Search

Copyright of Folklor / Edebiyat is the property of Cyprus International University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many high‐debt countries are adopting tax austerity, whereby governments raise the tax rate as their debt levels rise with the hope to dispel future solvency crises. This paper investigates the impact of tax austerity on government debt solvency. A solvency crisis occurs once adverse shocks push the debt above its effective debt limit, the maximum level of debt that the government can repay. I show that the position of the effective debt limit depends on tax austerity. I find that high‐debt countries like Italy that undergo tax austerity could lower their effective debt limit and induce a solvency crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Greek economy seems to have overcome the turmoil of the pandemic crisis as well as that of the following energy crisis. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to assume that the Greek economy has returned to a sound state, since this was not really the case even before the pandemic. Furthermore, the anemic growth rates of the pre-pandemic period were followed by an equally weak average growth rate (including the impact of the pandemic), as some of the significant fundamental weaknesses of the Greek economy, which had accumulated over time and constituted the real origin of the Greek crisis, have not been properly addressed yet. This paper attempts a complete mapping of the current state of the Greek economy, offering an insight into the external and internal determinants affecting it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies grassroots organizations that provide various forms of support to vulnerable local communities in the United Kingdom in a context of increasing austerity, public sector drawbacks, a lack of funding and extensive monitoring, and evaluative requirements. We focus on the COVID‐19 pandemic, which challenged traditional funding relationships. We analyze lived experiences of trust, emotion, and suffering to understand the politics of accountability across the diverse economy. We draw on Gibson‐Graham's post‐capitalist framework, which insists on the politics of language, the subject, and collective action. In the setting we study, the language of crisis reshaped funding, vulnerable subjectivities emerged to support vulnerable communities, and fragmenting accountabilities were met with attempts to promote collective action and solidarity. We, therefore, contribute to literature in critical accounting and literature focused on the voluntary and community sector by studying a landscape of diverse accountability practices to explore the possibilities that they offer in terms of accounting for non‐capitalist organizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the emergence, politicisation and spread of healthcare provision tactics by (contentious) collective actors in Greece between 1990 and 2015. Drawing on participant observation, in-depth interviews with relevant field actors (N=40), and documentary analysis, the paper develops a diachronic typology that analyses and compares; (1) the appearance of those tactics in the Greek context in the 1990s, (2) their appropriation by contentious actors after the December 2008 riots, and (3) their diffusion, and eventual modularisation over the course of the 2010 crisis and the cycle of anti-austerity contention. In so doing, the paper helps disentangle the dynamics of repertoire innovation through an understudied set of tactics. This is achieved through the reconstruction of the genealogy of healthcare Direct Social Actions (DSAs) - pace Bosi and Zamponi (2015) - in Greece, their transmutation from "consenting" to contentious tactics after 2008, and their wide diffusion among contentious milieus after 2010. In addition, the paper discusses the interplay between the contextual and strategic dimensions of those tactical preferences across actors and across time. To be sure, early utilisation of those tactics on the side of marginal players can be understood as attempts to tactically differentiate themselves vis-à-vis those traditional and hegemonic players in the arena who relied on indirect, protest tactics. The crisis, however, disturbed the seeming equilibrium of the healthcare arena thus prompting tactical convergence around healthcare DSAs among contentious actors, on the one hand, while reinforcing strategic convergence among some actors and strategic divergence among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing tax revenues is a major policy goal in many low- and lower-middle-income countries. While economic growth is an important determinant of taxation, available evidence indicates that it does not automatically increase taxation. Rather, countries must make targeted investments in their tax capacity. In this paper, we examine the rapidly growing body of evidence on different interventions to improve tax capacity and increase tax revenues in lower income countries, with a focus on two key inputs: information technology and tax officials. We examine the role and limitations of digitization for identifying taxable entities, verifying tax liabilities, and ensuring collection of tax owed. We also consider how the deployment and incentives of tax officials shape their performance, and the interplay between them and technology tools. Lastly, we emphasize the importance of political incentives and consider the conditions under which governments choose to invest in tax capacity and expand tax collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how charities have survived, and sometimes thrived, in the face of crisis has given rise to an increased interest in the resilience of these organizations. Research on dealing with uncertainty and crisis situations notes the ability to adapt as a critical resilience component (Siders, 2019). However, resilience and adaptive capacity in the charity sector are under‐researched areas. This paper contributes to filling this gap by investigating two midsized Scottish charitable organizations that have weathered two significant crises: austerity as a result of the financial crisis of 2008 and the COVID‐19 pandemic. The study findings enhance resilience research by shedding light on the processes, actions and collaborations that facilitate resilience, and the importance of adaptive capacity in response to crisis. Two distinct approaches to resilience were identified: (1) a strategic approach to resilience, where the charity thrived in the face of crisis and demonstrated high levels of adaptive capacity, and (2) a pragmatic approach, where resilience equated to survival, adaptive capacity was low and, as a result, growth was limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the conventional but unproven wisdom that voters penalize governments for adopting fiscal austerity in a sample of advanced economies. We consider the composition of the austerity package and the economic manifesto of the implementing government, and find that austerity packages consisting mostly of tax hikes have a significant electoral cost, which is larger for government parties that campaigned on a free‐market manifesto. Conversely, expenditure‐based austerity is costlier for government parties that did not run on a small‐government platform, but may be beneficial for those that did. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the nature of "asceticism" (rīyāḍat) in Sufism, revolving around the works of the 13th century Persian Sufi Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī Balkī and exploring two critical inquiries: Firstly, it seeks to determine whether Rūmī's mystical perspective on asceticism is world-rejecting or world-affirming. Secondly, it investigates potential parallels and divergences between Rūmī and Meister Eckhart's stances—specifically, through the Dominican's Sermons and Treatises—and assesses the implications for the two figures. In examining Rūmī's works, the current research primarily relies on secondary sources within the Persian intellectual tradition to provide an intracultural context. Utilizing horizontal and vertical interpretations, this study examines critical themes in Rūmī's works, such as love, detachment (zuhd), the world's deceptive nature, and seclusion. The findings reveal that Rūmī's asceticism is not "monastic" (ruhbānī); instead, it balances moderate abstinence and worldly engagement, underpinned by the Quran and the ḥadīth teachings. Rūmī and Eckhart underscore asceticism as an inner transformation rather than mere physical austerity, emphasizing inner purification, self-transcendence, and spiritual detachment as routes to divine unity. The two thinkers' teachings are catalysts for profound personal transformation and a more fulfilling life in today's world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the prevalence of corruption in Ghana to understand how and why it has turned public procurement into a mere money-making scheme instead of a means to provide needed public goods and services. Design/methodology/approach: The study focuses on Ghana as a case study and mobilizes the monetization of politics lenses. Data are collected via interviews with key officials across the procurement sector (including the government, donors and civil society), documents, documentaries and news articles. Findings: The findings suggest that the increasing costs of elections and political financing coupled with the costs of vote-buying, which has become informally institutionalized, intensify corruption practices and, consequently, turns public procurement into a mere source of cash for political ends. Political appointments and legalized loopholes facilitate this by helping to nullify the safeguard accounting and other control institutions are designed to provide. Likewise, enduring poverty and rising inequality "force" citizens into a vote-buying culture which distorts democratic premises that may drive out unscrupulous politicians; thus, perpetuating capture schemes. Civil society's efforts to remedy these have had little success, and corruption and inequality remain rife. Practical implications: The main practical implication of the study lies in the need for a gradual demonetization of elections, and the consideration of the fundamental function of public procurement as a policy instrument embedded in economic, social, cultural and environmental plans. Additionally, given the connectedness of the various corruption issues raised, a comprehensive system-based approach in dealing with them would be more effective than a piecemeal approach targeting each issue/problem in isolation. Originality/value: While extant literature has examined the issue of endemic corruption in developing countries using state capture, few have attempted to explain why it remains enduring, particularly in public procurement. This study, therefore, contributes to the literature on corruption and state capture theoretically and empirically by drawing on monetization of politics from political science to explain why corruption and state capture endure in certain contexts (with Ghana as an illustrative example) which reduce public procurement to a cash-milking scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that austerity spending cuts harmed student performance in standardised national tests. To identify this relationship, we use cross-municipality variation in the timing of eligibility for the Italian Domestic Stability Pact as an exogenous shifter of local public spending. We then compare test scores for students that were from the same municipality, but who were exposed to different levels of austerity cuts based on their birth year. Combining administrative data on public spending and test scores with an instrumental variable model, we show that the test score impact from austerity spending cuts is around 5.1% of a standard deviation in math and 4.6% in reading. These effects are more pronounced for children with limited resources at home. We provide suggestive evidence that school budget cuts account for most of the observed test score impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential access to life-saving COVID-19 vaccines reveals the inequitable distribution of wealth and power in the global system. While several countries have developed homegrown vaccines to avoid being priced out of markets dominated by transnational drug companies, Brazil—a country with a significant research and pharmaceutical base—lagged behind those of other middle-income countries. Why? This paper blends insights from dependency theory and the theory of global capitalism to demonstrate how political coalitions, leadership, and normative frameworks negatively affect state capacity and technological development. First, austerity in public investment in research, development, and innovation prior to and during the pandemic limited the amount of resources necessary to create homegrown vaccine candidates. Second, political leadership informed by science denialism did not prioritize the development of vaccines and even discouraged their use. The analysis of vaccine development in Brazil reveals that having a pharmaceutical base and strong leadership committed to scientific principles and backed by a political coalition seeking to expand social democratic rights play a vital role in developing treatments and responding to health crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the impacts of the UK Conservative Party's government policies on 'open access youth work' since 2010, giving particular attention to the period since 2018 and to impacts in England. After clarifying the practice's distinctive features, it outlines the 'austerity' demolition of its local provision and—amid continuing wider financial pressures—changes in the role and contributions of the voluntary youth sector. It lists a range of 'gesture' funds for financing responses to young people's needs and interests as the government has defined them and uses the Youth Investment Fund (YIF) as a case study of how this money has been made available and allocated. Initiatives taken by the Department of Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) are then examined: its Youth Review, National Youth Guarantee, review of the statutory guidance to local authorities, and support for 'youth volunteering'. Two key developments are then considered that, by early 2024, were diverting and inhibiting an even partial sustained reinstatement of the lost open access youth work facilities. One, at the policy level, is the redefinition of 'youth work' by governments and by some within the youth work sector itself as a wide range of out-of-school practices with young people; the other, at the point of delivery, is the on-going difficulties in recruiting youth workers, especially those with direct practice experience. Finally, two possible tentative suggestions for some reinstatement of open access youth work provisions are then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounting information systems (AIS) are primarily designed to convert financial data into usable financial and management information. Their effectiveness or success, which shows the extent to which the requirements of their users are satisfied, is an essential factor in decision making. Previous research has found that user satisfaction is a particularly widely utilized and indicative measure of information system (IS) success. In this setting, the success or failure of an AIS is a crucial issue for all companies since a particular IS cannot be appropriate for everyone, especially in the case of accounting software that has to satisfy the requirements of its users. Furthermore, given the hotel industry's information-intensive and competitive character, the AIS user satisfaction of hotel financial and accounting executives can be vital to their performance and the hotel's operational efficiency. The aim of this research is to investigate a number of factors that influence AIS user satisfaction in the post-implementation period in the case of the Greek hotel industry. The findings of our empirical study show that system quality, information quality, system use, service quality, firm's size, years of system use, information technology integration, and organic structure have a positive effect on user satisfaction with AIS. On the contrary, statistical analysis shows that users' level of education is negatively correlated with AIS user satisfaction. Finally, the current research findings contribute theoretically to the IS and accounting literature, and they also shine a light on the managerial implications for IS developers, hotel managers, and financial executives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Trans/Form/Ação is the property of Trans/Form/Acao and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The 'Age of Austerity' has ruptured the social fabric of contemporary Britain. Arising from our three-year Life on the Breadline project, this article represents the first fieldwork-led analysis of the multidimensional nature of austerity-age poverty by academic theologians in the UK. The article analyses the impact that austerity has had on Christian responses to poverty and inequality in the UK. We draw on our six ethnographic case studies and interview responses from over 120 national and regional Church leaders to exemplify the four approaches to the Christian engagement with poverty that we identified during our research: 'caring', 'campaigning and advocacy', 'enterprise' and 'community building'. We argue that the Church needs to grasp the systemic, multidimensional and violent nature of poverty in order to realise the potential embedded in its extensive social capital and fulfil its goal of 'transforming structural injustice'. The paper shows that the Church remains nervous of moving beyond welfare-based responses to poverty and suggests that none of the existing approaches can force poverty into retreat until the Church re-imagines itself as a liberative movement that embodies God's preferential option for the poor in every aspect of its life and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Austerity as management of public debt is at the core of neoliberal policies and proceeds as differential exploitation. To explore its gendered dimensions of debt, the paper inquires how debt is bond to desire and inscribed in bodies. After indulging in David Graeber's, Gilles Deleuze's and Félix Guttari's work, the analysis focusses on accumulation through debt and dispossession. Drawing on Verónica Gago, Luci Cavallero and Silvia Federici, it reflects how current economies of debt exploit feminized work in times of authoritarian neoliberalism. The paper sheds light on solidaristic struggles against austerity that manifest a desire for social transformation and economies of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past twelve years, the UK has seen a marked increase in poverty and economic inequality. While numerous factors have contributed to this situation, an undisputedly important role has been played by the continuous program of welfare spending cuts designed and executed by a series of Conservative governments. To alleviate the potential for the unpopularity of austerity measures, the Conservatives have attempted to put a positive spin on their policies by making a series of core claims emphasizing the beneficial effects of the welfare reform. Using the method of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this paper examines these claims and offers a critique of each of them. In doing so, the research seeks to expose the use of traditional stereotypes (especially that of the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor) in the government’s rhetoric. The paper draws on a corpus of political speeches and media appearances of Conservative politicians, as well as on sociological reports and newspaper coverage. The analysis is principally focused on the two governments led by David Cameron, although some attention is also devoted to subsequent Conservative administrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ekonomika is the property of Society of Economists 'Ekonomika' and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the spillover effects transmission mechanism between oil prices, oil price uncertainty and oil price volatility on labour market in Greece, using static and dynamic quantile connectedness methodology (Diebold and Yilmaz Diebold and Yilmaz, Int J Forecast 28:57–66, 2012; Ando et al. Ando T, Greenwood-Nimmo N, Shin Y (2018) 'Quantile connectedness: Modelling tail behavior in the topology of financial networks', Working Paper. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3164772.). There is empirical evidence that the oil price variable is the most influential node of the energy variables on hirings and firings, suggesting the endogeneity of the labour market variables. Rolling estimation analysis based on the quantile VAR to capture the volatility spillovers across the whole conditional distribution shows a large variation of the total connectedness index, which is responsive to exogenous adverse and beneficial shocks. Further, our results point to a strong effect due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the state intervention to sustain the pandemic on the labour market. Overall, the analysis reveals a substantial higher time-varying connectedness of the system at the tails of the distribution, indicating that changes in energy markets asymmetrically affect the Greek labour market in recessionary and flourishing states of the economy, rather than normal times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resilience of public environmental agencies is an important but broadly under-researched discourse. This paper addresses this lacuna by drawing on a three-part typology of resilience from organizational studies and applying it to the English natural environment agency, Natural England, following a decade of public sector agency de-funding under the aegis of austerity. The research question was explored qualitatively through eleven semi-structured interviews with the senior management team of Natural England during the summer of 2020. The findings suggest that public agency multi-functionality equate to heterogenous resilience across agency functions; that generally agency resilience (as a function of capacities) is poor with consequences upon good governance; and that they are broadly poorly positioned for the aftermath of Covid-19. The findings speak directly to the regulatory and organizational literatures with public administration by evidencing the complex realities of understanding resiliencies in large multi-functional public environmental agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Austerity policies have affected local government for over a decade challenging their financial resilience to cope with further financial shocks. Using a financial resilience framework, this paper examines whether lower tier authorities behave in the same way as their higher tier counterparts when it comes to financial resilience to shocks. From a detailed field study of three lower tier (district) authorities in English local government, it is concluded that they do not have the capacity to 'Bounce Forwards'. They can only 'Bounce Back' in the short term and even that is becoming increasingly difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In crisis conditions, solidarity structures emerge as a social and political response to the crisis. This study introduces a new conceptualisation of solidarity structures as grassroots contestations to the neoliberal 'there-is-no-alternative' (TINA) discourse. It argues that their operation reflects counterhegemonic practices that can keep alive the hope that another world, based on principles of solidarity, is possible. Moreover, this paper, utilising Gramsci's work, argues that welfare grassroots community solidarity structures (WGCSS) challenge hegemonic assumptions surrounding the TINA discourse, such as responsibilisation and individual failings, by reflecting arguments for collective provisioning, empowerment and community action, and systemic failings. The arguments made in this paper draw on rapid ethnographic activist research in Chania, Crete, Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Countries in the Global South are currently facing momentous economic and social challenges, including major debt service problems. As in previous periods of global financial instability, a growing number of countries have turned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial assistance. The organization has a long track-record of advocating for extensive fiscal consolidation—commonly known as 'austerity'—for its borrowers. However, in recent years, the IMF has announced major initiatives for ensuring that its loans support social spending, thus aiding countries in meeting their development targets and the Sustainable Development Goals. To assess this track record, we collected spending data on 21 loans signed in the 2020–2022 period, including from all their periodic reviews up to August 2023. Results: We find that austerity measures remain a core part of the organization's mandated policies for its borrowers: 15 of the 21 countries studied here experience a decrease in fiscal space over the course of their IMF programs. Against this fiscal backdrop, social spending floors have failed to live up to their promise. There is no streamlined definition of these floors, thus rendering their application haphazard and inconsistent. But even on their own terms, these floors lack ambition: they often do not foresee trajectories of meaningful social spending increases over time, and, when they do, many of these gains are eaten up by soaring inflation. In addition, a third of social spending floors are not implemented—a much lower implementation rate from that for austerity conditions, which the IMF prioritizes. In several instances, where floors are implemented, they are not meaningfully exceeded, thus—in practice—acting as social spending ceilings. Conclusions: The IMF's lending programs are still heavily focused on austerity, and its strategy on social spending has not represented the sea-change that the organization advertised. At best, social spending floors act as damage control for the painful budget cuts: they are instruments of social amelioration, underpinned by principles of targeted assistance for highly disadvantaged groups. Alternative approaches rooted in principles of universalism can be employed to build up durable and resilient social protection systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act, defense budget growth will be limited for fiscal year (FY) 2024 and FY 2025. An analysis of congressional adjustments to defense budget requests from FY 2016 to FY 2023 reveals a Congress that favors programmatic expenditures over personnel and operation and maintenance. In a time of fiscal austerity in the near term, DoD priorities must be clearly and concisely conveyed to Congress, and Congress must balance its predilection for hardware with the need to appropriately fund the nonhardware programs and components of the Department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Contabilidade e Organizações is the property of Revista de Contabilidade e Organizacoes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Scienza & Politica is the property of University of Bologna, Department of Political & Social Sciences Alma Mater Studiorum and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This paper examines the contested value of healthy life and wellbeing in a context of severe austerity, exploring how the value of "Public Health" is constructed through and with material-discursive practices and accounting representations. It seeks to explore the political and ethical implications of constructing the valuable through a shared consensus over the "facts" when addressing complex, multi-agency problems with long time horizons and outcomes that are not always easily quantifiable. Design/methodology/approach: The theorisation, drawing on science and technology studies (STS) scholars and Karen Barad's (2007) agential realism, opens up the analysis to the performativity of both material and discursive practices in the period following a major re-organisation of activity. The study investigates two case authorities in England and the national regulator through interviews, observations and documentary analysis. Findings: The paper demonstrates the deeply ethical and political entanglements of accounting representations as objectivity, consensus and collective action are constructed and resisted in practice. It goes on to demonstrate the practical challenges of constructing "alternative accounts" and "intelligent accountabilities" through times of austerity towards a shared sense of public value and suggests austerity measures make such aims both more challenging and all the more essential. Originality/value: Few studies in the accounting literature have explored the full complexity of valuation practices in non-market settings, particularly in a public sector context; this paper, therefore, extends familiar conceptual vocabulary of STS inspired research to further explore how value(s), ethics and identity all play a crucial role in making things valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Discussion Papers is the property of Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study discusses the current state of the art and future directions of research on digitalization, accountability, and accounting in public services. Through a systematic literature review, we investigate 232 articles published between 1998 and the first quarter of 2020. These studies are analyzed looking at the implications of the increasing digitalization of the public realm for the (i) production of data, (ii) consumption of data, and (iii) their subsequent effects. Based upon this analysis, we identify the following emerging critical digital accountability issues and related future research avenues: the potential for dialogic and horizontal, multicentric accountability; the blurring of accountability roles and boundaries; the increasing relevance of translation processes and translators' roles—and the need to ensure accountability in such translations; the need to pay stronger attention to social equity and inclusivity implications of digitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the United Kingdom, the 2008 financial crisis coupled with the subsequent economic austerity programme forced many public institutions to engage in various cost-cutting and fundraising ventures. In parallel, corporate ideologies came to dominate how academics, officials and professionals debated public activities, in turn profoundly affecting the provision of communal services. This paper explores how 'corporate colonization' (sensu Deetz, 1992), fuelled by austerity, claims public institutions for commercial interests. Drawing on in-depth interviews with senior staff, this paper demonstrates how retrenchment of external support in the UK museum sector has been an uneven process, resulting in the manifestation of three experiential states of corporate colonization: organizational perennity, organizational perseverance and organizational precarity. We thus investigate the differential and uneven ways in which corporate colonization affects organizations pertaining to the UK cultural sector. Overall, we argue that the austerity culture in the UK affects museums in largely negative ways by forcing them to respond to the progressive need to satisfy short-term financial interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Estudos Politicos is the property of Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Revista Brasileira de Estudos Politicos) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Frailty is characterised by a reduced resilience to adversity. In this analysis we examined changes in frailty in people aged 50+ before and during a period of austere public spending in England. Methods: Data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing 2002–2018 were analysed. Associations between austerity and frailty were examined using (1) Multilevel interrupted times series analysis (ITSA); and (2) Accelerated longitudinal modelling comparing frailty trajectories in people of the same age in 2002 and 2012. Results: The analysis included 16,410 people (mean age 67 years, 55% women), with mean frailty index score of 0.16. Mean scores in women (0.16) where higher than in men (mean 0.14), and higher in the poorest tertile (mean 0.20) than the richest (mean 0.12). In the ITSA, frailty index scores increased more quickly during austerity than before, with the additional increase in frailty 2012–2018 being similar in magnitude to the difference in mean frailty score between people aged 65–69 and 70–74 years. Steeper increases in frailty after 2012 were experienced across the wealth–spectrum and in both sexes but were greater in the very oldest (80+). In the accelerated longitudinal analysis, frailty was lower in 2012 than 2002, but increased more rapidly in the 2012 cohort compared to the 2002 cohort; markedly so in people aged 80+. Conclusion: The period of austerity politics was associated with steeper increases in frailty with age compared to the pre–austerity period, consistent with previously observed increases in mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of RAP: Revista Brasileira de Administração Pública is the property of RAP: Revista Brasileira de Administracao Publica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced militaries worldwide to join the fight. Numerous (e.g., British or Czech) armed forces seized the opportunity to propagate their domestic pandemic mitigation activities to improve their public image. However, defense budgets are usually cut first in times of crisis. Such cuts, or the mere threat of them, can have severe strategic and national security ramifications. This research, both exploratory and explanatory, investigates how military crisis-relief activities and their online propagation can muster public support against austerity cuts. It employs mixed-methods analyses of more than 160,000 posts and comments from the Czech Army's Facebook page case study from January 2011 to January 2021. The study concludes that the Army's propagation of information about its participation in pandemic mitigation induced positive feelings significantly more than the other content. Moreover, despite unpopular measures (e.g., lockdowns and policing), the Army's efforts mobilized online public opposition to the austerity cuts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Economia Contemporânea is the property of Revista de Economia Contemporanea and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Drawing on a Gramscian Regulation Approach and Harvey's accumulation by dispossession thesis, this article discusses the structural and hegemonic mechanisms of the neoliberal transformation of Sweden's welfare sectors. Providing new longitudinal data on welfare retrenchment, corporate governance, wealth shares, and private economic power, the article further analyzes how the transformation of the Swedish post-war universal welfare model is related to class struggle and accumulation regime change in the Swedish economy. Following a decade-long countermobilization of Swedish capital and a severe economic crisis in the early 1990s, neoliberal economic common sense was cemented among social democratic policy elites that manifested itself in an institutionalized austerity polity, leading to a slow but steady dismantling of the Swedish welfare project. Roughly a fifth of employees in the three largest welfare sectors work in private welfare companies that generate tax-financed profits on politically created welfare markets. Welfare profits are in turn defended by a welfare–industrial complex and undergirded by a hegemonic bloc consisting of capital elites and sympathetic policymakers. In the virtual absence of vocal antihegemonic forces, many social democratic leaders have limited criticism against welfare profits throughout the last decades. On the contrary, austerity measures practiced by Swedish social democrats have thereto led to deteriorating social cohesion and spawned distrust among core social democratic voters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Ateliê Geográfico is the property of Revista Atelie Geografico and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Due to increased globalization and its subsequent rise in competitiveness, the role of supply chain services (3PL) in managing logistics, reducing operational and non-operational costs, and managing customer and supplier relationships, have become of utmost importance. Customer-centric production has led to the development of a close relationship between production processes. Amidst all this, the demand for logistic services has dramatically increased, thus putting more pressure on firms for enhanced operational results, and leading to the outsourcing of their internal and external logistic activities. On the other hand, supply chain firms that provide 3PL services seek to enhance their sustainability and predict their customers' demand. Methods: The authors collected quantitative data from 81 firms that operate in various industrial sectors in Greece. A questionnaire was sent for completion, in which firms could rate and evaluate various aspects that were discerned as important for deciding to cooperate with a 3PL service provider and maintain this cooperation in the long run. To extract the required outcomes, statistical analyses like categorical regression (CATREG) and MANOVA were utilized. Results: The demand for 3PL services was affected by 3PL service providers' operational performance based on accuracy, reputation, and IT capabilities, while the customer firms' intention for maintaining cooperation with 3PL service providers was affected by their reliability level, improved service efficiency, and trustworthiness. Conclusions: 3PL service providers should seek to improve the reputation, IT infrastructure, and accuracy of their firm's operations to have a continuous demand for their services. Apart from that, 3PL service providers to maintain the cooperation with their customers, need to enhance the levels of their services reliability and efficiency, while also creating a bond of trust with their existing customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Through its impact on both demand and supply, the outbreak of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has profoundly disrupted supply chains throughout the world. The purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying drivers of the supply chain vulnerability exposed by COVID-19 and considers potential future directions for global supply. Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a case study approach, reviewing the automotive manufacturing sector in Australia to illustrate how neoliberal globalisation policy settings have shifted large tracts of manufacturing from the global north to the global south. Findings: The authors demonstrate the way that neoliberal globalisation policies, facilitated by certain accounting rhetorics and technologies, have consolidated manufacturing in China and Southeast Asia in ways that embed vulnerabilities in global supply chains. The authors present three scenarios for post-COVID-19 supply chains and the accounting techniques likely to garner stronger attention as a result of the pandemic. Research limitations/implications: The paper illustrates how certain accounting rhetorics and technologies facilitate neoliberal globalisation, embedding supply chain vulnerability that has been exposed by COVID-19. It also suggests how supply chain accounting may develop more robust supply chains in a post-COVID-19 world and sets out an agenda for future research in this area. Practical implications: A number of practical supply chain accounting and planning technologies are suggested to facilitate more robust supply chains. Originality/value: This paper draws attention to the neoliberal globalisation policies that have shaped global supply chains as well as how COVID-19, in concert with other geopolitical trajectories, may represent a watershed moment for global supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to establish whether austerity measures promote economic development, improve infrastructure development, and whether they exacerbate infrastructure backlogs. The methodology used is a quantitative research method, sourcing secondary quarterly data from the South African Reserve Bank. The VAR model is used to analyse data between 1994 and 2019. The results showed that austerity measures have a significantly negative role in economic development. Also, they slow down investments that are crucial for infrastructure development. The results also pointed to the exacerbation of infrastructure backlogs caused by austerity measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper responds to a narrative review on the influence of populist radical right parties (PRRPs) on welfare policy and its implications for population health in Europe. Five aspects of their review are striking: (i) welfare chauvinism is higher in tax-funded healthcare systems; (ii) PRRPs in coalition with liberal or social democratic parties are able to shift welfare reform in a more chauvinistic direction; (iii) coalitions involving PRRPs can buffer somewhat the drift to welfare chauvinism, but not by much; (iv) the European Union (EU) and its healthcare policies has served somewhat as a check on PRRPs' direct influence on healthcare welfare chauvinism; (v) PRRPs perform a balancing act between supporting their base and protecting elected power. We note that PRRPs are not confined to Europe and examine the example of Trump's USA, arguing that the Republican Party he dominates now comes close to the authors' definition of a PRRP. We applaud the authors' scoping review for adding to the literature on political determinants of health but note the narrow frame on welfare policy could be usefully expanded to other areas of public policy. We examine three of such areas: the extent to which policy protects those who are different from mainstream society in terms of race, ethnicity, gender or sexuality; the debate between free trade and protectionism; and the rejection of climate change science by many PRRPs. Our analysis concludes that PRRPs promote agendas which are antithetical to eco-socially just population health, and conclude for a call for more research on the political determinants of health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the types of knowledge gained by community partners working with social science students on the Interchange Programme: a university - community partnership that adopts features of Participatory Action Research and critical pedagogy. The paper draws on a qualitative study with sixteen community partners from the voluntary sector and interprets the findings through a situated knowledge lens. The research reveals the strong influence the policy environment has on driving community partners to look outward to such partnerships. In turn, this frame influences their understanding of knowledge gained in terms of its usefulness in supporting their organisations to adapt to the external policy environment, particularly austerity measures. Glimpses of a more critical understanding related to the injustices faced by the sixteen community partners' service users are also revealed, facilitated by the programme's participatory approach. Although the study is small-scale and perspectives of the community partners temporally located and context-driven, it has wider implications for other university-community partnerships concerned to support voluntary community organisations in their local community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s, constraints on public revenues have resulted in a policy condition of austerity while tax competition has induced governments to retrench welfare programs, rather than enhance tax revenues. Yet, after the global financial crisis, governments intensified efforts to increase tax revenues, through international measures to combat corporate tax avoidance and evasion. These efforts complement, rather than replace, the earlier focus on retrenchment but may have the potential to reduce pressures of austerity in the medium term. The article investigates three initiatives at international tax policy coordination, with the aim of assessing their potential to limit tax competition and to generate revenue increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposed study aims to investigate the digital transformation of Greek small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with a particular focus on their digital maturity and the strategic and organizational factors contributing to digital transformation. The research issue of digital transformation has been attracting considerable interest among academics and business practicians since COVID-19 accelerated the procedure of implementing Industry 4.0 principles all over global economies. Quantitative research on 147 Greek SMEs revealed the most important issues on how these businesses implement digital transformation, factors accelerating or decelerating the process, barriers and expected outcomes. The results indicate that digital maturity, digital transformation strategy and digital business models are strongly interconnected, while the main barriers of successfully implementing them is a lack of funding, cultural issues and the management's engagement with the whole procedure. Greek SMEs are regarding digital transformation as a part of their customers' satisfaction rather than as a holistic procedure of reshaping their operation. In almost 20% of Greek SMEs, there is no person who is responsible for the digital transformation procedure, while key drivers are suppliers and customers rather than competitors and the government. The results can be valuable for stakeholders who are enabled to the digital transformation process from both the business and academic points of view, while there exist aspects that can contribute to policy makers/motivation developers on the state's level as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States spends significant amounts on non‐medical transfers for its working‐age population in a wide range of programs that support low‐ and middle‐income households. How valuable are these programs for U.S. households? Are there simpler, welfare‐improving ways to transfer resources that are supported by a majority? What are the macroeconomic effects of such alternatives? We answer these questions in an equilibrium, life‐cycle model with single and married households who face idiosyncratic productivity risk, in the presence of costly children and potential skill losses of females associated with non‐participation. Our findings show that a potential revenue‐neutral elimination of the welfare state generates large welfare losses in the aggregate, although most households support the move as losses are concentrated among a small group. We find that a Universal Basic Income program does not improve upon the current system. If, instead, per‐person transfers are implemented alongside a proportional tax, a Negative Income Tax experiment, it becomes feasible to improve upon the current system. Providing per‐person transfers to all households is costly, and reducing tax distortions helps to provide for resources to expand redistribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide a novel panel model to decompose total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the Greek industry at the firm level while we tackle the contribution of R&D. We, therefore, opt for parametric methodology that provides statistical inference and would validate the results. Our modeling departs from prior strong assumptions such as error terms across firms being independent. In fact, we provide a novel limited information maximum likelihood (LIML) estimation method that adequately deals with the issue of endogeneity and model misspecification. We demonstrate that our model detects variability in terms of TFP growth components across industries and firms. Our results show that R&D would enhance TFP of Greek firms, albeit the crisis has had a detrimental impact. Financial ratios such as liquidity and solvency ratios also affect TFP as we demonstrate that both would enhance TFP. The solvency ratio is important as it provides an estimate of whether the firm can cope with debt. We also note variability across small versus medium and large firms and report that small firms are more productive and spend more of their revenues on R&D. In terms of policy, our evidence warrants higher R&D spending to enhance TFP growth, though R&D funding is a concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]