration status. To address these oversights, this study considers the relationships between age-at-arrival and immigration status (citizen, authorized, and unauthorized) on high school completion among a sample of Latino adults (N = 932) from the 2001 Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (LA FANS). Results from weighted logistic regression models suggest that, irrespective of age-at-arrival to the United States, having an authorized or unauthorized immigration status is significantly associated with a lower likelihood of high school completion. Moreover, no significant differences were found in high school completion between early and later childhood arrivals once accounting for immigration status and other covariates. This study suggests that immigration status plays an important role in high school completion and should be considered in efforts to improve educational outcomes among Latino immigrants.     

La sociologie du travail en Amérique latine : un essai de périodisation

Even though some areas in Latin America were already industrialized in the 1930s, labor sociology did not appear there till after WW II. Although this discipline followed in the tracks of its North American or European predecessors, the region’s history has affected its development. Three historical phases over the past half century draw attention: industrialization by replacing imported merchandise with goods produced by national firms; the authoritarian governments or military dictatorships that put a halt to the developing homeland economy; and the competitive restructuring that is programming the abandonment of public firms and advocating an export-driven economic model. During each phase, new questions have arisen but without making ideas from the preceding phase obsolete. — Special issue: Latin America.     

The NGOization of LGBT activism: ILGA-Europe and the Treaty of Amsterdam

This article discusses the Europeanization of social movement organizations using the case of ILGA-Europe, the umbrella of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organizations in Europe. It examines the impact of Article 13 of the Treaty of Amsterdam, which bans discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, and focuses on three entrenched dynamics ILGA-Europe has rapidly undergone: NGOization, institutionalization, and professionalization. It argues that although we should be aware of the role of the European political opportunity structure in shaping civil society organizations, we cannot overlook internal organizational dynamics and movement identities. Following the literature on the Europeanization of social movements, this piece confirms institutional opportunities and interactions with European institutions are a major cause of transformation: The adoption of Article 13 and the development of a European equal opportunity policy constitute a pivotal moment in ILGA-Europe’s history, endowing it with easier access to EU institutions and core funding. This allowed the organization to NGOize, contributed to a transformation of its internal structures, and led to the appointment of highly skilled professionals. However, this article also insists on the importance of movement identity. These transformations are not solely the result of interactions with the European institutional environment, but had been prepared by long-term orientations within ILGA, that is a preference for reformist claims and institutional strategies. ILGA-Europe’s NGOization is thus not only a response to institutional and political changes, but also results from specific ways of imagining activism. It is the interaction between movement identity and arising institutional opportunities that allowed the organization to transform.     

Informality and Nonprofits in East Central European Capitalism

This paper presents an analysis of nonprofit organizations—the organizational infrastructure of civil society—in East Central Europe, from one important respect: by placing them in the context of the comparative historical sociology of the region's widespread informality. This involves two steps: (1) summarizing an argument about the role of informality in East Central European capitalism today in order to (2) outline its implications for the study of post-state-socialist nonprofits. Most of the empirical examples come from Hungary. These examples serve illustrative purposes and are intended as devices to provoke new analysis. They are meant to open, rather than close, discussion.     

What do unions really do? A review article

“All told, if our research findings are correct, the ongoing decline in private sector unionism ... deserves serious public attention as being socially undesirable. We believe that the time has come for the nation to reassess its implicit and explicit policies toward unionism, such as it has done several times in the past. And we hope that such a reassessment would lead to a new public posture toward the key worker institution under capitalism — a posture based on what unions actually do in society and on what, under the best circumstances, they can do to improve the well-being of the free enterprise system, and of us all” (Freeman and Medoff, 1984, p. 251). Helpful comments on an earlier draft were received from Barry Hirsch, Stanley Siebert, Leo Troy, Richard Perlman, and Joe Reid.     

Alerts and catastrophes: The case of the 1999 storm in France,a treacherous risk

How is it that catastrophes always seem predictable ex post but never ex ante? The paradox is recurrent. Our study of the warnings issued prior to one of the last major natural disasters in France – the tempest of December 27, 1999 – focuses on the organizational factors accounting for the surprise effect of the catastrophe, to try and understand why, though the phenomenon had been predicted and announced by the French weather bureau, the protagonists of Civil Defense said the magnitude of the event took them by surprise. A multi-level, qualitative analysis of the inter-organizational meteorological alert system shows that a combination of factors pertaining to structure, context and individuals transformed the warnings into routine messages. The case of the 1999 storm allows us to introduce a particular, ideal-type of risk, the treacherous risk, which, though clearly announced, was disregarded because seemingly so familiar.     

Investir avec prudence : les usages d’un impératif juridique par les acteurs du capitalisme financiarisé

The recent history of the prudent investment standard, which provides clear evidence of the changes under way in American capitalism, is recounted by examining three processes: legislative, regulatory and judiciary. By bringing these three into a single study, we can follow up on how this standard has circulated through multiple historical processes of production and institutionalization. Its meaning has been negotiated both at the junction between the federal government's regulatory authority and the political power wielded by employers and financiers and at the junction between the procedural autonomy of judges and the intellectual authority drawn from economic theories. This method leads us to observe that there is no legal definition of this “prudence” but, instead, several overlapping acceptations of the phrase. This suggests that the force of the law is based on this semantic diversity, the latter being put to use in the structural evolution of financial capitalism.     

A Hundred Years from Weber: Science as Vocation and the Resurgence of National Populism1

It has been 100 years since the death of Max Weber and 102 years since the publication of his classic essay “Science as a Vocation.” I review here several of the main ideas advanced in the essay. I then seek to apply a Weberian perspective to the analysis of the rise of national populism by considering first the historical-structural origins of the present situation and second the meaning that it has for supporters of this movement. The evolution of world capitalism has had consequences that bear directly on the situation of the middle and working-classes in the advanced countries and in their subsequent political reactions. Applying interpretive perspectives and using recent sociological field studies of the populist grass roots, I seek to understand the meaning that the situation has for supporters of the movement and its political implications. This understanding has direct consequences for current attempts to reverse a movement that has changed the course of recent history in the United States and elsewhere in the developed world.