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21 – 30 of over 38000Devaka Gunawardena and Ahilan Kadirgamar
The popular uprising in Sri Lanka on July 9th, 2022, led to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing the country. It represented a stunning culmination of a wave of protests during…
Abstract
The popular uprising in Sri Lanka on July 9th, 2022, led to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing the country. It represented a stunning culmination of a wave of protests during the recent past. The proximate cause of the uprising was the worst economic crisis that Sri Lanka had experienced since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The breakdown was long in the making since the island nation became the first country in South Asia to take the neoliberal turn in the late 1970s. The dramatic collapse was catalyzed by a sovereign debt crisis with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Nevertheless, like all great revolts, it has led to a counter revolution by the ruling class, including the reconfiguration of the old regime.
We examine the tremendous consequences of recent events, both in terms of Sri Lanka's long history of struggles involving working people and the global unravelling underway. We explore whether Sri Lanka is a harbinger of more global political economic changes to come. The process includes the possibility of systemic resistance to financialization in the scores of countries in the Global South experiencing tremendous debt distress. In this regard, we ask whether Sri Lanka's revolt could yet become a revolution. To frame the potential implications, we turn to a deeper interrogation of classic Marxist theories and concepts.
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Adam Jamrozic and Marilyn Hoey
This monograph is an attempt to examine some of the changes which have occurred in the structure of the workforce in Australia during the 1970s. The study has the form of…
Abstract
This monograph is an attempt to examine some of the changes which have occurred in the structure of the workforce in Australia during the 1970s. The study has the form of exploratory analysis of data extracted from official labour market statistics, and its aims are to consider three broad issues: the significance changes in the labour market may have for Australian society, and particularly for the people who constitute the workforce, actual or potential; the implications of those changes for social policy; and the appropriate research methods of identifying social and social welfare issues in economic activities.
Guoqun Fu, Yang Li and Xianzheng Fei
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evolution of wedding-related consumption of urban families in China during the past 50 years.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evolution of wedding-related consumption of urban families in China during the past 50 years.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used qualitative and quantitative approaches to collect and analyse data from 157 families in China. Data collection occurred through semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys.
Findings
The findings are as follows: average wedding expenses per family have increased, mainly as a result of the substantial growth of indirect wedding costs; the percentage of total wedding expenses represented by direct costs pertaining to the ritual is trending downwards; the percentage of total wedding expenses borne by the groom’s family is much higher than that borne by the bride’s family, and the gap is enlarging; the proportion of newlyweds living with parents was more than 50 per cent in the 1970s and 1980s, decreased to 10 per cent in the 1990s and began slightly increasing again after 2000.
Research limitations/implications
The authors used signal investment theory to explain the fact that the groom’s family bears more of the wedding expenses than the bride’s family does, but more evidences are needed to verify the theory.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the understanding of evolution of wedding consumption of urban families in China, as well as how social and economic factors influence wedding consumptions in different ages, an area with limited previous research. The authors also propose signal investment theory as an alternative explanation to current wedding consumption theories to justify the phenomenon.
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Economic transition in the 1970s and now.
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DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-DB224872
ISSN: 2633-304X
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Topical
It was not until the late 1960s that housing attracted much attention from academic social scientists. Since that time the literature has expanded widely and diversified…
Abstract
It was not until the late 1960s that housing attracted much attention from academic social scientists. Since that time the literature has expanded widely and diversified, establishing housing with a specialised status in economics, sociology, politics, and in related subjects. As we would expect, the new literature covers a technical, statistical, theoretical, ideological, and historical range. Housing studies have not been conceived and interpreted in a monolithic way, with generally accepted concepts and principles, or with uniformly fixed and precise methodological approaches. Instead, some studies have been derived selectively from diverse bases in conventional theories in economics or sociology, or politics. Others have their origins in less conventional social theory, including neo‐Marxist theory which has had a wider intellectual following in the modern democracies since the mid‐1970s. With all this diversity, and in a context where ideological positions compete, housing studies have consequently left in their wake some significant controversies and some gaps in evaluative perspective. In short, the new housing intellectuals have written from personal commitments to particular cognitive, theoretical, ideological, and national positions and experiences. This present piece of writing takes up the two main themes which have emerged in the recent literature. These themes are first, questions relating to building and developing housing theory, and, second, the issue of how we are to conceptualise housing and relate it to policy studies. We shall be arguing that the two themes are closely related: in order to create a useful housing theory we must have awareness and understanding of housing practice and the nature of housing.
Ross L. Davies and David A. Kirby
Despite, or perhaps even because of, the economic uncertainties of the period, the 1970s witnessed a radical transformation of the British distributive system. Most of the changes…
Abstract
Despite, or perhaps even because of, the economic uncertainties of the period, the 1970s witnessed a radical transformation of the British distributive system. Most of the changes which occurred were similar to those experienced elsewhere in the Western world, and in a review of developments in EEC countries, Dawson has suggested that the impact of these changes on society could be similar to that produced by the Industrial Revolution. In Britain at least, the changes in distribution were, and remain, a result of very marked changes in society: most notably the change in consumption patterns brought about by endemic inflation, increasing unemployment and periodic world energy crises. The result has been increased competition, a search for greater efficiency and diversification of traditional product lines. Thus the British distribution system throughout the 1970s was dominated by the trend to mass merchandising, by the emergence of large firms and a consequent increase of corporate power and by the appearance of new distribution forms. While many of the conditions and developments experienced in the 1970s are expected to continue into the 1980s, it has been predicted (Distributive Industry Training Board 1980) that by the 1990s further revolutionary changes are likely to have occurred, particularly as a result of widespread automation involving new technology. The industry is, therefore, in the middle of a period of very rapid change.
Malcolm Salter and Wolf Weinhold
A number of factors ranging from economic conditions to managerial self‐interest have contributed to today's unprecedented merger boom. But the tide may be turning as the public…
Abstract
A number of factors ranging from economic conditions to managerial self‐interest have contributed to today's unprecedented merger boom. But the tide may be turning as the public policy debate over mergers heats up. Most scenarios show a long‐range drop in merger activity. However, the need for an informed, rational national policy on mergers remains.
Maureen A. Bourassa, Peggy H. Cunningham and Jay M. Handelman
This study seeks to investigate the interaction between marketers' strategic behaviors, social norms, and societal stakeholders within a particular historical time period, the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to investigate the interaction between marketers' strategic behaviors, social norms, and societal stakeholders within a particular historical time period, the 1960s and 1970s.
Design/methodology/approach
The study's findings are based on an analysis of two dominant retail industry trade publications, Chain Store Age and Progressive Grocer.
Findings
The analysis reveals an intriguing array of strategic marketing activity throughout these two decades not captured in considerations of marketing strategy at the time. The retailers examined engaged in two interesting behaviors. First, they responded to a wide range of stakeholder demands in a paradoxical fashion. Second, as retailers were confronted with social norms, instead of conforming to these norms they worked to help influence and shape them to their own advantage. This examination of retailers' behaviors over two decades has allowed the authors to present an intriguing new dimension to the understanding of marketing strategy.
Originality/value
The study found that throughout the 1960s and 1970s, marketers appeared to be actively engaged in a social dialogue. Through this dialogue, they not only responded to norms, but also attempted to shape the norms that came to define legitimate behavior for the marketers. This kind of strategic marketing endeavor was not accounted for in the managerial school of thought that dominated marketing thinking at the time.
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Lars‐Gunnar Mattsson and Jan Johanson
In 1982 two books published in Sweden suggested a network perspective on markets and marketing. The purpose of this paper is to explain the emergence in Sweden of the network…
Abstract
Purpose
In 1982 two books published in Sweden suggested a network perspective on markets and marketing. The purpose of this paper is to explain the emergence in Sweden of the network perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Provides an examination of research in industrial marketing and related fields during the 1970s and the roles of the societal and academic contexts for the research.
Findings
Close relations between academic research and business was particularly crucial since it provided access to industry on all organisational levels and business relevance of the research. Three areas of research seem to have been especially important in the development: supplier‐customer interaction, strategy and organisation of the firm and the interconnectedness between markets. The emergence of the network perspective is seen as a result of a conceptual compromise between a group engaged in dyadic business relationship research and another group that had a wider systems interdependence view on markets. The paper shows that the development can be regarded as a discovery process.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to the development in Sweden during the 1970s and leading to the publication of two books that suggested a network perspective. A result of the paper is that the development during the period is only the first phase in the discovery of market networks. This suggests that analysis of the later development may be fruitful.
Originality/value
The study demonstrates the roots of the network perspective on markets and marketing and contributes to the understanding of the development of new paradigms in general.
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Terminologies such as “integrated marketing” and “market segmentation” may be common parlance in contemporary marketing literature, but, in post-war America, they had distinct…
Abstract
Purpose
Terminologies such as “integrated marketing” and “market segmentation” may be common parlance in contemporary marketing literature, but, in post-war America, they had distinct racial orientations mediated by a history of segregation. This paper aims to examine the resonant discourses in the construction of the Negro market in post-war America and observes that the field of marketing provides a historiography, where Negro marketing was constructed as dilemmatic and through a duality of the black market impacting the well-established white market. A survey of marketing literature from the 1950s to the 1970s reflects a discursive turn from scepticism and caution in approaching the Negro market to evoking the ethical discourse and advocating equal rights for the black consumer.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of articles on the topic reveals that research occurred in other academic fields beyond the remit of marketing, and these different disciplines approached the issue of the Negro market from different research orientations and fields of enquiry. This paper focuses on academic literature that was published in marketing and business journals which were concerned with marketing to the black community. The journals reviewed in this paper include Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing/Communications, The Journal of Business, The Journal of Marketing and Journal of Advertising Research published from the 1950s to the 1960s. In reviewing the marketing literature from these journals, it highlights the recurrent and resonant themes and shifts in discourse in the period mentioned.
Findings
Despite the scepticism, there was a recognition among market researchers that they were in a unique position to influence significantly the future relationships between blacks and whites in America (Gould et al., 1970, p. 26; Kassarjian, 1971; Hair et al., 1977; Solomon et al., 1976). The marketing discourses also showed reluctance in supporting black media, as advertising agencies did not have a preference for it. Black advertising organizations, while providing access to the Negro market, were seen as having high preparation costs and high costs per thousand in terms of reaching the population. There was also dissatisfaction expressed with the results of the copy (Alexis, 1959).
Originality/value
The moral turn in advertising is evident in the late 1960s and early 1970s, where marketers spoke of intervention beyond market strategies. Cohen (1970, p. 3) argued fervently that there exists an opportunity for advertising to improve its social image by giving more attention to the black community. The moral discourse of social responsibility as marketers and advertisers sought to go beyond advocating consumer rights to recognising that structural changes and attitudinal shifts was required to reform the industry through recruitment and training of black staff in creative and consultative roles. Wall (1970, p. 48), in commenting on integrated advertising, observed that beyond producing advertisements which create a sense of equality in life style and values, black employment is vitally important in creative levels in the advertising industry to improve credibility and acceptance.
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