scholarly journals Global policymakers and catastrophic risk

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Nathan ◽  
Keith Hyams
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Emerging Technology ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Catastrophic Risk ◽  
Sector Analysis ◽  
The Uk

AbstractThere is a rapidly developing literature on risks that threaten the whole of humanity, or a large part of it. Discussion is increasingly turning to how such risks can be governed. This paper arises from a study of those involved the governance of risks from emerging technologies, examining the perceptions of global catastrophic risk within the relevant global policymaking community. Those who took part were either civil servants working for the UK government, U.S. Congress, the United Nations, and the European Commission, or cognate members of civil society groups and the private sector. Analysis of interviews identified four major themes: Scepticism; Realism; Influence; and Governance outside of Government. These themes provide evidence for the value of conceptualising the governance of global catastrophic risk as a unified challenge. Furthermore, they highlight the range of agents involved in governance of emerging technology and give reason to value reforms carried out sub-nationally.

scholarly journals Enter the Troika: The Politics of Social Security during Ireland's Bailout

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROD HICK
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Security ◽  
European Commission ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Civil Society Organisation ◽  
Irish Government ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

AbstractThis paper examines the influence of the Troika on the retrenchment and reform of social security in Ireland during its bailout between 2010 and 2013. To do this, it draws on data from in-depth interviews with senior civil servants and civil society organisation staff who met with the Troika as part of their quarterly missions to Ireland during this period. The key themes which emerged from these interviews include the largely domestic origins of social security retrenchment and reform; the surprising, and distinctive, positions adopted by the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund (IMF); the extent of the Irish government's room for manoeuvre in this area, and the ways in which the Irish government defended social security against proposals for additional cuts put forward by the Troika. The paper concludes by arguing that the scope for domestic decision-making was heavily constrained, yet non-trivial, and that the Troika's influence comprised not only ‘powering’ but also ‘persuasion’.

Gender, UN Peacebuilding, and the Politics of Space

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura J. Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Gender Perspective ◽  
Power Dynamic ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Meaningful Participation ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations

The United Nations is an organization founded at least in part on hope: hope for a postwar future offering security, human rights, justice, “social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.” This book documents some of the ways in which the UN engages with peacebuilding as a practice of hope, under the auspices of the UN Peacebuilding Commission that was created in 2005. Hope was part of the Commission’s foundational mandate: the hope that the Commission, as a principal actor in the UN peacebuilding apparatus, would “integrate a gender perspective into all of its work”; and the hope that the Commission would “consult with civil society, non-governmental organizations, including women’s organizations, and the private sector engaged in peacebuilding activities, as appropriate.” This book engages with the work that gender is doing conceptually to organize the way that peacebuilding is defined, enacted, and resourced, as well as exploring the ways in which women, gender, and civil society are constructed in UN peacebuilding discourse. Laying bare the logics of gender and space that organize the discourse, the author argues that these constructions work independently and together to constitute the terrain of UN peacebuilding discourse in three ways: to create “conditions of impossibility” in the implementation of peacebuilding activities that take gender seriously as a power dynamic; to heavily circumscribe women’s meaningful participation in peacebuilding; and to produce hierarchies that paradoxically undermine the contemporary emphasis on “bottom-up” governance of peacebuilding activities.

A Bifurcated Global Nuclear Order

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh Thakur
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Arms Control ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Nuclear Deterrence ◽  
Nuclear War ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations

The very destructiveness of nuclear weapons makes them unusable for ethical and military reasons. The world has placed growing restrictions on the full range of nuclear programs and activities. But with the five NPT nuclear powers failing to eliminate nuclear arsenals, other countries acquiring the bomb, arms control efforts stalled, nuclear risks climbing, and growing awareness of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear war, the United Nations adopted a new treaty to ban the bomb. Some technical anomalies between the 1968 and 2017 treaties will need to be harmonized and the nuclear-armed states’ rejection of the ban treaty means it will not eliminate any nuclear warheads. However, it will have a significant normative impact in stigmatizing the possession, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons and serve as a tool for civil society to mobilize domestic and world public opinion against the doctrine of nuclear deterrence.

Juvenile Justice

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asha Bajpai
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Child Victims ◽  
Present Stage ◽  
Alternative Care ◽  
Need Of Care ◽  
History Of

This chapter deals with those children in especially difficult circumstances that are vulnerable, marginalized, destitute, and neglected and deprived of their basic rights. It commences with a history of the Juvenile Justice legislation in India right from the Children’s Act of 1960s to the current Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. The barriers faced in the administration and implementation of the Juvenile Justice legislation throughout its evolution to its present stage is discussed in detail. How the law deals with children in need of care and protection and children in conflict with law are discussed in this chapter. Landmark judgements by courts and suggestions for further law reform are included. This chapter also contains international law relating to administration of juvenile justice, and United Nations guidelines in matters in matters involving child victims and witnesses of crime including UN Guidelines on Alternative Care of Children. Some civil society interventions are also included.

Civil Society in UN Peacebuilding Discourse

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura J. Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Conceptual Domain ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Way

Chapter 5 outlines the ways in which civil society is largely associated with “women” and the “local,” as a spatial and conceptual domain, and how this has implications for how we understand political legitimacy and authority. The author argues that close analysis reveals a shift in the way in which the United Nations as a political entity conceives of civil society over time, from early engagement with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to the more contemporary articulation of civil society as consultant or even implementing partner. Contemporary UN peacebuilding discourse, however, constitutes civil society as a legitimating actor for UN peacebuilding practices, as civil society organizations are the bearers/owners of certain forms of (local) knowledge.

Japan Meets the Sharing Economy: Contending Frames

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas G ALTURA ◽  
Yuki HASHIMOTO ◽  
Sanford M JACOBY ◽  
Kaoru KANAI ◽  
Kazuro SAGUCHI
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
The World ◽  
Framing Processes ◽  
Regulatory Institutions

Abstract The ‘sharing economy’ epitomized by Airbnb and Uber has challenged business, labor, and regulatory institutions throughout the world. The arrival of Airbnb and Uber in Japan provided an opportunity for Prime Minister Abe’s administration to demonstrate its commitment to deregulation. Both platform companies garnered support from powerful governmental and industry actors who framed the sharing economy as a solution to various economic and social problems. However, they met resistance from actors elsewhere in government, the private sector, and civil society, who constructed competing frames. Unlike studies that compare national responses to the sharing economy, we contrast the different experiences and fates of Airbnb and Uber within a single country. Doing so highlights actors, framing processes, and within-country heterogeneity. The study reveals the limits of overly institutionalized understandings of Japanese political economy. It also contributes to current debates concerning Prime Minister Abe’s efforts at implementing deregulation during the 2010s.

The Asymmetric Effects of Regional House Prices in the UK: New Evidence from Panel Quantile Regression Framework

2021 ◽  
pp. 232102222098054
Author(s):  
Panayiotis Tzeremes
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Quantile Regression ◽  
House Prices ◽  
Ripple Effect ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Housing Starts ◽  
Panel Quantile Regression ◽  
Linear Behaviour ◽  
Significant Performance ◽  
The Uk

This study unfurls the non-linear behaviour of regional house prices in the United Kingdom by employing quarterly observations spanning the period 1992Q1–2017Q4. Our enquiry aims at examining UK house prices within a multivariable framework and, more specifically, by employing panel quantile regression with fixed effect. In brief, the empirical findings obtained from these methodologies indicate that the UK house prices are influenced at lower and upper quantiles, and that precisely they are influenced by variables such as income, private sector housing starts and employment. We highly support that there is a strong heterogeneity among UK regions and that asymmetry may be one of the keys of the ripple effect. Particularly, the income shows a positively significant performance at lower and higher regional house prices. Moreover, the variables private sector housing starts and employment rate are statistically significant for house prices. Leveraging for first-time panel quantile regression for the case of regional house prices in the UK, policymakers will have a profound understanding of regional house prices. JEL Classifications: C22, R21, R31

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