Cultural Political Economy

The good into the pot - the bad into the crop? Policy logics, public law and governance in the political ordering of labour migration

by Regine Paul

presented at the peer-reviewed book-making workshop organised by the Governance Research Group (discussants: Prof. Janet Newman, Dr. Ellen Kuhlman, Dr. Susan Milner, Dr. Theo Papadopoulos, Asa Maron), University of Bath, 27 January 2011

- currently revised for publication in edited volume -

Limits of the competition state? The cultural political economy of European labour migration policies

by Regine Paul

to be published in 'Critical Policy Studies' in autumn 2012

Labour migration has been revitalised as part of economic competition and growth strategies across Europe over the... more Labour migration has been revitalised as part of economic competition and growth strategies across Europe over the last decade. Scholars have framed policy changes towards more liberal recruitment as a turn towards ‘competition state’ and Schumpeterian innovation goals. This article evaluates the extent to which British, French and German labour admission policies are dominated by competition state logics. I apply a cultural political economy perspective, thereby substantiating this relatively new approach analytically and testing its usefulness in capturing the economic governance of labour migration. I argue that the political ordering of admissions with regard to skill level target, and causal, spatial, and operational focuses of recruitment indicates a fragmented cultural political economy of labour migration: while competition state logics shape the economic imaginary of ‘high-skilled global labour competiveness’, other logics dominate the imaginaries of ‘skilled national labour shortages’, and ‘lower skilled EU labour self-sufficiency’. Findings indicate limits to competition state theory in explaining labour migration policy, demonstrate the weight of competing state projects, and highlight the powerful role of semiotic political ordering processes in coping with policy tensions.

Economics and the 'nonsense' of Law: The Case of the Chicago anti-trust revolution

by Will Davies

The Law and Economics movement that emerged in the University of Chicago through the 1940s and 1950s, around Ronald... more The Law and Economics movement that emerged in the University of Chicago through the 1940s and 1950s, around Ronald Coase's example, is a manifestation of the neo-liberal project of applying neo-classical economics to state sovereignty. In the 1970s and 1980s, Law and Economics ideas revolutionized the application of antitrust laws in the United States. However, this achievement came about not through a transformation in economic orthodoxy, but through persuading legal experts to recognize the inherent ‘nonsense’ at work in their own normative assumptions. The Chicago antitrust revolution is therefore symptomatic of trends that Foucault viewed as definitive of neo-liberalism more broadly.

Economic advice as a vocation: symbioses of scientific and political authority

by Will Davies

Academic economists perform an important function in advising politicians and state bureaucrats, lending them... more Academic economists perform an important function in advising politicians and state bureaucrats, lending them epistemological authority. This creates a challenge of institutional design and of professional vocation, of how these experts can combine their commitment to scientific analysis with their commitment towards their governmental patrons. This article examines the case of anti-trust economics, in which government economists are encouraged to remain as academically engaged as possible, so that their advice will be – or appear to be – unpolluted by political or bureaucratic pressures. Yet this ideal is constantly compromised by the fact that the economists are nevertheless government employees, working beneath lawyers. Max Weber's concept of a ‘vocation’ is adopted to explore this tension, and his two lectures, ‘Science as a Vocation’ and ‘Politics as a Vocation’ are read side by side, to consider this core dilemma of academic policy advisors.

Knowing the Unknowable: The epistemological authority of innovation policy experts

by Will Davies

Contemporary developed western economies are commonly referred to as “knowledge-based” economies, which compete... more Contemporary developed western economies are commonly referred to as “knowledge-based” economies, which compete through drawing on the innovative and creative capacities of their local populations. Economic policy-makers must invest in and conserve the social, cultural and public resources that underpin dynamic and disruptive competitive activities, namely technological innovation and entrepreneurship, which bring new ideas and products to market. But these resources defy orthodox forms of economic knowledge and quantification. Their trajectories and outcomes are intrinsically uncertain. The paper draws on interviews with experts who advise governments on innovation and competitiveness, to understand what expert strategies are used to deal with this epistemological problem. Such experts must project and retain epistemological authority, but without lapsing too far into quantitative, economistic and bureaucratic forms of reason. The paper identifies three ways in which knowledge of the future can be validated, but without disguising uncertainty: it can be presented as practically useful; as aesthetically appealing; and as hinting at some “ultimate” form of ontological knowledge.

Cultural political economy: On making the cultural turn without falling into soft economic sociology

by Stijn Oosterlynck

Published in Geoforum 39 (2008) 1155–1169

This article explores the implications of making the cultural turn in the engagement of economic and political... more This article explores the implications of making the cultural turn in the engagement of economic and political geography with issues of political economy. It seeks to steer a path between a fetishistic, reifed economics that naturalizes economic categories and a soft economic sociology that focuses on the similarities between economic and other socio-cultural activities at the expense of the specificity of the economic. We show how combining critical semiotic analysis with an evolutionary and institutional approach to political economy oVers one interesting way to achieve this goal. An evolutionary and institutional approach to semiosis enables us to recognize the semiotic dimensions of political economy at the same time as establishing how and why only some economic imaginaries among the many that circulate actually come to be selected and institutionalized; and Marxian political economy enables us to identify the contradictions and conflicts that make capital accumulation inherently improbable and crisis-prone, creating the space for economic imaginaries to play a role in stabilizing
accumulation in specific spatio-temporal fixes and/or pointing the way forward from recurrent crises. The paper illustrates these arguments with a case study on the Flemish ‘anchoring strategy’ as a specific regional economic development strategy. It concludes with a set of guidelines for the further development of cultural political economy.

Mempertanyakan Orientasi World Class University

by edi subkhan

Getting Real on Fluctuating National Identities: Insights from Northern Cyprus

by Emel Akcali

Potenzialità economiche della cultura e v@lorizzazione negata in Sicilia

by Elisa Bonacini

paper presented at "Un'altra Siracusa - Primo Incontro: Il 'valore' della cultura per il turismo", Siracusa, Museo Archeologico Paolo Orsi, 21 ottobre 2011

Dopo un inquadramento generale sul potenziale economico inespresso del nostro patrimonio culturale, il contributo... more Dopo un inquadramento generale sul potenziale economico inespresso del nostro patrimonio culturale, il contributo approfondisce il ‘peso’ economico di Internet e l’arretratezza digitale dell’Italia, che corre il rischio di entrare a far parte di un Terzo Mondo Digitale anche a causa di una serie di impedimenti legislativi allo sviluppo. Infine, si anticipano alcuni risultati di una ricerca in c.d.s. (La visibilit@ sul web del patrimonio culturale siciliano: criticità e prospettive attraverso un survey on-line. Con Guida multimediale ai musei siciliani sul web) nella quale si evidenzia come, tranne alcune rare eccezioni, sia ancora scadente la qualità della comunicazione del patrimonio culturale siciliano.

Community as a Financial Network: Mortgages, Citizenship, And Connectivity

by Grant Bollmer

Published as part of a special issue of "Democratic Communiqué:"
"Laboring the Academy: New Directions for Communications
Studies in the Economic Crisis," edited by Brian Dolber and Mark Hayward.

This essay argues that the contemporary foreclosure crisis should be understood through the articulation of... more This essay argues that the contemporary foreclosure crisis should be understood through the articulation of citizenship and community with financial networks in American culture. Much of the populist outrage over the contemporary financial crisis is related to the massive amount of money bailing out financial service corporations and banks on “Wall Street” while little goes towards helping Americans on “Main Street.” However, the dominant discourse surrounding community, homeownership, and banking in the United States defines this opposition as an illusion. This essay traces the history of this articulation, first through how debt and citizenship have been understood historically, then through representations of community and banking that equate the two. I examine, first, the popular film "It’s a Wonderful Life" (1946), which defines community as an effect of banking policy and the liquidity of credit, and, second, the contemporary representation of banking as the locus of community. This discourse ideologically defines the role of citizenship as one in which community relations are defined as nothing other than networked flows of capital. The social network of a community is equated to the financial network of global capitalism. A good citizen is, consequently, defined as one who keeps capital flowing through their connectivity to banking and financial networks.

Culture and creativity in the territorial local systems. Tales in search for a theoretical scheme

by Carlo Salone

Co-authored with Giovanna Segre and under anonymous refereeing

The analysis presented in this paper deals with the topic of the integration of a cultural institution in old... more The analysis presented in this paper deals with the topic of the integration of a cultural institution in old industrialised urban contexts, and concerns the use of cultural activities not only as factors of diversification of the local economy, but also as elements of innovation and cross-fertilisation for the former industrial functions. The cases of Biella industrial district and Saint-Etienne industrial area are described in light of the current debate on the culture-based urban and regional development. Attention is also paid to the experiences of Cittadellarte-Pistoletto Foundation and Cité du Design, two cultural institutions recently established in the above mentioned contexts and operating as important nodes of innovation and relations between the local and global networks.

The Internet, Projectization, and Science and Technology: Strategic Tools to Develop Caribbean Cultural and Creative Industries

by Ian Walcott

The Internet presents the single greatest opportunity for developing nations to increase their insertion into the... more The Internet presents the single greatest opportunity for developing nations to increase their insertion into the global economy by way of trade. However, this must be done by
developing strategic programmes in E-government, e-commerce and e-business which must be underpinned by national strategies that speak to developing Science and Technology as it relates to favorable insertion into the Digital Global Economy. With
these systemic features in place, then ‘projectization’ becomes the effective tool for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
This paper is set within the conceptual framework of International Political Economy and examines, in particular, the Caribbean knowledge structure (as it relates to science and
technology) and cultural policy. A more narrow focus will be on the Caribbean island states and their strategies for developing the cultural and creative industries. A closer look at the region’s e-readiness will show that there is little evidence to support the
Caribbean’s willingness to seize the opportunities on the Internet as a global trading place for its cultural goods and services. Such limitations will therefore hinder the region’s attempts at global insertion.

Understanding High Quality Food Through Cultural Economy: The ‘Politics of Quality’ in China’s Northeast Japonica Rice

by Amy Zader

Agriculture and Human Values

Neoliberalism and geography: expansions, variegations, formations

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2010. Neoliberalism and geography: expansions, variegations, formations. Geography Compass. 4 (8), 1025-1038.

The pervasiveness of neoliberalism within the field of human geography is remarkable, especially when we consider its... more The pervasiveness of neoliberalism within the field of human geography is remarkable, especially when we consider its virtual absence from the literature less than a decade ago. While the growing attention afforded to neoliberalism among geographers is new, the phenomenon of neoliberalism is not. This paper traces the intellectual history of neoliberalism and its expansions across various institutional frameworks and geographical settings. I review the primary contributions geographers have made to the literature, and specifically their recognition for neoliberalism’s variegations within existing political economic matrixes and institutional frameworks. Contra the prevailing view of neoliberalism as a pure and static end-state, geographical inquiry illuminates neoliberalism as a dynamic and unfolding process. The concept of ‘neoliberalization’ is thus seen as more appropriate to geographical theorizations insofar as it recognizes neoliberalism’s hybridized and mutated forms as it travels around our world. I also consider some of the most salient ways that neoliberalism has been theorized among human geographers. In particular, I highlight understandings of neoliberalism as a hegemonic ideology, as a policy-based approach to state reform, and as a particular logic of governmentality, arguing that while there are significant differences between these various formations, it may also be important to work beyond methodological, epistemological, and ontological divides in the larger interest of social justice.

Articulated neoliberalism: the specificity of patronage, kleptocracy, and violence in Cambodia's neoliberalization

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2011. Articulated neoliberalism: the specificity of patronage, kleptocracy, and violence in Cambodia's neoliberalization. Environment and Planning A. 43 (11) 2554-2570.

Focusing exclusively on external forces risks producing an over-generalized account of a ubiquitous neoliberalism,... more Focusing exclusively on external forces risks producing an over-generalized account of a ubiquitous neoliberalism, which insufficiently accounts for the profusion of local variegations that currently comprise the neoliberal project as a series of articulations with existing political economic circumstances. Although neoliberal economics were initially promoted in the global south through the auspices of structural adjustment programs designed by the International Financial Institutions, powerful global south elites were only too happy to oblige. Neoliberalism frequently reveals opportunities for well-connected government officials to informally control market and material rewards, allowing them to easily line their own pockets. It is in this sense of the local appropriation of neoliberal ideas that scholars must go beyond conceiving of ‘neoliberalism-in-general’ as a singular and fully realized policy regime, ideological form, or regulatory framework, and work towards conceiving a plurality of ‘actually existing neoliberalisms’ with particular characteristics arising from mutable geohistorical outcomes that are embedded within national, regional, and local process of market-driven socio-spatial transformation. What constitutes ‘actually existing’ neoliberalism in Cambodia as distinctly Cambodian is the ways in which the patronage system has allowed local elites to co-opt, transform, and (re)articulate neoliberal reforms through a framework that ‘asset strips’ public resources, thereby increasing peoples’ exposure to corruption, coercion, and violence. It is to such an 'articulation agenda' that this article attends, as in seeking to provide a more nuanced reading to recent work on neoliberalism in Cambodia by outlining some of its salient characteristics, I reveal a more empirical basis to theorizations of ‘articulated neoliberalism’.

Violence, democracy, and the neoliberal ''order'': the contestation of public space in posttransitional Cambodia

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2009. Violence, democracy, and the neoliberal "order": the contestation of public space in posttransitional Cambodia. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 99 (1), 138-162.

Neoliberal policies explain why authoritarianism and violence remain the principal modes of governance among many... more Neoliberal policies explain why authoritarianism and violence remain the principal modes of governance among many ruling elites in posttransitional settings. Using Cambodia as an empirical case to illustrate the neoliberalizing process, the promotion of intense marketization is revealed as a foremost causal factor in a country's inability to consolidate democracy following political transition. Neoliberalization effectively acts to suffocate an indigenous burgeoning of democratic politics. Such asphyxiation is brought to bear under the neoliberal rhetoric of order and stability, which can be read through the (re)production of public space. The preoccupation with order and stability serves the interests of capital at the global level and political elites at the level of the nation-state. Citizens themselves may fiercely contest these particular interests in a quest for a more radical democracy, as evidenced by the burgeoning geographies of protest that have emerged in Cambodian public spaces in the posttransition era.

Royal Industry in Ancient Israel during the Iron Age Period

by David Eitam

In: Klengel H. (ed.) The Town as a Regional Economic Center in the Ancient Near East, Tenth International Economical History Congress. Leuven: 56-73, 1990

The hypothesis pertaining to the existence of royal industry of olive oil in the kingdom of Israel, Ekron and probably... more The hypothesis pertaining to the existence of royal industry of olive oil in the kingdom of Israel, Ekron and probably Judea during IA II period, is based on our field research studies of the last ten years. Olive oil manufacture become mass-production by improving technology incising oil production and numbers of oil presses. The idea of centralizing the production within the state hands was probably initiated by the Phoenician how conducted in the 10th-9th cent. BC. administrative-industrial center at Kabul (Khirbet Rosh Zait) in the Galilee. Industrial fortified villages of the 8th cent. BC, possibly royal, were discovered and investigated by us in the Samaria Hills (see "Kla' Excavations" and "An Indusrial Village -Khirbret Hadash", and e-Rass). The pick of this phenomenon was the unprecedented enterprise of olive oil industry in the 7th cent. BC Tel Miqne-Ekron in Biblical Philistine, probably initiated by the Assyrian Emptier of which the Kingdom city of Erkron was its vassal.

China in Theory: The Orientalist Production of Knowledge in the Global Economy

by Daniel Vukovich

https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cultural_critique/toc/cul.76.html

If your library does not sub to Cultural Critique (it should!) please ask them to do, and then email me for an advance copy of this piece.

The place and use of "China" or 'the China reference' in current, humanities/social/cultural theory about... more The place and use of "China" or 'the China reference' in current, humanities/social/cultural theory about globalization and the new 'state of the world.' Zizek, Hardt-Negri, Agamben, and the "Sinography" of Haun Saussy and Eric Hayot are interrogated in terms of how they represent China and how they represent 'theory' or theoretical practice as well as intellectual labor. Each critiqued as a type of Cold War orientalist thought and 'positional superiority' about the PRC, esp. of the Mao era and Tiananmen, 1989. China, in short, is the "new" object of orientalism in intellectual political culture in the US-West.

This reflects not bad faith on the part of the otherwise heterodox and accomplished theorists, but a change in intellectual labor and the pactice of theory. By this I mean increasing commodification and 'real abstraction' as a by product of corporatization of the university. Theory has become a labor-saving operation. The increasing presence of this Cold War-orientalized "China" in Western minds reflects the rise of the PRC as something that one cannot not think about. It reflects as well these global economic changes within the realm and forms of thought.

City trajectories and the urban cultural economy. Cultural industries in Dutch cities since 1900

by Michaël Deinema

Paper presented at the 2009 ISA-RC21 Sao Paulo Conference: Inequality, Inclusion and the Sense of Belonging, 2009, August 24

Over the past three decades, urbanization processes in post-industrial economies seem to have differed greatly from... more Over the past three decades, urbanization processes in post-industrial economies seem to have differed greatly from those observed during the century before. New leading economic sectors and new modes of production have engendered new spatial and social relations within cities. Formerly decrepit central areas within industrial metropolises have been transformed, through processes of gentrification, into well-to-do residential areas or into cleaned-up zones where consumers can fully enjoy an ‘experience economy’. Workplace hierarchies have seemingly become flatter. The breakdown of barriers between living and working space, and between private and professional life, appear promising for urban social well-being and ecological sustainability. Dangers have also been identified. Some have warned for increased polarization occurring in post-industrial metropolises, especially within those top-tier metropolitan regions known as global cities. All in all, however, the post-industrial city has been heralded as a place of increased economic competitiveness, better sustainability and potentially as a site of cultural experimentation, as well as of social equity and tolerance. These developments and insights have generated a new dominant strain in urbanist thought. Amid efforts at economic restructuring and revitalization, Richard Florida’s notion of a creative class, Charles Landry’s concept of the creative city, as well as high-tech clusters such as Silicon Valley, have become paradigms for urbanists around the globe. An avid search has commenced for a generalized ‘creative cities formula’ which many interpret as a policy panacea. Within this new narrative the cultural industries play a central role as both a cause and a consequence of local creative assets. This dual role of cultural industries implies positive feedback mechanisms which may belie the purported effects of policy interventions. In fact, it seems very likely that local creative potential depends heavily on path dependent trajectories of cities and therefore on local history.
In order to explore the historical rootedness of creative and post-industrial economic potential, this paper examines the role of the historical local presence of cultural producers on the long-term development of cultural industries within different Dutch cities. Municipal employment figures for cultural occupations spanning the entire twentieth century are taken as main indicators for this development. These quantitative data are complemented with qualitative research on several key cultural industries. The main focus here is on cities within the multinuclear metropolitan region of the Randstad. This region lends itself particularly well for examining the effects of local urban character. Its cities display very different economic orientations and traditions while they are situated very close together in space making mobility between them relatively easy in principle. The findings show that local history and legacies matter greatly. The port city of Rotterdam is hampered by its traditional orientation on heavy industry and transport. It is no competitor for Amsterdam, which has always been economically and culturally diverse, and open to newcomers. There is even possibly a correlation here with Rotterdam’s recent political and social instability. Nevertheless there are signs of spatial and social democratization of cultural production within the Randstad. The elitist city of The Hague has witnessed a sharp decline of its share in Dutch cultural industry employment. Furthermore, a general deconcentration away from the major cities has occurred. In several industries, however, the deconcentration of cultural employment hides an emerging spatial division of labor with internationally successful cultural producers operating within Amsterdam’s high-pressure competitive environment, while a more provincial attitude reigns among the generally lower-end, locally-oriented producers in the rest of the region.

Consumer preferences, cultural product types, and the export potential of cultural industries in small countries. Lessons from the Dutch publishing industry

by Michaël Deinema

Paper presented on October 9th 2008 at the European Urban Research Association’s conference ‘Learning cities in a knowledge-based society’ in Milan, 9th-11th October 2008

This paper challenges the assumption that, while the production of cultural goods and services is still locally... more This paper challenges the assumption that, while the production of cultural goods and services is still locally specific and culturally informed, cultural consumption has become globalized. It argues that consumers generally require some degree of cultural knowledge or cultural affinity with cultural products in order to understand and appreciate them. The cognitive distance between producer and consumer should therefore not be too great. This implies that producers from areas that take up a low position in the global cultural hierarchy, experience more difficulties exporting their cultural products than producers from more culturally influential areas. It also implies that we should distinguish between cultural products according to the degree to which they demand specific cultural knowledge from the consumer. Distinctions between cultural products along these lines may be expected to correspond with very distinct (global) geographic patterns of industry concentration, as well as with different types of organization of production.