Search results
1 – 10 of over 1000Jan Czarzasty and Adam Mrozowicki
In the context of debates on the role of social partners in shaping anti-crisis policies, the article explores the developments of social dialogue in Poland following the outbreak…
Abstract
Purpose
In the context of debates on the role of social partners in shaping anti-crisis policies, the article explores the developments of social dialogue in Poland following the outbreak of the pandemic. The central research question is whether the crisis has helped to revitalise social dialogue or has it further revealed its weaknesses that were apparent before it.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on the combination of literature review and the analysis of primary data derived from 22 expert interviews with the representatives of trade unions, employers and ministries collected in 2020–2021 in four essential industries (education, health care, social care and logistics).
Findings
The analysis suggests that the pandemic led to reinforcement of “illusory corporatism” in Poland, deepened mistrust among social partners and triggered a shift to informal channels of influencing policymaking. The weakness of the social partners and the strong position of the right-wing populist government meant that fears of recession and a health crisis were insufficient to develop “crisis” corporatism. While business interests were represented better than labour in policymaking, limited labour-friendly outcomes have been achieved as a result of workers’ mobilisation and unilateral decisions of the government rather than tripartite social dialogue.
Originality/value
Based on original empirical research, the article contributes to the discussion on the impact of the crisis on social dialogue under patchwork capitalism. It points to the role of strong governments and informality in circumventing tripartite structures and the importance of essential workers’ mobilisation in response to the lack of social dialogue.
Details
Keywords
Meropi Tzanetakis and Nigel South
This chapter explores the disruptive potential of the Internet to transform illicit drug markets while also challenging stereotypical depictions and superficial understandings of…
Abstract
This chapter explores the disruptive potential of the Internet to transform illicit drug markets while also challenging stereotypical depictions and superficial understandings of supply and demand. It argues that the digital transformation of illicit drug markets combines, on one hand, a reconfiguration of the scope and impact of how sellers, buyers, and other actors interact within and upon digitally mediated retail drug markets and, on the other hand, continuing trends in the embeddedness of market structures in cultural, economic, political, and legal realms. We develop conceptual ideas for studying the architecture of digital drug markets by drawing on interdisciplinary approaches to digitalisation, markets, and drugs. To understand the functioning of online drug markets, we first need to understand digitalisation. Thus, we draw on scholarship on the digital transformation of society and, second, put forward an understanding of markets that considers how personal relations and social structures enhance and restrict market exchange. Thus, we draw on economic sociology. Third, we build on and extend social science research on illicit drug markets which points out that drug markets exhibit significant variations over time and across jurisdictions. The introduction aims to provide a research agenda that can help us to explore ongoing digital transformations of illicit drug markets. It expands and deepens scholarship on the technological, structural, economic, and cultural factors underlying the resilience and growth of digital drug markets. It also goes beyond a concern with just one type of digital drug market into wider forms of digital environments.
Details
Keywords
Sara Falcão Casaca, Maria João Guedes, Susana Ramalho Marques and Nuno Paço
This study aims to provide a comparative portrait of the profile of men and women in the boardrooms of listed companies (Euronext Lisbon, Portugal) during the first stage of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide a comparative portrait of the profile of men and women in the boardrooms of listed companies (Euronext Lisbon, Portugal) during the first stage of the gender quota law, by comparing the profile of those board members appointed before the mandated quota law and those appointed after it. This study also seeks to contribute to a critical review of the main reservations expressed by some core institutional actors, who initially voiced their concern that it might be difficult to find women in equal conditions to men in terms of their cumulative experience and qualifications to serve as board members.
Design/methodology/approach
In addition to providing a comparative descriptive analysis of male and female board members’ profiles before and after the mandated gender quota law, an aggregate professional endowments measure (professional endowments Index) is also calculated.
Findings
The research findings show that, in the first stage of the quota law, men and women appointed as board members after the mandated gender quota law are fundamentally similar in their professional attributes, forming a more homogeneous boardroom than those holding board positions before it.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on the profile of the men and women serving on the publicly listed company boards in Portugal, by comparing their profiles before and after the mandated gender quota law. This study also fills a gap in the literature, as studies about gender quotas and corporate boards relating to Portugal and Southern European countries in general are still relatively scant. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study carried out into the gender quota law on corporate boards in Portugal.
Details
Keywords
Outi Sarpila, Iida Kukkonen, Tero Pajunen and Erica Åberg
Silvia Sacchetti and Alberto Ianes
This study aims to address the question of what coordination mechanism can be used for cultural production and, in particular, for the governance of music culture production. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to address the question of what coordination mechanism can be used for cultural production and, in particular, for the governance of music culture production. The authors locate their reflection within the specific institutional innovations introduced in Italy in 2017, focusing on the idea of shared administration and the public–private collaboration instituted in Trentino (a province located in northern Italy) in support of its cultural policy.
Design/methodology/approach
This study focusses on the Trentino’s music school system. This includes 13 organisations (musicians’ cooperatives as well as associations of musicians and students, plus one municipal school which do not overlap with the public school system). To analyse shared administration features, the authors rely on selected information from 50 interviews with Trentino Music Schools (TMS) teachers and administrators, and on the proceedings of the 1994 music school conference organised by the schools at the time when this novel educational system was created.
Findings
To offer an innovative educational service, the public actor (Provincia Autonoma di Trento [PAT]) and the schools (TMS) have developed a strong interdependence at the different levels of decision-making: PAT needs organisations that are sufficiently structured and organised to respect requirements of transparency and accountability, as well as educational standards, whereas TMS need public funding to maintain their service accessible for users, good labour conditions and be financially sustainable. Likewise, the success of TMS in educating thousands of students every year, including additional teaching programmes funded by PAT within general public schools, has contributed to decrease the exclusion from music education, raise interest in young people for music and fed enrolment in TMS as well as in the public schools related to the conservatoire filière. Conclusions emphasise the existence of a polycentric system of music culture production which needs to acknowledge the risk of being trapped in a static disequilibrium, while recognising change and the need to support and promote a culture of cooperation among schools and across layered institutional levels over time.
Research limitations/implications
Further research can observe this system of cultural production over time, to appreciate changes and organisational tranformations, while introducing comparative analysis with other systems in different regions.
Practical implications
The relationship between the public and private sectors to design, organise and manage activities of collective interest (in the social, cultural, sporting and other fields) can increasingly become an effective and efficient alternative to the traditional bureaucratic as well as to the competitive method. For this to happen, however, all actors involved must be aware not only of areas of efficiency but also of inefficiency. To remedy the latter, corrective measures will have to be introduced. For example, fostering and improving “co-programmazione” and “co-progettazione” means giving all stakeholders involved the opportunity to actively participate. Should the number of participants increase, more discussion fora could be set up because one alone may not be sufficient to foster maximum involvement, to enhance different points of view, to allow for intersectoral and multidisciplinary interpretations and responses.
Social implications
The system governance based on co-programming and co-design has allowed – despite limitations – to pursue educational purposes and thus well-being for the users, as well as for the teachers and the community as a whole. The continuity of this educational and cultural action has been guaranteed by the economic and financial sustainability of the schools, which is highly dependent on the public actor funding personnel costs, and in turn tied to the number of students (demand) attending each school. Actors embedded in the system need to build awareness of industry and cultural changes and knowledge of how to introduce more adaptive capacity. This points towards the need for strengthening networking capacity and collaboration among schools and other relevant stakeholders.
Originality/value
The case presented is a unique system of music culture production in Italy, and its governance has never been addressed by previous studies. It provides an application of shared administration to which public administrations and communities can learn to improve access to music culture and education. For public and private organisations to take advantage of the method of “co-programmazione” and “co-progettazione”, to make the production of a meritorious good more efficient and to favour its maximum accessibility, this study considers the strengths and weaknesses of this approach, or the areas of efficiency and inefficiency, for which new measures will have to be introduced.
Details
Keywords
Nigatu Wassie, Bekele Melese and Nahom Eyasu
The purpose of this study is to investigate the socioeconomic determinants of property crimes on convicted offenders in the Chilga district correctional institution (CDCI).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the socioeconomic determinants of property crimes on convicted offenders in the Chilga district correctional institution (CDCI).
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted a socioeconomic determinant of property crimes on convicted offenders using quantitative research. Respondents consisted of a random sample of 170 convicted offenders in CDCI. This study used descriptive statistics, logistic regression and Pearson correlations for analyzing the quantitative data in CDCI.
Findings
The results of the study showed that the age at first engagement, educational status, offender’s immediate economic situation and previous experience of the offender were the perceived reasons in one’s major property crime offending. However, average monthly income, peer effect and family structure (grown up with) were found to be non-perceived reasons. Youths who are unmarried, illiterate and unemployed offenders had over three times more probabilities of committing theft than robbery and burglary in the winter season, especially in February, because of the determinants of illiteracy and unemployment such as negligence for the future life. Furthermore, the convicted offenders who were illiterate, unemployed and raised by single parents have engaged in theft for the first time, but burglary and robbery by employed and literate offenders in more probable.
Originality/value
This paper takes a fresh perspective on knowledge about property crime and economic as well as criminological theories using various bodies of academic research. This paper’s insight will be helpful to fill the literature gaps; there are lot research studies with little investigations addressing to the issue of the determinants of property crime. It will also be useful for policymakers to mitigate the determinant of property crime.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to challenge the default portrayal of street trade as an informal occupation and spatial practice, by examining comparatively the changes in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to challenge the default portrayal of street trade as an informal occupation and spatial practice, by examining comparatively the changes in the regulatory frameworks of two politically distinct city administrations in Latin America since the introduction of the informal economy debate.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws from a comparative case study design to synthesize evidence from historical administrative records, secondary research and materials from a two-year fieldwork carried out in Lima and Bogotá in 2008 and 2009.
Findings
The author argues that the incorporation of the informal economy framework into local governments’ policymaking has reframed street trade as a subject of policy. Since the 1970s, the author traces a shift from worker-centered initiatives, through the deregulation of street trade, to entrepreneurial-centered approaches. Nowadays, both, Lima’s neoliberal governance focusing on “formalizing” and Bogotá’s socialist/progressive governance aiming at “upgrading” street trade respond more explicitly to distinct assessments about the informal economy – legalist and dualist, respectively. Yet, both cities converge in that the closer street trade is perceived as an informal occupation; the more likely policy initiatives decouple the right to work from the right to access public space, spurring more marginal forms of street vending.
Originality/value
Even though the informal economy framework has helped to draw attention to important policy issues locally, nationally and internationally, this paper calls for a critical revision of such framing at the local level to allow for inclusive urban governance.
Details