Search results for "political economy"

Party Positions on Differentiated European Integration in the Nordic Countries: Growing Together, Growing Apart?

2020

The Nordic countries constitute an interesting laboratory for the study of differentiated European Integration. Even though Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden share some historical, cultural, socio-economic and political characteristics, all those countries have ultimately opted for a different kind of relationship with the EU. Whereas Finland, a member of the Eurozone since its inception in 1999, has been considered to be part of the Union’s ‘inner core’ for quite some time, Iceland and Norway, in contrast, have opted to remain outside the EU albeit closely associated via the European Economic Area Agreement. The variation of relationships has also been reflected in Nordic parti…

Old wine in new wineskins? Understanding the cooperative movement: Catalonia, 1860-1939

2020

Different factors have been proposed to explain why in some regions there is a greater tendency to form cooperatives. The debate remains open. In this study, we look at the spread of cooperativism within Catalonia from 1860 to 1939. Catalonia was not just the leading industrial region in Spain but also where cooperatives first emerged and had a greater presence. In line with the existing evidence, we find that cooperativism spread from coastal municipalities to the hinterland. In particular, it seems that local conditions (literacy and social capital) facilitated this process, while accessibility to the transport network and neighbouring effects also played a significant role. This work was…

The Development and Promotion of Controlled Designations of Origin (Appellations d’Origine Contrôlées) in Burgundy: The Recognition of Terroir Wines …

2019

From the end of the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century, French, and especially Burgundian vineyards will undergo profound changes with a relatively important transformation of wine production and marketing standards. Indeed, in the nineteenth century, the wine merchants are dominating the wine production in Burgundy. They buy grapes, make wines, breed and sell all the wines put on the market. However, thanks to economic and political changes affecting the sector during the last third of the nineteenth century (phylloxera crisis, overproduction, fraud, Third Republic,..), a political, legal and commercial fight led by winegrowers trade unions begins. They stick to …

Disasters in the Society of Fear

2019

From immemorial times, Aborigines and ancient cultures were frightened of disasters because these events were seen as divine reprisals or punishment for their sins (as the Noah’s Ark myth shows). Although modern science introduced instrumental thinking to understand disasters, improving the quality of life, it is equally true that capitalism obscured the diagnosis of scientists to protect the system. Blind to see the real problems of earth, today, capitalism offers distorted answers to the problem of climate change, migration and refugee crises, and even to the economic downturn. Based on the tactics of blaming Others, the elite allude to poverty as the precondition toward humanitarian disa…

The World Bank and Development: The Early Years

2008

Spatial fragmentation of, and US support for, the main multilateral institutions of the western order

2017

The growth of China-led minilateral initiatives mostly of a regional character has challenged the main multilateral institutions of the Western order and, ultimately, US authority. Faced with a progressive delegitimation of the institutional architecture that it promoted after World War II, the US, under the Obama administration, has acted to defend the existing main multilateral institutions of the order (UN, IMF, WB and WTO), attributing them with a strategic role. More than being radical, though, the reforms enacted have been incremental and pragmatic, but always imperfect. More importantly, they have not altered US influence, which is exercised mostly through informal means. This, howev…

The development of Muslim nation in Bosnia and Herzegovina

2020

The main goal of this article is to show the conditions and circumstances of the formation of Muslim nation in communist Yugoslavia and the increase of its significance during and after the civil war 1992-1995. Furthermore, author presents the characteristics of contemporary nationalism, and distinguishes specific Balkan nationalism, which is often chauvinistic, ahistorical, militant and exclusive, of ethnocultural character. The identity of Bosnian Muslims originated from belief that their origin, language and culture related to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which makes them different from the Turks and other Islamic nations living in the Ottoman Empire. The genesis of forming Muslim nation in Y…

Paths of hybridization among journalism, politics, and public sector communication in Italy

2021

This article argues that in Italy there is a new problematic relationship among journalism, politics, and public sector organizations due to the permanence of some traditional features in the informative context as well as to the success of infotainment logic and to the pervasive use of social media. In the new hybrid digi-tal ecosystem, a redefinition of the social role of information is necessary to un-derstand the perspectives for journalism and public sector communication. Info-tainment and politainment enhance the hybridization of Italian public sector communication formats and styles mainly on social media platforms. This process has consequences on interactions and overplays between …

Employee ‘voice’ and working environment in post-communist New Member States: an empirical analysis of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

2008

This article examines employee ‘voice’ in workplace health and safety in three Baltic New Member States by means of a cross-national survey. The data point to unresolved problems of voice in the context of rather poor working environments. These present opportunities for collective renewal by trade unions, but paradoxically are more likely to be addressed by employers in the context of significant labour shortages created by a post-European Union accession labour ‘exit’.

A Functional Analysis of the Finnish 2012 Presidential Elections

2016

This study applied the functional theory of political campaign discourse, developed for political campaigns in the United States to two televised presidential debates in the 2012 presidential elections in Finland. Acclaims were the most preferred statement by the candidates, with agreements being the least preferred. Policy was discussed more than character during the debates. General goals and ideals were used more frequently to acclaim than to attack. Results are generally consistent with the results of previous studies of presidential elections in the US and other countries. However, differences did emerge: the classical functional categories were supplemented by a new category, the role…