Alain Guilloux: Taiwan,Humanitarianism and Global Governance

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Australian Baby Boomers Face Retirement During the Global Financial Crisis

This paper examines the impact in Australia of the global financial crisis on the baby boom cohort approaching later life. Data from national focus groups of people aged 50 to 64 years (N?=?73), conducted in late 2008, found widespread but variable concern and uncertainty concerning work and retirement plans and experiences. A national survey (N?=?1,009) of those aged 50 to 64 years in mid-2009 reported lower levels of financial satisfaction compared with other life domains; many planned to postpone retirement. Findings are interpreted in the context of policies and markets that differed significantly from those in the United States, notwithstanding the global nature of the financial crisis.     

The Ethical Challenge for Sociology in the Face of Global Modernity: toward Solidarity-Oriented and Ethically Contextualized Practice

Sociology is facing difficult times: fragmentation within and between regional, national and international academic communities remains high while global interdependence and instability increase generating societal threats of unprecedented scale (progressing inequality, migration, ecological, political and economic crises). Ethical issues are very important for comprehending both: processes within sociology and transformations in the world around. Thus, we postulate the global ethical challenge for sociology, which requires: first, formulating the ethical stance of a sociologist towards the objects of disciplinary inquiry and the potentially involved social groups and, second, elaborating research tools adequate for studying the ethical dimension of the complex social reality. We demonstrate that dominating discourses in the current professional communities are largely inadequate and cannot effectively address this challenge. Drawing on Pitirim Sorokin’s theoretical heritage, as well as on John Meyer and Volker Schmidt ideas, we propose an alternative project of global sociology, emphasizing, first, solidarity-oriented and ethically contextualized sociological communication with various extra-academic audiences; and, second, sociologists’ ethical competence in exploring various localities and dimensions of global modernity with its progressively intersecting different (and sometimes contrasting) ethical systems.     

Meeting God: When Organizational Members Come Face to Face with the Supreme Leader

This paper focuses on a theme which features innumerous organizational stories, in whichan ordinary member of of an organization comes face toface with the organization's top leader. This themeechoes not only the archetypical religious scene ofmeeting God as supreme judge, but also severalwell-known scenes in drama, opera, and literature.Through a psychoanalytic study of this theme, a set ofprimal phantasies projected by organizational membersonto their leaders are explored. The paper also throwsinto sharp relief the underlying asymmetry of therelationship between leader and follower: while the follower may shake the leader's hand once, theleader will shake innumerable hands. The paper is basedon a detailed interpretation of three narrativessupplied by students, drawn from 6-month industrial placements (internships) which they undertookas part of their studies. In the first narrative, astudent describes her encounter with the leader inalmost religious terms as a liminal moment in her life; the student idealizes the leader who serves asa role model. In the second narrative, the student feelsshunned by a leader who is inadequately briefed for hismeeting with her; she proceeds to demonize the leader as well as the entire organization.In the third narrative, a student loses his faith in hisdepartmental head, when he realizes that he is not trulyindependent bur merely follows directives from above. The three narratives are used toidentify four core fantasies about the lader: (1) theleader as someone who cares for his/her followers; (2)the leader as someone accessible; (3) the leader as someone who is omnipotent and omniscient;and (4) the leader as someone who has a legitimate claimto lead others. Two groups of follower fantasies arethen examined. The charismatic and the messianic. It is then suggested that the leader may beseen as a reincarnation of the primal mother, restoringthe members narcissism and rewarding them for who theyare rather than for what they have achieved.Alternatively, the leader may be envisioned more closely tothe Freudian image of father substitute, who rewards andpunishes, arousing at once fear, loyalty, jealousy, andsuspicion. It is suggested that the former is close to Kohut's account of charismaticleadership fantasy, while the latter is closer to hisaccount of messianic leadership fantasy.     

Power,capital, and immigration detention rights: making networked markets in global detention governance at UNHCR

With the expanded use of immigration detention and migration management practices worldwide, detention has emerged as a key issue for United Nations and international human rights institutions. A growing international rights movement seeks to make the practice fairer and more humane, leading to the dominance of a mainstream detention rights agenda and counter‐hegemonic system of governance. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Geneva and elsewhere, this article examines the capital, knowledge, and technological expertise that went into the construction of UNHCR's Global Detention Strategy. I highlight the rational calculation undergirding this global detention rights agenda, including the transnational policy networks of NGOs, INGOs, and academics that facilitate the movement's moral authority and capitalist growth. Their practices have become powerful neoliberal development tools, which give veracity to human rights agendas and attract oppositionally‐figured abolitionist praxis.     

Global Hakka: a case study

This paper is based on a case study of a small group of Hakkas who have left the village-town of Beruas in the state of Perak on the west coast of the Malaysian Peninsula to make their homes overseas – mostly in cultures which are very different from the Hakka environment in which they grew up. It looks at: the reasons why they left their hometown; how they identify themselves in their new place of residence; who they married; their offspring in relation to the their mother tongue (Hakka) and traditions; how they see the future of ‘Hakka culture’ and the social and cultural costs of living overseas and marrying outside the dialect.     

Labour in Global Production: Reflections on Coxian Insights in a World of Global Value Chains

Abstract

This essay reflects on Robert W. Cox's work on global production, labour, and labour governance, and considers how his insights might illuminate the present conjuncture for labour in production. I work with an understanding of that conjuncture as involving the rise to pre-eminence of global production networks (GPNs) and global value chains (GVCs) as the contemporary expression of the ongoing globalization of production. The primary tasks of the essay are twofold: first, to explore the dynamics of labour and power in the GVC-based global economy, with a particular emphasis on labour exploitation; and second, to link these questions to those of the governance of the global economy, focusing on the shift towards transnational private governance as the dominant mode of contemporary governance, and on the evolving strategies of organized labour and the International Labour Organization in that context.     

Global anti-corporate struggle: a preliminary analysis

This paper offers a preliminary analysis of the recent wave of anti-corporate protest that has swept across numerous countries throughout the world. In the first part of the paper the social structure of this phenomenon is examined. Specifically, it is argued that it should be understood as a 'field', in Pierre Bourdieu's sense of the term. In the second part of the paper the factors which account for the emergence of this field are explored, using a 'value-added' model which focuses upon the interplay of strains, situational definitions, focal events, opportunities and the circulation of protest relevant resources. The paper is conceived as a preliminary analysis which outlines a framework and draws out important themes. It is not offered as a complete account but rather as a basis from which more specific and focused studies might stem.     

Hesitant Madams in a Global City: Japanese Expat Wives and their Global Householding in Hong Kong

Care work, once a sanctioned labor of love, is increasingly commodified in transnational contexts. The picture of migrant women shouldering the housework and child care of local professonal women may seem like a mutually beneficial arrangement—matching the “needs” of the haves and have-nots—, but the global care chain ultimately works to maintain the traditional gendered division of labor as well as global inequality. To this trend of globalization of care work, Japan has been an exception; however, how much longer it will be so is now in a question, as the government paves the way for importing domestic labor from abroad. This article focuses on Japanese expat wives in Hong Kong in order to locate Japanese women vis-à-vis the global care chain. The narrative analysis on how they decide whether to hire a domestic worker in their home away from home highlights the sociopolitical nature of their supposedly private choices. Some drew on cultural ideal of wifehood and motherhood to rationalize their choice while others referred to racialized or even overtly racist and classist images of foreign domestic workers. A few women spoke against the system itself, showing awareness of its inherent social injustice. All such narratives are never purely personal; their decisions and the rationalization behind them sustain the prevailing discourses of gender, race, ethnicity, culture, and class, which, in turn, envelop their attempts at global householding.     

Regulatory Problems of Commercial Banks in the Context of the European Sovereign Crisis

This study aims to find whether regulatory measurement of banking risks proposed by the Basel Committee provide a framework that allows an adequate reflection of these risks in banks’ capital requirements. The analysis is carried through the prism of financial crisis that started in 2007 and current sovereign crisis in some European countries. In the study we investigated the problems attached to Standardized Approach and risk measurement of a financial instrument based on the rating of issuer. As a result we revealed contradiction in the current regulation, according to which risk free assets provide a better return than riskier assets. We found evidences of the gaps attached to Standardized Approach, which in current sovereign crisis can become problematic not only for commercial banks, but also for the issuers of financial instruments in which commercial banks have investments. Finally, we offered a different method of risk measurement that, we argue, provides a better measurement of banking risks as such.     

Fostering Global Citizenship Dispositions: The Long-term Impact of Participating in a High School Global Service Club

To assist teachers in fostering students' global citizenship dispositions through service experiences, this article reports findings from a case study that investigated one high school's global service club and its impact on former club members' global awareness and global citizenship dispositions. Data were collected from Web-based documents and interviews with the faculty advisor and four former members. Data were analyzed by using the constant comparison method to elicit the following findings: (1) fundraising and awareness campaigns, when connected to a larger global service network, can act as viable local actions to combat global poverty; (2) club involvement can produce adults who feel more globally aware, but who do not necessary display critical understandings of global issues; and (3) club involvement can have a positive impact on global citizenship dispositions as participants reported feelings of empowerment and personal/social responsibility, yet no former club members continued participation in global service initiates as adults. Findings suggest the need for structural support when establishing high school global service clubs and, to optimize critical justice aims, local service actions should be tied to a more formal global citizenship curriculum.     

Global speed: a time view on transnationality

One of the most challenging aspects of the current processes of globalization is the accelerating pace with which communication, technological information, people and goods are ‘spinning’ around the world. With the growth of our spatial scope to a global level, we have become used to acceleration in a highly competitive world, which results in a feeling of real‐time experience, or instantaneity. The ways in which we deal with acceleration are determined by a specific understanding of the relationship between time and organization: from a Western perspective, managerial practices are based on the ratio‐economic, and therefore limited, idea of clock time. From a transcultural perspective, however, other modes of time interfere with the rigidity and linearity of clock‐time‐based organization. Moreover, on a global level a more encompassing, holistic understanding of time can be important to analyse tensions and contradictions in current managerial practices. It therefore seems important to introduce a perspective of time plurality into debates on transnational organization. How does a view of time complexity affect the management of cohesion and loyalty in the current practices of managers who deal with transnational networks?     

Educational Entrepreneurialism in the Private Tutoring Industry: Balancing Profitability with the Humanistic Face of Schooling*

S'appuyant sur une étude de deux ans sur les entrepreneurs en tutorat privé en Ontario, cet article se penche sur la légitimité croissante de l'entrepreneurialisme éducatif. Cette légitimité transforme la nature de l'éducation en préconisant des solutions commerciales aux « problèmes »éducatifs et la croyance que la compétition et la débureaucratisation encouragent la responsabilité, l'efficacité et la réceptivité du client. L'industrie du tutorat privé fournit une étude de cas exemplaire. Non plus simplement moyen de produire des revenus supplémentaires, cette industrie promet désormais des occasions d'affaires à plein temps aux investisseurs cultivés ayant des formations éducatives et professionnelles diverses. Dépourvu de la prétention des professeurs à l'autorité professionnelle, l'entrepreneurialisme éducationnel est soutenu par la culture émergente de l'éducation intensive des enfants et par la personnalisation en éducation. Étonnamment, la franchise tutorielle s'avère constituer un véhicule particulièrement efficace pour équilibrer les buts financiers et l'aspect humaniste de l'éducation. Based on a two‐year study of private tutoring entrepreneurs in Ontario, Canada, this paper examines the increased legitimacy of educational entrepreneurialism. This legitimacy is changing the nature of schooling by supporting market solutions to education “problems” and the belief that competition and de‐bureaucratization encourages accountability, efficiency and consumer responsiveness. The private tutoring industry provides an exemplary case study. No longer simply a means to generate additional income, the private tutoring industry now promises full‐time business opportunities for well‐educated investors from a variety of educational and occupational backgrounds. Lacking teachers' claims to professional authority, educational entrepreneurialism is further bolstered by the emerging culture of intensive parenting and educational customization. Surprisingly, the tutoring franchise proves to be a particularly effective vehicle for balancing profit goals with the more humanistic face of schooling.