Search results for ""Agenda Publishing""
Agenda Publishing The Political Economy of Deindustrialization
A critical examination of the processes of deindustrialization that explores why it has become an issue of deep politics, informing right-wing populism, contemporary geopolitical tensions (with China), Brexit, the New Green Deal and levelling up.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing Heralds of a Democratic Europe
£75.00
Agenda Publishing Deglobalization
Edward Ashbee guides the reader through the intricate web of processes and forces of globalization that have shaped the world's politics and economics over the last 40 years. This is an invaluable overview of one of the most important phenomena of our age.
£20.91
Agenda Publishing Austerity: When is it a mistake and when is it necessary?
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.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing The Doreen Massey Reader
Doreen Massey (1944–2016) changed geography. Her ideas on space, region, labour, identity, ethics and capital transformed the field itself, while also attracting a wide audience in sociology, planning, political economy, cultural studies, gender studies and beyond. The significance of her contributions is difficult to overstate. Far from a dry defence of disciplinary turf, her claim that “geography matters” possessed both scholarly substance and political salience. Through her most influential concepts – such as power-geometries and a “global sense of place” – she insisted on the active role of regions and places not simply in bearing the brunt of political-economic restructuring, but in reshaping the uneven geographies of global capitalism and the horizons of politics. In capturing how global forces articulated with the particularities of place, Massey’s work, right up until her death, was an inspiration for critical social sciences and political activists alike. It integrated theory and politics in the service of challenging and transforming both. This collection of Massey’s writings brings together for the first time the full span of her formative contributions, showcasing the continuing relevance of her ideas to current debates on globalization, immigration, nationalism and neoliberalism, among other topics. With introductions from the editors, the collection represents an unrivalled distillation of the range and depth of Massey’s thinking. It is sure to remain an essential touchstone for social theory and critical geography for generations to come.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing The New Politics of Trade: Lessons from TTIP
The negotiation of international trade agreements has become the issue of the moment. With Brexit, a change in administration in the United States, a fragile economic recovery in the Eurozone and China facing a slowdown in its growth, nothing is more critical to the future global economy than the terms of trade between its largest economic blocs. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is Europe's most controversial trade agreement ever. Aimed at reducing regulatory barriers between the United States and the EU, it was expected to be fairly straightforward given strong business support on both sides of the Atlantic. It has not been so. The negotiations have dragged on far longer than anticipated and now look set to fail altogether. Yet the process of its negotiation, the terms of the potential agreement and its sticking points provide valuable lessons for policy-makers and academics tasked to bring future trade deals and arrangements to successful conclusions. Alasdair Young offers a penetrating analysis of the complexities of the TTIP negotiations and explores why they have proved so difficult to conclude, what motivates the different parties concerned and what implications there are for politics and policy. Young throws light on the limits of the transatlantic cooperation and the processes of globalization and teases out the implications for the UK in its post-Brexit trade negotiations and for other nations now facing a more protectionist stance from the United States.
£26.05
Agenda Publishing Degrowth
The term “degrowth” has emerged within ecological and other heterodox schools of economics as a critique of the idea (and ideology) of economic growth. Degrowth argues that economic growth is no longer desirable – its costs exceed its benefits – and advocates a transformation of economies so that they produce and consume less, differently and better. Giorgos Kallis provides a clear and succinct guide to the central ideas of degrowth theory and explores what it would take for an economy to transition to a position that enables it to prosper without growth. The book examines how mainstream conceptualizations of the economy are challenged by degrowth theory and how degrowth draws on a multifaceted network of ideas across disciplines to shed new light on the economic process. The central claims of the degrowth literature are discussed alongside some key criticisms of them. Whether one agrees or disagrees with degrowth’s critique of economic growth, Kallis shows how it raises fundamental questions about the workings of capitalism that we can no longer afford to ignore.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing The History of Economics: A Course for Students and Teachers
As a broad introduction to the history of economic thought – based on courses the authors have taught for many years – this book provides a magisterial overview for students and teachers who have not had the opportunity to cover the development of the field of economics in its historical context. The text is presented as a series of twenty-four lectures, which can be used as the basis for self-study or for the delivery of a course. Each lecture presents an outline of aims, a select bibliography, a chronology, an overview of between 3,000 and 4,000 words, and questions for further study or reflection. Contemporary understanding of economic principles sheds little light on the manner in which past thinkers thought, so the reader is provided with the much-needed context behind the development of ideas, as well as being guided through the original writings of economists such as Smith, Jevons, Marshall, Robbins, Keynes and others. The emphasis is on the broad developing stream of economic argument from the seventeenth century to the present, seeking to emphasize a diversity that is sometimes suppressed in more conventional textbooks, which tend to organize their histories into sequences of schools of thought. Backhouse and Tribe bring their considerable insight and knowledge to bear on the text, having honed their presentation to the needs of those with no previous background in the subject, without sacrificing analysis or rigour. The book will be warmly welcomed by students and teachers alike.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing Reflections on the Future of the Left
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.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing The Living Wage
The "living wage" is an old idea that has experienced a dramatic resurgence of political popularity in recent years. The underlying logic of the concept is quite clear: it is a wage that provides workers with enough income to live on at some level considered adequate. However, in practice the term has become blurred with that of the "minimum wage" and in its implementation it has lacked a consistent meaning despite being widely used as a campaigning slogan. This short primer traces the origins of the concept of the living wage and seeks to explain the current rise in its fortunes as an economic instrument with a social objective. It examines its impact on labour markets and wage levels, explores how it has been applied, and assesses whether it is an effective measure for raising living standards. It offers a broad-ranging analysis of the debates, policy developments and limitations of wage floors in developed economies and will appeal to a wide readership in economics, public policy and sociology, as well as those working in non-profit and non-governmental organizations.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing An Economic History of Europe Since 1700
Vera Zamagni charts the remarkable story of European economic growth from the birth of industrialization through to the present day. Setting European events within the wider context of world economic progress and alongside developments in Asia, Eastern Europe and the United States, she provides an up-to-date and authoritative survey suitable for course use. The book begins with an outline of the economic landscape of the late Middle Ages before exploring the process of European industrialization, including how the British model was replicated across Europe, and why Britain was unable to maintain its position relative to other economies, in particular the United States. The advent of global finance is examined and the economic impact of world war and revolution is assessed. European reconstruction and integration is analysed alongside the decline of Russia and the growth of the Asian economies. The book ends with an assessment of the impact of the global crash of 2008 and the subsequent crisis of the Eurozone. Throughout her analysis, Zamagni shows how the social and economic institutions and values of European civilization catalyzed economic progress. That these same structures are now threatened makes this history particularly timely.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing Everyday Economics: A User's Guide to the Modern Economy
Much of economics is a top-down analysis that simplifies and reduces the huge varieties between individuals to a predictable range of characteristics that lend themselves to systematic analysis. This book eschews this conventional perspective, which sees national economies as simply agglomerations of the activities of millions of people, and instead explores the role played by the individual in the economy, in particular, how the individual experiences the economy. In so doing, the book is able to illuminate the economic landscape for the non-technical reader in a much more engaging and accessible way. Steve Coulter examines those areas of our lives that most direcly connect with the economy – jobs, education, healthcare, housing, personal finance, welfare, consumption – and explores how the individual choices we make are determined. He shows how the things we experience, need and consume fit into a fast-changing and interdependent global economic setting and highlights the role of government and markets in shaping our lives.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing Civil Economy: Another Idea of the Market
Global financial capitalism has eroded the moral economy on which all economic exchanges ultimately depend. The principles of reciprocity, responsibility and redistribution, which for centuries defined the market place, have been increasingly pushed aside by a growth model that places the pursuit of profit above all else. Luigino Bruni and Stefano Zamagni draw on a rich Italian tradition of civic humanism to advocate a more well-mannered type of economic market a civil economy one that places well-being, virtue and the common good alongside more familiar economic goals. They provide a succinct introduction to the civil economy approach and outline the thought and ideas of some of its pioneers and main representatives. The many different fields of application of the civil economy, from the determination of gross domestic product to the management of common goods, from welfare to the organization of production and consumption, are considered. Unlike many post-growth or degrowth movements, rather than seek to replace the market, civil economy seeks to find solutions to social problems within the market, while maximizing human values and minimizing government intervention. It is a distinct and valuable approach, and one that offers individuals, corporations and governments a framework for a humane and socially accountable, yet productive and competitive, system of markets.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing Nudging
Whitehead and Jones examine the history and use of nudging as a policy tool and consider when and where they are best deployed, if at all.
£20.91
Agenda Publishing Learning and Sustainability in Dangerous Times
£89.10
Agenda Publishing Dictionary of Corruption
Written by an expert team, the Dictionary of Corruption is a comprehensive resource for students, academics, practitioners and professionals. It establishes a common interpretation of the language and terminology in the field of corruption and anti-corruption studies. From bribery to Watergate, amakudari to zero tolerance and from anti-corruption agencies to whistleblowing, the Dictionary provides explanations of over 300 key terms, events and case studies.
£20.91
Agenda Publishing Social Democracy
A short history of one of the most successful European political ideologies and movements.
£20.04
Agenda Publishing Pursuing the Knowledge Economy: A Sympathetic History of High-Skill, High-Wage Hubris
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.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing Sustainable Human Settlements within the Global Urban Agenda: Formulating and Implementing SDG 11
The UN's urban sustainability goal (#11) is fundamental to the global sustainable development agenda. David Simon explains the anatomy and dynamics of SDG 11, and critically assess how it is being used and understood in different local, regional and national contexts. Supported by case studies throughout, Simon considers how SDG 11 interacts with other Sustainability Development Goals and how competing indicators, other external constraints, as well as lack of political will can present tough challenges to implementation. He provides a balanced and dispassionate analysis, highlighting problems and limitations alongside positive applications. A key aspect of the unfolding story of the SDGs is how they play out in practice. Although some of the connections and complementarities were designed, others are shown to have emerged by default. Drawing on lessons learnt so far, Simon considers how realistic sustainability goals are for cities and human settlements worldwide, and asks how different will cities be by the end of the SDG's 15-year lifespan in 2030? Written for students, policy-makers and practitioners, the book provides an authoritative assessment of one of the most important and integrative SDGs.
£26.05
Agenda Publishing Idleness
UK workers are stuck in a low-pay, low-productivity rut, with far too many people working in poor quality, insecure jobs, with little training or chance of getting on. Katy Jones and Ashwin Kumar question the mantra that “work is the best way out of poverty” and examine the in-work poverty that now defines employment for many. The state’s engagement with people out of work is shown to ignore the needs of lone parents and disabled people, and has little concern for skills and career progression. When coupled with the degradation of social infrastructure, such as child care and transport, the barriers to quality work can become insurmountable. Jones and Kumar’s insightful analysis reveals the need to move away from positioning unemployment as a “behavioural problem” to be corrected by coercive labour market policies to one that considers the wider obstacles to better paid, quality jobs.
£18.28
Agenda Publishing Common Boundaries
How do we and how should we engage with the natural environment through the concepts of rights and responsibilities? Michael Cox develops a theory and practice of environmental property rights, moving beyond simplistic assumptions that do not reflect the diversity of arrangements we see in the world.
£60.00
Agenda Publishing Understanding Corruption: How Corruption Works in Practice
Corruption takes many different forms and the systems that enable it are complex and challenging. To best understand corruption, one needs to examine how it operates in practice. Understanding Corruption tells the story of how corruption happens in the real world, illustrated through detailed case studies of the many different types of corruption that span the globe. Each case study follows a tried and tested analytical approach that provides key insights into the workings of corruption and the measures best used to tackle it. The case studies examined include examples of corporate bribery, political corruption, facilitation payments, cronyism, state capture, kleptocracy, asset recovery, offshore secrecy, reputation laundering and unexplained wealth, and actors include businesses, governments, politicians, governing bodies and public servants.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing A Troubled Constitutional Future: Northern Ireland after Brexit
*** WINNER OF THE 2023 UACES BEST BOOK PRIZE *** The UK's decision to leave the EU has opened up huge existential questions for Northern Ireland as it marks its centenary. Constitutional conflict in Northern Ireland had been regarded as largely resolved and settled, but Brexit has altered the wider constitutional framework within which the 1998 Good Friday Agreement is situated. With the question of Irish unity gaining renewed and sustained traction, and with trade, relationships and politics across "these islands" in a state of flux, Northern Ireland approaches a constitutional moment. Murphy and Evershed examine the factors, actors and dynamics that are most likely to be influential, and potentially transformative, in determining Northern Ireland’s constitutional future. This book offers an assessment of how Brexit and its fallout may lead to constitutional upheaval, and a cautionary warning about the need to prepare for it.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing The Pursuit of Governance: Nordic Dispatches on a New Middle Way
Although there is no overt ideological battle in the twenty-first century, citizens in every latitude register growing dissatisfaction with the results delivered by their governments. In the West they increasingly turn to populist forces to seek an easy respite to the frustration caused by the failures of democracy. Other models of governance, such as China’s "autocratic capitalism", rest on technocratic command and control methods that are disdained in the West but whose global appeal is growing mostly due to their perceived ability to deliver. No matter how and where they are practised, these alternatives seem to offer only partial and unsatisfactory answers to increasingly complex questions of governance. In a world ravaged by pandemics and climate crises, migration flows and cyberwars, rigid rule-making imparted from above or populist over-simplifications brewing from below can only represent the extremes of a more sophisticated picture of governing processes. In this book, Fabrizio Tassinari seeks to rediscover the methods, practices and limits of good governance. By taking inspiration from the Nordic region, where democratic governance has delivered some of its most impressive feats, he shows that populism and technocracy are not the causes of our political malaise; they represent skewed by-products of the most basic instincts in our body politic. They need not be suppressed but channelled and reconciled in our practices of governing.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing The European Social Question: Tackling Key Controversies
Over recent years it has become increasingly clear that the European Union is falling short of its promise to enhance social cohesion across the continent. Welfare state modernization has been at the centre of divisive debates over the redistribution of wealth and imbalances between a wealthy European core and its peripheries. Some see the policies and governance of the EU as part of the problem, others rather as the solution. This book examines the key issues facing the EU’s social policy-making. Each chapter focuses on a single challenge and explores the arguments and considerations that coalesce around it. The book helps students and researchers alike to understand how the EU operates and shapes social policy on multiple levels, and to better assess the EU’s role in supporting social cohesion.
£26.05
Agenda Publishing The Economics of Fishing
The fishing industry’s critical dependence on the natural environment makes it very different from other economic sectors. How it can optimally exploit a common resource while ensuring its sustainability raises many economic challenges. This book, suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate courses on fisheries economics and management, provides an introduction to the economics of the fishing industry and the role of fisheries in the world economy. The book’s primary focus is on capture fisheries, although the discussion brings in wider aquaculture for comparative analysis. The key economic concepts that drive the industry, most notably sustainable yield, are explained in detail, before examining how the industry puts them into practice in a complex regulatory environment. The variability of fish stocks is considered and case studies of some spectacular stock crashes are discussed. The law of the sea is explained and how the movement of fish stocks across ocean boundaries has created regulatory bodies to manage international fisheries. At the heart of this management lies the quota system and the book outlines how it works and how, controversially, such quotas have become transferable. The book offers readers a comprehensive and rigorous guide to the economic considerations motivating the industry and highlights the environmental challenges facing the sector as global consumption of fish continues to rise.
£24.23
Agenda Publishing Outside the EU: Options for Britain
In the debates about the UK’s future relationship with the European Union, all sorts of possible alternatives have been bandied about, from “Singapore on the Thames” to “Canada Plus”, from “Switzerland” to “Ukraine”, from “Norway” to “Australia”. But what do these alternative relationship models really consist of and would they be viable for the UK? Martin Westlake brings together distinguished contributors to examine these various options, real and potential, and to consider whether they would offer a workable solution for the continued relationship between the EU and post-Brexit Britain. These essays offer expert insight into the scale and challenge of the practical issues facing Britain as it seeks to establish a new future with its largest trading partner.
£26.05
Agenda Publishing Economic Anthropology
Conventional economic thought sees the economy as the sum of market transactions carried out by rational individuals deciding how to allocate their resources among the various things on offer that would satisfy their desires. Economic anthropologists see things differently. For them, the focus is the activities, relationships and systems through which objects are produced, circulate among people and ultimately are consumed, which take different forms in different societies and even in different parts of the same society. In this way, economic anthropology takes the rational market actors of conventional economic thought and places them in the world of people, relationships, systems, beliefs and values that begins with production and ends with consumption. This accessible and authoritative introduction to the field of economic anthropology offers students a fresh and fascinating way of looking at the economic world.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing Economic Anthropology
Conventional economic thought sees the economy as the sum of market transactions carried out by rational individuals deciding how to allocate their resources among the various things on offer that would satisfy their desires. Economic anthropologists see things differently. For them, the focus is the activities, relationships and systems through which objects are produced, circulate among people and ultimately are consumed, which take different forms in different societies and even in different parts of the same society. In this way, economic anthropology takes the rational market actors of conventional economic thought and places them in the world of people, relationships, systems, beliefs and values that begins with production and ends with consumption. This accessible and authoritative introduction to the field of economic anthropology offers students a fresh and fascinating way of looking at the economic world.
£21.52
Agenda Publishing Financialization: Economic and Social Impacts
Finance has long been an integral part of the capitalist economy, yet since the 1970s the realm of finance has burgeoned, reaching well beyond its traditional funding roles. Finance now reaches into all aspects of economic life from the everyday activity of the individual, to the behaviour of corporations and the decisions made for society as a whole. The power and fragility of the financial sector are seen by the simple fact that when things go wrong, it can bring down banks, currencies, and governments, plunging countries into generations of debt and hardship. Malcolm Sawyer offers a comprehensive survey of the impact of financialization on economic growth and society. The book draws on and distills a remarkable range of research to provide readers with a guide to current thinking about the place of finance in the wider macroeconomy and considers the prospects for definancialization and a future role that is less pervasive.
£30.58
Agenda Publishing The Future of UK-China Relations: The Search for a New Model
At a time when both China’s role in the world is becoming the focus of international business strategy and Brexit is pushing the UK to look to the rest of the world for trade and investment, Kerry Brown assesses the potential for a new “golden age” of UK–China relations. For too long, Brown argues, China has been regarded with indifference by the UK, despite a well-established relationship stretching back some 200 years. Now, more than ever, Britain needs to actively engage with China and seek to understand China’s ambitions. This entails a radical change of mindset, vocabulary and attitude, as well as establishing a clear vision of what the UK wants from a resurgent global China, beyond trade and money. Brown shows that our future relationship with China is deep with symbolic meaning and will have reverberations throughout the world, as either a sobering example of what a world run on Chinese values might look like, or as a model of how to successfully rebalance a sudden asymmetrical dependence on a newly powerful China. It is one, however, that requires the UK to question some of its own national myths and the story it tells about itself, as well as to learn about a new power with a very different history and set of values.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing The French Economy
Despite being invariably misunderstood by anglophones and often derided in the English-language financial press, the French economy is one of the world’s major economies. For many years characterized by a distinctive economic model in which the French state intervened to correct or prevent market failures, as France has embraced the global market, its economy has increasingly converged with the western norm, but it remains different from its neighbours, particularly Germany and the UK, in a number of important respects. This general economic history of modern France – the first in the English language for nearly twenty years – provides an authoritative analysis of the workings of the modern French economy since its postwar reforms through to the present day. The book explores the monetary and fiscal policies of successive governments and the country’s economic performance through a variety of indicators. In particular the book considers the attempts by the state to correct the regional imbalances associated with the contraction of agriculture and the decline of historically important industries as well as mitigating the dominance of Paris. The parts played by demographic change, migration, inequality, and the European project in French economic development are also investigated alongside the strength and competitiveness of key industries like finance, energy and transport.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing Market/Place: Exploring Spaces of Exchange
The term "market" originally portrayed a public space for economic transactions but the term has since evolved into an abstract and disputed idea. Despite modern markets seemingly omnipresent nature, their specific geographies have undergone relatively little analysis. This collection of new essays rediscovers the physical space that markets inhabit and explore how the impact of political, social and economic factors determine the shape of a particular market space. The essays present new research from the fields of geography, economics, political economy and planning and provide valuable case study material to show how markets are contested, constructed and placed. Rather than separate markets from the surrounding society and state, these essays connect markets to their wider context and showcase how economic geography can combine with other disciplines to throw new light on spaces of exchange.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing Post-Keynesian Theory Revisited: Money, Uncertainty and Employment
With its emphasis on the centrality of fundamental uncertainty and the resulting desire for liquid assets, post-Keynesian economics offers important insights into understanding how modern economies work, placing money and banking at their heart, exactly as any realistic account would do. In this advanced introduction, Matteo Iannizzotto revisits the contributions of post-Keynesian ideas to such central issues as the inescapable condition of uncertainty in economic decisions, the theory of liquidity preference, effective demand, endogenous money supply, and the financial instability hypothesis. In each case, the author traces the foundations in the work of Keynes and presents the strength of post-Keynesian ideas of later authors like Kaldor, Minsky and Weintraub in comparison with the corresponding models of mainstream economics and shows their greater explanatory power particularly in the light of the recent global financial crisis.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing The Conservative Challenge to Globalization: Anglo-American Perspectives
The benefits of globalization have long been trumpeted by right-wing and centre-left politicians and is enshrined in the neoliberal consensus of western democracies. However, in recent years, conservative rhetoric has turned increasingly anti-globalization. Ray Kiely examines this new trend, in particular the discourse of “winners” and “losers” of globalization that has emerged since the financial crisis, and which has been used by conservative politicians in the United States and the UK to reflect real and imagined threats to domestic economies and national identity. The book examines new US and UK conservative movements (alongside earlier traditions) and the development of conservative ideas, in particular projects for renewal, that have shaped responses to globalization that challenge neoliberal and third way approaches. The nostalgia for a former supposed age of economic and societal harmony, which has characterized this conservative anti-globalization response is given particular attention. The popular mantras of deregulation and economic nationalism that loomed large in both the election of Donald Trump and the UK’s Brexit vote are shown to be potent examples of the success of this new conservative (anti-)globalization rhetoric. As well as examining the changing nature of Anglo-American conservatism, the book also offers an insightful account of the wider resurgence of populism.
£24.23
Agenda Publishing Collective Bargaining and Gender Equality
Collective bargaining has been a major force in delivering social justice and decent work in the workplace. However, the role of collective bargaining in achieving gender equality in the workplace is relatively under-researched. In this book, Jane Pillinger and Nora Wintour investigate the complex and expanding area of collective union action for women’s rights in the workplace. They explore how the feminization of unions in both developing and developed countries is changing bargaining agendas to address such issues as equal pay for work of equal value, work–life balance, maternity and parental leave rights, non-discrimination in access to employment, and the spill-over of domestic violence into the workplace. The authors examine recent policy developments by the International Labour Organization, the United Nations, and the European Union, alongside many examples of national and industry-specific collective agreements to showcase how collective bargaining can be an effective tool for progressing equality in the workplace.
£30.58
Agenda Publishing Capitalism, Socialism and Property Rights: Why market socialism cannot substitute the market
The comparative analysis of socialist and capitalist economic systems has given rise to a voluminous literature in the history of economic thought, yet detailed analysis of the “market socialism” model, which seeks to imitate the functional efficiency of capitalism by simulating a competitive economy, has been relatively neglected. In this work, Mateusz Machaj seeks to redress this imbalance by providing an in-depth examination of one of the defining issues that separates capitalism from socialism – the system of ownership, or property rights – which, when explored, highlight fundamental problems in the market socialism model. Taking a broadly Austrian perspective, he shows that the mechanism of efficiency in market socialism is unable to play the part ascribed to it by its theoreticians, because it disregards the fact that property rights are fundamental to the shaping of prices and thus the abolition of ownership in market socialism makes its mechanism of efficiency a fiction. Indeed, the author argues, the economic terms used in the model of market capitalism only mirror the names of the real economic variables that cause capitalism to be efficient, not their functions. The books offers new and original insights into the theory of competition, theories of pricing, property laws, the relation between law and economics, as well as the economics of the market socialism model. It will be of interest to a wide range of heterodox economists.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing The Sex Economy
The discourse surrounding prostitution is increasingly one of sexual commerce, transaction and commercial exchange. The “sex economy” and the consumer demand for it is often discussed both as a legitimate economic business, in which women have control, and as employment comparable to other forms of low-paid work. So much so, that in some countries it is being seen as a service that should be regulated and given a labour-rights framework. Drawing on extensive and detailed research, Monica O’Connor challenges the suggestion that the sale of women’s bodies as commodities can ever be acceptable, and that the male consumer has an acceptable right to buy sexual acts from another person. She disproves the claim that "sex work" is a lucrative occupation for impoverished women and girls that can be considered for regulation as part of the normal economy. She lays bare the harm that "normalising" the sex trade does on women’s lives, gender equality and on society as a whole, and exposes the realities that constrain and control women locked in prostitution, debunking the notions of choice and agency.
£30.58
Agenda Publishing Getting Over New Labour
To understand the Labour Party today one needs to appreciate how people in the party have reacted to the New Labour legacy. Karl Pike examines the efforts each of the three leaders have made in reforming the party's ideology, its democracy and organization and their political style and approach to the leadership.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing European Studies: Past, Present and Future
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.
£26.05
Agenda Publishing Of Time and Lamentation: Reflections on Transience
Time’s mysteries seem to resist comprehension and what remains, once the familiar metaphors are stripped away, can stretch even the most profound philosopher. In Of Time and Lamentation, Raymond Tallis rises to this challenge and explores the nature and meaning of time and how best to understand it. The culmination of some twenty years of thinking, writing and wondering about (and within) time, it is a bold, original and thought-provoking work. With characteristic fearlessness, Tallis seeks to reclaim time from the jaws of physics. For most of us, time is composed of mornings, afternoons and evenings and expressed in hurry, hope, longing, waiting, enduring, planning, joyful expectation and grief. Thinking about it is to meditate on our own mortality. Yet, physics has little or nothing to say about this time, the time as it is lived. The story told by caesium clocks, quantum theory and Lorentz coordinates, Tallis argues, needs to be supplemented by one of moss on rocks, tears on faces and the long narratives of our human journey. Our temporal lives deserve a richer attention than is afforded by the equations of mathematical physics. The first part of the book, “Killing Time” is a formidable critique of the spatialized and mathematized account of time arising from physical science. The passage of time, the direction of time and time travel are critically examined and the relationship between mathematics and reality, and the nature of the observer, are explored. Part 2, “Human Time” examines tensed time, the reality of time as it is lived: what we mean by “now”, how we make sense of past and future events, and the idea of eternity. With the scientistic reduction of time set aside and lived time reaffirmed, Tallis digs deeper into the nature of time itself in the final part, “Finding Time”. Questions about “the stuff” of time such as instants and intervals about time and change, and the relationship between objective and subjective time, open on to wider discussions about time and causation, the irruption of subjectivity and intentionality into a material universe, and the relationship between time and freedom. For anyone who has puzzled over the nature of becoming, wondered whether time is inseparable from change, whether time is punctuate or continuous, or even whether time, itself, is real, Of Time and Lamentation will provoke and entertain. Those, like Tallis himself, who seek to find a place at which the scientific and humanistic views of humanity can be reconciled, will celebrate his placing of human consciousness at the heart of time, and his showing that we are “more than cogs in the universal clock, forced to collaborate with the very progress that pushes us towards our own midnight”.
£75.00
Agenda Publishing Central Bank Digital Currencies: The Future of Money
The advent of digital stablecoins and the continuing decline of cash are prompting central banks across the world to explore developing their own digital currencies. Although few have launched so far, the potential for central bank digital currency (CBDC) promises a revolution in banking. Michael Lloyd considers the opportunities and threats that the arrival of CBDCs will have for commercial banking and the world’s monetary system. The choices facing central banks regarding the use, design and technology of digital currencies are examined as well as the potential impacts on consumer security and privacy.
£34.99
Agenda Publishing Enough!: A Modest Political Ecology for an Uncertain Future
Enough! insists there is enough for all. Creating such a future is not about producing more or living with less. Instead, it starts with rethinking our politics, economics and approach to livelihoods. Mary Lawhon and Tyler McCreary develop a “modest approach” to justice and sustainability, drawing on ecology and postcolonial theory, as well as their research on infrastructure in African cities and the Canadian north. The authors chart a pathway beyond modernist and arcadian environmentalisms, emphasizing uncertainty while holding onto hope for creating better worlds. The chapters tack between conceptual contours, concrete examples, proposed inventions, and personal narrative. Theorizing from the struggles of the global south and Indigenous peoples, Enough! proposes delinking livelihoods from work through a redistributive basic income, which enables enough without overreliance on modern states. It also enables us to prevent conflicts over jobs, reduce some types of production, and deploy resources towards building postcapitalist worlds.
£29.99
Agenda Publishing Grand Strategy and the Rise of China: Made in America
During four decades of fast-paced economic growth, China’s ascent has reverberated across the full social spectrum, from international relations to technology, from trade to global health, from academia to climate change. Despite disrupting the long-established cultural and political constructs of the postwar liberal international order, Beijing’s power remains uneven and limited internationally, whereas the rise of China has been the object of much frenzied reaction within Western civil society. The hostility and new cold war with the United States is a major factor in fuelling debate and speculation. This book explores the uncertainties and dilemmas China’s rise has fuelled for both the US-sponsored liberal order and the Chinese communist elites that are responsible. It provides the tools to understand the contemporary political and media turmoil about China, its causes and its trajectories. It interprets the rise of China through the lenses of global politics and the uneven and combined development of capitalism and its encounter with the authoritarian, one-party system of the Chinese polity.
£20.91
Agenda Publishing The Rise of State Capital: Transforming Markets and International Politics
The past two decades have seen a rapid rise in large-scale, state-led transnational investment from countries as different as China, Norway and Russia. By bundling economic resources, these countries have entered global markets through massive state-led investments. This transformation of states into global economic actors is historically unprecedented and presents a major challenge for how states relate to each other in the international system. Milan Babic examines how states have become major corporate owners in the global economy and unpacks the lasting effects of this on our understanding of the state and international politics. Drawing on research into the largest firm-level dataset on state ownership to date, in combination with in-depth historical and conceptual analysis, the book offers a comprehensive analysis of the rise of the state in the global economy and its present and future consequences for international relations.
£29.99
Agenda Publishing Reflecting on Practices: New Directions for Spatial Theories
This collection of essays aims to better understand what researchers do when they practice research. The team of contributors – which includes human geographers, urban planners and environmental scientists – expose various epistemological, ontological and methodological challenges to pin down what practices "are". The essays showcase how practice theory can help spatial scientists generate new and future-oriented insights on debates such as mobility, relationality, and forms of critical spatial practice. In this way, the book reinforces a specifically geographic and spatial account that is needed for the development of practice theory while also shining new light on current debates within practice theory on power, politics and space. The book positions practices as the point of departure to study and conceptualize socio-spatial life.
£30.58
Agenda Publishing Conservatism
The nature of conservative ideology is and will continue to be warmly contested. In this short history, Mark Garnett contends that the disagreements have been particularly strong in the instance of British conservatism because the ideological label continues to be used by a prominent political party. Whether hostile or friendly in intent, commentators on conservatism have found it difficult to avoid the assumption that British "conservatism" must, at all times, be reflected at least to some degree in the policy platforms of the Conservative Party. This book presents an account of British conservatism which avoids the usual confusion between the ideology and the stated principles of a party which prides itself on an ability to change its views according to circumstances. It shows, since the Tory Party adopted the name "Conservative" in the 1830s it has become increasingly difficult to associate its varying positions with a coherent "conservative" position, so that it is more profitable to discuss its ideological history from the perspective of liberalism and nationalism. This argument is presented by tracing the histories of the party and the ideology in separate chapters, whose themes and cast of characters rarely coincide.
£20.04
Agenda Publishing The Economics of Fund Management
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.
£20.91