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Digital data infrastructures act as mediating technologies that shape and manipulate flows and visibilities. Focusing on the case of the Indian digital ID Aadhaar, this article proposes a theory of mediation as a conceptual framework for understanding the role of digital technology in projects for datafication of state governance and national economy. In 2016, the Indian biometric ID Aadhaar was instrumentalised in a nation-wide move towards digital monetary transfers, a campaign launched under the banner of 'demonetisation'. The digital state ID was integrated into Know Your Customer (KYC) systems of financial identification complicating government practices of recording and subjectivation. This process, during which government discourse explicitly drew parallels between political subjectivation and financial control, indicates the growing significance of the digital medium in shaping the relationship between states and their subjects. The notion of mediation proposed here addresses the mutual articulation between monetary transfers, practices of government recording and data valorisation in a context where state projects for digitalisation are increasingly integrated in global digital networks and data platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism was of critical economic importance in Pacific SIDS until COVID-19 border closures cut off international ties. The virus did not reach Vanuatu and Samoa, and few cases occurred in Fiji. The collapse of tourism, on land and from cruise ships, resulted in increased unemployment and the closure of hotels and tourism-oriented businesses with multiplier effects throughout the island economies. Many people returned to home islands, putting pressure on local land resources. Diverse local markets, exchange and bartering increased. Women were most affected in terms of lost jobs, more domestic burdens and a rise in domestic violence. This article argues that tourism is unlikely to restart in the immediate future, but may be initiated through small elite ventures. In response, regional metropolitan states – Australia and New Zealand – have increased aid to what is increasingly a strategically important region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research interest in secondhand economies has expanded in recent years among scholars of diverse disciplines, especially anthropology, history, geography, and sociology. The introduction to this Special Issue discusses a number of interdisciplinary and regional perspectives on the topic. After an overview of scholarship relating to secondhand economies, historical and contemporary, we introduce a number of themes that have attracted particular attention, including the growth and expansion of secondhand exchange, the emergence and specialization of diverse secondhand venues, the material objects involved, influences on these modes of exchanges, and the cultural significance of secondhand things and the professions connected with them. Finally, we turn to the articles included in this Special Issue, identifying some of the major issues to which they speak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Auditors’ professional scepticism is a topical concern for the audit profession and public interest. This study examines professional scepticism among fraud auditors in the forensic accounting profession in China (CN) and the United States (US). Data are collected from 373 and 401 CN and US auditors, respectively, in two economies with cultural differences. The multinomial logistic regression results indicate that both CN and US fraud auditors have higher levels of professional scepticism than general auditors do. There are no significant differences in traits between CN and US fraud auditors. High-ranking fraud auditors have higher levels of professional scepticism than junior-ranking fraud auditors for both CN and US auditors. The results of our sensitivity analysis validate the main results and indicate the findings’ robustness. Results support the normative pillar of the institutional theory (Scott 1995) that asserts actors (fraud auditors) of institutions would share common norms and beliefs in a social system because they are rooted in professional affiliations (accounting bodies) (DiMaggio and Powell 1983). Our findings contribute to the literature in the arena of the interests of the public and the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on economic aspects of applied theater, as of August 2015. It states the notion of people on management, and mentions economic factors associated with management of applied theaters like aesthetic, political and ethical commitments of practitioners. It notes business practices related to ethos of theater companies, and cites that art-making organizations should have a proper conception on management.

The rhetoric of neoliberalism that applies to the periphery – self-determination, free trade, and the like – has been a part of the discourse surrounding Puerto Rico (and subsequently much of Latin America) for a lot longer than 1973, the year that David Harvey and Naomi Klein establish as the birth year of neoliberalism. In this article, I trace the history of Puerto Rico – 1897–2013 – and the consistent tropes of a rhetoric of neoliberalism at play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers how contemporary conditions of production have resulted in a reconfiguration of the artwork at the outset of the twenty-first century. It offers a detailed analysis of the entrepreneurial output of Anton Vidokle, artist and co-founder of e-flux, focusing on the video A Crime Against Art (2007) which documents Vidokle's mock trial at the hands of invited ‘artworld agents’. This complex work encapsulates dominant tendencies in recent art, namely the turns towards the social, knowledge production, performative documentary and education. Situating it in relation to Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello's consideration of the evolving structures of capitalism, the article argues that this is an exemplary instance that illustrates how the artwork itself has been radically reformulated. As part-and-parcel of this transformation it frames the recent rise to prominence of the curator and, by extension, the curatorial function so often appropriated by artists, as a symptom of economic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although geographers have recognized that economic systems are embedded in the particularities of place, much of the work on place in contemporary economic geography has limited itself either to the study of Western monetized economies or to the ways non-Western monetized economies are enmeshed in those of the West. Underlying such work is a preoccupation with the power of money to dissolve local economies and render them vulnerable to global forces. Although the local and global are entwined, in recognizing and exploring this relationship, economic geography has tended to privilege the global at the expense of the local, while in tandem demonstrating a fundamental preoccupation with Western, monetized economies. In this article I argue that a careful phenomenological analysis of places with distinctive economic practices can make significant contributions to our understandings of the assumptions that underpin global economic processes. Using the case of the Inuit, this article discusses some of the implications of presuming that economics and money are synonymous. The article explores how economic processes may be understood as manifestations of deeper spatio-temporal orderings that ultimately reflect embedded existential understandings. Through an exploration of the interrelations amongst the experience of place, perceptions of existence, and collective temporal orderings, it becomes apparent that existential notions of control are deeply inscribed within, and reproduced by, people's economic behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper uses data from a cross section of southeastern hospitals to examine which activities are profitable for hospitals. The analysis suggests that hospitals may operate at less than profit-maximizing levels of output. In addition, contrary to popular belief emergency rooms are shown to be profit generating centers for hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine the process of overseas investments by Singapore government linked companies (GLCs) in India which is an emerging market for Singapore investors. The “Look East” policy instituted by the Indian government after its 1991 Economic Crisis has found convergence with the Regionalization policy implemented by the Singapore government to create an external economic wing. The policy of regionalization would also assist in the expansion of GLCs overseas and prevent the marginalization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Singapore economy. This convergence of policy making creates synergy for more economic collaboration between both economies. Using India as a case study, this paper aims to illustrate that the motives behind state capitalism as practiced by the Singapore government is different from the common norm of state owned enterprises (SOEs). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper provides an integrated view of value creation in mass customization-based production models. While flexible manufacturing technologies are often seen as the main enabler of mass customization, we argue that modern information technologies play a similar important role. Their significance is based on enabling a distinctive principle of mass customization efficiently: customer integration into the production processes. The customer is integrated into value creation during the course of configuration, product specification and co-design. Customer integration is often seen as a necessity and source of additional costs of customization. However, we argue in this paper that customer integration may also be an important asset to increase efficiency and could pave the way for a new set of cost-saving potentials. We coin the term 'economies of integration' to sum up these saving potentials. Economies of integration arise from three sources: (1) from postponing some activities until an order is placed, (2) from more precise information about market demands and (3) from the ability to increase loyalty by directly interacting with each customer. By examining and structuring the economic principles of mass customization the paper will give insights into the benefits, but also the constraints of a mass customization strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the current economic impact and future potential of cold-water marine finfish aquaculture in Maine. Salmon farming currently accounts for nearly 86% of the total value of state production. In 2001, 13,202 mt of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, were produced in Maine, generating US$63.7 million in revenue and an additional US$32.7 million in indirect and induced economic activity. In addition, alternative cold-water finfish species are under evaluation for commercial aquaculture including haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus, Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua, and Atlantic halibut,Hippoglossus hippoglossus. Important constraints to culture of alternative species are identified through an ex-ante assessment of the early culture of haddock. Overall, capital formation is the most important constraint due to high risk and uncertainty on the rate of return to investment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article argues that the impact of globalization on labour markets and human resources on the Asia-Pacific economies may be recognizable but is as yet relatively limited. The sheer variation of geography, population, economies, labour markets, IR and HRM systems there, as well as of values and the like, makes it difficult to talk of 'hard convergence'. We thus emphasize the notion of 'soft convergence'. The article develops a number of empirical propositions regarding the uneven impact of globalization on economies in the region. It concludes that any generalization on this theme should be greatly qualified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ‘prudential' role of reserve requirements in transition economies using a general-equilibrium banking model. The analysis stresses the role that reserve requirements may play in enforcing an adequate level of bank capitalization in a context in which it is difficult to assess the true value of bank assets. The paper also explores the interactions that exist between capital and reserve requirements and the effect of these regulations on the financial structure of banks and on the level of credit and interest rates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Worldviews affect everything people do, see, create and think. As a result, much more attention will have to be focused on worldviews if human survival and well‐being are to be assured in the future. Making the transition from an economic worldview to a cultural worldview could prove timely as humanity prepares to confront one of the most difficult and demanding challenges in its history. Making this transition is necessary in order to shift the focus of attention from economics, economies, commodities, competition, specialization and the marketplace to culture, cultures, people, cooperation, holism, caring and sharing. Placing more emphasis on a cultural interpretation of history, cultural values, creation of a global federation of “world cultures,” collective sharing of the cultural heritage of humankind and cultivation of culture's capacity for links and synthesis is the key to this. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]