Representing an innovative approach to the analysis of the economic geography of capitalism, this stimulating book develops an analytical political economic framework. Part 1 provides an introductory overvi9ew fo some of the fundamental debates about price, profits and value in economics which underlie the analytical political economy approach. Part 2 analyzes the special role of space and transportation in commodity production and the spatial organization of the economy that this implies. Parts 3 and 4 examine the conflicting goals and actions of different social clases and individuals and how these are complicated by space, concluding with a detailed analysis of capitalists' strategiesas they cope with uncertainty and disequilibrium.

This is the only in-depth study of social policies in Southeast Asia. It compares social security, health and education policies in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. After describing the policies and assessing their adequacy and equity implications, it examines the forces that have shaped them. It concludes that social programs (except for primary education) in the region are both inadequate and inequitable. It argues that the reason for this is political rather than cultural or socio-economic.

The discourse of Confucian Capitalism has been crucial in shaping our understanding of the brilliant economic successes of the Chinese diaspora all over the world. From this perspective, hard work, family values, and communal cohesion, as well as business practices based on sentiment, trust, and social networks, are the legendary means of explaining the wealth and commercial talent of these remarkable people. The book examines the subject of Chinese business' by exposing the enduring myth about the determining effects of these values and practices supposedly derived from Confucianism. Such myth relies on an ahistorical and essentialised notion of Chinese Culture', and brings into focus three sites of controversy: the economically driven Chinese subject, work-place relations characterised by consensus and cultural sharing, and an operating ethos of collectivist, pre-capitalist sociality. In its interrogation of the discourse of Confucian capitalism, it is the aim of this book to arrive at a critically informed and socially realistic understanding of Chinese business. The author combines abstract analysis with examples from anthropological fieldwork among Chinese traders in Sarawak, East Malaysia. By anchoring theoretical discussion to real case-studies, the multi-disciplinary approach of this book offers a useful insight into Chinese business activities, and contributes to current debates in cultural studies, economic anthropology, the economic performance of overseas Chinese, and neo-Confucian societies more generally.

This ambitious collection follows the evolution of capitalism from its origins in 13th-century European towns to its 16th-century expansion into Asia, Africa and South America and on to the global capitalism of modern day. Written by distinguished historians and social scientists, the chapters examine capitalism and its critics and the level of variation and convergence in its operation across locations. The authors illuminate the aspects of capitalism that have encouraged, but also limited, social responsibility and environmental sustainability. Covering times, places and topics that have often been overlooked in the existing literature, this important contribution to the field of economic history charts the most comprehensive chronology of capitalism to date.

Southeast Asia: A Region in Transition, first published in 1991, is a contemporary human geography of the 'market' economies of the region usually defined by membership of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Organized thematically, the chapters deal with the environment and development, plural societies, agrarian change and urbanization. This thematic approach provides a comprehensive picture of the ASEAN countries and gives a depth of coverage often lacking in other regional geographies. With a detailed introduction dealing with the physical environment and history of the region, this work will be of great value to students studying the human geography of Southeast Asia, as well as those with a more general interest in the issues and developments affecting the ASEAN region.

What is the connection between the sleaziness of Harvey Weinstein's 'business meetings' and the passionless doctrine of neoclassical economics? In this witty and incisive examination of the new economy, Peter Fleming argues that they are closer than you might think. The quest to rid society of bureaucracy, shrink government and burn red tape has certainly made capitalism 'more human', but not in the family-friendly way envisaged by free-market gurus. Increasing informality has led to a capitalism fuelled by limitless exploitation and increasingly seedy methods of management, from semi-feudal workplace hazing rituals and predatory middle-managers with an axe to grind to arbitrary zero-hours contracts, Uber and, perhaps worst of all, the compulsory gym session with your boss. Fleming dubs this 'Sugar Daddy Capitalism' after the controversial dating-app wealthy businessmen use to meet young girls, most of whom are struggling with university fees. What seems like a creepy outlier is actually a prescient metaphor for our whole economy: an anonymous and impersonal cash system that is also intent on getting under your skin, extra close and capable of ruining everything if you say ... 'no'.

Invented in post-industrial 19th century Europe, the idea of capitalism originally sought to describe and explain the distinctive characteristics of an emerging modern world. Since then, capitalism has served to identify an economic system, a particular social structure, and a set of cultural values and mental attitudes. The subject of continuous debate among scholars for more than a century, capitalism has been accorded so many definitions, it is now virtually meaningless. Depending upon the interpreter, capitalism is synonymous with the market economy, the division of labor, credit creation, economic concentration, social polarization, class formation, the decline of kinship and community, patriarchy, property rights, contracts, acquisitiveness, the work ethic, conspicuous consumption, individualism and entrepreneurship. Noted economic historian Richard Grassby investigates the origins and evolution of the idea of capitalism to illustrate for readers the true nature, merits, and the future of capitalism. Grassby examines its numerous and often conflicting definitions, and he tests alternative models of capitalism against the historical record to establish when, where, how, and why modern economies and societies emerged. Although Grassby argues that capitalism is a concept with diminished explanatory power, he shows the influence of this powerful idea on the formation of the world we live in. This is required reading for classes on World history, modern European history, and economic history.

The volume analyzes the long-term trajectories of change in the capitalist models of the UK, Germany, Sweden, France, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, and the United States. The case studies identify critical junctures and key periods of change in order to show how institutions are shaped by different sets of socio-political compromises and public policy. The case studies follow a common methodology, comparing change and linkages across six core institutional domains, thus facilitating a comparative understanding of the patterns and drivers of institutional change, as well as how liberalisation impacts countries in similar and dissimilar ways. The historical perspective of the cases highlights the transformative effects of relatively slow and incremental changes. These case studies also make an innovative contribution to examining the linkages between four levels of institutions that regulate the economy - the international, macro (national), meso, and micro. The volume reveals both a common trend toward more liberal forms of capitalism but also variations on this overarching trajectory. Markets themselves create their own dynamics, which have varied effects on firms and other economic actors in historically diverse institutional contexts. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.

The global capitalism perspective is a unique research program focused on understanding relatively recent developments in worldwide social, economic, and political practices related to globalization. At its core, it seeks to contextualize the rearticulation of nation-states and broad geographic regions into highly interdependent networks of production and distribution, and in so doing explain consequent changes in social relations within and between countries in the contemporary era. The present volume contributes to this effort by focusing on social class formation across borders via the processes and actors that make globalized capitalism possible.

The essays presented here offer a wide range of emphases in terms of the particular lenses and evidence they use. They cover such topics as the emergence of a transnational capitalist class-based fascist regime responding to the structural crises of global capitalism as well as the links between global class formation and the US racial project as it relates to electoral politics and demographic changes in the US South.

This book was published as a special issue of Globalizations.

Attaining the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal of Decent Work and Economic Growth focuses on Sustainable Development Goal number eight (SDG8): inclusive and sustainable economic growth and productive employment for all. Examining family businesses in Brazil, UK, Australia, and Algeria, each case study presents a unique perspective from their respective countries of how the SDG8 translates into culture and the practice of doing business, providing insights and key takeaways into how family businesses can play a role promoting decent work and economic growth. The United Nations' (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 Goals pledged by 193 nations in 2015 which would help engender an improved, fairer, and more sustainable world - one in which 'no one is left behind'. The SDGs are a call to action, to develop innovative solutions to the most complex, societal, and environmental global challenges. In Family Businesses on a Mission, series editors Naomi Birdthistle and Rob Hales bring together international case studies to illustrate how family businesses can attain the UN 2030 SDGs. Accessible to those working in the field beyond academia - such as family business practitioners, family business owners, government and policymakers, members of NGOs, business associations and philanthropic centres - the book series equally appeals to those with a general interest in entrepreneurship and business.

The shock waves of conservative advances have reached into every corner of American and British politics. Parties of the right have prospered, while parties of the left have stumbled, retreated, and are now regrouping. The agenda for both right and left is set by the terms of the free-market doctrines that have displaced the post-war consensus politics of liberal capitalism. This volume describes and challenges the ideological basis of the free-market right. Though critiques of the policies of the Reagan and Thatcher governments are hardly in short supply, this major new study offers the most thorough and up-to-date analysis available. No other book considers in such depth conservative ideas and policies on both sides of the Atlantic. It provides the first clear account of the distinction between conservative and other forms of capitalism. It also examines the fault lines dividing opposing camps within conservative capitalism and their consequences for domestic policy in Britain and the US. Linking political theory and public policy, it is one of the few critical appraisals of the New Right based on a clear understanding of what the arguments for the free market really are. Finally, the authors demonstrate what the left needs to learn from its failures, how to remould its understanding of the relationship between politics and the market, and how to recapture the lost initiative.

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND license. This volume analyzes the economic, social, and political challenges that emerging states confront today. Notwithstanding the growing importance of the 'emerging states' in global affairs and governance, many problems requiring immediate solutions have emerged at home largely as a consequence of the rapid economic development and associated sociopolitical changes. The middle-income trap is a major economic challenge faced by emerging states. This volume regards interest coordination for technological upgrading as crucial to avoid the trap and examines how various emerging states are grappling with this challenge by fostering public-private cooperation, voluntary associations of market players, and/or social networks. Social disparity is another serious problem. It is deeply rooted in history in the emerging states such as South Africa and many Latin American countries. However, income distribution is recently deteriorating even in East Asia that was once praised for its high economic growth with equity. Increasing pressure for political opening is another challenge for emerging states. This volume argues that the economic, social, and political problems are interwoven in the sense that the emerging states need to build political consensus in order to tackle the economic and social difficulties. Democratic institutions have not always been successful in this respect.

Employing historical analysis and building on growth theory and modern political economy, Dillon and Wykoff explain Soviet disintegration and analyze efforts to create capitalism in newly independent states. They show how five fundamental economic reforms generate growth, and use an original model to test the connections between reforms, elections and economic performance. The authors examine the progress of six countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Russia and Slovakia) in terms of each country's history and its successful application of the five reforms. Anyone interested in how capitalism works and why pro-market reforms encounter resistance in spite of their potential for generating higher living standards will find this book essential reading.

The global health crisis, exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak, has challenged all sectors of society, including health, economics, finance, and social inequality. The threats and complexities from the COVID-19 pandemic shock are the core subject of this latest volume in the Contributions to Economic Analysis series. The Economics of COVID-19 contains selected contributions analysing the effects of this pandemic, covering macroeconomics, computable general equilibrium models, financial markets, the reduction in seismic noise due to the slowdown in traffic and economic activities caused by the spread of the virus, the rapid surge in the digital transformation of production and consumption. Also included are health studies proposing to improve the traditional epidemic models, the effects of the pandemic on mental health, Minority Ethnic Groups in the UK, as well as the Lombardy region in Italy. The aim of this collection is to spur much needed research into the effects of COVID on the global economy, the health, and financial sectors, as well as its effects on development and growth and economic inequality.

Actor-systems dynamics is an innovative, multidisciplinary methodology for investigating and analyzing social struggles over economic resources and the related interplay between economic and socio-political institutions and processes. The authors, sociologists and economists, offer a systemic perspective on contemporary socio-economic issues such as economic crisis, unemployment, inflation, economic democracy and development; in their analyses, they identify several of the key factors that drive people to interact, to initiate change and transformation as well as to resist such change. Major underlying themes in the book are: Conflict over the distribution of economic resources and economic policies and institutions; the structural bases of economic inequality and conflict; the shaping and reshaping of socio-economic institutions, and the contradictions, conflicts and instabilities evoked by such developments; the failure of orthodox economic theories, including Keynesianism, in the face of recurrent economic crises and instabilities; the development and application of an open, dynamic actor-oriented systems theory - grounded in the social sciences - addressing complex socio-economic phenomena in ways diverging substantially from conventional economics. All in all, the papers collected here deal, on the one hand, with social power, conflict, and struggle concerning economic resources and institutions and, on the other hand, the structural and other factors which drive powering initiatives, conflict, and social innovation and transformation. The book is addressed to a broad spectrum of social and managerial scientists concerned with socio-economic issues, institutions, and development.

'A very good guide to the state we're in' Paul Krugman, New York Review of Books 'A well-written, thought-provoking book by one of America's leading economic thinkers and progressive champions.' Huffington Post Do you recall a time when the income of a single schoolteacher or baker or salesman or mechanic was enough to buy a home, have two cars, and raise a family? Robert Reich does - in the 1950s his father sold clothes to factory workers and the family earnt enough to live comfortably. Today, this middle class is rapidly shrinking: American income inequality and wealth disparity is the greatest it's been in eighty years. As Reich, who served in three US administrations, shows, the threat to capitalism is no longer communism or fascism but a steady undermining of the trust modern societies need for growth and stability. With an exclusive chapter for Icon's edition, Saving Capitalism is passionate yet practical, sweeping yet exactingly argued, a revelatory indictment of the economic status quo and an empowering call to action.

Part 1 of this volume analyses the main issues in the theory of Applied Economics. Part 2 surveys the rise of capitalist enterprise and indicates the importance of certain institutions in the growth and working of the economic system at the start of the twentieth century. The concluding chapters stress the relevance of these considerations to the problems facing politicians and administrators.

This book is devoted to a systems-theoretical presentation of the main results of applying the systemic yoyo model and relevant analytical tools to the topics of money and financial institutions. The author presents the main concepts and results of the subject matter in the language of systems science, which has in the past century prompted revolutionary applicati ons of systems research in various subfields of traditional disciplines. This volume applies a brand new logic of reasoning to some of the unsett led problems in the area of money and banking. Due to the particular systemic approach employed, the reader will be able to see how different economic activities are implicitly related to each other and how financial decisions are holistically made in reference to seemingly unrelated events. That is, the learning of this particular subject matter takes place at a different, more elevated level, from which, among others, economies are respectively seen as both closed and open systems; their interactions emulate those of rotational pools of fluids. This book can be used as a textbook for researchers and graduate students in economics, finance, systems science, and mathematical / systems modeling. It will also be useful as a reference book for applied economists and various policy makers.

Despite the Great Recession, slightly different forms of global capitalism are still portrayed as the only game in town by the vast majority of people in power in the world today. Unbridled growth, trade liberalisation, and competition are advocated as the only or best ways of organizing the contemporary world. Unemployment, yawning gaps between rich and poor, political disengagement, and environmental devastation are too often seen as acceptable side effects of the dominance of neo-liberalism.

But the reality is that capitalism has always been contested and that people have created many other ways of providing for themselves. This book explores economic and organizational possibilities which extend far beyond the narrow imagination of economists and management theorists. Chapters on co-operatives, community currencies, the transition movement, scrounging, co-housing and much more paints a rich picture of the ways in which another word is not only possible, but already taking shape. The aim of this companion is to move beyond complaining about the present and into exploring this diversity of organisational possibilities. Our starting point is a critical analysis of contemporary global capitalism is merely the opening for thinking about organizing as a form of politics by other means, and one that can be driven by the values of solidarity, freedom and responsibility.

This comprehensive companion with an international cast of contributors gives voice to forms of organizing which remain unrepresented or marginalised in organizational studies and conventional politics, yet which offer more promising grounds for social and environmental justice. It is a valuable resource for students, activists and researchers interested in alternative approaches to economy and society in a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields.

Brazil, Russia, India and China are four of the largest and most dynamic contemporary emerging economies in the world. Strong economic growth in each of these economies has been accompanied by the expansion of the advertising and consumer goods sectors. Using a series of country studies, this book explores the dynamics of global capitalism from the perspective of global advertising. The book highlights the on-going expansion of advertising and consumerism against the wider socio-economic, political and cultural contexts. It provides fresh insights about contemporary global priorities, and argues that advertising plays a key role linking culture and the economy. By presenting individual case studies of advertising campaigns, it offers examples of the globalisation of specific brands. Environmental implications of the expansion of advertising and its role in stimulating consumerism are explored in the context of the four emerging economies. The book compares and contrasts the individual country profiles, and makes an assessment of the validity of the argument regarding their projected importance and the likelihood of their future dominance of the global economy.

No sector has been as vital as oil to the Russian economy since Vladimir Putin came to power. The longest serving leader since Stalin, Putin has presided during a period of relative economic prosperity driven largely by booming oil windfalls. Oil in Putin's Russia offers an in-depth examination of the contests over windfalls drawn from the oil sector. Examining how the Russian leadership has guided the process of distributing these windfalls, Adnan Vatansever explores the causes behind key policy continuities and policy reversals during Putin's tenure. The product of over ten years of research, including interviews with decision-makers and oil industry officials, Oil in Putin's Russia takes an innovative approach to understanding the contested nature of resource rents and the policy processes that determine how they are allocated. In so doing, it offers a comprehensive and timely account of politics and policy in contemporary Russia, and a significant contribution to research on the political economy of resource rents in mineral resource-rich countries.

This text offers an accessible guide to the ways in which our growing knowledge of development in early-modern and modernising Japan can throw light on the paths that industrialisation was eventually to take across the globe. It has long been taken as read that the industrial revolution was the product of some form of 'European superiority' dating back to at least early-modern times. In The Great Divergence, Kenneth Pomeranz challenged this assumption on the basis of his evidence that parts of eighteenth-century China were as well placed as northern Europe to achieve sustained economic growth, thus igniting what has been called 'the single most important debate in recent global history'. Japan, as the only non-Western country to experience significant industrialisation before the Second World War, ought to provide crucial - and intriguing - evidence in the debate, but analysis of the Japanese case in such a context has remained limited. This work suggests ways of re-interpreting Japanese economic history in the light of the debate, so arguing that global historians and scholars of Japan have in fact much to say to each other within the comparative framework that the Great Divergence provides.

As a result of the industrialization, urbanization, and population increase during the last two centuries, the global landscape has been irreversibly damaged. These anthropological pressures have create endless problems on the global level, and individuals and organizations are beginning to realize their own ever-increasing responsibility to consider the welfare and interests of all stakeholders as a whole. Although the improvements in the legal framework at the national and international level can be viewed as an important step to protect society and the natural environment, a legal course provides a reactive mode of control rather than a proactive approach. Considering its proactive approach and voluntarily basis, the concept of social responsibility can provide a significant tool of generating a sustainable future. During such a paradigm shift, Contemporary Issues in Corporate Social Responsibility presents the significant roles that universities must embrace in order to take charge of the future. In parallel to those movements, many institutions include a course on social responsibility, yet the studies on the education of social responsibility in the literature show that there is no commonly accepted teaching methods and guiding curriculum of CSR. This book was designed based on the outcomes of an Erasmus Intensive Project (IP) which was organized in Yasar University during June 2012 with the contribution of 9 European universities. Based on the interactive feedback of participants during the project, this book sheds light on the ongoing discussion of corporate social responsibility from a European perspective.

Using formerly secret Soviet state and Communist Party archives to describe the Soviet administrative command system, this study concludes that the system failed not because of Stalin and later leaders, but because of the economic system. It pinpoints the reasons for failure such as poor planning, unreliable supplies, preferential treatment of indigenous enterprises as well as the basic principal-agent conflict between planners and producers, which created a sixty-year reform stalemate. Although the command system was the most significant human experiment of the twentieth century, its basic contradictions and inherent flaws would re-surface if it were to be repeated.