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This paper has three objectives: i) to empirically examine labor market transitions in deindustrializing Asian economies; ii) to study the character of labor market risks and how these risks are shifting by gender, by education level, and by age in the transitional period; and iii) to rethink the commonly accepted assumptions that deindustrialization and globalization are the main causes of new labor market risks and, thus propose the possibility of institutional legacy as an important factor for such risk shifts. This study focuses on the labor market risks in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Three steps are taken in this inquiry. First, this study commences by empirically examining the three labor market changes mentioned above. Second, it challenges the idea of the emergence of 'new risks,' arguing instead for the concept of 'risk shift': the feature of risk shifting to different demographic groups. Lastly, with the empirical evidence already used, this paper discusses whether deindustrialization or globalization is a sufficient cause for risk shifts in deindustrializing Asian economies, proposing that institutional legacy may be an important factor in risk shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrialization of developing countries has fundamentally transformed work, employment, and labor for millions. Despite the industrialization of most of the developing world, we present evidence that Latin America has experienced stagnating industrial employment in the past few decades. Benefiting from recently available data on industrial employment as a percentage of total employment from 1980 through 2006, we analyze fixed-effects models for 20 Latin American countries. Specifically, we examine three theoretical explanations: productivity/comparative advantage, institutionalism, and dependency/world-systems. Our analyses demonstrate that the prevailing productivity/comparative advantage explanation has limited value. By contrast, we find supportive evidence for a combination of institutional and dependency/world-systems variables. In particular, the stagnating industrial employment share in Latin American countries has been driven by the negative effects of (in order of magnitude) the Mercosur trade agreement, mineral and ore exports (as a percentage of total exports), the duration of the current political regime, military spending (as a percentage of GDP), and inward foreign direct investment flows (as a percentage of GDP). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As developed economies have substituted away from manufacturing towards services, so too have developing countries--to an even greater extent. Such sectoral change may be premature for economies that never fully industrialised in the first place. This article presents evidence that countries with smaller manufacturing sectors substitute away from manufacturing to a larger extent, suggesting a trade channel through which falling international relative prices of manufacturing lead price-taking developing economies to substitute accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new commercial globalization changed the map of the global industry. Today's world is different from yesterday. North does not dominate South in the same way. In the South there are large heterogeneities between developing countries, the emerging Asian and Latin American countries, etc. Some countries in the South have come to impose their own rules. However, not all emerging economies in the South have the same capacity prevail, as Latin America. Some Asian countries benefit temporarily from high growth, but experience a process of deindustrialization that weakens them. Some theories and analytical tools have become outdated or inaccurate, such as the center-periphery approach. Countries that yesterday belonged to the periphery have acquired characteristics of the old center and even exercise control over developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the concept of neoliberalism and how it can be operationalized and measured cross-nationally. Theoretically I argue that much previous work has either been insufficiently critical of neoliberalism, oversimplified it, or conflated it with other apolitical social trends like globalization. Empirically I show that past research has captured certain parts of neoliberalism without capturing the phenomenon fully. Future research should focus on economic liberalism, industrial restructuring, employment precariousness, foreign dependence, free trade regimes, and social service privatization. It should also should expand on available data with greater coverage of cases and more precise indicators of neoliberalism along all of its dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers forecasts of the geopolitical and geo-economic development of the world in the forthcoming decades. One of the main accusations directed toward globalization is that it deepens the gap between the developed and developing countries dooming them to eternal backwardness. The article demonstrates that the actual situation is very different. It is shown that this is due to the globalization that the developing countries are generally growing much faster than the developed states, the World System core starts weakening and its periphery begins to strengthen. At the same time there is a continuing divergence between the main bulk of developing countries and the group of the poorest developing states. The article also explains why the globalization was bound to lead to the explosive rise of many developing countries and the relative weakening of the developed economies. In the forthcoming decades this trend is likely to continue (although, of course, not without certain interruptions). It is also demonstrated that this convergence constitutes a necessary condition for the next technological breakthrough. This has important implications for the hegemony debates. A rather popular theory of hegemony cycles implies that the eclipse of the global hegemony of the United States should be followed by the emergence of a new global hegemon. This generates the dichotomy of the two main current points of view—either the United States will continue the global leadership in the forthcoming decades, or it will be replaced by China in this capacity. We do not find the study of the future within this dichotomy fruitful. We believe that in a direct connection with the development of globalization processes the hegemony cycle pattern is likely to come to its end, which will lead to the World System reconfiguration and the emergence of its new structure that will allow the World System to continue its further development without a hegemon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the causes of and responses to Europe's economic, monetary, and political crises as well as their implications on Europe's position in the global economic order and its ability to shape governance of the international political economy. Europe is in the midst of a quadruple crisis of economic stagnation, debtfiscal- monetary challenges, national and regional political squabbling, and an increasingly weaker position and competitiveness in the global economy. The pessimism over Europe's current condition is well founded as are dire predictions regarding its future if there is little or no economic growth, fiscal and monetary reforms are not well implemented or supported, and greater solidarity amongst the members of the European Union is not rediscovered. Yet some of the glaring issues facing Europe can be addressed through adaptive policy regimes, positive political leadership and cooperation that would relieve some of the stress upon the short and long-term viability and sustainability of the European economic models. Nonetheless, the impact on Europe's position in the global economy has been and will likely be permanently altered and weakened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In its methodological context, the article, expands on the idea of the organization of the 'Silesia' superstructure. The idea of establishing a common urban organism emerged with the local governments of the Upper Silesian conurbation cities and was dictated by the need to find a way to change the traditional image of the Silesian region and its post-industrial role in the economic space of the country, as well as Europe. Therefore, in 2009, the Metropolitan Association of Upper- Silesia, an association for the initial institutionalization of 'Silesia', was registered, because 'Silesia' does not hold any administrative or legal force. Such an organizational 'revolution' of the Upper Silesian conurbation initiated a wide social debate, in which the arguments of both supporters and opponents of such an enterprise in the Silesian region became apparent, together with misunderstandings related to the term 'metropolis', and the idea of establishing 'Silesia'. Representatives of local governments chose the more prestigious term 'metropolis' as if a complex metropolisation had taken place in the Upper Silesian conurbation. It would be adequate, however, to look only for the first features of metropolitan functions in this de-industrialized and restructured region, which are going to shape the longlasting metropolisation process under the influence of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the perception of job threat posed by immigrants within the U.S. by using group threat theory, contact theory, and cultural theory. It addresses the increasing attention being paid to issues of immigration in the U.S. since 2000, as well as notes the impact of forces including economic competition, labor market deregulation, and globalization on perception of immigrant threat. It comments on the connection between immigrant threat and economic stagnation caused by outside forces.

Contingent as they are upon technological globalization, contemporary notions of global citizenship tend to run parallel to theories of 'post-industrialism' and 'information society'. This paper problematizes this relationship by delineating the connections between 'informationist' theory and neoliberal ideology, which together have laid the ideational foundations for a reordering of the global political economy over the past 40 years in favor of global capital. Drawing on the work of Antonio Gramsci, this paper argues that information-age theories have served to facilitate the neoliberal project, obscuring behind a veil of teleological inevitability and technological determinism the political transformations which make global neoliberalism possible, even while prescribing the technological innovations which make such transformations technically feasible. Crucially, in eroding national sovereignty over trade and labour laws, capital flows, and fiscal and monetary policy, the ascent of 'informational neoliberalism' has served to undermine traditional citizenship in favor of market discipline and neoliberal hegemony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pickles J. and Smith A. Delocalization and persistence in the European clothing industry: the reconfiguration of trade and production networks, Regional Studies. This paper examines processes of delocalization and the phenomenon of the 'spectre of China' in the European clothing industry following the removal of quota-constrained trade in 2005. It examines the changing geographies of trade and production in the European clothing industry, with a specific focus on the patterns of delocalization and production resilience in East-Central Europe. Through an analysis of trade flows to core European Union markets, it is shown how the articulation of sourcing strategies, trade policies, and locational decisions are producing distinctions in a more liberalized global trading environment between shifts towards the globalization of production networks alongside an intensification of the regionalization of clothing production in lower-cost-producing regions of East-Central Europe (and North Africa) that are proximate to major markets. The paper also examines some of the reasons for these different geographies of sourcing. [image omitted] Pickles J. et Smith A. La delocalisation et la capacite de reprise de la confection: la nouvelle configuration des reseaux d'echanges et de production, Regional Studies. Cet article cherche a examiner les processus de delocalisation et le phenomene du 'spectre de la Chine' dans la confection en Europe suite au demantelement du contingentement des echanges en 2005. On examine l'evolution de la geographie des echanges et de la production dans la confection en Europe, portant notamment sur la distribution de la capacite de reprise de la delocalisation et de la production dans le centre-est de l'Europe. A partir d'une analyse des flux d'echanges a destination des principaux marches de l'Union europeenne, on demontre comment l'articulation des strategies d'approvisionnement, des politiques commerciales et des decisions de localisation font des distinctions dans des milieux commerciaux mondiaux plus liberaux entre des mouvements vers la mondialisation des reseaux de production conjointement avec une intensification de la regionalisation de la confection dans les zones de production a couts plus faibles du centre-est de l'Europe (et de l'Afrique du Nord) qui sont a proximite des principaux marches. L'article examine aussi quelques-unes des raisons qui expliquent ces differentes geographies d'approvisionnement. Delocalisation de la production Liberalisation des echanges mondiaux Confection Reseaux de production mondiaux Chaines de valeurs mondiaux Centre-est de l'Europe Pickles J. und Smith A. Delokalisierung und Persistenz der europaischen Bekleidungsindustrie: die Neuausrichtung von Handels- und Produktionsnetzwerken, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag untersuchen wir die Prozesse der Delokalisierung und das Phanomen des 'Schreckgespensts China' in der europaischen Bekleidungsindustrie nach Abschaffung der Handelsquoten im Jahr 2005. Wir untersuchen die geografischen Veranderungen des Handels und der Produktion in der europaischen Bekleidungsindustrie unter besonderer Berucksichtigung der Ablaufe bei der Delokalisierung sowie der Belastbarkeit der Produktion in Mittel- und Osteuropa. Anhand einer Analyse der Handelsstrome in die zentralen Markte der Europaischen Union zeigen wir auf, wie es im Zuge der Entwicklung von Beschaffungsstrategien, Handelspolitiken und Standortentscheidungen im Bereich des starker liberalisierten Welthandels zu Unterschieden kommt, was die Veranderung hin zur Globalisierung von Produktionsnetzwerken sowie die intensivere Regionalisierung der Kleidungsherstellung in den preisgunstiger produzierenden und nah an den grosseren Markten gelegenen Regionen von Mittel- und Osteuropa (und Nordafrika) anbelangt. Ebenso werden in diesem Beitrag einige der Grunde fur diese verschiedenen Geografien der Beschaffung erortert. Delokalisierung der Produktion Liberalisierung des Welthandels Bekleidungsindustrie Globale Produktionsnetzwerke Globale Wertschopfungsketten Mittel- und Osteuropa Pickles J. y Smith A. Deslocalizacion y persistencia en la industria de confeccion de Europa: la reconfiguracion de las redes comerciales y de produccion, Regional Studies. En este articulo analizamos los procesos de deslocalizacion y el fenomeno de la 'amenaza de China' en la industria de confeccion en Europa tras la retirada de las cuotas que limitaban el comercio en 2005. Analizamos los cambios geograficos del comercio y la produccion de la industria de confeccion en Europa centrandonos especificamente en los modelos de deslocalizacion y la resistencia de produccion en Europa del este y central. Mediante un analisis de los flujos comerciales a los principales mercados de la Union Europea, demostramos como la articulacion de estrategias de suministro, politicas comerciales y decisiones de ubicacion estan creando distinciones en un entorno comercial mas liberalizado a nivel global entre los cambios hacia la globalizacion de las redes de produccion junto con una intensificacion de la regionalizacion de la produccion en el sector de confeccion en las regiones que producen a bajos costes de Europa central y del este (y el norte de Africa) que estan cerca de los mercados principales. En este articulo tambien examinamos algunos de los motivos para estas diferentes geografias de suministro. Deslocalizacion de la produccion Liberalizacion del mercado global Industria de confeccion Redes de produccion global Cadena global de valores Europa central y del este [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades a clear consensus has emerged that welfare states do not converge, either because powerful partisan differences remain between countries or because institutional path dependencies lock in existing arrangements. Against this common wisdom, this article presents a new argument on why we in fact should expect to see some measure of catch-up following the rising economic globalization of the past couple of decades. The article posits that the risk exposure of the workforce is greater in traditionally closed economies than in traditionally open economies as economic globalization intensifies. The argument is tested in a novel set-up using times series cross-section regression analysis, which allows for a much more exact test of the argument than is normally provided in the literature. The empirical test clearly corroborates the argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary versions of globalization assume that market deregulation is the precursor to democratic development and the growth of livable cities. This paper examines the specific case of Viet Nam to describe how the creation and construction of cities in the developing world may be laying the foundations for future social inequality. Using a futures-oriented method, the paper reviews the development of urban poverty in North America during a period of rapid urban transition as a heuristic device for understanding some of the potentially unobservable, yet festering problems with the trajectory of development in Viet Nam. The paper uses the examples of new urban social institutions, residential and economic segregation, and the creation of 'new towns' to highlight the importance of new forms of local governance, as well the declining relevance of national authorities. The paper ends with a brief discussion of four 'ideological cages' that are likely to become increasingly constrictive to urban analysts as Vietnamese cities develop. Las versiones contemporaneas de la globalizacion asumen que la desregulacion del mercado es el precursor al desarrollo democratico y al crecimiento de ciudades habitables. Este articulo examina el caso especifico de Viet Nam para describir como la creacion y construccion de ciudades en el mundo subdesarrollado pueden haber puesto las bases para las desigualdades sociales futuras. Mediante un metodo orientado a futuros, el articulo revisa el desarrollo de la pobreza urbana en Norteamerica durante un periodo de rapida transicion urbana, como un componente heuristico para entender algunos de los problemas potencialmente inobservables, no obstante supurantes, con la trayectoria del desarrollo en Viet Nam. El articulo usa los ejemplos de nuevas instituciones sociales, la segregacion economica y la creacion de 'nuevas ciudades', para destacar la importancia de nuevas formas de gobierno local, como tambien la trascendencia decadente de las autoridades nacionales. El articulo termina con una breve discusion de cuatro 'jaulas ideologicas' que muy probablemente estan por llegar a ser progresivamente constrictivas a los analistas urbanos, a medida que se desarrollan las ciudades vietnamitas. [image omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores temporal variation in partisan effects on social spending growth in OECD countries over the period 1971–2002. We argue that partisan effects are jointly conditioned by globalization and the mobilizational capacity of organized labour. We present three main empirical findings. First, we show that partisan effects increased from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s and then disappeared in the 1990s. Second, we show that partisan effects rose with globalization in the 1970s and early 1980s, a period characterized by rising labour strength in many OECD countries, but this is not true for the post-1990 period, characterized by declining labour strength. Third, we show that globalization was associated with declining partisan effects in countries that experienced union decline in the 1980s and 1990s, but it was associated with rising partisan effects in countries in which unions remained strong. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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This study compares economic justice, measured by income inequality and child poverty rates, across industrialized countries. Labor market training, social service expenditures, unions and taxes were significantly related to economic justice. The United States had the highest income inequality and the second-highest child poverty rate of the countries studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to present the authors' opinions about the impacts of globalization on real estate profession and some essential changes of real estate business service. Design/methodology/approach - The arguments are based on the authors' interpretation and first-hand experience of the contemporary business environment. A case study example to illustrate the changing requirements for professional real estate services in mainland China is provided. Findings - Economic globalization creates new opportunities in real estate market, product and service. It has the effect of blurring geographical and product boundaries. Real estate is increasingly integrated with the financial market. Global capital has transformed local property market practices. Real estate professionals have to re-orientate themselves so that they can move up the service value-ladder and avoid being marginalized under intense competition in a global market. Practical implications - Re-orientation of professional practices involves an expansion of one's geographical and market knowledge beyond the home boundary. It also requires a dramatic change of mind-set, work attitude, social awareness and lifestyle. Originality/value - The paper proposes a competence model. Professionals should sell "competence", which is built on "service proper" (knowledge and skills) and "service infrastructure" (technology and organization). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists have long debated the impacts of foreign investment for less developed countries. However, theorization fails to articulate the potential environmental consequences of foreign investment dependence. Here, an ecostructural theory of investment dependence is proposed and a derived hypothesis is tested. The hypothesis states that less developed countries dependent on foreign investment in manufacturing exhibit higher levels of per capita noxious gas emissions. These anthropogenic emissions contribute to global warming, climate change, and a variety of human health problems. To test the hypothesis, newly available panel data for the emission of nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide gas as well as measures of foreign investment in manufacturing are analyzed in random effects generalized least squares (GLS) panel regression models for 39 less developed countries. Findings confirm the hypothesis, even when controlling for domestic investment the relative size of the manufacturing sector, level of development, and other factors. Overall, the analyses support the ecostructural theory of foreign investment dependence, and underscore the sociological relevance in considering the environmental impacts of the transnational organization of production as well as the overall scale of production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on what is called the process of 'patrimonialization' of culture and nature currently taking place in the Western mountainous inlands of the Spanish Eastern Pyrenees. Landscapes, as cultural and historical formations, are presently being commodified and connected to global networks of consumption dominated by urban and 'postmaterialistic' values. Conservation policies, ski resorts and cultural museums are mushrooming in previously 'abandoned' agricultural fields or vacated factories. This shift from agriculture, ranching and industry, to conservation and services marks the connection of the Pyrenean valleys to global modernity and to the hyper-modern era. These processes of transformation have been depicted generally as structural processes of unilateral redefinition of the urban-rural divide: redefinition that results in direct urban appropriation. Rural populations, however, are far from passive subjects of external influences. The analysis of local agency suggests a more complicated picture in which local economic and cultural choices are included as explanatory variables. The story of the connection of these spaces to regional and global networks is not only a story about local dispossession, but also about local ingenuity. The globalization of the economy in the early 1970s disempowered and relegated these areas to the periphery of the economic system. The consolidation of a global modernity articulated around the need to provide leisure has opened a venue for these areas to reconnect themselves to the central networks and to attract large amounts of resources from these urban-dominated economic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the electoral consequences of global market integration? Although recent discussions of politics and markets have much to say on globalization's implications for policy outcomes, the impact of market integration on representative democracy has received scant attention. This article addresses this omission. We extend the globalization literature to develop two competing hypotheses regarding the influence of open economies on electoral accountability. Predictions are tested using a new data set covering elections from 75 countries over 27 years. Results support a government constraint hypothesis: Exposure to the world economy weakens connections between economic performance and support for political incumbents. By redirecting concerns from the policy implications of globalization and toward its electoral consequences, findings highlight the influence of voter perceptions and of vote-seeking politicians in the politics of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses three explanations for cross-national differences in unionization: Western's (1997) institutional model, economic explanations based on the business cycle or globalization, and Hechter's (2004) solidaristic theory. This study features a multilevel analysis of employed workers with the late 1990s World Values surveys of 18 affluent democracies. The analyses generally support the institutional model. Left parties and ghent systems remain influential, though ghent is less robust. Neo-corporatism and wage coordination are insignificant whereas workplace access is the more salient indicator of centralization. Beyond Western's model, right cabinet significantly weakens unionization. Refuting economic explanations, inflation, unemployment, and economic growth, as well as international trade and investment, do not influence unionization. Consistent with Hechter's claims, the welfare state reduces unionization but, contradicting his claims, immigration does not undermine unions. Ultimately, this study supports a revised institutional model that supplements Western's model with right cabinet and the welfare state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization has attained a prominent place on the sociological agenda, and stratification scholars have implicated globalization in the increased income inequality observed in many advanced capitalist countries. But sociologists have given much less attention to a different yet increasingly prevalent form of internationalization: regional integration. Regional integration, or the construction of international economy and polity within negotiated regions, should matter for income inequality. Regional economic integration should raise income inequality, as workers are exposed to international competition and labor unions are weakened. Regional political integration should also raise income inequality, but through a different mechanism: political integration should drive welfare state retrenchment in market-oriented regional polities as states adopt liberal policies in a context of fiscal austerity. Evidence from random-effects and fixed-effects models of income inequality in Western Europe supports these arguments. The results show that regional integration explains nearly half of the increase in income inequality in the Western European countries analyzed in this article. The effects of regional integration on income inequality are net of several controls, including two established measures of globalization, suggesting that a sociological approach to regional integration adds to our understanding of rising income inequality in Western Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A main concern of debates on the changing role and form of the state and the relationship of these with the process of globalization has been the role of capitalism. Jessop, a well known exponent of Marxist political theory, tackles the broader range of issues but, like the urban sociologist Brenner, is most interesting when he writes about the institutional restructuring or ‘rescaling’ of the state along lines that go well beyond multi-level governance to unstable ‘tangled hierarchies’ and the still nebulous search for a ‘new spatio-temporal fix’ for social, political and economic organization. Both authors seek to give socio-political variables a higher degree of independence in explaining change and eschew economic determinism, although the central importance they give to ‘accumulation strategies’ and, in Jessop's case, to Marxist theories of value, make this assertion problematic from a non-Marxist perspective. Thus although the authors emphasize the significance of ‘extra-economic’ interactions between complex interests and actors, I argue that they also retain a sense that there is an underlying economic-structural imperative at work ‘in the last analysis’. Neil Brenner (2004) New State Spaces: Urban Governance and the Rescaling of Statehood, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. xix+351, ISBN 0-19-927006-6.Neil Brenner, Bob Jessop, Martin Jones, and Gordon MacLeod (eds) (2003) State/Space: A Reader, Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell, pp. ix+355, ISBN 0-361-23034-3.Bob Jessop (2002) The Future of the Capitalist State, Oxford: Polity Press and Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. xiii+330, ISBN 0-7456-2273-9. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how globalization in the Middle East has been understood and responded to during the last two decades and how it relates to the continued, though sometimes troubled, implantation of Islam in Europe. I first explore the dynamics of the marginalized incorporation of the MENA (Middle East/North Africa) region into the dominant networks of economic globalization, offering a critical appraisal of the existing literature on this subject. I then explore how my reading of this data correlates with how Muslim scholars and activists in the Middle East and Europe have experienced globalization and are writing about it. Guiding this analysis is a focus on culture as a primary vector of globalization at large and among Muslim communities and societies in particular. Through a process of ‘complex connectivity’ in which the myriad small everyday actions of millions of people are linked with fates of distant, unknown others and even with the possible fate of the planet, globalization has created new possibilities for either increased integration or ghettoization of Muslim communities within Europe and across the Muslim majority world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central question in the international and comparative political economy literatures on globalization is whether economic integration increases worker insecurity in advanced economies. Previous research has focused on the role of international trade and has failed to produce convincing evidence that such a link exists. In this article, we argue that globalization increases worker insecurity, but that foreign direct investment (FDI) by multinational enterprises (MNEs) is the key aspect of integration generating risk. FDI by MNEs increases firms' elasticity of demand for labor. More-elastic labor demands, in turn, raise the volatility of wages and employment, all of which tends to make workers feel less secure. We present new empirical evidence, based on the analysis of panel data from Great Britain collected from 1991 to 1999, that FDI activity in the industries in which individuals work is positively correlated with individual perceptions of economic insecurity. This correlation holds in analyses accounting for individual-specific effects and a wide variety of control variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a protracted stalemate between rich (the North) and poor (the South) countries over the question of minimum labour standards in developing economies. This paper is a sequel to Singh and Zammit (2000). It considers afresh key issues in the controversy. While fully recognizing the moral, political, and philosophical dimensions of this complex issue, the paper concentrates on the central economic question of the ‘race to the bottom’. It emphasizes the difficulties of establishing labour standards in the vast informal sectors in developing countries and suggests that the ILO conventions 87 and 98 should be amended to reflect properly these concerns. It also argues that ILO core conventions should be broadened to include the right to a decent living. The overall conclusion is that labour standards are important indicators of economic development, but their promotion is best achieved in a non-coercive and supportive international environment such as that provided by the ILO. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is a widespread perception that international economic integration has been proceeding faster and further than ever before. A careful examination of the appropriate indicators reveals that such a dramatic account of recent developments applies only exceptionally (notably to China); the general rule is for steadily increasing trade shares and foreign investment, which still leaves the majority of workers employed in sheltered sectors. Differences in rates of social spending have survived pressures on countries to ‘race to the bottom’. Profitability has not converged, even in fiercely competitive manufacturing. Declines in absolute poverty and perhaps inequality still leave rising absolute differences between North and South, while expectations are probably converging faster. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines current Chicago school reform in the context of economic restructuring, the drive to become a "global city," and the cultural politics of race. The discussion focuses on high stakes testing and accountability policies and on new, special programs and schools. My analysis is based on data from four qualitative case studies of Chicago elementary schools, school system data on the nature and geographic distribution of differentiated programs and schools, and examination of labor force trends and economic development policies. Contrary to the discourse of equity that frames Chicago school reform, I argue that the current policies exacerbate existing race and class inequalities and create new ones. The policies promote unequal educational opportunities and experiences and produce stratified identities with significant implications in Chicago's new, highly stratified work force. As a whole, Chicago's reforms support the inherent inequalities of global city development, gentrification, and the displacement of working-class and low-income communities, especially communities of color. I argue that education policies are part of a cultural politics of race aimed at the control and regulation of African-American and Latino youth and their communities. The paper concludes with proposals toward the democratic reconstruction of urban education policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic and international economic policy is still dominated by laissezfaire economics, despite the failure of such policy analysis in the 1980s to have brought about the sort of economic growth and high employment witnessed through the 1950s and 1960s. The dominant feature of international trade theory is the assumed superiority of free trade and non-intervention. In this paper we argue that the neo-classical case for free trade is based on inappropriate assumptions; relax these assumptions and the case for non-intervention goes with them. This paper argues that to return to a situation of reasonable stability and balanced growth for individual countries, and for the world economy as a whole, increased management of the international trading and monetary systems will be required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literatures on economic globalization and feminist understandings of global processes have, for the most part, remained separate (Koffman and Youngs 1996; Marchand and Runyan 2000a are key exceptions). Our [...]