Nation-state global city tensions in social policy: the case of Mexico City's rising social city-zenship

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hudson ◽  
Anahely Medrano
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Global City ◽  
Global Cities ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
Key Issues

Comparative analyses of welfare systems have largely proceeded on the basis that coherent nation-states exist. This assumption was always problematic – as many theorists have acknowledged – but globalisation processes have added a further dimension to this debate, not least because of the increasing power of global cities that act as coordinating hubs for the global economy. Although residing in nation-states, these cities have a special status flowing from their central role in the global economy with often rather different economic, demographic and social contexts. While there is growing literature on global cities, what the rise of these cities means for social policy and for welfare states remains an underexplored issue. Here we outline some key issues the rise of global cities presents for welfare states before proceeding to illustrate both theoretical and practical issues we highlight through a case study of Mexico City.

Welfare Regimes and Global Cities: A Missing Link in the Comparative Analysis of Welfare States?

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN HUDSON
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Global City ◽  
Welfare Regime ◽  
Global Cities ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Nation States ◽  
National Welfare

AbstractThe ‘welfare modelling business’ has been at the heart of comparative social policy analysis but debate has largely proceeded on the basis that coherent national welfare states exist. This assumption was always problematic but globalisation processes have added a further dimension to this debate. In particular, geographers and sociologists have pointed to the increasing power of global cities that act as co-ordinating hubs for the global economy. Though residing in nation states, these cities have a special status flowing from their central role in the global economy. Little attempt has been made to explore the implications of these cities for welfare regimes and welfare regime analysis. This paper addresses this under explored issue and suggests there are strong overlaps between global city types and welfare types.

From Welfare States to Planetary Well-Being

2021 ◽  
pp. 900-920
Author(s):  
Ian Gough
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Social ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
The Welfare State

This final chapter concentrates on global environmental challenges to rich-country welfare states: climate breakdown and associated ecological disasters. These common threats add two new raison d’êtres for welfare states: first, that the security and equity they seek should be sustainable through time; second, that their scope is broadened to take account of global equity and well-being. With a few notable exceptions, these fundamental questions have been ignored in the social policy community. I argue here that we need to transform our understanding of social policy in four ways, each more difficult than the previous one. First, we need to develop novel eco-social programmes to tap synergies between well-being and sustainability via transformative investment programmes such as a Green New Deal. Second, we need to recompose consumption in rich countries in two ways: to realize the best principles of the welfare state by extending the range of universal basic services and to work towards a private ‘consumption corridor’ to end waste, meet basic needs, and reduce inequality. Third, we must develop strategies of ‘reduce and redistribute’ to adapt welfare systems for a future of slower, if not negative, economic growth. And finally, we need to develop a global equity framework to meet climatic and ecological threats in a globally just way that recognizes current international inequalities.

Welfare States as Nation States: Some Conceptual Reflections

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Social Coherence ◽  
Container Model

Social policy has treated welfare states as nation states. Contemporary processes seem to have unsettled the spatial, scalar and social coherence of nation-states. This article examines the challenge of rethinking the relationships of nation, state and welfare. It argues for a transnational conception of both the current remakings of nation, state and welfare, and of their past formations. Such a view casts doubt on the value of the container model of the nation-state, and makes visible the constitutive or nation-constructing role of welfare states.

scholarly journals Global cities and the transformation of the International System

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 1923-1947 ◽  
Author(s):  
SIMON CURTIS
Keyword(s):  
Urban Form ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
International System ◽  
National Level ◽  
Global City ◽  
Global Cities ◽  
Control Functions ◽  
Historical Relationship ◽  
And Control ◽  
Made In

AbstractThe emergence of a new urban form, the global city, has attracted little attention from International Relations (IR) scholars, despite the fact that much progress has been made in conceptualising and mapping global cities and their networks in other fields. This article argues that global cities pose fundamental questions for IR theorists about the nature of their subject matter, and shows how consideration of the historical relationship between cities and states can illuminate the changing nature of the international system. It highlights how global cities are essential to processes of globalisation, providing a material and infrastructural backbone for global flows, and a set of physical sites that facilitate command and control functions for a decentralised global economy. It goes on to argue that the rise of the global city challenges IR scholars to consider how many of the assumptions that the discipline makes about the modern international system are being destabilised, as important processes deterritorialise at the national level and are reconstituted at different scales.

Global cities, Tokyo, urban tourism

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Global City ◽  
Global Cities ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tourist Destinations ◽  
International Tourist ◽  
Tourist Flows ◽  
Tourism Resources ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between global cities and international tourism with particular reference to the recent experiences of Tokyo which has recently seen a marked increase in arrivals. It addresses questions of the standing of Tokyo as a global city and tourist destination, how the two functions are connected and why changes are occurring. Design/methodology/approach The methodology employed is that of an empirical case study based on the analysis of published materials drawn from a diversity of sources. Findings The defining characteristics of global cities are generally conducive to their function as international tourist destinations. They possess a wealth of tourism resources and amenities which facilitate inbound tourist flows. Tokyo is a prominent example of a global city, but has tended to attract fewer visitors than others in that category. The recent significant growth in arrivals is attributed to changes in the tourism industry and wider environment, yet some challenges remain before it can catch up with its counterparts. Originality/value Fresh insights are afforded into the implications of global city status for tourism and the development of Tokyo as a destination which tends to have been neglected in the literature.

Farewell flexicurity? Danish flexicurity and the crisis

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Bredgaard ◽  
Per Kongshøj Madsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Unemployment Insurance ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Unemployment Insurance System ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

Before the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, flexicurity topped the European labour market and social policy agenda. It was acclaimed for combining the flexibility of liberal labour markets with the security of social welfare states, thereby offering a viable formula for success in the new global economy. Nowhere was this better exemplified than in Denmark, with the Danish system repeatedly highlighted as a good example of flexicurity in action. In this article, we revisit the flexicurity concept, assessing how the Danish labour market came through the crisis. We argue that the economic crisis and especially political reforms of the unemployment insurance system have challenged the institutional complementarities of flexicurity, but that the Danish labour market is recovering and adapting to new challenges. The Danish case illustrates that institutional complementarities between flexibility and security are fragile and liable to disintegrate if the institutions providing flexicurity are not maintained and supported.

Eastern European welfare states: the impact of the politics of globalization

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Deacon
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Costs ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Maintenance Policy ◽  
Transition To Capitalism ◽  
The Impact

This article is divided into four parts. First there is a summary of the social policy of the old state-socialist regimes, some description of the legacy of social problems which they bequeathed to those making the transition to capitalism and a brief summary of the major social costs of the early years of the transition process. Second, the broad social-policy strategies of the new governments of Eastern Europe and the former USSR are reviewed as they have attempted to manage both the legacy of social problems from the past and the new social costs of transition. Third, in more detail developments in five specific fields are described: levels of public expenditure on social welfare; income maintenance policy; health and medical care; housing; and education. The article concludes by attempting to explain these changes, asking whether the policy changes have been motivated by a perceived need to reduce social provision, with a view to becoming more competitive within the global economy.

scholarly journals Context and curriculum in two global cities: A study of discourses of citizenship in Hong Kong and Singapore

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Alviar-Martin ◽  
Mark Baildon
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Global Citizenship ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Global Cities ◽  
National Economic ◽  
Alternative Discourses

This qualitative, comparative case study examined global civic education (GCE) in the Asian global cities of Hong Kong and Singapore. Guided by theories that position curriculum at the intersection of discourse, context, and personal meaning-making, we sought to describe the ways in which intentions for GCE reflect broader societal discourses of citizenship and how curricula allow students to tackle tensions surrounding national and global citizenship. We found that Singapore and Hong Kong have adopted depoliticized forms of citizenship as a means of inoculation against global ills. These types of citizenship are more nationalistic than global in nature; moral rather than political; and focused mainly on utilitarian goals to produce adaptable workers able to support national economic projects in the global economy. Although critical, transnational, and other emergent civic perspectives are apparent in both cities, the data yielded little evidence of curricular opportunities for students to become exposed to alternative discourses and reconcile discursive contradictions. The findings inform current literature by illuminating the nexus of local and global discursive practices, implicating the ability of curricula to accommodate both novel and established civic identities, and forwarding suggestions to bridge disconnections between theoretical and local curricular definitions of global citizenship. 

scholarly journals Same, same but different: A comparative study of the Swedish and German support systems for young victims of crime

2020 ◽  
pp. 147737082095268
Author(s):  
Sara Thunberg ◽  
Diana Willems ◽  
Annemarie Schmoll ◽  
Annalena Yngborn
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Young People ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Support Systems ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Need Support ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
Victims Of Crime ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Practical Implications

Sweden and Germany are often compared, which suggests that much can be learned from each country. One aspect that needs further investigation concerns support for young victims of crime. The study therefore compares the Swedish and German welfare systems’ handling of young victims who need support after victimization, to see what can be learned from each respective country. The comparisons make it clear that both countries’ support systems developed out of similar social movements in the 1970s. However, there are differences between the two welfare states’ approaches to supporting young people. The reasons for the similarities and differences are discussed, along with practical implications for social policy.

scholarly journals ‘No Man’s Land’: Disability, Rehabilitation, Welfare Policy and the British Ex-Service Migrant in Australia, 1918–39

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Welfare States ◽  
World War ◽  
Error Type ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Political Perceptions ◽  
No Man's Land ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
First World

Abstract An inter-war analysis of the British and Australian departments charged with compensating disabled First World War veterans and the British ex-service migrant in inter-war Australia illustrates how nation-states have failed to unify welfare and disability rehabilitation. Contemporary welfare states continue to codify and establish categories of prioritisation regarding communities with disabilities for public finance administered by national government departments. This binational case study identifies reoccurring type one and type two error problems: policy can deny legitimate claims for state assistance while also validating and financing potentially illegitimate claims. This underlines the factors that dictate which error type is ruled to be the least significant and the impact the resulting model has on individual claimants. This study reinforces the thesis of David Gerber who stresses the ahistorical centrality of ‘biopolitics’ or the relationship between societal and political perceptions of a conflict on state policy, in the treatment of veteran communities.

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