Understanding generations: political economy and culture in an ageing society

Sociological understanding of generations can be enhanced by avoiding defining them rigidly as chronological cohorts but rather linking people's accounts of their generational experience with an historically informed political economy. It then becomes possible, for example, to understand the complexity of generational politics. This paper uses data on the 'War Generation' taken from the Exeter Politics of Old Age project to link an empirically based political economy of generational inequality with a cultural sociology of generations. The 'War Generation' recognizes itself and is referred to by others in terms of a common identity. It is also an historical generation; its values, attitudes and, above all, sense of national solidarity and mutual obligation were forged in the direct experience of war. But it is also divided by divergent economic interests in property and pension rights based on the historical experience of the life course by successive groups and this segmentation can be observed in political action. The political culture of the War Generation manifests both continuity and change. Understanding these dynamics requires listening to people constructing their worlds, understanding their full range of historical experiences, and analysing the conditions for their conflicts and their cohesion.     

Another economy: towards a cultural dialectics between energy and society

The looming oil crisis, pollution, and climate change have pushed governments, corporations, and individuals to think of new policies, new objects/products and new manners to market them – usually under the label of “green economy” (or the shifting towards a sustainable economy).

The changes that are on the way as a result of the envisaged “green revolution” need a broad vision that couples the economy of energetic techniques with the related socio-cultural economy that is induced by, and at the same time reciprocally influences, the mere technical transformations.

Based on previous analysis of theories of socio-technological change and putting at its center the concept of subjectivation in social sciences, this article proposes a theoretical understanding of cultural shifts and their relationship with changes in the practices of production, transfer and use of energy.

First part presents a schema of subjectivation in triangulation, that links the biological level with the material culture and with the representational realm of normativities in our society. It will be developed through the example of electric vehicle as metaphor of the energetic transition. Through this understanding, second part deals with the modeling of the three items as a processual energetic system by using the concepts of surplus and expenditure. Within this frame, we show how disruptions in one of the poles of this model influences the others and bring about changes in the entire Anthropo-Social level. Third part proposes possible types of emerging subjectivities and advances the idea of extending the realm of consciousness to the energetic transfers and their potentiality.     

Karen cultural capital and the political economy of symbolic power

For the Karen of northern Thailand, constructing the image of Karen as forest guardians and conservationists has produced an instrument of struggle against the official hegemonic discourse. This image construction is the accumulation of cultural capital and its transformation into symbolic power. The Karen cultural producers promote this strategy by investing their local knowledge and cultural resources into political action and alliances that reinforce their identification as ‘children of the forest’, in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. Through image construction, the largely negative identities embodied in ‘Karen’ and their communities—as denigrated ‘hill‐tribes’, forest‐destroyers and illiterate peasants—are transformed into a single social and political category defined as the ‘indigenous’ forest managers.     

The political economy of the rent-seeking society: The case of public employees and their unions

Evidence is accumulating which suggests that public employee pay levels may contain substantial rent components. The purpose of this study is twofold: to relate the theories of public choice and competitive rent seeking to this evidence and to improve upon existing estimates of rent levels by incorporating the effects of fringe benefits and stability of employment. This study concludes that once nonwage forms of compensation are included, economic rents are contained in pay levels at all three levels of government for both sexes. The authors wish to acknowledge their immense debt to Sharon Smith, who provided us with much of the data used in this study. The assistance of Betsy Rankin is also gratefully acknowledged. The authors alone, however, are responsible for the contents of this article.     

Radicalised civil society and protracted political actions in Kerala (India): a socio-political narrative

ABSTRACT

Kerala modernity and its widely acclaimed model of development, among other factors, is a result of radicalised civil society and protracted political action. The political actions of multiple actors such as social reform movements, communist movements, public theatre, people’s science movements, library and radical public policy played decisive role in this direction. In contrast to the two dominant conceptions of modernity – western capitalist modernity and eastern socialist modernity, which conceptualised that modernity is the result of industrialisation and centralised planning and development, respectively – modernity in Kerala was the result of political actions from below, which forced the state to adopt radical social and political reforms. These exceptionalities in Kerala modernity distinct itself from rest of the modernities in societies of the Global South.     

Circular economy and the city: an urban political economy agenda

ABSTRACT

The circular economy (CE) has become a matter of urban development. A literature review shows that the CE debate is biased toward technology-driven industrial change, while bracketing broader socio-political interests. We address this gap by exploring the political economy of scale of the CE. Looking into the case of Brussels (Belgium), a city that has recently adopted the CE as part of its socio-economic strategy, we explore how the anticipated transition to a ‘circular city’ chimes with long-standing urban development agendas. While there is little evidence of stable growth coalitions between corporate and political elites, we argue that the CE provides an ‘urban sustainability fix’ by selectively incorporating ecological goals in urban governance strategies. We further scrutinise the landscape of diverse and heterogenous CE practices in food and transport, highlighting how they are regulated and organised, what labour conditions they offer, and how they are anchored in urban space.     

Social stratification, cultural nationalism, and political economy in Jamaica: the myths of development and the anti-white bias

Le sousdéveloppement en Jamaique est en partie causé par des activités commerciales de l'élite indigène de l'île. Dans cet article, l'auteur tente de démontrer comment les inégalités sociales de la richesse et du privilège se perpetueront jusqu'à ce que les institutions politico-économiques contemporaines de la société nationale de la Jamaique continuent de favoriser l'expansion du secteur privé. Étant donné que les effectifs noirs ne constituent pas une partie significative de l'élite économique, l'auteur conclut que le pouvoir ‘blanc’ en Jamaique ne cesse pas d'être un fait accompli. Il en est ainsi bien que la popularisation du ‘Black Power’ et du socialisme démocratique aient forcé les blancs de devenir peu visibles. De plus, elle entreprend d'établir les limites du pouvoir politique, économique et culturel des blancs, et de démontrer comment ce pouvoir a changé depuis 1972. Jamaican underdevelopment is in part a product of the business activities of the island's local economic elite. The paper points out how social inequalities of wealth and privilege will persist as long as the contemporary politico-economic institutions of Jamaican national society continue to favour the expansion of the private sector. Because the island's economic elite is predominantly non-black, the paper concludes that ‘white’ power in Jamaica is still a very real issue. This is so even though the popularization of Black Power and Democratic Socialism have forced the whites to keep a low public profile. It is only by mapping the organization and composition of the island's economic elite and by documenting the role of these national entrepreneurs in Jamaican big business that it becomes possible to determine the extent to which white strategic command of political, economic, and cultural resources has changed since the advent to power of the People's National Party in 1972.     

Youth and political economy: towards a Bourdieusian approach

Cotê has called for a focus on a political economy analysis, where young people should be thought of as ‘youth-as-class’. Cotê positions youth as having false consciousness, arguing that youth studies is too focussed on subjectivities and a potential apologist for neo-liberalism. While we acknowledge the central importance of economic considerations, this paper critically engages Cotê’s claims while developing an approach to political economy that recognises the importance of inequalities between young people. We engage with a number of Cotê’s claims arguing that his position underestimates the diversity of work in this area and the importance subjectivities to any analysis of political economy. We also identify a number of conceptual problems with ‘youth-as-class’ and the ‘false consciousness’ heuristic. We develop an alternative approach outlining a more integrative understanding of the relationship between the political and the economy highlighting the importance of subjectivity. We draw on ideas of political ecology; reflexivity and consciousness; and concepts from Bourdieu. Our approach recognises that young people's lives can be shaped by economic forces and by classed symbolic and moral forces. Young people are not passive dupes, but are in a constant reflexive struggle to respond to circumstances not always of their own making.     

Extending cultural horizons: Political economy and public relations

In this article, we aim to offer a conceptual bridge between political economy and the practice of public relations, which should be helpful especially for practitioners and scholars interested in public relations at a global level. The combination of social, political, and economic forces is powerful, pervasive, and highly influential on the public relations activities of organizations, and we assert that these factors must be examined in unison. In turn, we discuss the role of political–economic relationships and the constraints they impart on the goal-seeking behavior of organizations. We conclude by offering suggestions as to how public relations practitioners and scholars can begin to think about their efforts and linkages with political economy.     

Traditional society, political society and Québec sociology: 1945–1980

L'analyse de la production sociologique au Québec, de 1945 à 1980, ne saurait être entreprise sans faire référence à la transformation des conditions generates d'enonciation qu'a connue la société québécoise durant la période. On peut schématiquement regrouper cette sociographie en quatre courants distincts. Le premier, de 1945 à 1960, se donne comme un savoir critique dc l'adaptation illustrant l'inadéquation de la référence au traditionalisme. Le début des années soixante marque le passage à la dominance d'une forme de la représentation présentant désormais le Québec comme une société politique. Une sociologie fonctionnelle de l'adaptation se développe dés lors, liée à la mise en place de L'État keynésien. Les années soixante-dix voient au contraire l'affirmation d'une sociologie de l'émancipation. Divisée en deux courants antagonistes, culturaliste et politiste, cette sociologie travaille à la redéfinition d'une société québécoise dorénavant soumise aux pleines déterminations de la modernité. The modernity of sociological production in Québec from 1945 to 1980 cannot be attempted without referring to the transformation in the general conditions of Québec's expression of itself as a society during this period. We can regroup this sociography schematically into four distinct approaches: the first, from 1945 to 1960, presented itself as a form of critical knowledge of adaptation which illustrated the inadequacy of references to traditionalism. The beginning of the 1960s marked the transition towards the predominance of a representational form which thereafter presented Québec as a political society. In the third tendency a functionalist sociology, linked to the consolidation of the Keynesian state, took root. The 1970s saw in contradistinction the affirmation of a sociology of emanicipation. Divided between two mutually antagonistic approaches, culturalist and political, Québec sociology is working towards the redefinition of a Québecois society henceforth caught in the determining web of modernity.     

What Disability Civil Rights Cannot Do: employment and political economy

The Americans with Disabilities Act is both a liberal civil rights bill and a labour economics bill meant to increase the employment of disabled persons. It identifies the source of unemployment in discriminatory attitudes of employers and physical barriers in the work environment, and promotes inclusion through the establishment of regulations that are intended to create 'equal opportunity' in the labour market. Such liberal reforms primarily focus on 'irrational' discriminatory attitudes. Operating within an individualist framework, civil rights have not given sufficient attention to structural barriers, which 'rational' business practices, the economic system and class power relationships erect. This paper will both micro- and macro-economic realities of US capitalism, which directly impede disabled peoples' employment and perpetuate a disabling society. The failure of rights legislation to increase disabled people's employment exposes the contradictions of promoting equal opportunity in a class-based (unequal) society.     

Mexican immigration and health care: a political economy perspective.

This paper examines the case of Mexican immigrants in the United States and their access to medical services within a political economy of health framework. Such an approach stresses that the provision of health care is independent of health factors per se and that access to health care is not equally distributed throughout a population. The first section reviews the three major concepts influencing medical anthropologists working within a political economy framework: the social origins of illness; the allocation of health resources; and fieldwork in Third World countries. The analysis then focuses upon the reasons for limiting immigrants' access to health care, followed by an examination of the socioeconomic characteristics of Mexican immigrants, including an undocumented immigration status, which limit their access to health care. Finally, the consequences of limited access to health services are suggested, including a low utilization of preventive health services resulting from the high cost of care combined with the immigrants' generally low income, lack of medical insurance and fear of using U.S. health services.     

Gambling on casinos: A political economy of Australian developments

The proliferation of commercial casinos in Australia over the past decade has transfigured the face of Australian gambling. This paper examines the implications of the precarious relations that exist between casino operations and the regulatory structures established to control them. While Australian casinos share many of the general features and problems of casinos in the United States and Britain, the Australian approach to the selection and control of casinos and the types of corporate organizations licensed to operate casinos has been quite distinctive. The various State governments also have adopted distinctly regional responses based on different moral climates, political-economic calculations and market competition. However, in their haste to secure a share of the casino market, governments have welcomed the involvement of large corporations in Australian gambling. The power of these economic forces and changing environmental conditions present a challenge to the capacity of governments to determine gambling trends in the country.