College of Social Sciences

 

 

Wed. 20 November 2024 ‖  3:00-4:30pm  ‖  ARC 225 ‖ Public & Collective Ownership cluster

 

Abstract: There has been growing interest in using conjunctural theory to understand the mutating processes of neoliberalism and the ability of progressive actors to forge transformative change at the local level; particularly in the possibilities of this for democracy, participation, and sustainable cities. Existing work has positioned processes of de-privatisation and remunicipalisation in a conjunctural framing arguing that these developments should be situated as a critical current moment in a longer set of economic, social, and political processes linked to ongoing neoliberalisation. To date, however, there has been little attempt to position labour and trade union actors in these debates. The labour movement has played a key, if uneven and sometimes ambivalent, role in the growing and global wave of remunicipalisation of local public services. Existing scholarship on trade union renewal draws attention to both internal and external factors in shaping union strategy and reconceptualises renewal as a multifaceted transition, highlighting short-term adaptability. Based on interviews with key actors and campaigns at UK trade unions engaged in insourcing or de-privatisation campaigns, this paper engages with union renewal scholarship, but also widens and deepens the lens further towards an analysis that draws attention to longstanding neoliberal dynamics in the UK and the positioning of union actors in adapting to contemporary processes of neoliberal mutation.

Discussant: Saurabh Lall

 

Wed. 27 November 2024 ‖  3:00-4:30pm  ‖  ARC 225 ‖ Global Political Economy cluster

 

Abstract: We investigate how credit constraints for subprime borrowers affect political polarization in the U.S. Using proprietary data on credit reports for 1% of the U.S. population over 15 years, we detect exogenous discontinuities in access to credit. We combine this data with Congressional elections and find that more credit-constrained individuals increase the Republican vote share. We rationalize this finding through political alignment among Republicans for laxer regulation of credit and mortgage markets. Our results are robust to trade exposure. 

 

 

Paper: Alex Cobham (Tax Justice Network) "Corporation Tax and Corporate Tax Evasion" 

Wed. 4 December 2024 ‖  3:00-4:30pm  ‖  ARC 225 ‖ Corporate Accountability cluster

 

Abstract: FORTHCOMING
 

Paper: Patrick Shea (SPS), “The Price of the Past: Examining the Consequences of Odious Debt”

Discussant: Dania Thomas (ASBS)

 

Wed. 2 October 2024 ‖  3:00-4:30pm  ‖  ARC 225  ‖  Global Political Economy cluster

 

Abstract: Abstract: Why do leaders rarely invoke odious debt claims despite their apparent domestic and moral appeal? Blaming past dictators or colonial powers for debt burdens could garner popular support and potentially alleviate financial pressures. Yet, despite their potential for political popularity, such claims are rarely made in practice. This study explores this puzzle, arguing that the international financial consequences of odious debt claims deter leaders from employing this strategy. We argue that these claims not only cast doubt on a country's commitment to its current debt obligations but also signal potential issues with future borrowing, leading to adverse reactions in credit markets. To overcome the empirical challenge posed by leaders' strategic avoidance of these claims, we examine Norway's unique 2006 debt relief action. Norway unilaterally forgave the debts of five countries, explicitly labeling the original loans as ``illegitimate." This action effectively imposed an odious debt claim on these states, bypassing the usual leader-driven process. By comparing these countries to others receiving conventional Norwegian debt relief, we isolate the impact of the ``illegitimate debt" framing. While Norway’s intentions were ostensibly well-intentioned, our analysis reveals that this program restricted the forgiven states’ credit access and increased their bond yield spreads by 300 basis points. This study contributes to understanding sovereign debt politics and the implications of challenging established international political norms.

Hybrid participation available here: https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/89416161281?pwd=WHhhSDVZOUNFcXRtYXJKUmZEa0RJQT09

 

Paper: Melea Press (ASBS), “Institutional Pressures and Who Gets Believed, Trusted, and Dismissed”

 

Wed. 9 October 2024 ‖  3:00-4:30pm  ‖  ARC 237C ‖  Law & Political Economy cluster

 

Abstract: Excluded, marginalized and vulnerable groups are routinely distrusted, accused, and dismissed. They are blamed, shamed and gaslighted. This project would explore the mechanisms of institutional exclusion and the ways that individuals attempt to combat the external assessment of themselves. This builds on the work of Fricker (2007; 2024) by highlighting how social injustice is embedded in the enactment of institutional structures, how vulnerable individuals would like to respond and how they actually respond given the constraints imposed by power differentials.

Paper: Kelly Kollman (PIS/IPED), "Business power in populist times: democratic defender, populist enabler or quiet bystander?"

 

Wed. 16 October 2024 ‖  3:00-4:30pm  ‖  ARC 223 ‖  Corporate Accountability cluster

 

Abstract: To what extent and in what ways has business—individual firms and their collective associations—mobilised to support, counter or accommodate radical right movements since the financial crisis in different capitalist democracies?  The project addresses these questions and seeks to elucidate differential business responses by developing a novel analytical framework that marries contemporary research on business and far-right parties with older scholarship that examined how socio-economic groups structured national responses to past crises.  The latter lends contemporary researchers two crucial insights. First, business actors’ response to political upheaval is shaped by the potential coalition partners available within the national economies and society. Second, economic crises unmake established political coalitions and open opportunities for new alliances and bargains to form. I use this framework to compare developments in three contemporary democracies: Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom.  In each country I compare three aspects of business (non)engagement with radical right parties: (1) during elections (2) lobbying on policies championed by right-wing populists (3) coalition-building to promote these political goals. 

Paper: Kat Fradera (Law/ GALLANT), "Spatial Justice in Climate Adaptation: River edge ownership considerations"

Discussant: Mingzhe Zhu

 

Wed. 23 October 2024 ‖  3:00-4:30pm  ‖  ARC 223 ‖ Public & Collective Ownership cluster

 

Abstract: 

Paper: Giuseppe Zaccaria (PIS/IR) "Sharing is caring until hard times hit? How economic crises affect states’ funding for international organizations"

Discussant: Giedre Jokubauskaite

Wed. 30 October 2024 ‖  3:00-4:30pm  ‖  ARC 225 ‖ Global Political Economy cluster

 

Abstract: This article examines whether and how economic crises in donor states affect their multilateral funding. More specifically, the article focuses on the effect of monetary, financial, and banking crises on the volume of earmarked funding provided to multilateral institutions and the degree of earmarking attached to those funds by donor states. To test its expectations, the article relies on data on multilateral funding flows and economic crises in donor states between 1990 and 2020. The results show that economic crises are associated with less earmarked funding as well as stricter earmarking by donors. The results also suggest that donor-considerations towards earmarked funding during economically challenging times may vary according to their relations with recipient countries and the perceived domestic consequences of crises. The results have implications for scholars of financing in the multilateral system as well as practitioners. 
 

Paper: Chandana Alawattage (ASBS) "Neoliberal despotism and coercive totalization: an ethnography of the Bangladeshi garment industry" 

Wed. 6 November 2024 ‖  3:00-4:30pm  ‖  ARC 225 ‖ Corporate Accountability cluster

 

Abstract: Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Bangladeshi garment factories, this study advances a nuanced political analysis of despotic labour control as a fundamental component of neoliberal production regimes in the Global South. The empirical evidence reveals that ‘coercive totalism’ underpins despotism at the point of production through a specific set of market, political and cultural apparatuses. Neoliberal despotism constructs the structural conditions for the coercive totalization of space, body and time, enabling the relentless pursuit of production targets, adherence to quality standards and expedited delivery schedules—all whilst minimizing costs. In the context of a weakened bureaucratic nation-state lacking the capacity to safeguard labour and human rights, the emergence of a mastaanocratic shadow state manifests itself within the manufacturing milieu. This mastanocratic framework engenders a factory-slum topography, wherein ghettoized labour is sustained through the exercise of coercive totalization facilitated by power dynamics, legal enactments, police surveillance, and violence, alongside an ingrained cultural hierarchy of paternalism. This study argues that the neoliberal market necessitates despotism, whilst despotism, in turn, sustains the neoliberal market. Within this interrelation, coercive totalization is rationalized as a prevailing mechanism through which competitive market forces extract profit, thereby derealizing labor from the precariousness of its existence. 
 

 

 

Wed. 13 November 2024 ‖  3:00-4:30pm  ‖  ARC 237C ‖  Law and Political Economy cluster

 

Abstract: 

Over the past decade, the reemerging debate about the introduction of ecocide as an international crime has brought about increasing scholarly and public debate. Small Island States have played a major role in this debate arguing for sanctioning and codifying widespread and long-term environmental harm in international criminal law. While the diversity among the Small Island States must be recognized, we show that activists from local communities, but also public representatives of these countries have challenged existing international legal frameworks for dealing with environmental harms. With a qualitative document analysis, we scrutinize the agency of the Small Island States involved in global power dynamics around the judicialization of ecocide.

Based on our empirical analysis of public protocols, statements, reports and policy papers, we argue that the ‘unlikely pioneership’ of the Small Island States in international criminal environmental law can be conceptualized and analyzed as norm contestation revealing the “agency of the governed”. By discursively disapproving international norms – either regarding their validity per se (justificatory contestation), or regarding their general (applicatory contestation) or situational application (situative contestation) –, these actors formerly perceived as mere ‘norm takers’ have become norm entrepreneurs, actively shaping the international normative fabric.