scholarly journals Agency, Institutions and Regional Resilience: An Approach from the Basque Region

2021 ◽  
pp. 277-304
Author(s):  
Edurne Magro ◽  
Elvira Uyarra ◽  
Jesus M. Valdaliso

AbstractRegional resilience, understood as the regional ability to resist, adapt to, and create new regional paths from external shocks, is one of the most explored issues in the last years in the literature of evolutionary economic geography. However, most of the literature has focused on analysing the regional responses in terms of structural economic change, underplaying the role that institutions and agency play. This chapter will deepen into the role that policy and agency play in two different types of regional resilience, namely resilience to macroeconomic fluctuations and resilience to structural changes. Specifically, it focuses on the role of institutional entrepreneurs and collective agency as mechanisms of change. This means adopting a systemic understanding of regional resilience. The chapter contributes with an historical analysis of the Basque Country region, an old industrial region that has been able to resist, recover and renew after different shocks (economic and financial crisis and structural changes) in the last forty years. The case will shed light into the different institutional and agency factors that shape different types of resilience (adaptation and adaptability capacities), which are intrinsically linked to exploration and exploitation capabilities. Indeed, the chapter focuses on the different policy responses and on the role of agency in shaping resilience, both from an ex-ante and an ex-post perspective. Even though policy denotes a high degree of publicness, the chapter highlights the role of other actors (i.e. private actors, individuals and KIOs) in regional resilience.

2020 ◽  
pp. 003232922094552
Author(s):  
Erez Maggor

This article contributes to an emerging literature on the “neo” or “entrepreneurial” developmental state that emphasizes the role of innovation policy in promoting the structural transformation of industry. It finds further evidence that supports this approach and advances it by making two unique contributions. First, it highlights an essential yet underappreciated feature of contemporary innovation policy: the state’s capacity to condition public assistance and discipline private firms that do not adhere to government guidelines. These capacities are necessary to guarantee that the benefits of public investment in innovation—the social and economic spillovers—are not appropriated by private actors but shared more broadly within society. Second, it highlights that politics—reflected in the relations between innovation agencies and key social actors—represents an important causal factor in both the formation and subsequent transformation of these institutional capacities. These points are illustrated through a historical analysis of a crucial case: the state-led development of Israel’s thriving high-tech sector.


2020 ◽  
pp. 095001701989283
Author(s):  
Cathrine Seierstad ◽  
Ahu Tatli ◽  
Maryam Aldossari ◽  
Morten Huse

Drawing on 31 interviews, we explore the life trajectories of some of the women with most directorships in Norway after the introduction of the quota, with specific attention to their capitals. Adopting a Bourdieusian approach, we examine to what extent forced structural changes (the quota), challenge what are valued as legitimate capital(s) in the field (corporate boards). Our research demonstrates the progressive role of the quota in challenging gendered ideas of suitability. We found that structural adjustments in the field are leading to realignment in terms of the field-specific value and meaning of different types of capitals, which are redrawing the boundaries of the field in the process. We conclude that the external push through state-imposed regulation has broadened the field, resulting in the recognition of a wider set of capitals as legitimate. The study responds to the much-debated question about the utility of quotas in addressing systemic and historical inequalities.


Author(s):  
Maurizio Lisciandra

- Lliterature on Taylorism has surprisingly ignored the role of its payment systems, while the results achieved on Ford's five-dollar day programme appear contradictory and sometimes isolated from the organisational change simultaneously undertaken. I seek to fill these theoretical gaps. I provide a historical analysis of the relevant features of Taylorism and Fordism and analyse a simple agency model with a linear compensation scheme to account for the observed differences in payment systems between Taylor's performance-related pay and Ford's fixed wages. I show how the ex-post observed divergence may be interpreted in terms of technology-related differences in i) responsiveness of effort to incentives and ii) responsiveness of proceeds to effort. JEL classification: D8; J3; J41; L2. Keywords: Taylorism; Fordism; agency theory; labour contracts; incentives.


2016 ◽  
Vol 86 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 127-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeshan Ali ◽  
Zhenbin Wang ◽  
Rai Muhammad Amir ◽  
Shoaib Younas ◽  
Asif Wali ◽  
...  

While the use of vinegar to fi ght against infections and other crucial conditions dates back to Hippocrates, recent research has found that vinegar consumption has a positive effect on biomarkers for diabetes, cancer, and heart diseases. Different types of vinegar have been used in the world during different time periods. Vinegar is produced by a fermentation process. Foods with a high content of carbohydrates are a good source of vinegar. Review of the results of different studies performed on vinegar components reveals that the daily use of these components has a healthy impact on the physiological and chemical structure of the human body. During the era of Hippocrates, people used vinegar as a medicine to treat wounds, which means that vinegar is one of the ancient foods used as folk medicine. The purpose of the current review paper is to provide a detailed summary of the outcome of previous studies emphasizing the role of vinegar in treatment of different diseases both in acute and chronic conditions, its in vivo mechanism and the active role of different bacteria.


1984 ◽  
Vol 52 (02) ◽  
pp. 172-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
P R Kelsey ◽  
K J Stevenson ◽  
L Poller

SummaryLiposomes of pure phospholipids were used in a modified APTT test system and the role of phosphatidyl serine (PS) in determining the sensitivity of the test system to the presence of lupus anticoagulants was assessed. Six consecutive patients with lupus anticoagulants and seven haemophiliacs with anticoagulants directed at specific coagulation factors, were studied. Increasing the concentration of phospholipid in the test system markedly reduced the sensitivity to lupus anticoagulants but had marginal effect on the specific factor inhibitors. The same effect was achieved when the content of PS alone was increased in a vehicle liposome of constant composition.The results suggest that the lupus anticoagulants can best be detected by a screening method using an APTT test with a reagent of low PS content. The use of a reagent rich in PS will largely abolish the lupus anticoagulant’s effect on the APTT. An approach using the two different types of reagent may facilitate differentiation of lupus inhibitors from other types of anticoagulant.


2006 ◽  
pp. 20-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ershov

The economic growth, which is underway in Russia, raises new questions to be addressed. How to improve the quality of growth, increasing the role of new competitive sectors and transforming them into the driving force of growth? How can progressive structural changes be implemented without hampering the rate of growth in general? What are the main external and internal risks, which may undermine positive trends of development? The author looks upon financial, monetary and foreign exchange aspects of the problem and comes up with some suggestions on how to make growth more competitive and sustainable.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 545-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Tissot

The aim of this article is to clarify the role of the organisations that support skilled migrants after a relocation, using the analytical concept of migration industry. The concept is used as a tool to explore the gap between the macro and the micro levels and by that stresses the crucial meso-level when it comes to conceptualizing (skilled) migration. I use 30 semi-directive interviews with skilled migrants and six interviews with key informants in the migration industry as a basis for the analysis, leading me to distinguish three main services at the heart of this industry. Each service is covered by distinct private actors: the basic needs of the family by relocation offices, the education of the children by international schools, and the careers of the partner by outplacement agencies.


Author(s):  
Jessica F. Green

This book examines the role of nonstate actors in global environmental politics, arguing that a fuller understanding of their role requires a new way of conceptualizing private authority. It identifies two distinct forms of private authority—one in which states delegate authority to private actors, and another in which entrepreneurial actors generate their own rules, persuading others to adopt them. Drawing on a wealth of empirical evidence spanning a century of environmental rule making, the book shows how the delegation of authority to private actors has played a small but consistent role in multilateral environmental agreements over the past fifty years, largely in the area of treaty implementation. This contrasts with entrepreneurial authority, where most private environmental rules have been created in the past two decades. The book traces how this dynamic and fast-growing form of private authority is becoming increasingly common in areas ranging from organic food to green building practices to sustainable tourism. It persuasively argues that the configuration of state preferences and the existing institutional landscape are paramount to explaining why private authority emerges and assumes the form that it does. In-depth cases on climate change provide evidence for the book's arguments. The book demonstrates that authority in world politics is diffused across multiple levels and diverse actors, and it offers a more complete picture of how private actors are helping to shape our response to today's most pressing environmental problems.


2020 ◽  
pp. 97-110
Author(s):  
E. N. Mikhailova ◽  
V. A. Telegina

The article is devoted to the study of evaluative tools used in modern French media in order to form the media image of a representative of the political elite. The techniques used in the creation of a memorial media portrait of Jacques Chirac (1932—2019), President of France from 1995 to 2007 are considered. The research material was the most prestigious French print media of various political orientations, published in late September — early October 2019 in connection with the death of the ex-President of the French Republic. The relevance of the research topic is dictated by the close attention of modern linguistics to axiological phenomena, differently presented in different types of discursive practices. The novelty of the study is due to the appeal to the analysis of the complex of evaluation tools used in the French print media when characterizing the former leader of the state during the nation’s farewell period. The estimated potential of the title of the article and its influence on the formation of the estimated vector of the entire text of the publication are shown. A systematic analysis of the assessment expression means, reflected in the memorial media portrait of the politician, is given. The factors that influenced the peculiarities of their use in this type of media portrait are revealed.


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