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152. Are financial markets embedded in economics rather than society? A critical review of the performativity thesis
- Author:
- Lasse Folke Henriksen
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- DIIS Working Paper reviews a recent influential branch within the Social Studies of Finance literature which asserts that financial markets are embedded in economics rather than in society (as scholars of the New Economic Sociology would have it). Coming from actor-network theory, the literature contributes conceptually to an extended ontology of markets and agency and empirically to an improved understanding of the importance of economist's role in constructing markets and assembling economic agency. It also draws attention to the staggering effects that material devices and technical 'details' can potentially have on the macrodynamics of financial markets. In some cases financial markets can even be performed by economics, that is, materialized in very close accordance with the economic models that describe them. From this insight they conclude that economics is a performative science and that the social sciences should consequently break down the Great (analytical) Divide between finance the- ory and financial markets.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Greece
153. Hegel, Dünya Tarihi ve Özgürlük Mücadelesi Olarak Uluslararası İlişkiler
- Author:
- Faruk Yalvaç
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Uluslararasi Iliskiler
- Institution:
- Uluslararasi Iliskiler
- Abstract:
- This article attempts to evaluate Hegel's theory of international relations in the context of his general philosophy of history. Hegel defines history as a struggle for freedom for mutual recognition. This is true for individuals as well as for states. The struggle for recognition and freedom is a constant feature of social life. Therefore, it would be wrong to interpret Hegel's philosophy as implying that the struggle for freedom has been completed in the modern nation state and that history has come to an end. However, according to Hegel it would be impossible to predict the future shape of the international society and the form which the struggle for freedom will take as “it is just as foolish to fancy that any philosophy can transcend its present world, as that an individual could leap out of his time or jump over Rhodes. ”
- Topic:
- Political Theory and History
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
154. Political Solidarity, Cultural Survival, and the Institutional Design of Autonomy in Nicaragua: From Heterogenous, Multiethnic Spaces to National Homelands
- Author:
- Juliet Hooker
- Publication Date:
- 07-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper analyzes autonomy regimes in Latin America, or rather the lack thereof. Autonomy is primarily conceived as a means of enabling minority groups that are spatially concentrated to gain control over their local affairs. Autonomy has been relative absent from the models of multiculturalism adopted in Latin America at the end of the twentieth century. Nicaragua is one of the few countries in the region (as well as one of the first) where territorial political autonomy for regions inhabited by Afro-descendant and indigenous groups were adopted by the national state and enshrined at the level of constitutional law. One of the most distinctive (and contested) elements of the model of regional autonomy adopted in Nicaragua is its multiethnic character. This paper explores the future of autonomy in Nicaragua, mainly in terms of the question of whether multiethnic regional models of autonomy can best accomplish the goals of promoting solidarity between groups, enabling the preservation of minority cultures, and making possible meaningful political self-government when multiple subordinated groups are present in the same geographic space. Alternatively, are these aims better achieved through the creation of separate national homelands for each ethnic/racial group? Is a model of overlapping, multiple autonomies a better option? These are key questions regarding the future of autonomy that indigenous and Afro-descendant groups are currently confronting in Nicaragua. The central focus of the paper is thus to consider how Nicaragua's experiences with autonomy complicate the assumptions and prescriptions about the institutional design of autonomy for minority cultural groups in theories of multiculturalism.
- Topic:
- Political Theory, Governance, and Political Power Sharing
- Political Geography:
- Latin America and Nicaragua
155. The High and the Low in Politics: A Two-Dimensional Political Space for Comparative Analysis and Electoral Studies
- Author:
- Pierre Ostiguy
- Publication Date:
- 07-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper introduces an indispensable dimension for the spatial and comparative analysis of party systems, cleavages, and the conduct of political campaigns. It presents the concepts of “high” and “low” in politics and the high-low dimension, which concerns ways of appealing (and thus relating) to people in sociologically differentiated ways. Politicians on the high are “well behaved,” more restrained, and proper, both in manners and institutional procedures. Politicians on the low sublimate less and are more down-to-earth, coarser, earthier, and personalistic, both in manners and institutionally. The high-low dimension is fully neutral, or orthogonal, with regard to the left-right axis, in contrast to Kitschelt's authoritarian/libertarian divide or Inglehart's materialist/post-materialist political cleavage. The paper also provides a solid conceptual discussion of the classic and almost universal polarity between left and right, which (like the high-low axis) is in fact comprised of two subdimensions.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Political Theory, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
156. Wal-Mart: The Panopticon of Time
- Author:
- Max Haiven and Scott Stoneman
- Publication Date:
- 04-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
- Abstract:
- At a moment when the future of global capitalism seems altogether uncertain, we want to take another look at Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation. Despite its importance to the American and global economy, surprisingly little critical scholarship has emerged on the “Beast from Bentonville.” In this working-paper we suggest that we can understand Wal-Mart as both a unique instance as well as a telling example of tendencies within the process of planetary social transformation that has come to be known as globalization. In particular, Wal-Mart strives to become what we will call a “panopticon of time”: a particularly acute and emblematic crystallization of social, economic and technological forces which express a new constellation of power under globalizing capitalism. Wal- Mart represents among the most advanced consolidations of corporate, financial, technological and managerial technologies which employees afford it unprecedented control over consumers, employees, sub-contractors, communities and even nations, as well as unprecedented profit. We argue its power stems in part from its ability to hinge various modes of power: the local and the global, spectacle and surveillance, the private and the public, the everyday and the exceptional. And it is driven as much by the need to intervene in the production of subjects and the shaping of networks as the need to generate profit; indeed, these two imperatives have become inseparable. Wal-Mart is a symptom and an agent of the depotentiation of time under corporate globalization, the confinement or incarceration of temporality within the neoliberal webs of technology, commerce and management.
- Topic:
- Globalization, Political Economy, Political Theory, and Power Politics
157. Historical and political sociology of the EU: What's new in France?
- Author:
- Didier Georgakakis
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Political Sociology
- Abstract:
- This article provides an overview of the hundred or so papers in historical and political sociology of the EU published in France over the last two years (particularly around the sociology of knowledge and sociology of trajectories and positions of the social agents and groups who make up the European political space), and analyses some of their contributions to the international debate, focusing notably on the central political and institutional space of the EU.
- Topic:
- Nuclear Weapons, Political Economy, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Europe and France
158. A Fresh Look at Global Governance: Exploring Objective Criteria for Representation
- Author:
- Vijaya Ramachandran, Enrique Rueda-Sabater, and Robin Kraft
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- The geopolitical world of the 21st century is very different than that of the post–World War II era. In this new world order, what constitutes a system of global governance? We argue that it has to balance representation, which is made credible by the inclusion of key parts of the global community, and effectiveness, which means involving as small a number of actors as possible while having access to the resources—and clout—to turn decisions/intentions into action/results. In this paper, we propose simple, fundamental criteria—based on global shares of GDP and population—around which global governance might be organized. We analyze the role that these criteria would assign to different countries and compare them with some of the key components of the system of governance currently in place—the Bretton Woods institutions and the United Nations. We also examine the implications of our analysis for membership in the G-20 and the OECD. We find major disparities, which suggest the need for fundamental changes in sharp contrast to the incremental changes that are currently being considered. Overall, our analysis points to the need for a more comprehensive approach, and for much more than incremental solutions.
- Topic:
- Globalization, Government, International Organization, International Political Economy, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- United Nations
159. Legitimacy in the Multilevel European Polity
- Author:
- Fritz W. Scharpf
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
- Abstract:
- In order to be simultaneously effective and liberal, governments must normally be able to count on voluntary compliance – which, in turn, depends on the support of socially shared legitimacy beliefs. In Western constitutional democracies, such beliefs are derived from the distinct but coexistent traditions of “republican” and “liberal” political philosophy. When judged by these criteria, the European Union – if considered by itself – appears as a thoroughly liberal polity which, however, lacks all republican credentials. But this view (which seems to structure the debates about the “European democratic deficit”) ignores the multilevel nature of the European polity, where the compliance of citizens is requested, and needs to be legitimated by member states – whereas the Union appears as a “government of governments” which is entirely dependent on the voluntary compliance of its member states. What matters primarily, therefore, is the compliance-legitimacy relationship between the Union and its member states – which, however, is normatively constrained by the basic compliance-legitimacy relationship between member governments and their constituents. Given the high consensus requirements of European legislation, member governments could and should be able to assume political responsibility for European policies in which they had a voice, and to justify them in “communicative discourses” in the national public space. This is not necessarily true of “non-political” policy choices imposed by the European Court of Justice. By enforcing its “liberal” program of liberalization and deregulation, the ECJ may presently be undermining the “republican” bases of member-state legitimacy. Where this is the case, open non-compliance is a present danger, and political controls of judicial legislation may be called for.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Democratization, Government, Politics, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Europe
160. Rationality, Institutions and Reflexivity in the EU: Some Ontological and Epistemological Considerations
- Author:
- Niilo Kauppi
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Political Sociology
- Abstract:
- Sociological research on the European Union provides a much needed alternative to mainstream EU-studies dominated by economics, law, IR and political science. However, until now this sociological alternative has mostly involved the adaptation of sociological terminology such as “social construction” or “identity” and the introduction of new objects of research, such as the social conventions regulating national security or the discursive constructions of Europe. It is however the claim of this paper that sociological theory also provides the tools for a more fundamental re-evaluation of some of the ontological and epistemological presuppositions of EU research and a corresponding reconstruction of the object of study of European studies.
- Topic:
- Economics, Nuclear Weapons, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Europe