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Andrew Williams and I have argued since the early 1990s that not only have equity (and subsequently most other assets classes) come to be dominated by institutional ownership of various types, an observation that many have made and documented at length, but that the majority of those institutions are fiduciary ones (primarily pension and mutual funds in the United States). More recently pension and mutual funds have been the source of the majority of funds for many ‘alternative’ investments, such as hedge funds, private equity and commodity funds. In the last two decades there have been parallel developments in other countries, although the form of the institutional investors vary widely, from fiduciary ones mostly in common law countries to fiduciary-like ones in many civil law jurisdictions (e.g. the Netherlands), to some sovereign wealth funds (e.g. Norway and Australia and some others) which do not have fiduciary obligations as such, but in their legal mandates and practices are structured much like those that are fiduciary or fiduciary like. As discussed below, all these (in addition to some other large institutional owners) are universal owners, that is, they own a representative cross section of their investment universe (which increasingly is a global universe). Given their ownership structure characterised by a large degree of diversification, universal owners' long-term interests to a large degree coincide with the economy as a whole.

Applying universal ownership theory and drawing on a multiplecase study design, this study aims to analyze what drives institutional investors to engage with government entities and what challenges they find in the process.

The authors relied on document analysis and conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with representatives from asset owners, asset managers, investor associations and academia.

The authors identify a trend where investors conduct policy engagement to fulfill their fiduciary duty, improve investment risk management and create an enabling environment for sustainable investments. As for engagement challenges, investors report the longer-term horizon, a perceived limited influence toward governments, the need for capacity building for investors and governments, as well as the difficulty in accessing government representatives.

This research contributes to filling a gap in the literature on this new form of investor activism, as a growing number of investors engage with sovereign entities on environmental, social and governance issues.

This paper aims to discuss the questioning around the current suitability of ownership both for accessing to certain property (housing, to be more specific) and chattels (digital contents, animals and autonomous robots) that have recently flourished, favored by technological advances and the change in the values of the millennials’ in a context of crisis.

The process of substitution (e.g. through alternative housing tenures, such as intermediate tenures and collaborative housing, licensing digital contents) or erosion/elimination (e.g. owning animals and robots, tokenization through blockchain) of ownership through key types of property and chattels.

Ownership, both of land and goods, is again at the stake. Technological advances and/or new values of millennials in a context of crisis have led to questioning the suitability of ownership to favor universal access to housing, of holding music and other digital contents, have limited the faculties of animals’ and pets’ owners and are favoring the evolution of autonomous robots into subjects of law rather than mere objects.

Only key property (housing) and chattels are studied (digital contents, animals, robots). There is no broad study of the global current situation of ownership.

It is discussed how the changes of values and technological advances in a context of crisis have impacted in the strength and reliability of ownership to allow access to property and chattels.

These changes in ownership change how we can access to property (housing) and to chattels (digital media) and even to changes in what is considered “object” such as what is happening in Europe with animals and robots.

This is a new approach to consequences of the crisis in the field of housing (fractioning of ownership -temporal and shared ownership-, collaborative economy) and a change of values in the new millennial generation (animals) in this context and owing to the advance of the new technologies (robots). Is ownership again at the stake?

In the new development stage of comprehensively building a socialist modern state, it is imperative to adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, comprehensively summarize China's practical experiences in economic development, strengthen research on capital issues, construct theories of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics regarding capital and provide scientific theoretical guidance for further promoting the positive role of various types of capital while preventing and overcoming their negative effects, which is a major theoretical issue and a glorious task for the theoretical and economic circles in China.

From the perspective of Marx's theory on capital and historical development, modern capital represents the organizational mode of socialized mass production and market economy. It serves as both the economic foundation of bourgeois society and a tool for socialist economic development.

The market economy represents an inevitable historical stage and form of socialist economic development, necessitating the adoption of capital as an organizational form within socialist economies.

The utilization of capital to advance a socialist economy is a remarkable achievement by the CPC and Chinese people, representing a significant innovation in both theory and practice. The role of capital is inherently dual under any social condition. In the context of a socialist system, capital can play a positive role effectively, and its behavior can be guided and regulated correctly to curb its negative or even destructive impact.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between cooperative practices of accountability, cooperative ownership, advanced communication and non-financial performance in savings and credit cooperative societies.

The study uses a cross-sectional research design and adopted a mixed methodological approach were hypotheses were statistically tested using structural equation modeling based on survey data (n = 220) and narratives from qualitative findings supported the quantitative findings from savings and credit cooperative societies.

The findings reveal that cooperative practices of accountability, cooperative ownership and advanced communication are significantly and positively associated with non-financial performance of savings and credit cooperative societies.

This study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between cooperative practices of accountability, cooperative ownership and advanced communication and non-financial performance in savings and credit cooperative societies in emerging economies like Uganda. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is limited or no study that has used the construct of agency theory in explaining the relationship between cooperative practices and non-financial performance in savings and credit cooperative societies.

This paper aims to address the issues of Asian countries toward why females are discouraged and more likely to be removed from the formal financial system than males. Further, whether there is any connection between religion and women’s financial inclusion is also addressed.

This paper explores gender disparities in the use of structured financial services through multilevel models tailored to the individual. The data from 2004 to 2017 have been used for eight South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan. We used a multilevel modeling methodology to estimate the impact of the socio-economic climate on women’s financial inclusion while controlling for individual-level features, with all control variables included, the two-level logistic regression model used for this study.

The results of this study demonstrate that sex appears to be strongly correlated with the usage of financial services. The study also found that in nations where religious restrictions limit women’s willingness to work for a living, they are less likely than males to own a bank account. However, through legislation and regulations, countries that encourage gender equality in the labor market and have effective regulatory mechanisms to maintain these initiatives appear to have more financially active women.

This research advises that government authorities strengthen women’s empowerment in South Asian countries.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that explains the linkage between financial inclusion and women empowerment and will contribute to existing knowledge.

Against the backdrop of falling standards and failing government policies in the education sector in Nigeria, this paper aimed to investigate how and why non-state actors can make a significant impact on the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals for universal basic education (UBE).

This study draws from semi-structured interviews of 15 heads and proprietors – six state-funded schools, six faith schools and three other privately owned schools – to examine and compare the different motivations, guiding principles and overall impact of these actors in the education sector.

Religious actors, along with private providers, are making a significant contribution to the provision of basic education in Nigeria. Students from faith schools tend to perform better academically and they also tend to be more disciplined and resourceful. However, because these schools are fee-paying, fewer households are able to access them.

The findings highlight the need to facilitate better cooperation and knowledge transfer activities between public, private and faith schools. It also emphasises the need for better government commitment and investment in provision of resources and facilities, effort in regulating the curriculum and regular inspection and quality monitoring of public schools.

The study highlights, on the one hand, the superior capacity of non-state actors – especially religious actors – to deploy their vast social capital towards the mobilisation of funds and human resources. On the other hand, while they have made inroads in their share of total national school enrolment, non-state actors have not made significant impact on access to quality education, owing to high fees and entry barriers faced by poorer households.

Carries out a statistical and economic analysis of socio‐economic survey results on the Mi’kmaq People of Cape Breton in the light of the criterion of the social wellbeing function. Focuses on studying the social wellbeing criterion with the socio‐economic variables involved in the surveys in a relational perspective among alternatives. Points out that this approach is distinct from the neoclassical resource substitution method. Instead, the relational perspective is shown to be premissed on a system of universal complementarities.

The aim of this paper is to outline and compare the land ownership, land taxes and citizens' dividend proposals by Thomas Paine and Thomas Spence.

Paine wrote “Agrarian justice” in which he argued that every proprietor of cultivated land owes to the society a ground‐rent for the land which the person holds because it is common property. This ground rent would take the form of a tax per year of 10 per cent on inheritances. It is this ground‐rent that would fund the payments made to every person based on some age restrictions. In response, Spence wrote “The rights of infants” in which he went a step further as he recommended the abolition of aristocracy. As a result, there would have been common ownership of land and revenue derived from land would be administered by the parishes and distributed to everyone equally.

In assessing the two proposals using the citizens' dividend criterion, each proposal has consistent and inconsistent elements.

It can be argued that the two proposals are primitive versions of citizens' dividend as espoused today.

The paper contributes to knowledge regarding the debate at the time. During that period, public opinion associated classical political economy with a resolute denial of the right to subsistence to the poor and vigorous opposition to the English Poor Law based on the ideas of Malthus. Students of social economics would benefit from this paper in placing on equal footnoting in the historical debate the counter‐proposals to the dominant position at the time.