Variegated neoliberalization: geographies,modalities, pathways

Across the broad field of heterodox political economy, ‘neoliberalism’ appears to have become a rascal concept – promiscuously pervasive, yet inconsistently defined, empirically imprecise and frequently contested. Controversies regarding its precise meaning are more than merely semantic. They generally flow from underlying disagreements regarding the sources, expressions and implications of contemporary regulatory transformations. In this article, we consider the handling of ‘neoliberalism’ within three influential strands of heterodox political economy – the varieties of capitalism approach; historical materialist international political economy; and governmentality approaches. While each of these research traditions sheds light on contemporary processes of market‐oriented regulatory restructuring, we argue that each also underplays and/or misreads the systemically uneven, or ‘variegated’, character of these processes. Enabled by a critical interrogation of how each approach interprets the geographies, modalities and pathways of neoliberalization processes, we argue that the problematic of variegation must be central to any adequate account of marketized forms of regulatory restructuring and their alternatives under post‐1970s capitalism. Our approach emphasizes the cumulative impacts of successive ‘waves’ of neoliberalization upon uneven institutional landscapes, in particular: (a) their establishment of interconnected, mutually recursive policy relays within an increasingly transnational field of market‐oriented regulatory transfer; and (b) their infiltration and reworking of the geoinstitutional frameworks, or ‘rule regimes’, within which regulatory experimentation unfolds. This mode of analysis has significant implications for interpreting the current global economic crisis.     

Computer Simulation and Social Work Education: A Suitable Case

Summary Despite the sophisticated advance of computer technology, socialworkers display little interest in grasping its positive aspectsor examining the negative elements. Yet developments in computertechniques can enable us to examine the social work processor simulate experimental situations. In educational terms, with the advent of a computer programwhich is able to simulate the elements of social work case situations,a new teaching aid is available. This paper describes the developmentof a simple computerised social work case simulation exerciseto introduce beginning social work students to some practicestrategies.     

Reshaping Social Work Authorities in Scotland

Correspondence to Neil McGarvey and Arthur Midwinter, Department of Government, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XQ Summary This article examines the assumptions and arguments underpinningthe case that the Government has made for reorganizing Scottishsocial work authorities. In particular the argument that thereforms will enhance both efficiency and accountability at noincrease in the cost of senive delivery is examined. The neutralcost assumption is questioned with data provided showing thatin England and Wales larger social services departments havelower unit costs. Moreover, the need for more joint and contractualarrangements under the new structures, which the governmenthas itself acknowledged, could undermine efficiency as wellas blurring accountability. Overall, it is argued that the government'scase for change is based on shaky assumptions with little evidence,and the concern must be that the combination of reorganizationand spending constraints will lead to reductions in semce provisionin the new authorities.     

Making connections: Global Production Networks and World City Networks

This article offers a sympathetic critique of recent attempts to forge a dialogue between Global Commodity Chain (GCC) and World City Network (WCN) approaches to global economic change. While broadly supportive of the endeavour, we make three observations about this ongoing project. First, we question the utility of emphasizing the common roots of these approaches in World Systems Theory given that both have subsequently moved into new epistemological terrain and, additionally, that the language of core and periphery seems ever less pertinent to global economic realities. Second, we seek to highlight the potential dangers of essentializing the global system as one that is primarily shaped by certain kinds of connections – namely the intra-firm relationships of advanced producer service firms – between certain kinds of cities – namely the leading tiers of global cities. Third, we point to the need to expand the interpretations of relationality within global networks to include a wider variety of actors, particularly beyond the corporate realm, and to explore the dynamic power relations between those actors. We also discuss the methodological challenges of expanding the purview of research in this way. This commentary has been stimulated by the articles in the special issue of Global Networks on 'World City Networks and Global Commodity Chains'.     

The Ontology of Ageing

Correspondence to Professor Neil Thompson, 1 Worcester Road, Bangor on Dee, Wrexham LL13 0JB, Wales, UK. E-mail: neil{at}maynard.u-net.com Summary Ageist ideology presents old age as a time of dependency anddisengagement, a withdrawal from life, rather than a part oflife. While this can be recognized as a stereotypical view ofageing, its influence has to be acknowledged as profound andfar-reaching. This raises a number of questions about the ontologicalstatus of old age—that is, questions about the natureof old age as a feature of human existence. This paper focuseson two particular aspects of the ontology of old age: selfhoodand loss. The notion of self is one that has received considerableattention in social theory as a result of the postmodernistcritique in recent years. However, little or no attention hasbeen paid to the role of selfhood in old age. Old age can beseen as a stage in the life course characterized by loss or,more specifically, a variety of losses. Loss is also a significantfactor in relation to selfhood in particular and ontology ingeneral, especially as loss so often involves a loss of meaning.