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The purpose of this paper is to present reflections on the contradictions between structure and agency in theories of the Bolivian Revolution, 2000-2005. Most studies into the trajectory and outcomes of the revolutionary period in Bolivia between 2000 and 2005 tend to emphasise on the primary role of structural factors or social movements in shifting the terrain of political debate. This paper argues this represents a false dichotomy and discounts the value of this debate. In doing so, it seeks to highlight the need for research that focuses on the role of institutional variables that mediate between structure and agency.

The paper uses theories of the Bolivian Revolution, which occurred between 2000 and 2005, to highlight the way theory shapes – and is shaped by – the political organisations that espouse it. This constructivist thesis is applied to conceptions of neoliberalism and Katarismo, an ideology of indigenous liberation, based in Andean-Aymara history. The intellectual and political projects of each approach are demarcated. Theories that privilege either the intellectual project or political project in their narrative of the Bolivian Revolution are then queried.

As a consequence of this analysis, the paper concludes by emphasizing the need for political organisation and theory to be considered dialectically along the lines of Gogol (2012). It argues that further research into institutions is required to appreciate why some post-neoliberal projects flourish while others fragment.

The paper proposes a modified understanding of the interplay between structure and agency in conceptions of the Bolivian Revolution (2000-2005) and suggests an original approach to resolving the underlying questions that motivate these debates.

The purpose of this study is to provide a political explanation of management, accounting and control (MAC) practices in a traditional and unstable African setting. This was done by exploring the influence of latest revolutionary politics in Egypt along with labour dynamics in the context.

Theoretically, the study uses the institutional logics perspective to understand the effects of higher order institutions on corporate management and workers at the micro level. Methodologically, the study adopts an interpretative case study approach. Data were collected using a triangulation of interviews, documents and observations.

The study finds that volatile political settings can have different contradictory implications for MAC practices. It also concludes that revolutionary events play a central role not only in the configuration of MAC practices but also in the mobilisation of labour resistance to these practices.

The study contributes to the literature by investigating the different appearances of MAC practices in a volatile, political or revolutionary context, in contrast to highly investigated stabilised Western contexts. This broadens the definition of the social in the area of accounting and control.

The study of administration in other countries is often labelled comparative public administration and, since the Second World War, has developed a vast literature covering many world areas and utilizing various methods. Along with its more practical, more prescriptive counterpart, development administration, it has frequently been analysed and critiqued as a study and as a guide to development assistance. Suggests a new role for comparative/development administration as it faces the important challenge of addressing administrative requirements not only in the Third World but also in the former Second World (former Soviet Union and Central/Eastern Europe). The suggestion here is that iconoclastic models and non‐Western approaches are worthy of consideration, even though they may range from the unpleasant to the bizarre. Explores the Asian Communist administration – as found in China – and the Islamic revivalist administration – as found in Iran.

The purpose of this paper is to report on findings from research into the role of language and discourse in shaping responses to older people at risk of abuse in England. Critical discourse analysis is used in this research to deconstruct policy to identify hidden meaning.

The study comprised of a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the coalition governments underpinning policy statement outlining its approach to safeguarding adults in “A Vision for Adult Social Care: Capable Communities and Active Citizens.”

This paper analyses the policy statement in some detail to explore its ability to guide practice in supporting older people at risk of harm. The results suggest ideological, philosophical and economic discourses underpinning policy may promote “Big Society” rather than address the abuse of older people, and that this might leave some older people vulnerable and at risk.

It is acknowledged the qualitative approach of CDA has its limitations as issues of subjectivity and interpretation exist. Fallibility is always present and no research can give a “complete” view of the world.

Drawing on this analysis may provide a heightened awareness of the use of discourse to expose potentially hidden motivations in others, and ourselves, by seeking out the ideological, philosophical and theoretical hiding places which enable specific discourses to become taken for granted.

By identifying the taken for grantedness of some discourses in everyday life, the author can gain a better understanding of how to challenge the status quo.

This paper explores practice in safeguarding adults from an ideological, economic and philosophical perspective.

ERP systems continue to fail. One success factor that has received little attention in the literature is cultural fit – which emphasizes the need for ERP systems to be chosen and adapted to current organizational practices. However, the dynamics behind culture and its fit with ERP require investigation. This paper aims to fills this gap.

The paper draws upon cultural and linguistic concepts from Antonio Gramsci to consider how consent is achieved in ERP implementation projects. These concepts include positive (integral) and negative (decadent and minimal) hegemony, as well as the production and effects of normative and spontaneous grammars. The paper examined the implementation of an ERP in a logistics company, using interview and documentary evidence.

The findings reveal that, while consensus is apparently achieved across disparate groups and interests, it is achieved through the use of phrases which marginalized groups by their abstract and rhetorical nature. This implementation process allowed for the subordination of local interests, making it difficult to form alternative responses. It is concluded that decadent and minimal hegemonies prevailed, instead of an integral hegemony formed through continuous negotiation and debate across sub‐groups.

The paper suggests that studies of ERP implementation using Gramsci's concepts of negative (minimal and decadent) and positive (integral) hegemonies, that influence cultural fit, can aid the study of positive and negative forms of consent.

The paper illustrates how cultural fit during ERP implementation could be achieved through technical and cultural change‐based grammars and languages which allow broad democratic participation.

This paper illustrates the value of Gramsci's concepts in IS research, and provides valuable insights into the dynamics of “cultural fit”.

This paper uses Gramsci’s theory of hegemony to analyse the development of the public sector accounting profession and accounting practices in the UK since the nineteenth‐century. Three periods of hegemony and accounting development are identified and the relationship between the two phenomena is discussed. The analysis emphasises the non‐teleological development of the public sector accounting profession and accounting techniques and clearly places them within an ideological framework which is itself the outcome of a complex interrelation between economic crises, class interests and the state. The paper concludes that the public sector accounting professional body in the UK has played an important hegemonic role in constituting and reflecting ideologies and in reflecting the coercive and consensual approaches adopted by the state. The paper also sets an agenda for a research programme which looks at specific crises and hegemonies in more depth.

Several spacecraft beam‐propulsion concepts are introduced. “Mesoparticle beam propulsion” uses a collimated beam of mesoscopic particles, very roughly on the order of a nanogram mass each. Molecular nanotechnologies may permit the inclusion of entire guidance systems in each particle. “Micro Lightsails for beam propulsion” proposes matter‐beams composed of small, thin film lightsails with nanoscale components. Pushing a spacecraft with small, high velocity lightsails may be currently viable. “Ultracold matter beam generators” are proposed as a new type of space‐based particle‐beam. Design‐variants include a laser‐cooled thermal jet and a laser‐cooled, neutralized‐ion beam. Possible uses include the shipment of condensed, ultracold matter through space, the formation of an “artificial aerobraking corridor”, and beam‐propulsion for micro and nanospacecraft.

The purpose of this paper is to seek to apply Polanyi's theory of the double movement as a response to the effects of economic liberalization and globalization to the pre‐2007 American economy. In so doing, it seeks to ascertain the reasons why this assumed double movement did not materialize until after the post‐2007 global economic crisis.

This paper is structured as a theoretical and historical analysis, building upon Polanyi's nineteenth century observations and applying them to contemporary policy economic and social experience in the USA in the late twentieth century. The argument proposes a correlation between the missing and/or delayed movement and the role of access to debt and participation in equity markets.

This paper argues that Polanyi's concept of a societal countermovement has been absent from the post‐1970 period of economic liberalism and globalization until just recently due to an explicit attempt by the forces of capital to circumvent its role in lessening the harmful effects of American capitalism. In particular, the double movement that should have sought to lessen income inequality, unemployment and wage stagnation was instead replaced by access to cheap credit and the democratization of market investments that spurred consumer purchases and a false belief that what was good for the markets was good for working class Americans.

This paper highlights the need for ongoing research into the sociotropic nature of trade and of economic policy, and its evolution throughout the contemporary period of economic uncertainty and economic transition.

The paper proposes several policy implications arising from the contemporary application of Polanyi's double movement, notably related to international trade and public and political support for ongoing trade liberalization.

This paper highlights important connections in the relationship between economic policy and the day‐to‐day lives of those who are governed by it. Building on “everyday political economy”, it provides a foundation for arguments that a new balance must be found between economic globalization and transnational capital interests and domestic stability.

This paper promotes a novel approach to understanding the political economy of pre‐2007 America, in particular the reflexive nature of economic policy and societal perceptions.

This paper aims to explore activation policy as a condensate for new forms of governance in respect of welfare institutions and in relation to welfare subjects. It asks how far apparently similar concepts – contractualisation, individuation, personalisation – can be applied to the governance of institutions and the governance of persons.

The paper draws on a model of different governance regimes to trace different dynamics at stake in the shift to activation policy.

Tensions in the dynamics of the transformation of welfare governance around notions of activation are highlighted. It is also argued that different reconfigurations of power are at stake in the governance of institutions and the governance of persons. Finally tensions between notions of active, activist and activation conceptions of citizenship are traced.

The paper challenges a govermentality perspective in which managerial discourses are assumed to have similar consequences for institutions and for persons, so drawing attention to the importance of context.

Limited value

This paper makes an original contribution to the field by tracing a number of different dynamics at stake in activation policy rather than assuming a coherent shift from earlier forms of welfare regime.