Studying the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) through the lens of international relations (IR) theory, Chen argues that it is inappropriate to treat the AIIB as either a revisionist or a complementary institution. Instead, the bank is still evolving and the interaction of power, interests, and status that will determine whether the bank will go wild. Theoretically, the current shape of the AIIB will influence global strategic conditions and global perceptions of the bank itself, consequently affecting China's level of dissatisfaction with its power and status in the international financial system and maneuvering in the AIIB. To empirically show that, this book presents the evolution of the AIIB, compares the bank with its main competitors in the Asia-Pacific region, and conducts ten comparative case studies to show how countries around the world have positioned themselves in response to the emergence of the AIIB. This book presents critical insights for scholars and foreign-policy practitioners to understand China's surging influence in international organizations and how China can shape the world order. It should prove of interest to students and scholars of IR, strategic studies, China Studies, Asian Studies, developmental studies, economics, and global finance.

This book addresses a wide range of migration-related issues in the European context and examines the socioeconomic consequences of migratory flows throughout Europe, focusing on a number of emblematic European countries. The book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the tension between migrants and their integration processes in the receiving country, which is deeply influenced by the attitude of the local population and the different approach to highly and less skilled immigrants. The second part analyses the impact of migration on the economic structure of the receiving country, while the third part explores the varying degree of immigrants' socioeconomic integration in the country of destination. The book offers an essential interdisciplinary contribution to the issue of migration and provides readers with a better understanding of the effects that different forms of migration have had and will continue to exert on economic and social change in host countries. It also examines migration policy issues and builds on historical and empirical case studies with policy recommendations on labour market, integration and welfare policy issues. The book is addressed to a wide audience, including researchers, academics and students of economics, sociology, politics and history, as well as government/EU officials working on migration topics.

Why are some places in the world characterized by better social service provision and welfare outcomes than others? In a world in which millions of people, particularly in developing countries, continue to lead lives plagued by illiteracy and ill-health, understanding the conditions that promote social welfare is of critical importance to political scientists and policy makers alike. Drawing on a multi-method study, from the late-nineteenth century to the present, of the stark variations in educational and health outcomes within a large, federal, multiethnic developing country - India - this book develops an argument for the power of collective identity as an impetus for state prioritization of social welfare. Such an argument not only marks an important break from the dominant negative perceptions of identity politics but also presents a novel theoretical framework to understand welfare provision.

The 2007-2008 financial crisis exposed the shortcomings of mainstream economic theory with economists unprepared to deal with it. In the face of this, a major rethinking of economics seems necessary and in presenting alternative approaches to economic theory, this book contributes to the rebuilding of the discipline. This volume brings together contributions from different perspectives and theoretical approaches that address the challenge of updating the economic theory corpus and seek to recover prestige for this discipline after the failure of neoclassical economics. It addresses a range of topics, including the complexity approach to economics, category theory, the Post-Keynesian approach to micro and macroeconomics, financialisation, multidimensional analysis and ecological economics. The book is aimed at economics scholars, researchers, academics and practitioners, as well as upper undergraduates and graduates in this area of knowledge. It may also be of interest for people interested in methodological issues in economics and the relationship between economic theory and the real world.

This book analyses the question of the right to the city, informal economies and the non-western shape of neoliberal governance in India through a new analytic: the right to sell. The book examines why and how states attempt to curb, control, and eliminate markets of urban informal street vendors. Focusing on Kolkata, the author provides a theoretical explanation of this puzzle by distilling and analysing the inherent tensions among the constitutive elements of neoliberal governance, namely, growth imperative, market activism, and corporatization, and demonstrates its implications for the formal/informal boundaries of the economy. A useful addition to the existing literatures on the right to the city, informal economies, and the shapes that neoliberalism takes in the non-west, the book provides a non-western counter to accounts of neoliberalism and will be of interest to academics working in the fields of South Asian Studies, Urban Studies, and Political Economy.

This book examines the effect of economic power on a state's strategic autonomy. Strategic autonomy is a fundamental condition for the availability of strategic options in the interaction of states. This book provides the first clear operational definition of the concept and offers an analysis of the relevance of the national economy to strategic autonomy. The main sources of economic power - size of the economy, position in trade and technological networks, savings, wealth, and finance - and their impact on strategic autonomy are analyzed in depth. The strategic governance of the national economy is also addressed as a way of ensuring that national economic power can work as strategic power for a country, providing it with strategic autonomy. The strategies pursued by China - which in under four decades has gone from an underdeveloped state to the main challenger of the dominant world power - and Germany - which, despite being defeated in World War II, having no nuclear weapons and having chosen to be a "civilian power", became the dominant power in Europe - are analyzed in depth, as two paradigmatic examples of the theory developed by the book. This book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, economics, foreign policy and International Relations.

The concept of economic democracy is traditionally identified with workplace democracy and participation at the enterprise level. This is a very important dimension, but the concept of new economic democracy also recognizes that, in a world of increasing complexity, the principles of democratic deliberation and social participation have to be applied to other areas as well. This book takes a fresh look at economic democracy from various perspectives. It provides rich historical narratives of episodes of social participation in the economy and society, more broadly, from the 19th to the 21st century. It dissects the various analytical underpinnings informing the theory of economic democracy connecting it with collective choice, social contract theory, Marxian analysis and libertarian critiques. The book identifies new areas of application of the principles of democratic deliberation and oversight such as the adoption of austerity policies, the signing of free trade agreements, the conduct of central bank policies, international investment treaties and natural resource management. It takes a guided tour through the evolution of economic, social and cultural rights and their impact on the design and implementation of social policy and the welfare/ developmental state. The book expands the notion of economic democracy from factory level to the macro-economy and then to global economic governance. It also discusses the critical links between political democracy and economic democracy and the need for a more democratic and socially equitable economy in the 21st century. This volume will find an audience among economists, political scientists, social activists, philosophers and sociologists.

Drawing on an interdisciplinary panel of contributors, this book presents a stimulating dialogue between economics and art theory and considers how this might aid our understanding of both areas of research. The collection explores themes which both fields share, including rationality, abstraction and model building, the nature of social reality, representation and transformation. The contributions employ a broad range of methods to investigate the links between economics and art, and their coverage includes architecture, history of ideas, art theory, literature studies and beyond. This innovative volume will be of interest to advanced students and scholars of economic theory, cultural economics, literary and art theory and it intends to be a starting point for new avenues of interdisciplinary research.

Classical Economics, Keynes and Money casts new light on an approach to economic theory and policy that combines the modern classical theory of prices and income distribution with a Keynesian analysis of money and finance. Structured in four parts, the work considers issues within classical economics, monetary economics, Keynesian and post-Keynesian Economics, rationality and economic methodology. These themes are all central to the work of Carlo Panico, and the chapters both reflect on and build on his key contributions to the field. This collection is of interest to advanced students and researchers in the history of economic thought, monetary theory, financial economics and heterodox economics.

Ever since Marx, the future of capitalism has been fiercely debated. Marx and his followers predicted capitalism will end by violent overthrow, while others prophesied its demise will be the result of collapsing under its own weight. Still others argue that capitalism will not only continue to exist but continue to expand globally. This book takes a distinctively different approach by presenting solid evidence that capitalism has already ended. The author argues that corporate statutory law, securities laws, and generally accepted accounting principles have combined to cause the extinction of capitalists. Without capitalists as owners of capital, there can be no capitalism. The book examines the factors that converged to contribute to and hasten the extinction of capitalists, and thus of capitalism as an economic system, in an ironic case of the law of unintended consequences. The very things that were intended to promote, protect, and sustain capitalism are the things that caused its death. It exposes the fallacy that capitalism as an economic system not only continues to exist but is expanding globally. Capitalism is extinct and the social system constructed on capitalism as an economic system cannot be sustained. This book will appeal to economists, accountants, historians, political scientists, lawyers and sociologists, as well as students of those disciplines.

Demonstrates the imbalanced integration as the main character of China's urban-rural economic relationship since reform and opening up. Reveals the critical logic underlying the evolution of China's urban-rural economic relationship since 1949. Puts forward an alternative therectical framework based on political economy.

This book examines how different levels and forms of human collectivity have interacted, voluntarily or coercively, and how these transformed societies and polities. Every size and type of human collective involve co-operation among members and competition with other groups. The two most recent trends in human relations - individualism and economic globalisation - have contributed to authoritarianism in politics and inequality among citizens. This book analyses how collective action might offset the most destructive consequences for well-being of these two tendencies. It explores these manifestations of collective action and their impact on social relations and social policies in the developed world. Further, the volume sets out a programme for more progressive and egalitarian future for global populations. Engaging, accessible and transdisciplinary, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics and public policy, sociology, social psychology, social policy and social work, as well as political philosophy, political economy and migration studies.

Paper and the British Empire examines the evolution of the paper industry within British organisational frameworks and highlights the role of the Empire as a market and business-making area in a world of shrinking commerce and rising trade barriers. Drawing on a valuable range of primary sources, this book covers the period 1861-1960 and examines events from the establishment of free trade backed by the gold standard to Britain's membership of the European Free Trade Association. In the field of the paper industry, the speed and intensity of the industrialisation process around the globe have been shaped by a wide variety of variables, including the surrounding institutional framework; entrepreneurial and organisational strategies; the cost and accessibility of transport; and the availability of capital, knowledge, energy resources, and technology. The supply of papermaking raw materials has also been key and has historically been the most important determinant for geographical location and dominance. The research in this work focuses on the roles played by such variants, on the one hand, and demand characteristics on the other. In particular, it considers developments connected to a quest for Empire-grown raw materials in order to tackle the problem of the lack of indigenous raw materials and the resulting dependence on Scandinavian wood pulp imports. This text is of considerable interest to advanced students and researchers in economic history, business history, and the paper industry, and will also be useful to organisations working within the pulp and paper industries.

Few ideas in the past century have had wider financial, political, and governmental impact than that of economic growth. The common belief that endless economic growth, as measured by Gross Domestic Product, is not only possible but actually essential for the flourishing of civilization remains a powerful policy goal and aspiration for many. In The Mismeasure of Progress, Stephen J. Macekura exposes a historical road not taken, illuminating the stories of the activists, intellectuals, and other leaders who long argued that GDP growth was not all it was cracked up to be. Beginning with the rise of the growth paradigm in the 1940s and 1950s and continuing through the present day, The Mismeasure of Progress is the first book on the myriad thinkers who argued against growth and the conventional way progress had been measured and defined. For growth critics, questioning the meaning and measurement of growth was a necessary first step to creating a more just, equal, and sustainable world. These critics argued that focusing on growth alone would not resolve social, political, and environmental problems, and they put forth alternate methods for defining and measuring human progress. In today's global political scene--marked by vast inequalities of power and wealth and made even more fraught by a global climate emergency--the ideas presented by these earlier critics of growth resonate more loudly than ever. Economic growth appealed to many political leaders because it allowed them to avoid addressing political trade-offs and class conflict. It sustained the fiction that humans are somehow separate from nonhuman "nature," ignoring the intimate and dense connections between the two. In order to create a truly just and equitable society, Macekura argues, we need a clear understanding of our collective needs beyond growth and more holistic definitions of progress that transcend economic metrics like GDP.

Economics used to be called political economy, and the loss of the "political" tracks the ascendance of the idea of rational choice within the discipline. Where does this idea of economic rationality - choosing to maximize benefits and minimize costs - come from? What are the consequences of its rise? In this new book, Stephen Engelmann assesses these questions through a consideration of the often-hidden links between choice and government, ranging from the Benthamic utilitarianism that inspired modern economics to the contemporary economic psychologists trying to nudge everyone to choose more rationally. Multiple global crises are exposing how deficient economic rationality is as a political theory, since a focus on choice turns actors away from relations in the common. Political economy once targeted aristocratic rule - heralding a politics and ethics of egalitarian self-command and spurring democratic reform - but economics allows domination and forecloses alternatives to it. This accessible volume will be of interest to students and scholars of politics and economics, and to general readers concerned about the various ways that psychology and management have infiltrated our politics.

This book offers insights into the development of social welfare policies by exploring the interconnections between policies and practice throughout history. It challenges tacitly accepted arguments that favour particular approaches to welfare, such as conditionality and eligibility. It provides examples of enduring social assumptions which influence the way we perform social welfare, such as the equivocal position of women in social welfare and the unintended consequences of reforms such as Universal Credit. By identifying continuities in welfare policy, practice and thought, it offers the potential for the development of new thinking, policy making and practice.

Neoliberal-driven austerity has changed the role of the state, public service provision and citizenship. Thriving in today's society is a challenge for communities around the world as governments increasingly promote privatisation, centralised control, individual responsibility and battle with the impacts of Covid19. Co-authored by practitioners and academics and based on case studies of collaborations between civil society and the civic university, this book uses the North East of England as a lens to explore how different communities have responded to changing circumstances. The case studies present examples of actions aiming to create hope and inspiration for communities in challenging times.

This book is a collection of critical engagements with Andrew Sayer, one of the foremost postdisciplinary thinkers of our times, with responses from Sayer himself. Sayer's ground-breaking contributions to the fields of geography, political economy and social theory have reshaped the terms of engagement with issues and debates running from the methodology of social science through to the environment, and industrial development to the ethical dimensions of everyday life. Transatlantic scholars across a wide range of fields explore his work across four main areas: critical realism; moral economy; political economy; and relations between social theory, normativity and class. This is the first full-length critical assessment of Sayer's work. It will be of interest to readers in sociology, economics, political economy, social and political philosophy, ethics, social policy, geography and urban studies, from upper-undergraduate levels upwards.

This book moves away from the orthodox neoliberal paradigm to suggest a new framework linking social policy with citizenship and transformation. The interjection of nation building, public society and public provisioning to the study of education, healthcare and employment caters to the needs of citizens equitably. By combining and coagulating these three broad arenas of politico-economic discussion, this book takes a new approach to the analysis of social policymaking in developing countries to indicate the drivers and triggers of transformation. It makes comprehensive, thorough critical comparisons between the trajectories of developed and developing countries, finds out the gaps in transformation and suggests drivers for changes. The intentions of social policymaking, as proposed in the book, are to curb the growing inequalities in the forms of class, power and marginalisation. The chapters on education focus on provisioning of public goods for skills formation, innovation and citizenship education. The sections on healthcare centre on universal health care as opposed to universal health coverage by analysing access, healthcare-seeking behaviour, price setting, market provisioning etc. For the chapters on employment, propositions are posited regarding the expansion of productive capacity, factor mobility and social security to ensure work for all. Besides theorising education, healthcare and employment based on public provisioning by the people's state, underwritten by a public society, the book provides feasible solutions through data sourced from all major international organisations. In addition, it recognises the unique postcolonial struggles and aspirations of the developing countries, and accordingly resorts to defining the normative principles, reflecting nuances, subtleties and peculiarities. This book is a continuation of the author's Fiscal and Monetary Policies in Developing Countries: State, Citizenship and Transformation (Routledge) and will draw the attention of scholars and researchers who wish to gain a deeper understanding of, and pragmatic solutions to, social policies that address the transformational pathways of developing countries, accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our socio-economic innovation ecosystem is riddled with ever-increasing complexity, as we are faced with more frequent and intense shocks, such as COVID-19. Unfortunately, addressing complexity requires a different kind of economic governance. There is increasing pressure on economics to not only going beyond its traditional mainstream boundaries but also to tackle real-world problems, such as fostering structural change, enhancing sustained growth, promoting inclusive development in the era of the digital economy, and boosting green growth, while addressing the divide between the financial sector and the real economy. This book demonstrates how to apply complexity science to economics in an effective and instructive way, in the interest of life-enhancing policies. The book revolves around the non-negligible problem of why economics, to date, seems to be inadequate in guiding economic governance to navigate through real and ever-intensifying complex socio-economic and environmental challenges. With its interdisciplinary approach, the book scans the nuanced nexus between complexity and economics by incorporating, as well as transcending, the state-of-the-art literature. It identifies ways to trigger opportunities for behavioural change in the economic profession with respect to how and what to teach, introducing and developing further complexity economics taking into account the configuration of its main principles and outlining the silhouette of next-generation economic governance. The book deciphers recommendations for economic theory, practice, education and economic governance. It will be of interest to students, scholars, academics, think-tank researchers and economic policy practitioners at the national and/or supranational levels.

In his new book, Hanna Samir Kassab examines changes and trends in international politics and the competition between great powers for control of the international system. He argues that the increase in geopolitical, economic, nationalist, and resource competition between three great powers, the United States, China, and Russia, points to the changing structure of the international system. This competition is a systemic one, focusing more on the rules and norms that defined the system since the end of the Cold War. This American-led unipolar order is translating into a multipolar one. Kassab begins by tracing the decline of the United States after the Iraq War (2003) and the Great Recession (2008) as well as the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia. He describes major foreign policy changes from George H.W. Bush to Donald J. Trump and how the various administrations approached the international system. Russia and China will increase their international influence as the United States pulls back from the international system. Written using simple jargon, Globalization, Multipolarity and Great Power Competition is equally accessible to academics and casual readers and laypeople interested in international politics.

A unique study on the impact of public expenditure allocations in achieving income equality goals in Malaysia.

Recent decades have witnessed both a renewed energy in feminist activism and widespread attacks taking back hard-won rights. Despite powerful feminist movements, the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly undermined the progress women have struggled for decades to achieve; how can this be? What explains this paradox of a strong feminist movement coexisting with stubborn patriarchal arrangements? How can we stop the next global catastrophe initiating a similar backlash? This book suggests that the limitations of social theory prevent feminist strategies from initiating transformative changes and achieving permanent gains. It investigates the impact of theoretical shortcomings upon feminist strategies by engaging with two clusters of work: ungendered accounts of capitalist development and theories on gendered oppression and inequality. Decentring feminist theorising grounded in histories and developments of the global North, the book provides an original theory of the patriarchal system by analysing changes within its forms and degrees as well as investigating the relationship between the gender, class and race-ethnicity based inequalities. Turkey offers a case that challenges assumptions and calls for rethinking major feminist categories and theories, thereby shedding light on the dynamics of social change in the global South. The timely intervention of this book is, therefore, crucial for feminist strategies going forward. The book emerges at the intersections between Gender, International Development, Political Economy, and Sociology and its main readership will be found in, but not limited to, these disciplinary fields. The material covered in this book will be of great interest to students and researchers in these areas as well as policy makers and feminist activists.

This book is a series of vignettes about changes to Australian institutions, organisations and systems that have significantly improved economic and social well-being for Australians. Economic system innovations have had a profound impact on our lives, from the invention of banking in the middle ages to the organisations established by the United Nations post-WWII. However, their intangible nature means that few people identify these changes alongside physical inventions. Although invention is normally an incremental process, with copying and adaption being the norm, the authors focus on reforms that were principally new to the world at the time of implementation. The book is not about the reforms and how well they worked, per se, rather about the people and the political struggle to get them adopted. The authors have chosen to focus on the stories where Australia has either taken a global leadership role or made a considerable advance in a particular new institution. What these stories show is that leadership in institutional innovation can come from many quarters: academia, the community, politics and the bureaucracy. Often the most successful teams combine people from all quarters albeit with support from the fourth estate. The work shows how many reforms began with modest beginnings, often an ordinary person with a vision, and how it takes several attempts to get change accepted. This key volume can be used to teach students of economics, political economy and politics. It illustrates the type of networks, actions and advocacy that is needed to get reform started and implemented and is written in a style to engage policy and think-tank audiences.

This book analyzes the origins and the impacts of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on diplomacy, economy (trade, investment, finance), and security among selected host countries and regions in Asia, Africa, and the European Union. By examining the geopolitical economy of BRI activities, it concisely describes the impact of the rise of China and its BRI policy strategy on the reshaping of world order and global governance. This volume explores the BRI by addressing several key questions including: * Why did the Chinese leadership set up the BRI? * What are the activities of BRI projects in the participating countries and related regions? * What are the challenges to the successful implementation of the BRI in the various countries and regions? Moreover, through its analysis of the abovementioned questions, it provides novel contributions to the ongoing scholarly debates between Chinese and non-Chinese scholars - among others, the debate surrounding the "rise of China" and its impact on global governance. Featuring an extensive variety of expert contributors, this study will be an essential reading for students and scholars of International Relations and Global Political Economy as well as Chinese politics and those with an interest in the Belt and Road Initiative more broadly.