Social Cohesion and Identity

This chapter explains what social cohesion is and why it is important. The case for thinking that trust and solidarity are especially important for egalitarian redistribution is presented, and different accounts of their sources are considered. This includes a discussion of strategic, institutional, and moral models for trust and solidarity, welfare regime theory, and how perceptions of deservingness are fundamental for solidarity. Initial reflections on how immigration and diversity might impact these dimensions of social cohesion are introduced. Furthermore, the ‘identity thesis’ is explained, according to which sharing an identity tends to promote such cohesion, and different types of mechanisms that might explain it are distinguished. Finally, the concept of a ‘community conception’ is introduced, and it is explained how different such conceptions differ as regards the values that, if shared, are thought conducive to social cohesion.

No end in sight: How regimes form barriers to addressing the wicked problem of displacement

Wicked problems are complex and dispersed challenges that go beyond the capacity of individual organizations and require a response by multiple actors, often in the form of transnational regimes. While research on regimes has provided insights into such collective responses, less is known about how such regimes may form barriers that hinder and block appropriate responses to addressing wicked problems. Exploring the problematic role of regime-level responses is timely given that many of today’s wicked problems are far from being alleviated and in many instances appear instead to be intensifying. We draw from complementary insights of regime theory and research on institutional barriers to explore our research question: How do regimes form barriers to addressing wicked problems, and which mechanisms sustain such barriers? We explore this question with a longitudinal case study of the transnational regime for refugee protection and its response to displacement in Rwanda. From our findings, we develop a model of dissociation that explains how actors move further away from addressing a wicked problem. We identify four dissociative mechanisms (discounting, delimiting, separating, and displaying) that each create a distinct regime-level barrier. These barriers are distributed and mutually reinforcing, which makes it increasingly hard for actors to find alternative ways of responding to an escalating problem. Our study provides insights for research on regimes and wicked problems as well as studies on institutional barriers. We conclude with policy implications for overcoming those barriers, in line with the wider concerns and motivations of this special issue.

Reinvigorating a political ecology of the global agri-food system

This contribution is a critical review of research on the global agri-food system directly or indirectly identified as political ecology (PE). It shows how food, famine and agricultural production were important topics to early proponents of PE, especially with regards to a critique of neo-Malthusian thought. It then traces further developments in the field and highlights the productive tension between materialist and poststructuralist streams, as well as the influence of actor-network theory. Further on, the paper discusses three neighbouring theories and frameworks with a potential to stimulate current political ecologies of food and agriculture, namely critical agrarian studies, food regime theory and world-ecology. Finally, seven clusters of potential research topics for a political ecology of the global agri-food system are identified. In conclusion, the relevance of PE as a theoretical lens is reiterated and the need for fruitful application of political ecology and related approaches is expressed.

Between Realism and Revolt

Between Realism and Revolt explores urban governance in the “age of austerity”, focusing on the period between the global financial crisis of 2008-9 and the beginning of the global Coronavirus pandemic at the end of 2019. It considers urban governance after the 2008 crisis, from the perspective of governability. How did cities navigate the crisis and the aftermath of austerity, with what political ordering and disordering dynamics at the forefront? To answer these questions it engages with two influential theoretical currents, Urban Regime Theory and Gramscian state theory, with a view to understanding how governance enabled austerity, deflected or intensified localised expressions of crisis, and generated more-or-less successful political alternatives. It develops a comparative analysis of case studies undertaken in the cities of Athens, Baltimore, Barcelona, Greater Dandenong (Melbourne), Leicester, Montreal and Nantes, and concludes by highlighting five characteristics that cut across the cities, unevenly and in different configurations: economic rationalism, weak hegemony, retreat to dominance, weak counter-hegemony and radically contagious politicisations.

Unexpected Frictional Behavior of Laser-Textured Hydrophobic Surfaces

Hydrophobic surfaces can allow a liquid to slip over the surface and can thus reduce friction in lubricated contact working in a full film regime. Theory supports that the amount of slip can be increased if super-hydrophobic surfaces that are composed of a textured low surface energy material are used. In this work, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) polymer samples were textured with a femto second laser to create super-hydrophobic surfaces by machining a hexagonal network of small circular holes with 10 and 20 μm lattice sides. The frictional behavior of these surfaces was compared to the smooth PTFE samples. Surprisingly, the textured surfaces revealed higher friction coefficients than the smooth surfaces. This higher friction can be explained by a change of wetting regime due to high pressure in fluid and a possible generation of vortices in the cavities.

Exploring the Emergence of Innovative Multi-Actor Collaborations toward a Progressive Urban Regime in Madrid (2015–2019)

For the last decade, urban actors around the globe have been struggling to adapt to a post-crisis and austerity context through increasing social mobilization and experimentation, calling for an urban democracy renewal and challenging established neoliberal urban regimes and governance systems. This has triggered social innovations, in which novel collaborative formulas have been envisioned and implemented. In particular, civil-public collaborations (CPCs) have come to the fore as an empowering alternative to the well-established private–public partnerships (PPP). This article examines the conditions of possibility, enabling mechanisms and constraints for the emergence of innovative multi-actor collaborations (IMACs). For this aim, we developed a three-fold analytical framework combining social innovation, public governance, and urban regime theory. We applied this framework to the case of the so-called “government of change” in Madrid between 2015 and 2019. After exploring the pre-2015 context, the institutional innovations implemented once Ahora Madrid accessed the local government, and the post-2019 context, it points to the preconditions that allowed experimentation with IMAC, identifies the institutional mechanisms and governance innovations that support their emergence, and assesses to what extent and how power to act was created and used to accomplish urban regime change.

China–Japan Economic Cooperation with ASEAN: Keohane’s International Regime Theory

Research findings show that China and Japan realise the utility of regime-building with ASEAN, so both have started to build trust with ASEAN since 1997. ASEAN established the ASEAN–China Free Trade Area with China and the ASEAN–Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership with Japan in 2010 and 2008, respectively, and bilaterally, both sides gained mutual benefits from interdependence. However, China–ASEAN increasing cooperation is a state of asymmetric dependence in favour of China and the changing Japan–ASEAN cooperation is not so symmetrical.