Search results

In this chapter, we examine the interrelationship between politics of neo-liberalism and practices of equality and diversity at work. In so doing, we illustrate how macro-national politics, in particular the contemporary neo-liberal expansion, impact the definitions, activities, beneficiaries and overall impact of diversity management at the organisational level. The chapter focuses on three fundamental assumptions of neo-liberalism, beliefs in the utility of deregulation (voluntarism), individualism and competition in order to organise economic and social life. The chapter goes on to examine the reflection of these neo-liberal beliefs on construction of diversity management in contexts where neo-liberal politics dominate. The chapter concludes by a critical assessment of how diversity can be freed from the clutches of neo-liberalism, which merely serves to limit the repertoire and imagination of interventions for diversity management.

Gives an overview of the reception of Eucken’s work abroad and the influences on the thinking of Eucken from outside the German language area. Further, points to the contribution of Eucken to monetary and capital theory and the theory of the centrally administered economy, the significance of the thinking of Eucken, for almost all questions on the agenda of modern economic policy is illustrated. This especially applies to the parts which are often marked as utopian, among which are his ideas in the area of (international) monetary policy.

In recent years, the global economy has undergone major transformations involving the liberalization of markets for traditional goods, services, and capital flows. This has led to the emergence of a world financial market underpinned by digital platforms, innovative and the rapid growth of integrated digital platforms, integration, investment, economic growth, development, and the potential for poverty reduction, especially, in the Global South and, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa. The goal of this chapter is to investigate the increasing accessibility and relationship between digital (e-economy) financial integration and poverty alleviation since the era of structural adjustment programs in sub-Sahara Africa with Ghana as a case study. The emphasis is on the New Digital Economy (NDE) relative to new sources of data from mobile and ubiquitous Internet connectivity. The processes of digitalization and financial sector integration and inclusion become increasingly contestable, decomposable, and reconfigurable, and the capacity to innovate will be a key success factor in policies geared toward poverty alleviation. The multiple linear regression model and its estimation using ordinary least squares (OLS) is doubtless the most widely used tool in econometrics. It helps to estimate the relation between a dependent variable and a set of explanatory variables. An OLS model for macro data set relative to a regression model is applied to provide the empirical estimations of the increasing accessibility and the relationship between digital financial integration, investment, economic growth, development, and poverty alleviation.

The article aims to offer an introduction to the special issue on changing education governance in Asia.

A brief overview of the issue is provided.

The article notes that one of the prominent issues running through the issue is the dilemma between the assertion of academic freedom and the deepening governance/management reforms in schools and universities.

The article highlights that the issue offers a distinct comparative perspective in analyzing recent changes in education governance and management in selected Asian societies.

This essay explores the relationship between neo-liberal transformation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and globalization in the region. It starts with an overview of the increasing level of globalization activities in the CEE countries. The first section of this essay also shows remarkable cross-country diversity among the CEE countries regarding the extent to which their citizens participate in four aspects of globalization, outbound tourism, citizens working abroad, students studying abroad, and internet use. The second section of the essay identifies three ways in which neo-liberalism could affect citizens’ participation in globalization activities. A direct impact of neo-liberalism on globalization could be expected through the spread of similar neo-liberal economic policies and practices in CEE, which would then create the conditions for making citizens in the region more likely to get involved in globalization. Indirectly, neo-liberalism is expected to (1) increase self-reliance among citizens and (2) reduce the level of government spending on social programs, such as education and health care, thus creating less attractive social conditions in each country. The analysis in section three of this essay shows conflicting evidence about the linkages between neo-liberalism and globalization in Central and Eastern Europe. Increased labor-flexibility, one of the most pronounced aspects of neo-liberalism, is associated with reduced participation in globalization activities. The indirect impact of neo-liberalism, however, is quite pronounced. Neo-liberalism is positively associated with the extent of self-reliance among the CEE citizens, yet it also leads to reduced government spending on healthcare and education. Both reduced reliance on the state and reduced spending for these programs, on the other hand are associated with an increase in globalization activities of CEE citizens.

Telecommunications comprises a vital component of information infrastructures and services, with a historically strong public interest dimension. For the best part of 30 years, the telecommunications sector in Europe has been the subject of a radical reorganisation in structural and operational terms along the lines of neo‐liberalism. This paper aims to analyse the significance of the neo‐liberal project in telecommunications in respect of the related dimensions of ideology and practice.

The paper presents a public policy critique of the manifestation of neo‐liberalism in the telecommunications sector in the European Union, employing desk‐based research on relevant primary and secondary source documentation.

The paper finds that proponents of neo‐liberalism have been able to secure the broad acceptance of neo‐liberalism as a “view of the world” for telecommunications. It shows that in practice, however, the neo‐liberal model in telecommunications provides evidence of a less than efficacious adoption process in three respects: neo‐liberalism requires an elaborately managed system the regulatory burden of which has been under‐emphasised; the normative success of neo‐liberalism has masked how difficult it has actually proven to be to create competition; the preoccupation with markets and competition has resulted in de‐emphasis of public interest issues in telecommunications.

This paper contributes up‐to‐date knowledge of the nature and effects of neo‐liberalism in the European telecommunication sector. It provides a challenge and counterweight to the “received wisdom” that neo‐liberalism has been an overwhelmingly successful approach to the re‐ordering of European telecommunications.

The Mexican government has been criticized for its implementation of neo-liberal economic policies that threaten to further impoverish indigenous populations. Given this, it is surprising that in 1997 some members of the Mixe people – one of the poorest indigenous groups in Mexico – condemned the implementation of a new government funding project that was specifically intended to alleviate hardship caused by free trade. The paper argues that objections to both free trade and the new funding program stem from the overarching problem the Mixe face, namely their systematic exclusion from decision-making processes and citizenship at the national level.

The purpose of this paper is to problematise the concept of corruption as it is used in the African context by exposing the weaknesses in the business model used to define corruption and resource the massive yet incompetent anti‐corruption effort. The paper then aims to follow this critique by considering an alternative way of dealing with the awesome dimensions of African corruption.

The paper utilises in‐depth secondary source analysis, applying critical theory.

Corruption's main interpretive framework, neo‐liberalism, is exposed as dominating, business‐centric and non‐utilitarian. A new paradigm with a strong ethnographic texture is presented.

The paper for the first time co‐analyses two contending paradigms for the construction of African corruption in the context of the global economic crisis.

Contrasting two countries with different gender regimes and welfare states, Sweden and Tanzania, this paper aims to analyse how the institutional context affects the ways in which a neo-liberal reform agenda is translated into institutional changes and propose how such changes impact the preconditions for women’s entrepreneurship.

This study uses document analysis and previous studies to describe and analyse the institutions and the institutional changes. This paper uses Scandinavian institutional theory as the interpretative framework.

This study proposes that: in well-developed welfare states with a high level of gender equality, consequences of neo-liberal agenda for the preconditions for women entrepreneurs are more likely to be negative than positive. In less developed states with a low level of gender equality, the gendered consequences of neo-liberal reforms may be mixed and the preconditions for women’s entrepreneurship more positive than negative. How neo-liberalism impacts preconditions for women entrepreneurs depend on the institutional framework in terms of a trustworthy women-friendly state and level of gender equality.

The study calls for bringing the effects on the gender of the neo-liberal primacy of market solutions out of the black box. Studying how women entrepreneurs perceive these effects necessitates qualitative ethnographic data.

This paper demonstrates why any discussion of the impact of political or economic reforms on women’s entrepreneurship must take a country’s specific institutional context into account. Further, previous studies on neo-liberalism have rarely taken an interest in Africa.