Economic opportunities and threats in contentious environmental politics: A view from the European South

Aiming to contribute to the discussion of how opportunities and threats are put into motion by focusing on the understudied economic factors, this article presents four illustrative accounts from the post-dictatorial experience of environmental contentious politics in Greece, Spain and Portugal, selectively. First, it documents that the incorporation of professional environmental organizations into dominant sustainable development practices in Greece is tied to an economic opportunity spiral that merges from contemporary economic liberalization policies and practices. Secondly, on the basis of protest-event analysis it shows how economic liberalization in Greece acts as a constraint for environmental protests, but an opportunity for anti-privatization ones. Third, via protest-case analysis it documents how economic dependency performs as a spiral of opportunities and constraints for groups tied to different interests in Crete. For example, tourism interest groups appear to opt for environmental protest more often when these interests are threatened by non-tourism-related environmentally damaging activities. Finally, using protest-case analysis the article illustrates how in Southern European local environmental conflict, spirals of economic opportunities and constraints portrayed in state responses to protesters, play a significant role in shaping the dynamics of local environmental contentious politics.     

Science and neoliberal globalization: a political sociological approach

The political ideology of neoliberalism is widely recognized as having influenced the organization of national and global economies and public policies since the 1970s. In this article, we examine the relationship between the neoliberal variant of globalization and science. To do so, we develop a framework for sociology of science that emphasizes closer ties among political sociology, the sociology of social movements, and economic and organizational sociology and that draws attention to patterns of increasing and uneven industrial influence amid several countervailing processes. Specifically, we explore three fundamental changes since the 1970s: the advent of the knowledge economy and the increasing interchange between academic and industrial research and development signified by academic capitalism and asymmetric convergence; the increasing prominence of science-based regulation of technology in global trade liberalization, marked by the heightened role of international organizations and the convergence of scientism and neoliberalism; and the epistemic modernization of the relationship between scientists and publics, represented by the proliferation of new institutions of deliberation, participation, activism, enterprise, and social movement mobilization.     

Symbolic Economies: Money,Neoliberal Law and National Politics in Argentina

In this article, I examine Argentina's neoliberal reforms throughout the 1990s from a Marxist theoretical perspective, analysing how money, monetary policy and law constitute a fundamental mode of ideological regulation in neoliberal capitalism. Situating this analysis in the context of the capitalist crisis of the mid-1970s, the article discusses the politics of effacement that in Argentina's case paved the way for the use of monetary policy as a form of social control intended to embed the nation-state into global capitalism. Examining economic legislation, macro-economic policies, political ideologies, consumer discourses and pension privatization, I analyse how the neoliberal monetary regime ideologically underpinned a whole state imaginary based on exchange rate parity with the US dollar. Further, I investigate the ideological function of money in symbolically reordering the relationships of workers and citizens to the state, capital and culture. The article concludes with an exploration of the political significance of the monetary collapse of the Argentine neoliberal reform in 2001–2002, comparing Argentina's crisis of hegemony with that of other states within global capitalism.     

西方青年的“先进性”初探——以青年在新社会运动中的角色为视角考察

2008年起席卷全球的经济危机为资本主义制度下的普通民众套上了沉重的枷锁,在这一背景下,不少西方国家的工人、群众甚至包括大量青年发起了多次社会运动,旨在表达对资本主义制度的不满,为自己的权益进行斗争。本文通过分析青年在"阿拉伯之春"、"占领华尔街"运动、法国"反对养老金改革"运动等社会运动中的角色,认为西方青年已经成为当代社会运动的重要参与者,并发挥着积极作用,体现了一定的先进性,具体表现为:通过合理利用网络媒体为传统左翼政党和组织进一步开展社会运动提供新的思路;反抗资本主义制度;在社会运动过程中目标明确等。此外,青年参与社会运动对资本主义社会价值观的重建也具有一定意义。     

MODELING GROWTH (AND LIBERALIZATION) USING SMOOTH TRANSITIONS ANALYSIS

Economic liberalization has been a pervasive phenomenon over the last twenty years. Programs have been initiated on the assumption that liberalization promotes economic growth, but the empirical evidence for this is limited. This paper takes a novel approach to modeling growth and structural change as smooth transitions. This allows us to model deterministic change without imposing discrete changes. We use smooth transition analysis to reappraise the time-series properties of long-run growth rates in a number of developing countries which have undertaken liberalization. Our results challenge conventional wisdom on both methodological and empirical grounds.     

The Quaker Ethic and the Fixed Price Policy: Max Weber and Beyond*

Max Weber undertook his research on the Quakers and their fixed price policy as part of his attempt to understand the role of the Puritan sects in the rise of early modern capitalism. Although his comments on the group were sympathetic and penetrating, they suffered from inattention to the historical context. He failed to see, for instance, that the Quakers’economic policies in large part reflected their resentful frustration over the Puritans’failure to institute popular political, economic, and religious proposals. This paper corrects Weber's portrait of the Quakers and their unique fixed price policy by paying close attention to the social climate in which they formulated this economic innovation. In doing so the research establishes an important relationship between religious doctrines and social frustrations that Weber himself did not see, but that existed in Nietzsche's theory of “resentment,” and in Eduard Bernstein's analysis of the earliest Quakers.     

Reassessing Welfare Capitalism:

This paper develops the argument that a communitarian regime of capitalism might contribute to a society in which economic power is democratically controlled and where full participation is guaranteed, especially for those social groups lacking access to jobs and/or sufficient income. The paper analyzes community- based approaches to social policy in Switzerland and the United States, two western countries with a federalistic political system relying on local and functional communities. It explains the role played by municipalities and trade unions in improving the performance of welfare capitalism when dealing with unemployment and poverty. The examples of community-based approaches to social policy lead to the conclusion that both in addition and complementary to government intervention, modern capitalist societies have to rely on strong local communities and functional associations in order to establish a just social order and to ensure full employment and income security for all.     

Sharp Right Turn: Globalization and Gender Equity

Research on trends in globalization, particularly its neoliberal variant, has exploded but sources linking these trends to gender equity are difficult to uncover. Discussed mainly in the context of development, gender issues tend to be marginalized from the larger globalization picture. With World Bank as a backdrop, this article disentangles development from the process to inspect the connection between neoliberal globalization (NLG) and gender equity. This is accomplished through three cost‐benefit analyses: an overall evaluation of NLG; how gender equity unfolds under NLG; and how it unfolds under NLG in China. Macroeconomic trends supplemented with examples documenting the plight of women under NLG policies, including garment industry workers in Bangladesh, suggest heightened gender peril ushered in with NLG. China's “state capitalism” modification of NLG, however, tends to mitigate negative consequences for women. A paradigm shift from hegemonic NLG to state capitalism models may offer successful global economic policies that are especially beneficial to women. I conclude with an epilogue reflecting on my original remarks in light of the horrific factory collapse that occurred in Bangladesh less than a month after this address.     

THORSTEIN VEBLEN'S ECONOMIC SYSTEM

This study provides a foundation for an understanding of Veblen's economics by displaying its various parts as components of a system, and analyzing and evaluating them. An examination is made of Veblen's views on the subject-matter of economics, his general theory of economic change, his theory of economic change under capitalism, and his prediction of the end of capitalism, under the emergence of a new economic order. It is shown that he constructed a highly general theory economic change that was scientific in character, but that in dealing with capitalism he wrote primarily as a social philosopher and ideologist.     

Veblen and Weber, on the Spirit of Capitalism

Abstract Sociology has benefited from inquiries into the theoretical potential in the writings associated with individual 'authors', as well as from the examination of research 'topics' through the works of two or more writers. Of these complementary approaches, the latter provides the basis for this essay. The focus here is on the 'spirit' of modern capitalism from the standpoint of the formulations by Veblen and Weber. These writers provide alternative hypotheses on the decisive variable instrumental to the spirit of capitalism, namely, technology and religion respectively. In most other respects there is remarkable similarity in the two writings. The present analysis has enabled the comprehension of the spirit of capitalism in terms of four sequential phases. These are: early capitalism (capitalism as spirit); early-modern capitalism (capitalism as spirit and economic organization); late-modern capitalism (spiritless capitalism); and post-modernity (society in need of a spirit).     

How Do Neoliberal Policies Affect Income Inequality? Exploring the Link Between Liberalization,Finance, and Inequality

It is commonly asserted that economic liberalization increases income inequality in advanced industrial societies. However, the empirical evidence is inconclusive. The current investigation thus attempts to shed light on this important topic by presenting the argument that economic liberalization indirectly augments income inequality given its tendency to expand financial activity. This contention is tested using a panel dataset of 20 developed economies for the years 1988 to 2009. According to the fixed effects two‐stage least squares models, economic liberalization is positively associated with financialization, while financial activity is positively connected to income inequality. These results are found to be consistent across a variety of regression parameters and robustness checks.     

Variétés de capitalisme ou entrepreneurs institutionnels? Une application aux cas de la sous‐traitance et de la formation de la main‐d'œuvre au Québec

Based on the theory of institutional entrepreneurs, this article examines the coexistence of different forms of governance within a given economic space. Since the approach based on models of capitalism does not make it possible to account for this institutional diversity on the same territory, a theoretical perspective centred on the innovative action of social actors has been used to explain such a phenomenon. Our demonstration is based on a comparative analysis of two recent cases of transformation of public labour policies in Quebec: outsourcing and labour force training. These two major contemporary employment relations issues which are part of the same environment, have brought into play the same social actors in very similar institutional frameworks and have nevertheless led to contrasting dynamics and results. The actor's autonomy, more than a model, allows us to understand the different institutional trajectories that have thus been adopted.     

Citizenship and work in global capitalism: From domination to aspiration

The sociology of citizenship emerged during an exceptional period in which workers benefitted from economic growth and gains in productivity. Yet the field grew against the backdrop of a market‐oriented global capitalism defined by high levels of precarious work, surplus labor, and economic insecurity. Tracing the evolution of global capitalism in the wake of World War II, and across the unequal regions of the world, I outline three different perspectives on the relationship between capitalism and work. These include an outdated and untenable perspective of citizenship as workplace product , a critical perspective of citizenship as worker domination , and an optimistic perspective of citizenship as aspiration and agency . The analysis suggests that citizenship represents an important terrain of struggle within global capitalism, simultaneously enabling patterns of domination and inspiring movements for liberation.     

Territoires professionnels en question. L’exemple des comptables et réviseurs au Proche-Orient, une comparaison Liban-Jordanie

In Lebanon as in Jordan, the accountancy profession is faced with major regulatory and institutional reforms owing to policies of economic liberalization, which open markets and try to attract foreign investments. Light is shed on both the issues underlying resistance to these reforms and the conflicts that have flared up. By pointing out similarities and variations in the definition of this profession and of its boundaries, we notice: the weight of history and of institutional and political factors; the convergence owing to the globalization of markets; and national responses to changes determined by factors and pressures that are mostly supranational. This can help us better understand conditions under which a profession is constructed in quite different contexts.     

Max weber's vision of economic sociology

Max Weber's economic sociology is usually associated with The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904–1905), but in this paper I show that what Weber himself called his “Wirtschaftssoziologie”, or economic sociology, looked quite different and was something that he developed during the last year of his life, 1919–1920. I present and outline Weber's (later) economic sociology and pay particular attention to his ideas of “economic (social) action” and of the three different forms of capitalism (rational capitalism, political capitalism and traditional capitalism). I also show that to Weber, economic sociology was part of a more general science of economics that he often referred to as “social economics” (“Sozialökonomik”). The paper ends with a comparison between the paradigm of economic sociology, which can be found in the work of Max Weber, and the paradigm of what is known as New Economic Sociology.     

Building Walls, Bounding Nations: Migration and Exclusion in Canada and Germany, 1870–1939

Abstract Transformations in global capitalism increased rates of international migration at the turn of the twentieth century, a period also marked by the widespread popularity of scientific racism, integral nationalism, and vaunted notions of state sovereignty. This paper considers how the intersection of these factors influenced migration and citizenship policymaking in Canada and Germany. In both cases, migration was harnessed to further economic objectives while groups deemed a threat to national integration because of their putative racial or ethno-national characteristics were excluded. The resultant policies would come to define Canada and Germany's approaches to the migration-membership dilemma for the much of the twentieth century.     

HEMOS DERROTADO EL DIABLO! CHÁVEZ SUPPORTERS,ANTI-NEOLIBERALISM,AND TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY SOCIALISM

This article argues that the Venezuelan refusal of Washington's neoliberal economic development project is best analyzed in the context of the anti-imperialist Bolivarian Revolution and anti-neoliberal development of twenty-first-century socialism. These projects are more than just critiques of capitalism; they are real policies and lived experiences in the transformation of local, national, and hemispheric power relationships. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted periodically between 2003 and 2007, I move between macro-policy and on-the-ground experiences to discuss post-capitalist institutions simultaneously with the lived experiences of Chávez supporters, who are the strength of the counter-hegemonic movement. I conclude by discussing the implications of the Venezuelan case for conceptualizing democracy.     

Agricultural Exports and the Environment: A Cross‐National Study of Fertilizer and Pesticide Consumption*

Abstract The mass consumption of agrochemicals, including manufactured fertilizers and pesticides, by industrialized agricultural systems worldwide threatens human health and the health of ecosystems. The production of these agricultural inputs is a highly energy‐ and capital‐intensive process, and their application contributes to a variety of direct and indirect impacts on the environment. This study is an analysis of the relationships between international trade in agricultural products and the consumption of these synthetic compounds. Using OLS regression models and data from World Bank and UNFAO, we analyze cross‐national data to examine the relationship between structural factors, such as economic development and export intensity, and both fertilizer and pesticide consumption. The findings are considered from the opposing theoretical perspectives of international political economy (IPE) and neo‐liberal modernization (NLM). The results generally support the claims of IPE and contradict those of NLM, indicating that increases in exports of agricultural products contribute to increases in fertilizer and pesticide consumption within nations. These results call into question policies that promote increased trade liberalization in agricultural products.     

How capitalism and the bourgeois virtues transformed and humanized the family

McCloskey's two volumes argue that a change in our ideas about the dignity of human beings laid the groundwork for the tectonic changes in economic organization known as the advent of capitalism and the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution also changed human behavior by cultivating further the virtues that nourished it. This process can be seen in the way in which the capitalism transformed the family from the realm of “Prudence mostly” to “Love mostly.” Rather than undermining some romanticized vision of family life, capitalism is responsible for humanizing it by opening space for Love.