Search results for ""Agenda Publishing""

Over recent years, tabloid readers have become familiar with the concept of the "white working class", those thought to have been "left behind" by globalization, including immigration. Such sentiments were weaponized by politicians on all sides to fuel the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the Brexit campaign. And this racialized narrative has emerged repeatedly in mature democracies – in the political campaigns of Trump, Le Pen and others – and continues to gain traction in the guise of economic nationalism and populism. The need to understand the putative emergence of the white working class has become both intellectually significant and politically urgent. In Race and the Undeserving Poor, Robbie Shilliam does just this. He charts the development over the past 200 years of a shifting postcolonial settlement that has produced a racialized distinction between the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor, the latest incarnation of which is a distinction between a deserving, neglected white working class and "others" who are undeserving, not indigenous, and not white. Shilliam's analysis shows that the white working class are not an indigenous constituency, but a product of the struggles to consolidate and defend imperial order that have shaped British society since the abolition of slavery.

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Populism has become a significant feature of mature democracies in the twenty-first century and the rise of populist parties is proving a powerful and disruptive force. Catherine Fieschi offers a comparative analysis of the rise of populist parties in France, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK in the context of major digital and political transformations. Populism is effective, Fieschi shows, because it originates from within the democratic tradition and has been able to turn some of democracy’s key strengths against it – what she calls Jiu-jitsu politics. Populism needs to be understood not simply as a response to globalization by the “disillusioned” or “left behind”, but as a consequence of the digital revolution on our political and democratic expectations. She demonstrates how new dynamics unleashed by social media – the fantasy of radical transparency, the demand for immediacy and the rejection of expert truth and facts – have been harnessed by populism, enabling it to make unprecedented inroads into our political landscapes.

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The six Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf – Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – have a disproportionate importance in the global economic system because of their enormous reserves of oil and gas. Matthew Gray provides a brief yet comprehensive profile of these six Gulf states and their modern political economy. Focusing on the postwar period, particularly the last 20 years, he examines the key factors that have shaped these nations’ economies and enabled them to bypass typical development pathways. The book explores how the combination of rentierism, state ownership of key firms and assets, and the use of patron–client networks to distribute favours and opportunities, has created a very effective strategy for regime maintenance and durability. However, the book also outlines how cooptive bargains with society have given the Gulf states a unique set of economic problems, including low levels of innovation and entrepreneurship, reliance on foreign workers and an inflated public sector. With the global demand for hydrocarbons set to decline, the need for the Gulf states to diversify their economies, expand the private sector, and build a more diverse taxation base has become ever more pressing. The book explains the importance of these challenges, which, along with those of geography, regional security, rapidly growing populations, and sectarianism are likely to test the Gulf’s new generation of leaders.

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Jeremy Corbyn proved to be one of Labour’s most popular and yet one of its most divisive leaders amongst the membership. From his surprise election in 2015, he was characterized as both hero and villain. A conviction politician, determined to do things his way, he was leader of the opposition during one of the most fraught and difficult periods in modern history. And yet, despite opposing a minority government, Corbyn made little headway in uniting his own party and translating the country’s discontent into ballot success. In this collection of carefully researched essays, Corbyn’s influence on and legacy for the Labour Party are assessed. Each chapter focuses on an aspect of his time in office, his approach, his political thought and policy formation in an attempt to posit what constitutes “Corbynism”. Chapters assess his leadership style, his attitude towards antisemitism and women in the party, his controversial foreign policy positions, as well as his views on the European Union. The essays also engage with a range of wider debates about populism, identity politics and fandom.

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What constitutes a sovereign wealth fund is contested. In general, however, it is a state-sponsored institutional investor that is answerable only to the state and makes investments according to the interests and mandate of that state. Different types of funds have emerged in the context of particular economic conjunctures, and over the last decade the number of sovereign wealth funds has grown substantially, with total assets exceeding $7 trillion. This trend is set to continue, as more and more countries look to establish an SWF. The place of SWFs in global financial markets may appear settled, but this does not mean that concerns about "state capital" and its place in financial markets has gone away. This short book offers an incisive discussion of the development of this class of investor, how they have become legitimate actors in global financial markets, and their role as providers of capital and in economic development at home and abroad.

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The Indian economy has undergone dramatic changes over recent decades encompassing episodes of rapid growth and stagnation. It is a complex economic story that stretches back to the seismic events of 1947. This book charts the development of the Indian economy since independence and partition, and provides a rigorous presentation of India’s contemporary political economy. As well as providing a comprehensive survey of the main features of the Indian economy, the book critically examines key debates surrounding the country’s economic trajectory, in particular those that link it to the dominance of particular class interests, and those that argue that India’s economic growth has not delivered equivalent welfare gains. Throughout, the book uses revealing case studies of poverty and inequality, of education, health, work and gender issues to outline the human story behind the economic figures and performance indicators. The economic impact of internal geography, regional diversity and discrimination is also assessed. The distinct, and sometimes puzzling, features of India’s political economy are explored, including the significance of the service sector, a weakening state, and the democratic failure of public service delivery. The book offers an authoritative overview of the contemporary Indian economy suitable for students seeking an introduction to this most diverse of economies.

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The automotive sector represents more than a simple industry. It embodies the economic and technological power of nations, the lifestyle and consumption patterns of societies, the dynamics of urban and territorial development, and acts as a national barometer of economic success and failure. This book explains how the car industry works and analyses the challenges both for the sector and for the economies that rely on the industry for jobs, growth and innovation. It explores an industry that has been under severe pressure in industrialized countries for many years – factories have closed, jobs have gone and brands and manufacturers have disappeared – yet world production has never been higher, reaching new peaks annually. The authors investigate how western and Japanese manufacturers still dominate the market, despite the challenge posed by Korean, Chinese and Indian competitors. They examine how changing environmental policies and consumer preferences are moving the industry towards electric vehicles; how usage patterns are evolving, favouring car-sharing; and how advances in electronics and digitalization are set to further reshape the sector with autonomous and self-driving vehicles. The book offers readers a short, non-technical guide to the workings of a fast-moving industry that remains of huge importance to both national and global economies.

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Austerity has dominated economic debate since the financial crisis of 2008. Governments have implemented austerity policies by reducing their spending on goods and services, increasing taxation and cutting welfare budgets. John Fender explains how austerity (or "fiscal consolidation") works in theory and how it has played out in practice especially in the UK and the eurozone. He provides a clear and rigorous guide to the principles and mechanisms of austerity economics and offers a balanced account of the economic thinking behind contentious policy decisions. Boris Johnson has said that the UK government "has absolutely no intention of returning to the 'A-word'", but with the Covid-19 crisis likely to result in much more government debt, it will be difficult to avoid more austerity. Understanding the impact of austerity policies is more important than ever and this book offers a first step on that path. For anyone seeking answers to such questions as: "What can we learn from the UK’s economic history that is relevant to current policy?", "Is austerity ever necessary or desirable?" and "Can the harmful effects of austerity programmes be mitigated?" then this book will be welcome reading.

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The availability of low-cost energy from fossil fuels – in particular oil – has been the driving force behind postwar global economic growth, such that the petroleum industry has some of the world’s largest companies. This book examines the economics of the oil and gas industry, from exploration, development and production, to transportation, refining and marketing. At each stage of the value chain, the key economic costs and considerations are presented in order to provide the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the workings of the industry. The book examines some of the unique economic challenges the industry faces, including negotiating international contracts with host countries (to gain access to hydrocarbons), managing the risks of recovery, implementing cross-border pipelines, dealing with huge variations in the taxation of refined products, and reacting to the effect of price control and subsidization in the OPEC nations which can create massive volatility in pricing. The search for low-carbon fuels, the impact of shale gas, the prospect of finite reserves, and the global political realities of the competing demands of oil-importing and oil-exporting countries are shown to make the sector high risk, but the economic rewards can be huge.

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Caring is a central aspect of our being. Without it, we would just float along in the world, attaching ourselves superficially to one activity after another as they came up. Caring anchors us to the world and to each other. And yet, understanding what caring is and how it operates in our lives is a challenge. Todd May meets that challenge, canvassing various approaches to care and offering an overview of the key role it plays in our lives. With wit and insight, May addresses the difficulties between understanding care as a reflective attitude and as an emotion, between care and love, between caring for humans and for non-human animals, between self-care and concern for others, and between care and vulnerability.

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The ancient Greek philosopher Plotinus insisted that philosophy should be concerned with nothing less than “what matters most”. This collection of philosophical conversations seeks to honour Plotinus’ vision by addressing questions related to the art of living. Much has been written about the “art of living” and it typically conjures up ideas of therapy, meditation, peace, happiness, and so on. But what about the art of living in the midst of all the spectacular messiness generated by an aggressive, anxiety-ridden, acquisitive and lustful species? The conversations that make up this book explore the questions that matter most to us as citizens of increasingly fractious societies and inhabitants of an increasingly fractured planet. They invite us to think anew about the complexities and challenges involved in living a good life in a world characterized by uncertainty and change.

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Our sense-making capabilities and the relationship between our individual and collective intelligence and the comprehensibility of the world is both remarkable and deeply mysterious. Our capacity to make sense of the world and the fact that we pass our lives steeped in knowledge and understanding, albeit incomplete, that far exceeds what we are or even experience has challenged our greatest thinkers for centuries. In Logos, Raymond Tallis steps into the gap between mind and world to explore what is at stake in our attempts to make sense of our world and our lives. With his characteristic combination of scholarly rigour and lively humour he reveals how philosophers, theologians and scientists have sought to demystify our extraordinary capacity to understand the world by collapsing the distance between the mind that does the sense-making and the world that is made sense of. Such strategies – whether by locating the world inside the mind, or making the mind part of the world – are shown to be deeply flawed and of little help in explaining the intelligiblity of the world. Indeed, it is the distance that we need, argues Tallis, if knowledge is to count as knowledge and for there to be a distinction between the knower and the known. Tallis brings his formidable analysis to bear on the many challenges we face when trying to make sense of our sense-making. These include the idea of cognitive progress, which presupposes a benchmark of complete understanding; cognitive completion, which unites the separate strands of our understanding (from the laws of nature to our ineluctable everyday understanding of things, incorporating the meanings we live by); and the knowing subject – us – with our partial and limited viewpoint mediated by our bodies. The book showcases Tallis’s enviable knack of making tricky philosophical arguments cogent and engaging to the non-specialist and his remarkable ability to help us see humankind more clearly. For anyone who has shared Einstein’s observation that “the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility”, the book will be fascinating and insightful reading.

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Matters of ideology and security have become deeply entwined in China’s economic and business environment. The context is more politicized, more uncertain. At the heart of Xiconomics is the Dual Circulation Strategy, which marks out clear dividing lines between China’s domestic economy and the rest of the world. It sets out how China seeks to manage the links between the two just when western countries are also focusing on decoupling and "friendshoring". In order to prosper, business leaders and policy-makers need to understand these new international dynamics. In this concise and incisive analysis, Andrew Cainey and Christiane Prange explain what is happening in China and how this affects its relations with other countries. They identify what foreign companies need to do, how strategies need to change, and what this all means for managing the China business as part of a global portfolio, under a range of geopolitical scenarios.

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In the 1990s, the “knowledge economy” was hailed by policy-makers in developed democracies as an antidote to the anxieties arising from the era of market liberalization – an era characterized by the decline of skilled blue-collar work, increasing levels of social exclusion and widening regional inequality. The shift to knowledge-driven growth appeared to offer policymakers a way of harnessing technological progress and global economic integration for progressive purposes, and justifying progressive policies in terms of the economic benefits that they would produce. Nick O’Donovan tells the story of how the techno-optimism once associated with the rise of the knowledge economy came to be supplanted by widespread anxiety about technological progress, and how the political consensus that formed around a knowledge-driven growth agenda has unravelled, paving the way for the electoral upheavals experienced by many developed democracies in recent years. By examining the rhetoric and reality of knowledge-driven growth over the last three decades, the book highlights the flawed assumptions underpinning this policy agenda, showing how its economic shortcomings map on to patterns of political discontent evident today. It assesses whether there is scope for rebooting this policy agenda in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, or whether politicians will need to reach beyond it if they are to deliver inclusive prosperity and equitable growth in the future.

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This clear and rigorous examination of the international efforts to combat the financing of terrorism is suitable for a range of courses in international relations, politics and global political economy. It provides a comprehensive examination of the post-9/11 efforts to counter financial support for terrorist actors, including the more recent challenges of non-cash payment technologies as well as how to combat the financing of terrorism in regimes where territories and populations are controlled, as in the case of Islamic State.

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Although the asset management industry has come under increasing scrutiny since the financial crisis it still remains poorly understood and investment scandals continue to headline in the financial press. Whereas most literature on the industry focuses on the technical end – how managers invest and what tips others can glean – this book explores the way these businesses operate as businesses and how they make their money. The book explains how the industry is organized, how firms generate revenues through various types of fund, fees and charges and what cost pressures they face. It investigates the nature of their client relationships, the role played by star investors and the requirement for firms to integrate non-financial considerations into their investment process. The inherent tensions and potential conflicts of interest within asset managers that seek to keep both clients and shareholders happy is also examined. The book concludes by considering how the industry is evolving, the role of regulation and where it is struggling to change. Suitable for students of business and finance, those working in allied areas of the finance sector, and for anyone with a general interest in how financial institutions and markets operate, the book offers readers a balanced and incisive guide to the economics of an industry that globally controls more than $100 trillion of financial assets and a critical appraisal of the sector’s future.

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Regional issues are increasingly debated across the social sciences. In an age of globalization, the region has come to matter perhaps more than before. In business, companies orient themselves to engage in regional environments to build capabilities and create critical mass in their vicinity. In the world of policy, almost one-third of the EU budget is spent on regional policy. Yet in spite of this the differences between regions that do well and those that do not are increasing in both Europe and the United States. In recent years, evolutionary economic geography has done much to create a framework to inform regional policy and academic work. Using its insights, Martin Henning explores why economic growth and transformation is an essentially regionally based and spatially dependent process. The book offers an accessible introduction to the core ideas involved in understanding the dynamics of regional economies and draws on case studies to illuminate these ideas in practice.

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Football has been largely exempt from the development of the regulatory state and has been left to govern itself. However, new media have raised the profile of the game and globalization has created new pressures as football clubs become pawns in the ambitions of states, consortia and wealthy individuals. Clubs offer an important sense of identity for fans, but the impersonality and distance of ownership can set up new tensions. In addition, corruption in the international governing body has been a significant problem and the sport’s symbiotic relationship with gambling continues to be a concern. Wyn Grant examines the political economy of football and its uneasy relationship with the market. There are no off-the-shelf solutions for regulation, he argues, but the complexities of the game and its economic size demand more attention from government.

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British society is increasingly divided into the haves and the have-nots. Housing epitomizes this division with spiralling rents, exorbitant prices, lack of council provision, poorly maintained stock, and polluted cities with ever decreasing green space. Daniel Renwick and Robbie Shilliam provide a recent history of squalor culminating in the Grenfell Tower fire. In doing so they reveal a profound political failure to provide fair and just solutions to shelter – the most basic of human needs. Renwick and Shilliam argue that agents of change exist within those populations presently damned by a racist and class-riven system of housing provision.

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The advent of new digital currencies has challenged our notions about money, its function and purpose, and our faith in the financial and banking structures that underpin its legitimacy. Oonagh McDonald examines the challenges, opportunities and threats that cryptocurrencies pose to existing fiat currencies and their potential to change how global finance operates. From Bitcoin to Facebook’s Diem, the book charts the spectacular rise of cryptocurrencies over the past decade alongside the much slower regulatory response. It assesses the potential of the technology underpinning new digital currencies – blockchain, digital tokens and smart contracts – to evade existing regulatory frameworks and considers the need for more robust protection from fraudulent initial coin offerings, scams and hacks. The book examines the motivations of central banks as they begin to explore opportunities for an alternative global digital currency, and what this might mean for the supremacy of the dollar and other fiat currencies. The future of cash is also considered. Throughout her analysis, McDonald shows that trust is fundamental to the operation of finance and that this will ultimately protect commercial bank money from the threat of new digital currencies. The book offers readers an insightful appraisal of the future of money and the challenges facing regulatory bodies.

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Running down “do-gooders” has become a popular pastime in recent years. Journalists and academics alike have lampooned and criticized philanthropists and big donors for their charitable activities, which are often characterized as a means of self-aggrandisement or tax evasion. Yet, it is widely acknowledged that philanthropy – from the establishment of Carnegie libraries in the nineteenth century to the recent global health interventions of the Gates Foundation – has played a critical role in both developed and developing societies. In an impassioned defence of the role of philanthropy in society, Beth Breeze tackles the main critiques levelled at philanthropy and questions the rationale for undermining and disparaging philanthropic acts. She contends that although it might be flawed, philanthropy is a sector that ought to be celebrated and championed so that an abundance of causes and interests can flourish.

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The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the most talked about yet little understood policy initiatives of the People’s Republic of China. This book offers a comprehensive, balanced and policy-oriented assessment of the BRI’s first ten years and what it has meant for the world’s businesses, polities and societies. The authors explore China’s role as a globally significant source of development finance and investment capital, and examine the political, economic, normative, environmental and social implications of its increased presence in the world. Aimed at researchers and academics, business professionals and policy analysts, as well as informed readers, the book seeks to answer some of the most pressing questions that China’s rising economic presence in global markets poses: how is the BRI organized? Is it China’s grand strategy? Is it green, is it corrupt, and what are its social effects? Is there even a future for the BRI in a world beset by new uncertainties? The book offers a sober analysis of the most prevalent narratives that cast China as a "threat" and as an "opportunity" and considers the specific challenges that it presents for the liberal international order.

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New York became the world's first megacity in the 1930s. Since then it has remained the largest city in North America but, globally, it has been surpassed in size by the younger cities of Asia. Nevetheless its metropolitan area is home to 20 million people and it continues to be America's premier city. Jill Gross and Hank Savitch examine the New York metropolis through the lens of a series of twenty-first century pressures related to demography, economic growth, urban development, governance, immigration, leadership and globalization. How New York's institutions and policies have either risen to meet these challenges, stagnated in the face of them, or simply failed to resolve them is the focus of the book. In particular, the authors examine the muncipality of New York City, as the heart of the megacity, and how it navigates the increasingly complex battles with higher levels of government over rights to the city and resource needs. The book examines the shifting tides of corporate centred development, particularly the vibrant financial sector, and how it has leveraged its powerful geopolitical position in the global economy to continue to grow. The question of governance is explored along with the growing reliance on public–private partnerships to manage megacity problems. Mayoral control and leadership is shown to have been fundamental to meeting the needs of the residential population – issues such as crime, schools and housing – along with the demands of business. With over 3 million immigrants, New York is the most diverse city in North America, but it is also among the most segregated and the authors investigate the positive and negative outcomes that such diversity brings. As a comprehensive analysis of the political, economic and social dynamics that have made New York a megacity today, the book will be of interest to a broad readership in political science, public administration, public policy, sociology, geography, political economy, urban planning and regional studies.

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The cultural industries and their products and services make a significant contribution to the global economy and are seen as strategic sectors for sustainable economic growth. However, industries such as art, design, film, music, performing arts, publishing, television and radio, present particular challenges for economic analysis. They can be goods or services that are both public and private, protected by copyright and freely available, consumed and created, as well as susceptible to fashion and technological development. In this fascinating introduction to the cultural economy, Christiane Hellmanzik examines the market for creative work and reveals the economic relationships between human creativity, intellectual property and technology. Through the careful use of case studies, the book explores the core economic considerations such as supply and demand, competition and pricing, alongside macro trends such as globalization, digitalization and the internet, which are changing the industry’s business models.

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Over the past decade central banks have taken on new and expanded roles in an attempt to manage the global financial crisis. The European Central Bank (ECB) has been no exception. If anything, because of the incomplete architecture of the euro, the ECB has faced more serious challenges than either the Bank of England or the Federal Reserve. With the onset of the euro crisis, the ECB was forced to take on powers that went well beyond the conventions of standard monetary policy to prevent European Monetary Union from unravelling. Panicos Demetriades, former Governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus during the country's bailout in 2013, examines the role of the ECB and its adoption of these new powers, which have led to legal and political challenges, high level resignations and the controversial removal of central bankers from their posts without due process. Demetriades argues that at a time when stability and action are needed to secure the future of the euro, the very foundations of the Euro-system are being eroded, namely its ability to act independently. The book provides a lively and insightful account of the processes that can make or break the euro.

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Without access to mainstream financial services, people pay more for goods and services and have less choice. The impacts of exclusion are not just financial but also affect education, employment, health, housing, and overall well-being. Limited access to financial services also impedes economic development in impoverished communities, which has prompted policy-makers, private institutions and NGOs to develop strategies to address financial inclusion. Drawing on a series of illustrative case studies – from India’s micro-credit industry to mobile banking in South Africa – Samuel Kirwan examines the various types of policy implementation in developed and developing countries, and considers the social impact and efficacy of such economic intervention. While acknowledging the risks and pitfalls of government-backed and private financial inclusion practices, the book makes a strong case for the value of financial inclusion both as a conceptual term for clarifying the stakes of material poverty and as a policy tool that creates a space for meaningful changes in economic practices. The book provides valuable insight into the role of government policy in combatting inequality and is a welcome resource for researchers examining the socio-economic dimensions of poverty and attempts to address it.

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The “gig economy” is a relatively recent term coined to describe a range of working arrangements that have previously been denoted as precarious, flexible and contingent. These may include casual workers, temporary agency workers, those on zero-hours contracts and dependent contractors. This books seeks to get behind the contemporary buzz surrounding the term and provide some theoretical and empirical analysis of the gig work phenomenon. The book seeks to assess more critically some of the rhetorical claims made about gig work and to provide a balanced appraisal of the ramifications for individuals, employers and the economy and society in general of an increasingly insecure workforce. The regulatory framework, in particular, is examined and is shown to have lagged behind crucial developments in the gig economy, with many labour laws still historically rooted to the notion that a worker has to be an employee to be covered by employment rights. The authors show that in many respects there is nothing new about the gig economy and that its growth in recent years was in some sense predictable. Perhaps its real significance, they argue, is its potential as a business model to “gig-ize” other business operations far beyond relatively low-skilled work. When combined with automation and digitalization, the gig economy presents us with an opportunity to re-evalute our understanding of the nature of work.

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In this deeply researched and wide-ranging intellectual history, Matthew Watson exposes the essential flaw in the claims of economics imperialists. Their market models reveal mathematical truths only about themselves, not social truths related to the world of directly lived experiences.

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Doreen Massey was a creative scholar, inspiring teacher and restless activist. Her path-breaking thinking about space, place, politics and economy changed not only geography but the critical social sciences, initiating new ways of seeing, understanding and indeed transforming the world. This collection of commissioned essays, including from Doreen Massey’s long-time interlocutors and collaborators, explores both the generative sources and the continuing potential of her remarkably wide-ranging and influential body of work. It provides an unparalleled assessment of the political and social context that gave rise to many of Massey’s key ideas and contributions – such as spatial divisions of labour, power-geometries and the global sense of place – and how they subsequently travelled, and were translated and transformed, both within and outside of academia. Looking forward, rather than merely backward, the collection also highlights the many ways in which Massey’s formulations and frameworks provide a basis for new interventions in contemporary debates over immigration, financialization, macroeconomic crises, political engagement beyond academia, and more. Doreen Massey: Critical Dialogues is a testament to the continuing relevance of Doreen Massey’s work across a wide range of fields, serving as an invaluable companion to the new collection of Massey's own writings, The Doreen Massey Reader published simultaneously and also compiled by the editors.

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Repeated corruption scandals and the efforts of the international political community to find ways to counteract them have compelled economists, anthropologists and political scientists to confront corruption as a subject for serious academic research. This textbook introduces students to the field of corruption analysis and the challenges facing its researchers. The book explores the definitional challenges, the problems of measurement and the methodologies that underpin the standard corruption indices. The key drivers of corrupt practice are identified and the arguments used to understand the causes of corruption are outlined. The book looks at what works in the fight against corruption, including international conventions and organizations, and policy initiatives at the national level. The role of third sector organizations, the so-called “anti-corruption industry” and the work of citizen activists and “armchair auditors” are also explored. Analysing Corruption provides an authoritative and engaging introduction to a subject that is the largest public policy challenge that the state faces in many parts of the world. It is suitable for courses in politics, public policy, public administration, development studies and anthropology. It will also be of value to those working in NGOs and charities helping to shape anti-corruption thinking.

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What is the future for progressive politics in advanced capitalism? With its political fortunes so low, how might the Left move forward? These essays from leading left intellectuals – Dean Baker, Fred Block, David Coates, Hilary Wainwright, Colin Crouch, Wolfgang Streeck, Leo Panitch, Sam Gindin and Matthew Watson – reflect on the scale and nature of the task that the Left now faces and consider the following questions: • What in modern capitalism has brought the Left to this impasse?• What role has the Left played in its own failings?• What lessons can be learnt for progressive politics going forward?• What are the immediate options and how can they best be pursued? The views and opinions expressed vary, but all offer searching insights into the task the Left now faces. All point to the intellectual and practical experience on which the Left now needs to draw as it deals with its contemporary challenges. These essays represent a major statement on the future for centre-left politics and offer a frank appraisal of the Left’s current capacity to keep conservatism at bay and to strengthen radical politics again.

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The rise of behavioural approaches in economics has been one of most significant developments in the study of economic decision-making in recent years. The increasingly acknowledged failings of standard models of choice to explain economic decisions has prompted economists to incorporate into their analysis psychological insights into individual behaviour, such as social cognitive and emotional biases. This book introduces the topic of behavioural economics to a beginning readership, explaining its approach and methodology and assessing its successes and weaknesses. The book begins by tracing the evolution of the field from its origins in Adam Smith’s moral sentiments through the work of Herbert Simon to Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler today. The book explores how behavioural economics has advanced our understanding of human preferences including notions of fairness, reciprocity and inequality aversion, and the mental processes involved in decision making, which vary with the complexity of the decision and the ability of the decision-maker to process the information. The decision-making of individuals within social and economic groups is explored, including financial practitioners and what this can mean for financial markets. Finally the book looks at the ways in which findings from behavioural economics have been used to alter the decisions people make, such as the nudge approach, and the ethics of such persuasion.

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This book investigates the communicative turn in planning practice, and its potential for insurgent forms of civic engagement and democracy-building, drawing on interviews with urban planners who challenge technocratic spatial planning by incorporating notions of participation, spatial justice and the right to the city into their daily practices.

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We are the only species that uses fire. It has determined how we have made our home on this planet and it has propelled us to the role of the dominant species in the biosphere. But at the heart of contemporary climate change is the process of combustion. Simon Dalby explores what a life without burning things might look like, and how we might get there. Fires make the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is heating the planet, melting the ice sheets, changing weather patterns and making wildfires worse. Our civilization is burning things, especially fossil fuels, at prodigious rates. So much so that we are now heading towards a future “Hothouse Earth” with a climate that is very different from what humans have known so far. By focusing on fire and our partial control over one key physical force in the earth system, that of combustion, Simon Dalby is able to ask important and interesting questions about us as humans, including different ways of thinking about how we live, and how we might do so differently in the future. Simply put, there is now far too much “firepower” loose in the world and we need to think much harder about how to live together in ways that don’t require burning stuff to do so.

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Economic policymakers use various macroeconomic models, but how reliable are they in real-world conditions? Starting from the premise that all models are wrong, but some are useful, Matteo Iannizzotto introduces and explains the workings of the key economic models available for policymaking. He shows that the inconsistencies and contradictions evident in the real world require the economist to make choices about which models to adopt in certain circumstances and when not to rigidly adhere to a single approach. The book uses a clear and critical step by step analysis to consider the strengths and weaknesses of each model, in a way that enables students to develop their own critical engagement with macroeconomic policymaking. In so doing, the book provides an understanding of the world economy’s fluctuations since the global financial crisis that embraces the uncomfortable fact that inconsistency and the need for a multiplicity of models is central to macroeconomic policy choices. For the many students bewildered by the disconnect between the models in their textbooks and the policy choices so hotly debated in the press, the book will be essential reading.

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was a war long in the making and is the latest in a series of military interventions that have showcased Vladimir Putin’s deadly imperial ambitions and the ruthless and bloody strategies that serve his vision of a greater Russia. Putin’s Russia wants its empire back and it has taken the events in Ukraine for the West to finally realize it. Alex Bellamy examines the road to Ukraine 2022 and charts the path from Chechnya, Putin’s first war which helped propel him to the presidency, through to conflict in Georgia, Crimea, the South Caucasus and Syria. He shows the central role war has played in Putin’s rule and how it has helped craft a new social contract between president and people grounded in a shared vision of Russian national identity. For anyone wanting to understand the hows and whys of the war in Ukraine, Alex Bellamy’s clear and insightful analysis is a must-read.

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Why has Europe’s centre-left failed to respond to the crisis of neoliberalism in Europe? Rather than opening up a moment in political time for the centre-left to puncture the dominance of neoliberalism, the multitude of crises in Europe since 2008 have consolidated its difficulties and contributed to the rise of radical and populist alternatives. Divided They Fell examines the failures of mainstream politics, and in particular the inability of the centre-left to respond to the global financial crisis more effectively. By exploring the cases of the UK Labour Party and France’s Parti Socialiste, the book investigates the role of, and interplay between, institutional intra-party dynamics, the parties’ ideational landscapes and the wider political economy in shaping their responses to the crisis. Important reputational, ideational and strategic path dependencies in both parties, it is shown, constrained the flow of fresh ideas and entrenched their internal organizational divisions, leaving them unable to offer an effective post-neoliberal economic alternative. Ultimately, this fractured the parties and sparked a crisis of centre-left identity that opened the door to emergent alternative parties and movements in both cases. Divided They Fell helps to diagnose what has gone wrong for the centre-left in Europe and forces us to consider whether such parties are, in the context of new and emerging crises, still fit for purpose.

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Women across the world experience gender-based violence and harassment in the workplace. In the context of globalization and neoliberalism, work plays an important role in constructing and maintaining the economic, social and cultural systems of oppression that women face. Women in insecure, precarious employment and women not protected by trade unions are the most at risk of violence and as the #MeToo movement has shown, it stretches across societies rich and poor. In June 2019, the International Labour Organization adopted a ground-breaking global Treaty on eliminating violence and harassment in the world of work. This historic vote was the result of more than a decade of campaigning and lobbying by women trade union leaders and their allies across the world. Chidi King, Robin Runge and Jane Pillinger played a key role in the campaign and the negotiation of the Convention. Combining both their activist and academic backgrounds, this book documents their unique insights into and experience of the campaign and its landmark achievement in international labour law, global policy and the cross-movement building of workers’ and women’s rights, which has reignited the role of trade unions, and particularly women in trade unions, in global advocacy.

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This clear and rigorous examination of the international efforts to combat the financing of terrorism is suitable for a range of courses in international relations, politics and global political economy. It provides a comprehensive examination of the post-9/11 efforts to counter financial support for terrorist actors, including the more recent challenges of non-cash payment technologies as well as how to combat the financing of terrorism in regimes where territories and populations are controlled, as in the case of Islamic State.

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Over the past decade the European Union has faced threats to its currency, borders and unity. Covid-19, which began its inexorable spread across Europe in February 2020, is the latest crisis to test the Union’s resilience. Luuk van Middelaar’s compelling analysis of the EU’s response to the pandemic details how events and decisions unfolded, how crisis solutions were improvised in a situation of deep uncertainty, and the lessons it must learn if it is to continue to protect its citizens. As member states shut their borders and scrambled for supplies, the European Union at first appeared irrelevant. But once shaken from its torpor by a public cry for help, the EU has coordinated a formidable response to the chaos, including an unprecedented level of financial assistance. This reaction, argues van Middelaar, demonstrates the Union’s enduring strength and how it has learnt to deal with real world events. Indeed, the EU’s response to the pandemic reveals how far it has come on its journey from regulatory body to geopolitical actor. The pandemic highlighted that Europe’s next challenge will most likely come from its uneasy position between a strategically assertive China and a more self-centred United States. Facing this will require a greater political will than that mustered in the health emergency. To become a true power among powers, Van Middelaar contends, Europe must give firmer political shape to its own historical and cultural identity. Pandemonium cements Luuk van Middelaar’s position as one of the most insightful commentators on EU politics. His powerful analysis will be welcomed by anyone seeking to understand Europe’s dynamics and changing geopolitical role.

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Regional issues are increasingly debated across the social sciences. In an age of globalization, the region has come to matter perhaps more than before. In business, companies orient themselves to engage in regional environments to build capabilities and create critical mass in their vicinity. In the world of policy, almost one-third of the EU budget is spent on regional policy. Yet in spite of this the differences between regions that do well and those that do not are increasing in both Europe and the United States. In recent years, evolutionary economic geography has done much to create a framework to inform regional policy and academic work. Using its insights, Martin Henning explores why economic growth and transformation is an essentially regionally based and spatially dependent process. The book offers an accessible introduction to the core ideas involved in understanding the dynamics of regional economies and draws on case studies to illuminate these ideas in practice.

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The European Central Bank administers monetary policy for the eurozone and is tasked with maintaining price stability by keeping inflation below 2 per cent. This brief mandate belies the complexity of managing the monetary policy for the 19 member states of the euro, not to mention the political implications thereof. This book sets out the history, development and day-to-day workings of this key institutional pillar of the European Union. It assesses its work, independence, the policies and instruments at its disposal and the evolution of its role during, and after, the eurozone crisis of 2010. Incomplete monetary union, Germany's hegemonic ambitions and different economic policies from individual member countries are shown to pose formidable challenges to the ECB's macroeconomic management.

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Why are British banks so risk averse when it comes to providing long-term loan finance to businesses? In Europe the dominance of bank lending in the financing of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is well-observed. Yet in the UK exactly the opposite is the case, where most SME funding is via bank overdrafts and credit cards. The roots of this significant difference lie partly in the historical, institutional, political and cultural structure of the British banking system, and in parallel explanatory factors in the UK SME population, but the real mystery is why, in the twentieth century, there appears to have been no significant change in the attitudes of British banks towards providing long-term loan finance to SMEs. Indeed, this risk aversion might have been expected to alter during the postwar period and the substantial expansion of consumer demand and expanded commodity production, but it did not. This book explores not only how the historical formation of British banking structures produced such a relatively risk-averse arrangement compared to other European countries and the United States, but also why this banking attitude has persisted to the present day. The book concludes with a suite of recommendations necessary for British banks to provide a more balanced mix of financial provision to SMEs.

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In 1969 a small group of US scholars began discussing the possibility of starting a consortium of Western European Studies programmes. Europe was increasingly becoming an object of study and it was felt that greater coordination of the intellectual effort would help avoid duplication and further the acceleration of research. So began the Council for European Studies. In commemoration of the founding of the Council fifty years ago, this volume brings together some of the most influential Europeanists writing today to take stock of the subject and to consider the most fruitful avenues for future research. With European democracy seemingly under threat from populism on the left and the right, the economies of countries still struggling to emerge from a decade of recession and stagnating growth, environmental concerns paramount and the quest for social cohesion a distant goal, the contributors to this volume bring their insight to bear on the fertile ground that the EU and the continent more broadly offer researchers. The contributors – drawn from 52 institutions across the globe – present a wide range of perspectives on Europe’s past and present, and the key challenges facing its future, such as immigration, multiculturalism, nationalism and integration. Although it remains to be seen whether Europeans will continue to promote the dream of union or whether they will retreat back into their nation states, these essays offer valuable insights into how Europe might respond and the changing nature of what it means to be a European.

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Running down “do-gooders” has become a popular pastime in recent years. Journalists and academics alike have lampooned and criticized philanthropists and big donors for their charitable activities, which are often characterized as a means of self-aggrandisement or tax evasion. Yet, it is widely acknowledged that philanthropy – from the establishment of Carnegie libraries in the nineteenth century to the recent global health interventions of the Gates Foundation – has played a critical role in both developed and developing societies. In an impassioned defence of the role of philanthropy in society, Beth Breeze tackles the main critiques levelled at philanthropy and questions the rationale for undermining and disparaging philanthropic acts. She contends that although it might be flawed, philanthropy is a sector that ought to be celebrated and championed so that an abundance of causes and interests can flourish.

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In Seeing Ourselves, philosopher and neuroscientist Raymond Tallis brings together the preoccupations of some fifty years of writing and thinking about the overwhelming mystery of ordinary human life, and goes in search of what kind of beings we are, and where we might find meaning in our lives. If, asks Tallis, we reject the supernatural belief that we are pure spirits temporarily lodged in bodies, handmade by God, and uniquely related to Him, what should we put in its place? How do we ensure, if we accept the death of God, that something within us does not also die? And if we are simply organisms shaped by the forces of evolution, with no reason to exist and with no objective value, as some scientists claim, where shall we find meaning sufficiently enduring and profound to withstand the knowledge of our own mortality and the certain loss of all that we love or value? How should we think of ourselves if we are neither fallen angels trying to enact the will of God, nor unrisen apes acting out a biological prescription? Tallis begins his quest by establishing what it is we know of our fundamental nature. Showcasing a remarkable detailed engagement with a huge range of disciplines, he examines our relationship to our own bodies, to time, our selfhood and our agency – all manifestations of the unique nature of human consciousness – and shows why human beings are like nothing else in the universe. Having revealed our nature in all its glory, Tallis then addresses what is unresolved in the human condition – our hunger for a coherent life, inwardly lit by a single sense of purpose and meaning – and the search for something that matches the profundity of religion, even to the point of accommodating the tragedy of our lives. He shows that it is the actuality of human transcendence and the needs it awakens that must be the bridge across the divide between believers and non-believers. The book is ultimately a celebration. Behind the philosophical arguments is a hunger for more wakefulness inspired by a feeling of wonder and gratitude for the mystery of the most commonplace manifestations of our humanity. Tallis’s endeavour in Seeing Ourselves is to turn up the wattage of the light in which we see our everyday world and to think more clearly about who we are. It is only when we have woken from religion and naturalism, that we will find ourselves at the threshold of an unfettered inquiry – into ourselves, the world we have built and the universe into which we have built it – and then there may be some hope for salvation.

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Social movements play a significant role in the political and social landscape of Latin America. They emanate from different sections of society and are motivated by many different concerns, including workers’ rights, agrarian and land reform, the rights of indigenous peoples, gender inequality and the fight against environmental degradation. Ronaldo Munck explores the mosaic of interlocking and connected issues that make up the complex map of social movements in Latin America and shows why, despite being a fragmented political force, these movements are at the centre of any future progressive politics in the region. As such they require careful understanding and, he suggests, a more nuanced theoretical approach than previous studies have offered. Combining insights from Latin American approaches to social movement theory and detailed empirical case studies, the book provides readers with an understanding of the vital role social activism plays in the region and offers students the methodological tools to develop their own research agendas.

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