The Margins of Late Medieval London, 1430-1540

The Margins of Late Medieval London is a powerful study of medieval London’s urban fringe. Seeking to unpack the complexity of urban life in the medieval age, this volume offers a detailed and novel approach to understanding London beyond its institutional structures. Using a combination of experimental digital, quantitative and qualitative methodologies, the volume casts new light on urban life at the level of the neighbourhood and considers the differences in economy, society and sociability which existed in different areas of a vibrant premodern city. It focuses on the dynamism and mobility that shaped city life, integrating the experiences of London’s poor and migrant communities and how they found their place within urban life. It describes how people found themselves marginalized in the city, and the strategies they would employ to mitigate that precarious position.

Presidential politics of constitutional amendment in Francophone Africa: The case of Senegal

The paper is devoted to the role of the head of state in initiating and implementing constitutional reforms in Senegal. This country can legitimately be regarded as one of the few examples of a relatively successful democratization process in Africa, as evidenced, among other things, by the lack of military coups leading to the loss of power by civilian governments, as well as by two democratic transfers of power (in 2000–2001 and 2012), after which the main opposition parties gained the presidency and the majority of parliamentary seats. Both these fundamental political transformations generated important constitutional changes (for example, the adoption of the current Constitution of 2001, or the constitutional modifications of 2016 and 2019) that have influenced, to a greater or lesser extent, the position of the presidency in Senegalese systems of government. The author analyses their significance for the functioning of contemporary political institutions in the broader context set by the politics of constitutional amendment which was conducted by previous presidents of this country. The main goal of the paper is to examine to what extent the constitutional modifications introduced before and after the adoption of the 2001 Constitution were designed to contribute to the beginning or consolidation of pro-democratic trends, and to what extent they were created to strengthen the position of an incumbent president himself, leading to a political imbalance and regress in the democratization process. The author argues that the constitutional modifications adopted over the years have often gone in two opposite directions, influencing the efficiency and durability of Senegalese institutional structures.

ФОРМУВАННЯ ІНТЕГРОВАНИХ БІЗНЕС-ГРУП В УКРАЇНІ ЯК ФОРМА ПРОЯВУ НОВИХ ІНСТИТУЦІЙНИХ СТРУКТУР

The article seeks to address contemporary challenges in developing integrated business structures associated with the need to upgrade and innovate most important industries, provide industrial restructuring, and reduce technological backwardness and attain high-tech manufacturing growth. An emphasis is put on the critical significance of modernization in gaining a competitive edge of the national economy that will enhance Ukraine’s positions in a modern globalized world. This study employs a wide range of various research tools, in particular, methods of analysis, synthesis, generalization and comparison – to determine the nature, economic content, structural elements and drivers affecting the process of integrated business structure development in Ukraine; structural and functional analysis – to identify relevant institutional structures; as well as integrated assessment techniques – to explore international best practice in building integrated business units. Given the current trends and the specifics, it is argued that company development within a business group model spurs continuous improvement and innovation to meet market digitalization demands. The findings reveal the key aspects in developing integrated business groups as a new type of institutional structures in Ukraine. The study also focuses on the goals of their further development to implement transformational changes along with considering a number of factors affecting the nature of enterprise reorganizations and restructuring in the frameworks of their integration into business groups. Within the scope of this research, integrated business groups are viewed as a driving force in boosting Ukraine's economic development. The study suggests that the government industrial and antitrust policies should actively promote integrated business group models, including the international ones, as long as corporate and national interests are reconciled. It is reported that integrated business groups account for 15% of the total industrial output, respectively, integrated business groups are mesoeconomic entities representing a new type of a social institution that attempts to forecast supply and demand in a particular world market segment and implements its predictive outcomes through big innovations.

Making a Difference: Planning for Engaged Participation in Environmental Research

Despite the rapid and accelerating rate of global environmental changes, too often research that has the potential to inform more sustainable futures remains disconnected from the context in which it could be used. Though transdisciplinary approaches (TDA) are known to overcome this disconnect, institutional barriers frequently prevent their deployment. Here we use insights from a qualitative comparative analysis of five case studies to develop a process for helping researchers and funders conceptualize and implement socially engaged research within existing institutional structures. The process we propose is meant to help researchers achieve societal as well as scientific outcomes relatively early in a project, as an end in itself or en route to greater engagement later. If projects that have a strong foundation of dialog and shared power wish to use TDA within current institutional and academic structures, we suggest that they focus on three process-based factors to increase their chances for success: (1) the maturity of relationships within a collaboration, (2) the level of context knowledge present within the collaborative team, and (3) the intensity of the engagement efforts within the project.

Queer Jurisprudence: Reparative Practice in International Law

Queer theory's commitments are radical and disruptive. They have operated to interrogate the definition and reinforcement of sexuality and gender categories, and to expose and problematize normalized relations of power and privilege in the institutional structures and systems in which we live and operate. Queer's deconstructive and anti-normative (or non-conformist) tendencies, however, can be antithetical to international LGBTQIA+ law reform projects. In much of queer scholarship, human rights activism is framed as reinforcing heteronormative structures of knowledge and power and promoting fixed ideas of monogamy, social reproductivity, and gender identity. In this essay, I work with the tension between queer theory and the law to frame the continued pursuit of human rights by LGBTQIA+ people as queer jurisprudence. I do so by drawing on the methodological tools provided by Eve Sedgwick's technique of reparative reading and Michel Foucault's ethics of care of the self to focus on the lived experience of LGBTQIA+ people. What emerges through the stories of LGBTQIA+ commitments to human rights and legal activism are not themes of naivety, compliance, or assimilation, as often charged, but ongoing efforts toward disruption, creativity, and hope.

Second Thoughts About Central Bank Digital Currencies

Sustained decline in central banks’ monetary liabilities (reserves and currency in circulation), which the emergency of cryptocurrencies may have hastened, has been enabled by technological innovations that over time have allowed financial institutions and their customers to execute transactions and settle their debts without resorting to central bank currency. Policymakers are concerned about their ability to guarantee public’s access to government-backed currency. This has implications for central banks’ balance sheet and income position, which central bank digital currency might reconstitute. But the introduction of central bank digital currency (CBDC) comes with its own risks and could be disruptive for financial markets. We believe that retaining the option to have access to government-guaranteed currency is of utmost importance, despite the sporadic demand for physical currency in the modern society, but it could be addressed within existing institutional structures without the introduction of CBDC. However, policy authorities are right in seeking oversight and regulation for cryptocurrencies to address the destabilizing potential of cryptocurrencies for financial markets, and they should continue modernizing payment infrastructures to bring retail settlement systems at par with cryptocurrencies in terms of settlement speed but without associated liquidity and credit risks. These steps would preserve the status quo and allow private sector to continue innovating while limiting central banks’ footprint in the financial markets.

Discourse and Discipline

This chapter advances the claim that to understand the development of economic knowledge from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, one needs to understand the new location that this knowledge found: the modern university. Broad questions of ‘education and economy’ in industrialising societies are raised and placed in an international context. Following on from this, existing work on the ‘institutionalisation’ of economics is reviewed, emphasising the need for detailed knowledge of institutional structures—what was taught, how it was taught, the sources of student demand, and the attitude of employers—if we are to adequately capture the dynamics of an emerging discipline.

Mechanisms for Indigenous Representation, Participation and Consultation in Constitutional Systems: International Examples to Inspire Chile

Indigenous peoples in Chile have suffered dispossession and discrimination by colonizing forces, like many Indigenous peoples globally, and did not have a fair say in the development of successive constitutions establishing new political systems on their land. In the October 2020 referendum, Chileans voted to create a new constitution. This presents an opportunity for Indigenous peoples to create a fairer power relationship with the Chilean state. For the first time, the constitutional convention includes a specific quota for 17 Indigenous representatives. This will enable Indigenous peoples to contribute to the constitutional design process. This report presents comparative examples of self-determinative institutional mechanisms that empower Indigenous peoples to be heard by and influence decision making in state institutions. The focus of the paper is on options for institutional structures that enable Indigenous representation, participation and consultation with respect to Indigenous peoples’ own affairs.

DoorWOmen & Gendering the Door: An Explorative Study of Women's Experiences of the Bouncer Occupation within New Zealand's Night-Time Economy.

<p>Patriarchal norms and misogynistic attitudes often result in women’s exclusion from positions of power in institutional structures through the use of sexual harassment, discriminatory recruitment methods and exclusion from social circles. Traditionally, previous research on bouncers has focused on the occupation’s close affinities with violence and the domination of men, ignoring the benefits and experiences of women in door-work. This research addresses an important literature gap within the context of New Zealand, by exploring how women working as bouncers in New Zealand’s Night Time Economy (NTE) experience and navigate their occupations, based on stereotypical assumptions that women are unsuitable to bouncing. Applying a feminist lens, this qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews with twelve women who had experience working as bouncers in New Zealand’s NTE. This study found that gendered violence, discrimination and misogyny were a routine and ‘expected’ part of being a female bouncer, and uncovered how the women in this study constructed malleable performances of gender to do their work. These experiences profoundly impacted their feelings of safety in the workplace, which may point to reasons why women still remain the minority within the bouncer occupation. Based on these findings, this research concludes that women in door-work are faced with a paradox where femininity is simultaneously resisted in a masculine occupation, but where they are expected to adhere to men’s expectations of appropriate gender norms within the workplace. This study therefore exposes the difficult and highly gendered terrain women in door-work are expected to navigate, and emphasises the need to address misogynistic attitudes and gendered violence within the workplace, the wider NTE and beyond.</p>