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Countless research studies have demonstrated the detrimental effects of incivility and bullying in healthcare. Despite the abundance of proposed solutions to this issue, many healthcare leaders continue to fail in mitigating the existence of such negative behaviors in the workplace. Personality attributes of perpetrators and victims have received attention, but much less research has examined the organizational and neoliberal causations of incivility and bullying in healthcare. Being the largest occupational group in the health sector, nursing professionals have the greatest influence and are crucial in ending these behaviors. This discussion paper outlines the effects of incivility and bullying in healthcare and provides a critical analysis on how organizational culture and neoliberal ideology influence the pervasiveness and persistence of these negative behaviors. The analysis reveals that organizational cultures that misuse power, disregard equality, and facilitate oppression, foster the existence of incivility and bullying in the workplace. Such cultures permit perpetrators to misuse their authority to control resource allocation, ignorance to social inequalities, and the silence of victims. Furthermore, the neoliberal concept of deregulation, austerity, and individualism further these behaviors. The neoliberal reforms have led to underfunding of anti-bullying programs and policies, use of bullying behaviours as management strategies, and victim-blaming for profit maximization. Financial cutbacks have resulted in denial and acceptance of uncivil and bullying behaviours in healthcare institutions, which endangers the rights of healthcare providers to a safe workplace environment. To curtail these negative behaviors, robust anti-bullying policies and programs must be strictly enforced and sustained in practice. Further exploration on the association of organizational culture and neoliberal principles to incivility and bullying in healthcare is greatly warranted.

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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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 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.)

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]

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]

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]

The paper discusses the impact of austerity policy on economic performance in the eurozone countries after the global crisis that occurred in 2007-08. The undertaken fiscal consolidation efforts to cut government expenditure and increase government taxes which begun in 2010, aimed to return sustainability in public finance as the rapid growth in sovereign debt was observed in many economies, especially in the South Europe. The implemented austerity policy under the external pressure not only amplified recession but also caused the further deterioration of public finance characterized by large deficits and increasing public debt. Based on the literature and empirical findings, the issue of austerity policy and its potential consequences on growth is examined. The research aim is to explore both advantages and disadvantages of austerity, focusing on the macroeconomic conditions which accompanied it and the impact of such policy on economic growth in the eurozone countries. The hypothesis of the negative influence of austerity on economic performance is verified on the basis of recent economic literature and conducted empirical research. Both descriptive analysis and dynamic panel regression based on two-step Generalized Method of Moments was used. Data from 2010-17 for the eurozone countries served to prove the existence of a key negative relationship between austerity policy and economic growth in economies that experienced deep great recession. The conducted analysis confirmed that austerity initiated to reduce the public debt to GDP doesn't contribute to macroeconomic stabilization, adversely affecting potential output. Contrary to widely held opinion, this allows us to claim that austerity is not a good remedy for economies suffering from recession. [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]

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]

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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]