Skip to main content

Home/ social movements/ Contents contributed and discussions participated by Arabica Robusta

Contents contributed and discussions participated by Arabica Robusta

Arabica Robusta

Elites_transnational_policy.pdf - 0 views

shared by Arabica Robusta on 07 Sep 20 - No Cached
  • three distinctive theoretical lenses in their investigations: fields, hegemony, and institutions.
  • Our contributions include pieces on the Trump administration, the professional ecologies of transnational policy elites, the treatment of transboundary political problems, the characteristics of technocratic elites, the racial and gender composition of transnational elites, and professional competition over transnational policy issues.
  • In recent years there has been a resurgence of studies on elites (Davis 2017; Savage 2014; Young et al. 2016). Scholars are increasingly paying attention to the acceleration of inequality in the distribution of wealth and power around select groups.
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • We highlight how fields, hegemony and institutions approaches to elites in transnational policy networks focus on different aspects of elite replication and policy influence; including where elite’s influence on policy comes from; how it can be identified; and its overall out c om e s.
  • The grand challenge of studying elites in transnational policy networks is twofold – opacity and complexity.
  • Transnational elites, in this terminology, are always field specific. Fields can be thought of as sector or domain specific, such as economic, political, cultural, scientific or administrative. Within these fields is always a struggle for field specific resources, or capitals
  • Second, elites affect transnational policy networks in institutionally complex ways. Transnational policy networks include actors from intergovernmental organizations like the World Bank, OECD, and others, but are not reducible to them. The library of work on intergovernmental organizations illuminates how public authorities are designed by states seeking to cooperate with or dominate each other, and how they have internal conflicts over political and technocratic interests (Kentikelenis and Seabrooke 2017).
  • In general, elites are actors who have disproportionately high levels of influence on their social structure.
  • Elites in transnational policy networks are those who have disproportionate influence over policy design and implementation on issues of global importance. This includes influence on agenda-setting, decisionmaking, and policy content. Policy includes explicit reform programmes, scripts for best practices, as well as regulatory norms and standards.
  • The first generation of this scholarship centred on moving ‘beyond reified entities (‘the State’) to analyse the role of elites, networks and agents’ at the transnational level (Cohen 2013: 103), including the formation of ‘transnational guilds’ (Bigo 2016).
  • A further complication in studying elites is identifying how they articulate power. Elite power is exercised through individual as well as organizational action that springs from micro- and meso-level processes (Scott 2008). T
  • Scholars adopting this approach have specified how national differences matter for elites, with specific career trajectories tied to national understandings of how fields are distinguished (Bühlmann et al. 2018; Gautier Morin and Rossier, this issue). These games are then played transnationally in respective fields, such as the legal, economic, and political fields, as shown in Figure 1. The outcomes of these games lead to policies that have an effect on wealthy states and especially on poorer states (Dezalay and Garth 2002).
  • A common approach in such scholarship is to investigate how capital used for positioning in domination games is transferred from individuals’ family backgrounds and expanded and reinforced through the acquisition of elite educational diplomas.
  • Harrington and Seabrooke 2020), as well as how organizations, such as global accounting firms, replicate professional practices (Spence and Carter 2014; Spence et al. 2016).
  • Most recently, field-theoretic scholars have started paying attention to ‘transnational power elites’ that have created some autonomy from national states through meta-institutions such as the European Union (Kauppi and Madsen 2013, 2014), as well as organization beyond the control of the state such as international commercial arbitration (Grisel 2017).
  • more computational methods to trace its subjects of analysis, including the mapping of social networks to assist the identification of fields (Larsen and Ellersgaard 2017) as well as content analysis to distinguish positions within fields (Ban and Patenaude 2018).
  • Van der Pijl (1984) and Cox (1987: 271) were among the first scholars to talk about what became known as a ‘transnational capitalist class’ (TCC) (Carroll 2013).
  • Sklair also identified four intersecting fractions of the transnational capitalist class (1) TNC executives; (2) globalizing bureaucrats; (3) globalizing politicians and professionals; (4) consumerist elites (merchants and media).
  • The role of networks has been addressed in more contemporary research. Carroll and Carson (2003) located five top transnational policy-planning groups in the ‘larger structure of corporate power that is constituted through interlocking directorates among the world’s largest corporations.’ They found that the network was tied together by a few select ‘cosmopolitan managers’ that, via policy groups, ‘pull the directorates of the world’s major corporations together, and collaterally integrate the lifeworld of the global corporate elite’ to promote neoliberalism (Carroll and Carson 2003: 29).
  • The institutions approach to elites in transnational policy networks draws from a Weberian premise: that actors seek to propel their political and economic interests through institutions and organizations
  • This includes: World Polity models of how world cultural norms spread through rationalization processes; recursive theories of how organizations interact to produce transnational policy scripts; and theories on how professionals exert influence through networks. In all cases elites are treated as important for decision-making processes. Elites typically refers to political elites within organizations and governments or, more commonly, policy elites who are regarded as the expert authority on policy issues.
Arabica Robusta

smith2019_corporate_interest_TAN.pdf - 0 views

  • There is little critical reflection on the role of corporations within such networks or on the material motivations behind movements. Meanwhile literature on corporate political strategies related to partnerships with civil society is limited to national level analysis.
  • Considering the multiple benefits corporations might derive from engaging with transnational advocacy networks, there is need for greater research on private actors’ influence within advocacy networks and on those networks that aim to counter or advance alternatives to progressive ideals.
  • Particularly through public–private partnerships and corporate social responsibility initiatives, transnational corporations have developed networks with non-profit organizations.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • However, this literature so far focuses on national-level analyses, rarely considering strategies that engage with civil society at the global or transnational levels. Correspondingly, while there is a substantial literature on global civil society and transnational advocacy networks (TANs), this scholarship offers limited analysis of corporate interests within transnational movements (Pattberg 2005).
  • Keck and Sikkink (1999) identify three categories of transnational actor, motivated either by (1) instrumental goals, for example transnational corporations and banks; (2) shared causal ideas, as in scientific groups or epistemic communities; or (3) shared principled ideas or values (Keck and Sikkink 1998).
  • Finally, ideational power is central to the purpose and operations of TANs, as their primary function is to mobilize and disseminate information across societies for the purpose of influencing policy making. TANs are most prevalent in issue areas where information plays a key role, and where there is an opportunity to foment informational uncertainty.
  • This creates a perception that TANs are inherently public-interest oriented. However, Scholte (2004) argues that the involvement of such coalitions in global policy is not necessarily benign. Such movements can also reflect coercive power structures, claim authority without representation, and may promote harmful, unhealthy, undemocratic or oppressive ideas and interests.
  • Walker (2012) argues that corporations are increasingly engaging in a relational approach with civil society groups, focused on building relationships over time, in ways that foster legitimacy, in order to gain access to policy arenas when needed. Bonardi and Keim (2005) note that, to prevent a policy idea that is harmful to a firm’s interests from becoming a ‘salient issue’, the firms may strategically use third parties to promote public debate and discord. To date, analyses of corporate political activities aimed at developing relationships with third parties have focused on efforts to influence national policy or individual organizations. There has been limited attention paid to the potential benefits corporations derive from relationships with transnational networks.
  • We began by systematically searching the website of each signatory to the letter that ICAPP sent to the WHO for information about the purpose, funding sources and relationships of each of these with other organizations. Relationships were defined as partnerships (as listed on websites and in annual reports), having collaborated on projects, or having shared personnel.
  • ionships identified through these documents are thus more suggestive than conclusive. Despite these limitations, we use the TTID collection to identify other ICAPP members with a history of working with, or receiving funding from, the tobacco industry. Building on the authors’ previous work, we then determined whether each ICAPP signatory was a member of the Atlas Network (Smith et al. 2017), one of the largest global networks of think tanks and a ‘strategic ally’ of the tobacco industry (PM 1999) (see below).
  • FCTC measures include Article 5.3, which requires parties to protect public health policies related to tobacco control from the ‘commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry’. Article 5.3 restricts the ability of the tobacco industry to engage directly with policy making processes. This has led TTCs to develop strategies that include third-party allies (Fooks et al. 2017). There is now substantial evidence of extensive efforts by the industry to work through front groups, think tanks and other third parties operating across jurisdictions in ways that conceal its role, improve access to policy makers, and enhance the perceived legitimacy of industry-led campaigns (McDaniel et al. 2008)
  • In all cases, the tobacco industry campaigned against plain packaging; it launched several legal challenges, supported local opposition, and commissioned studies arguing that plain packaging violated intellectual property rights, represented undue government interference in the economy, and increased risks of illicit tobacco trading (Chassin 2017; Cumming 2012; Hawkes 2012).
  • The letter – widely disseminated through social media, email lists, newsletters, websites and press releases – argued that plain packaging violates intellectual property rights, does not reduce tobacco use, limits the amount of information consumers need to make informed choices, and contributes to increases in the illicit tobacco trade.
  • Established as the Atlas Research Foundation in the USA in 1981 to foster new think tanks of libertarian persuasion around the world, Atlas promotes free market values among its partners through training programmes, such as its think tank MBA programme, awards and networking events.
Arabica Robusta

nla.obj-332066213_Akmana_PNG_gold.pdf - 0 views

  • cific islands monthly : PIM.
    • Arabica Robusta
       
      Doers, not recorders of facts.
  • Pacific islands monthly : PIM.
    • Arabica Robusta
       
      Begin here
    • Arabica Robusta
       
      He was to tell them that the stolen goods were to be left on a flat rock on the river below the camp, other wise we would have to raid their gardens for food-and there would no payment this time!
  • ...4 more annotations...
    • Arabica Robusta
       
      "All members. masters and boys, were on the alert at all times. Personal boys would see that their master did not move far without weapons and handed them to him in case this occurred. There was no point in tempting the wigmen with our riches of steel and shell."
    • Arabica Robusta
       
      It turned out that back at Akmana Junction while we were on this Upper Maramuni job something was happening. We found on our return that the Akmana camp had been raided and most of our steel and trade goods stolen. As no natives came to the camp with food for trade as usual, we decided to take the offensive. We had very friendly relations with a wigman called Dribau. who had attached himself to the camp as friend and guide. He first joined us on the Baiyer and was a man of influence and obviously highly respected over a wide area. Drihau was now on hand and we asked him to spread the word by hailing across the valleys that we were very angry (we described with actions that our bellies were boiling with anger). He was to tell them that the stolen goods were to be left on a flat rock on the river below the camp. otherwise we would have to raid their gardens for food-and there would be no payment this time! The messages were passed, but by the next day there were no results, so we helped ourselves in the gardens. and put on a display with our .303 rifles, firing them at long range in the general direction of any stray native we saw on watch. sometimes in rapid fire to make the show more impressive. The shots were meant to demonstrate that we were serious, but we were not trying to hit anyone. This got better results. -The next morning there were some stolen goods on the flat rock. About midday we decided we would have to speed things up a bit, so Drihau passed on the news that we would "make thunder without a cloud in the sky" and that they had better watch out! We detonated a big supply of gelignite and made those old mountains echo and re-echo, much to the horror of those visitors who happened to be in the vicinity (who. unfortunately. didn't include any of the miscreants). Those near the camp clung to each other for comfort in their fear (the locals often did this also when they were perplexed and surprised. but not to such a degree of frenzy). They were also much
    • Arabica Robusta
       
      The booming of the dynamite did the job. Next morning most of our goods were on the flat rock and it was not long before we were friendly community again, with business as usual, and quite a few grins.
    • Arabica Robusta
       
      "The warriors were curious and friendly. but Beazley had completed his job and wisely retraced his steps to his previous night's camp. There he was met by another 200 warriors. and since the first group had followed him downstream he now found himself the centre of interest of 400 odd Highlanders who had never before seen a white man. After some demonstrations of fire power with his rifle and the magic of matches he returned to the main camp without incident."
Arabica Robusta

j.ctv47wfn1.10_jacka_metabolic_rift.pdf - 0 views

shared by Arabica Robusta on 03 Jun 20 - No Cached
  • My goal in this chapter has been to consider mining development impacts on the Porgera River in a holistic sense from the perspectives of Porgerans. When Porgerans discuss the ruination of the river, there is more at stake than just the loss of fish and frogs and the fouling of the water. The very riverbeds were dug out by the actions of ancestral hero figures that were also responsible for controlling the water balance in the land and the fertility therein. W ater itself is fundamental to Porgeran ideas of cosmology and well-being. For close to 50 years, the alluvial gold resources were the second gardens that provided livelihood benefits and cash incomes in a society that was just then being integrated into the global economic system. Foreign investment and loss of control over the gold resources resonate throughout Porgeran society today in the form of often violent political clashes over the restricted benefit streams available to a minority of people in the valley.
Arabica Robusta

Socialism's Future Can't Be Its Failures - 0 views

  • Without the tide of European revolution to buoy it, the new socialist government in Russia was attacked from all sides by the great capitalist powers. The liberatory promise of the Russian Revolution was not destroyed by a lack of democracy, an attempt to turn the world upside down, or even by Stalin. It was destroyed by the guns, bayonets and pogroms of the “White Army” funded and supported by every major capitalist power in the world. While the Bolshevik government survived, the revolution was smashed to bits, replaced by an empty bureaucracy ruling over the ruins of a working class.
  • The lesson of the failure of the Russian Revolution is not that it placed insufficient emphasis on democracy. It was doomed by the fear of social democratic parties to challenge capital and their abandonment of internationalism.
  • Like Sunkara, I am a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and (possibly unlike Sunkara) I believe there is a dialectical relationship between building working class power within the current system and building the potential for socialist revolution. The lesson of the defeat of the Russian Revolution is that the cost of our timidity is far worse than the cost of our boldness. To pretend otherwise is to doom the prospects of liberation and invite the terror and death of the 20th century once more.
Arabica Robusta

Globalization and the End of the Labor Aristocracy, Part 1 » TripleCrisis - 0 views

  • Nevertheless, the fact that provision is no longer necessarily in the public domain, and that private provision is increasingly seen as the norm, has opened up huge new markets for potentially profit-making activity. This has been a crucial way of maintaining demand, given the saturation of markets in many mature economies, and the inadequate growth of markets in poorer societies.
  • It’s not just that national and international institutional structures that should provide checks and balances to the privatization of knowledge are more fragile and less effective than they used to be. Rather, it’s that they are actively working in the opposite direction. The numerous “trade agreements” that have been signed across the world in recent years have been much less about trade liberalization—already so extensive that there is little scope for further opening up in most sectors—and much more about protecting investment and strengthening monopolies generated by intellectual property rights.
Arabica Robusta

Oil and gas union network in Middle East and North Africa grows in strength | IndustriALL - 0 views

  • The network held a lively debate about the challenges in the region: exploitative companies, repressive governments, and the chaos and dislocation created by war in Syria and Yemen and the ensuing refugee crisis.
  • The outcome of last years’ successful strike by Kuwaiti oil unions was discussed, as well as the establishment of a new union for private sector workers in the country.
  • The working practices of companies in the region diverge greatly: from the exploitative practices of companies like DNO and ExxonMobil, through to companies like Total who engage in social dialogue. In Iraq, a deal was concluded with Shell, which established a union to cover 6,000 gas field employees.
Arabica Robusta

After Brutal Repression, the Teachers' Struggle in Argentina Continues - 0 views

  • Not only has the government refused to make the teachers an acceptable offer, it has also employed a wide range of tactics aimed at breaking the struggle, including the launch of a campaign to recruit “volunteer” strikebreakers, making deductions from striking teachers’ salaries, recruiting state employees to prepare black lists of teachers who took part in the strikes, and planting police officers in schools and teachers’ assemblies.
  • The union federations’ response to the government’s stance has fallen short of many teachers’ expectations. Throughout the struggle, decisions regarding the actions to be carried out by the CTERA (Argentine Confederation of Education Workers) and the Suteba (United Education Workers’ Union of Buenos Aires) have been made behind the backs of the unions’ bases, without calling a single teachers’ assembly.
  • Both sides in the conflict are well aware that it is not only the teachers’ salaries that are at stake in this scenario. The outcome of the struggle will determine the prospects for future collective bargaining agreements in both the public and private sectors.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • But in order to succeed, the teachers will need the support of the country’s entire working class. The high levels of participation in the general strike called by the CGT (General Workers’ Federation) on April 6, as a result of massive pressure from its base, showed not only the population’s dissatisfaction with the course of the economy, but also its willingness to fight the government’s austerity plans.
1 - 20 of 258 Next › Last »
Showing 20 items per page