14 results
Search Results
2. The Political Economy of Corporate Responsibility across Europe, 1980-2007.
- Author
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Kinderman, Daniel
- Subjects
- *
SOCIAL responsibility of business , *INDUSTRIES , *CAPITALISM , *CORPORATE image - Abstract
Corporate Responsibility (CR) firms engagement for social and environmental ends beyond the legally mandated minimum is probably the dominant rhetorical frame for the legitimation of contemporary capitalism. In my paper, I ask why CR has become salient at different times and has assumed different qualities across various European countries since 1980. Great Britain and Germany are my in-depth country cases, for it is claimed they represent extremes in the contemporary CR landscape. Britain, it is claimed, is European (if not global) CR leader, while Germany is a laggard among large European countries. My paper describes the institutionalization of CR in both countries in order to understand what factors contributed to these outcomes. Three stand out. First, urban dereliction and social unrest helped to bring CR up to speed in the UK in the 1980s; these pressures were largely absent in Germany. Second, the importance of state officials and policy entrepreneurs for promoting and subsidizing CR cannot be underestimated. Ironically, the British state has been very activist in this regard, while its German counterpart has remained largely inactive. Third, firms perceptions of their regulatory and welfare-state environment have a strong influence on the nature of their CR engagement, with perceived institutional constraints inversely related to engagement. Thus, CR gained momentum as Thatcher freed British businesses from their fetters, while this dynamic has only recently taken hold in Germany. Notwithstanding the insistence of mainstream CR literature that business objectives and societal responsibility imply and necessitate each other, sociological ambivalence a concept which focuses on the ways in which ambivalence comes to be built on to the structure of social statuses and roles is useful for highlighting some of the neglected contours of the CR landscape across Europe. Ambivalences are especially apparent where corporate responsibilities have tended to be institutionalized, legally binding, and constraining, as they have been in Germany. Corporate association officials there have at times pushed for the retrenchment of institutionalized forms of responsibility, such as corporate taxation, co-determination, and the welfare state, at the same time as they proclaim their far-reaching voluntary engagements as corporate citizens. As the substance if not always the form of institutions become ever more market-conforming and market-driven, these demands may become less audible. But firms may find that they have won a pyrrhic victory, as reconciling societal demands for responsibility with capitalism's imperative of profit maximization and its tendency to externalize costs is difficult without the hard backing of ofbeneficial constraints. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2008
3. The "War on Terror" and the Politics of Military Doctrine: A Resource Dependency Approach.
- Author
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Vennesson, Pascal
- Subjects
- *
GLOBALIZATION , *COUNTERTERRORISM , *ARMIES , *MILITARY strategy - Abstract
The conventional systemic liberal view that globalization - a set of connected processes that lead to a greater interaction capacity in the international system - makes force less useful as a tool of statecraft is flawed. Policy-makers continuously seek to adapt military power to the world's evolving interconnectedness. Using key insights of the resource-dependency approach in organization theory to schematize policy adaptation, the paper argues that the impact of globalization on strategy is likely to depend on strategic ingenuity and military adaptation. Some strategists acknowledge that globalization reduces the usefulness of certain types of force employment, and provide an incentive to transform military power. Others, thanks to globalization, see new, sometimes unsettling, opportunities for using and legitimizing force. I empirically trace the ways in which political and military strategists in the U.S. and in Europe (France, Germany, Italy, U.K.) grapple with globalization, and develop ideas, new and old, to make land power flexible and usable in a global age. Land power, centered on armies and closely linked to the territorial state, should be an easy case for the systemic liberal argument. Contrary to Special Forces, private military contractors or radical terrorists for example, its main task, forcibly seizing and controlling territories, is at odds with globalization-related security issues. Faced with the challenges of globalization, land power proves to be more flexible and resilient than systemic liberal theory expected. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
4. The Second Generation in Europe and the United States: How is the Transatlantic Debate Relevant for Further Research on the European Second Generation?
- Author
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Thomson, Mark and Crul, Maurice
- Subjects
- *
CHILDREN of immigrants , *SOCIAL integration , *CULTURAL identity , *EMIGRATION & immigration , *SOCIAL settlements , *CITIZENSHIP , *PSYCHOLOGY of Minorities ,SOCIAL conditions in Europe ,20TH century European history - Abstract
This introductory paper to the special issue of JEMS on the second generation in Europe reviews some of the key themes underpinning the growing interest in the second generation, and asks what 'integration' actually means in contemporary debates about immigration and settlement. The authors attempt to place these debates within their specific national contexts, in particular by applying US-developed theories of second-generation integration to Europe. In this way, we build on the embryonic transatlantic dialogue about which factors potentially account for different patterns of second-generation integration in different countries. Integration, in this sense, refers both to structural aspects such as educational and labour-market status as well as to a broader and at times fuzzier concept that includes ideas of culture, ethnic or religious identity and citizenship. The paper also sets the scene for the various articles in this special issue which together illustrate the thematic breadth of European-based research on the children of immigrants. We conclude by offering two theoretical avenues for future research on ethnic minority groups and their settlement patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. Worldwide Ozone Capacity for Treatment of Drinking Water and Wastewater: A Review.
- Author
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Loeb, BarryL., Thompson, CraigM., Drago, Joseph, Takahara, Hirofumi, and Baig, Sylvie
- Subjects
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OZONE , *OZONIZATION of water , *SEWAGE purification - Abstract
One question often raised when ozone professionals gather is “How much ozone capacity is installed?” Although the use of ozone for industrial purposes is growing, the largest use for ozone resides in the use of treatment of municipal drinking and wastewater. It is very difficult to summarize ozone capacity for industrial applications as much data are kept confidential. A number of reports have been published over the years on installed ozone capacity. Ozone capacity estimation is a moving target as plants are built and others removed from service for a number of reasons. This paper summarizes, using data available, ozone capacity for drinking water and wastewater. Focus is on the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. IOA members and member companies are encouraged to submit additional data to enable this summary to be as accurate and relevant as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
6. A Tale of Two Crises: The Euro Area in 2008/09 and in 2010.
- Author
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Schelkle, Waltraud
- Subjects
- *
FINANCIAL crises , *BOND market , *DEBT management , *GOVERNMENT policy ,ECONOMIC conditions in the Eurozone - Abstract
One puzzle that the crises of the past three years have thrown up is why the financial crisis of the period 2008-09 and the sovereign debt crisis of 2010 had such a different political-institutional fall-out on the Euro area. In both, governments were essentially trying to avert a banking collapse. The Euro area passed the stress test of the financial crisis in the period 2008-09 surprisingly well, especially when compared with the US. By contrast, the turmoil in peripheral countries' bond markets since late 2009 required the suspension of constitutive principles of economic governance and was a disaster for European political integration. This paper tries to offer an explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
7. Crisis dynamics and regionalism: East Asia in comparative perspective.
- Author
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Beeson, Mark
- Subjects
- *
GLOBAL Financial Crisis, 2008-2009 , *FINANCIAL crises , *GLOBALIZATION , *REGIONALISM , *INTERNATIONAL economic integration ,ECONOMIC conditions in Europe, 1945- - Abstract
This paper compares the current global financial crisis with the one that struck East Asia a little more than a decade ago. The analysis reveals some striking and surprising differences between the two periods. Whereas the first crisis had a catalytic impact on Asian regionalism this one may not. Despite East Asia generally and China in particular seeming to emerge stronger relative to the US from the current crisis, the impact of the second crisis on Europe reminds us that there is nothing inevitable about the course of regional integration. Not only are Europe's economic problems likely to diminish whatever enthusiasm there was for initiatives such as a common currency in Asia, but China may also find itself increasingly playing a global rather than a regional role. In short, crises can have very different impacts and provide an important insight into the interconnected dynamics of regional and global processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
8. The United States, Japan, and the European Union: comparing political economy approaches to China.
- Author
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Wan, Ming
- Subjects
- *
INTERNATIONAL economic integration , *GREAT powers (International relations) , *INTERNATIONAL relations , *ECONOMICS - Abstract
This paper examines US, Japanese, and European political economy approaches to China, and their effect on US-Japan and US-EU relationships. Great powers with a greater security concern in dealing with another major country care more about power while those with less of a concern are preoccupied with calculations for wealth. China's rise and its actions have posed a far greater security challenge to the United States and Japan and are driving the two countries closer together. The political economy game involving China reveals a dominant welfare motive among the advanced market economies. The ambition to transform China politically has diminished. China's integration into the global market makes a relative gains approach difficult to implement. Globalization simply limits the ability of a state to follow a politics-in-command approach in the absence of actual military conflict, which explains why the political economy approaches of the United States, Europe, and Japan are not that different in the scheme of things. China's own grand strategy to reach out to the world to outflank the US-Japan alliance has also contributed to a divergent European policy toward China although there are severe limitations to Beijing's ability to drive a wedge between the United States and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
9. The role of regional financial arrangements and monetary integration in East Asia and Europe in relations with the United States.
- Author
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Pascha, Werner
- Subjects
- *
REGIONAL economics , *MONETARY policy , *CURRENCY question - Abstract
Regional financial arrangements and monetary integration in East Asia and Europe have made considerable progress in recent years. This paper discusses whether governments in both regions, Japan and Germany as the most advanced regional economies in particular, can use the new dynamics as levers to raise their status vis-à-vis the United States. It will be argued that activities are defensive rather than offensive, aiming at protecting the respective region from financial risk. Japan, in particular, would find it difficult to raise its status vis-à-vis the United States significantly by promoting regional financial and monetary integration, principal reasons being actor heterogeneity, the role of China, hesitation to bear burden and risk, and the historical legacy of a bank-oriented system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
10. Rethinking regionalism: Europe and East Asia in comparative historical perspective.
- Author
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Beeson, Mark
- Subjects
- *
REGIONALISM , *INTERNATIONAL economic integration , *INTERNATIONAL markets , *INTERNATIONAL trade - Abstract
Regionally based processes of political and economic integration, security co-operation, and even social identification have become increasingly important and prominent parts of the international system. Nowhere have such processes gone further than in Western Europe. Somewhat surprisingly, similar patterns of regional integration have been steadily developing in East Asia – a region many observers consider unlikely to replicate the European experience. This paper uses an historically grounded comparative approach to examine the historical preconditions that underpinned the formation of the European Union, and then contrasts them with the situation in East Asia today. While the overall geopolitical and specific national contexts are very different, such an analysis highlights surprising similarities and differences, particularly in the role played by the United States in both periods. A comparative analysis allows us to understand and rethink the incentives for, and constraints on, regional integrative processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
11. Globalization: can Europe make a difference? 1.
- Author
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Went, Robert
- Subjects
- *
GLOBALIZATION , *INTERNATIONAL relations , *INTERNATIONAL trade , *INTERNATIONAL business enterprises , *LIBERALISM - Abstract
In a rather unambitious working document,[4.5pc] theEuropean Commission (2002)has presented its analysis of globalization and views on how Europe should respond to its challenges. Provoked by the blandness of this disappointing report, this paper examines whether the EU has other options than pursuing its current policies, which stay within the framework of neoliberal globalization and are roughly equivalent to the ones followed and propagated by the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2004
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
12. Power and Culture: A European-American Divide? The Case of the International Criminal Court.
- Author
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Fernandez, Julian
- Subjects
- *
POWER (Social sciences) , *CULTURE , *INTERNATIONAL criminal courts ,EUROPE-United States relations - Abstract
Power and Culture: A European-American Divide? The Case of the International Criminal Court ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009
13. Comparative Governance Strategies for the Environment: Explaining the Range of Policy Variation Across States.
- Author
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Dunbar, Lada Kochtcheeva and Keilbach, Patricia M.
- Subjects
- *
NATURAL resources , *ENVIRONMENTAL economics , *PUBLIC behavior , *FREE enterprise , *GOVERNMENT policy , *ENVIRONMENTAL protection - Abstract
Human societies are increasingly challenged to find ways to benefit from natural resources without destroying the environment on which they depend. In a globalized world where progressive demands often clash with profit motivations, states seek creative governance mechanisms to achieve these oft-conflicting goals. Governance, understood as the emergence and recognition of principles, rules, and procedures, provides standards of acceptable public behavior that are followed to generate behavioral regularities. The solutions span the range from strict regulatory control to laissez-faire market mechanisms to voluntary mechanisms. This paper argues that governmental processes focusing on policy steering beyond the traditional regulatory approaches are often better able to address the changing nature of societal demands for environmental protection and economic competitiveness. The article analyzes the factors explaining the variation in policy practices including external forces such the competitive economic forces, regime influences, and the spread of norms through the system, and internal pressures such as socio-cultural conditions, institutional framework, government initiative, societal demands, and economic conditions. Using the cases of Lithuania, Estonia, Russia and the United States, the article reveals that regime influences, domestic institutions, socio-cultural conditions and government initiatives take us a long away in explaining the variations of choices we see across states. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
14. Large Old Tree Declines at Broad Scales: A More Complicated Story.
- Author
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Faison, Edward K.
- Subjects
- *
TREE declines , *TAIGAS , *TREES , *FORESTS & forestry , *TEMPERATE rain forests - Abstract
In this article, the author comments on declining population of old trees in Europe and the U.S. by referring research paper "New policies for old trees: averting a global crisis in a keystone ecological structure" by D.B. Lindenmayer and colleagues presented in a 2013 issue of the periodical. He mentions increase in the volume of large trees in the Europe boreal forest and North American temperate forests. He also discusses the impact of declining trees population on environment.
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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