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A ‘Happy’ Coincidence: Cognitive Capitalism and Well-Being Enhancement in Schools

Author(s): James Reveley / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

‘Almost certainly we are witnessing a shift to...a market individualism of neoliberalism where the self is shaped as a utility maximiser, a free and contractual individual, who is self-constituted through the market choices and investment decisions that he/she makes....In the face of increasingly technical and functional forms of literacy and of schooling, we might inquire whether school in an age of consumerism promotes a relation to the self based on truth-telling or whether this relation has been replaced by another primary ethos: happiness, security, survival, success, ‘self-improvement,’ wealth.’ (Besley and Peters, 2007: 18)

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A „jó anya” mítosza Magyarországon a reproduktív munka és a piac globális történetének szempontjából

Author(s): Gergely Csányi,Szabina Kerényi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 24/2018

Based on Foucault’s theory of the soul, as well as the methodological insights of Fernand Braudel and world-systems analysis, in our paper we demonstrate how the myths of the good and the bad mother were created by certain actors during the various cycles of the capitalist world system, and how these myths have been embedded into the logic of capitalistic accumulation. We show how these myths, on the one hand, contributed to securing the unpaid reproductive labour necessitated by accumulation, and on the other hand, supported a new market segment from the 19th century onwards. First we present an outline of the history of the myth of the good mother at the core of the world system, then we summarise the socialist myth of the good mother. Finally, we use empirical examples to illustrate the contemporary Hungarian myth of the good mother.

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A System Dynamics Approach to Analysing the Effect of Clientelism on Public Organizations Performance in Italy

Author(s): Federico COSENZ / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2010

This paper tries to analyse the effects of political clientelism on the performance of public utilities and organizations in Italy. Shortly, clientelism consists in a series of reciprocal convenience-based relationships between politicians and individuals, commanding unequal resources and involving mutually beneficial transactions in terms of economic, social and political consequences. The motivation of this research stems from the fact that analysing the effect of clientelism may contribute in (1) improving the quality of electoral strategies and the resulting public policies and (2) managing the performance of public organizations according to a sustainable perspective. Hence, the key issues of the paper are the following: is clientelism a sustainable mechanism to enlarge the consensus of a given party? How does clientelistic practice impact on public organizations management and subsequent performances? What should public managers do to limit the effect of clientelism and maintain satisfying performance results in providing services towards citizens? In the light of the above questions, the paper points out the cause-and-effect relations among those variables underlying such clientelistic practices by using a System Dynamics approach which allows one to frame a complex system and understand its development over time.

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A szén-dioxid mint értékmérő. Hogyan teremt értéket és pénzt a klímaváltozás?

Author(s): Steffen Dalsgaard / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 25/2019

The introduction of the Kyoto Protocol is an attempt to save the climate through a number of schemes, or mechanisms, that commodify carbon. Among other things, these schemes create monetary incentives to reduce carbon emissions through the trade of permits and credits, and they make carbon an object of financial speculation. Most controversial is apparently the potential of carbon thus to be a universal yardstick for value by commensurating moral spheres of human action (the environment, the economy, development, etc.) that some people regard as distinct. This paper explores the consequences of the speculative aspects of carbon as a standard of value and as potential currency.on

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A szülés és a reproduktív technológiák értékelméleti megközelítése

Author(s): Kathryn Russell / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 24/2018

Social and technical changes in reproduction are drawing childbirth into the marketplace. People are creating new relations that separate genetic, gestational and social parentage. Reproductive engineering makes options of in vitro fertilization, embryo transfer, surrogacy, and fetal tissue transplants. This paper explores an analogy between childbearing and social labor, arguing that the labor theory of value gives insight into the social functions of childbirth under capitalism. The valorization of childbearing is consistent with other ways of socializing the reproduction of labor power despite the capitalists need for an autonomously functioning private household sector. A value-theoretic approach is necessary to reveal how childbearing is being placed in material relation with other forms of labor under capitalism. Neither reproductive engineering nor biological difference are themselves sources of oppression for women, but when found in a historical context where value can be extracted, childbearing can become a form of alienated labor.

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A társadalombiztosítás politikai gazdaságtana. A racionális magyarázatkísérletek rövid története

Author(s): Béla Janky / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2018

This paper provides a non-exhaustive survey of the political economy literature on intergenerational redistribution. We concentrate on the explanations of the emergence, persistence and some specific features of pay-as-you-go public pension systems. The major question of the surveyed literature is how to explain the popularity of a social security system which reduces the welfare of the median voter. After a short survey of the history of the field, we present four models which represent four distinct approaches to the problem, and belong to four different periods of the history of the research program. The studies presented here highlight the possible roles of rigid institutions, an implicit intergenerational contract, intergenerational altruism and uneven lobbying capacities in shaping modern social security systems. The major novel feature of our perspective is the strong emphasis on the analysis of empirical foundations of behavioral assumptions of political economy models.

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A tőke és a gondoskodás ellentmondásai

Author(s): Nancy Fraser / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 24/2018

Nancy Fraser tracks the reconfiguration of the relations of social reproduction under successive regimes of accumulation – “separate spheres”, male breadwinner, dual-income household. Are the exactions of financialized capitalism now serving to undermine its lifeworld?

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Adam Smith, Commercial Society and the Challenges of Republicanism

Author(s): Rafal Lis / Language(s): English / Issue: 25/2017

The aim of this article is to examine the challenges Adam Smith’s account of commercial society pose to republicanism. The research problem and methods: Although I do not dispense with the conventional depiction of Smith as a critic of republics, it is shown that from a republican point of view there are certain aspects in his narrative that can be more interesting. Conceptualized in this way, my argumentation is both interpretative and theoretical, describing what Smith had to say on republican issues as well as finding some elements in his considerations that could considerably enrich republican theory. To make these prospects clearer I briefly refer to some parallels to Smith’s suggestions in the republican thought of the late 18th Century. The process of argumentation: The article deals in the beginning with Smith’s criticism of republicanism, identifying its core in his general distance towards the ideals of a more ardent citizenry. In the main section it proceeds to the discussion of several elements in Smith’s considerations which could be of some value to republican theorists. Research results: According to Smith, due to their obsoleteness in the times of commercial society, which were characterized especially by the growing importance of private pursuits, republics become difficult to administer. However, one could still use some of his arguments (especially those that can be easily filtered from their doctrinal connotations) to the task of modernizing the republican tradition. Conclusions, innovations and recommendations: Smith’s considerations could be valuable to all those republican theorists who continued in their efforts to modernize their conception of a republic. Seen in this way, they can be perceived as an interesting reference point in the area of republican theorizing.

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Adam Smith’in Devlet Anlayışı Üzerine Kuramsal Bir İnceleme

Author(s): Kürsad Zorlu,Hale Kirmizioglu / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 22/2018

The purpose of this study is to throw light on the state, one of the most important structures in social sciences and its functions. This great structure on which the discussions have not been ended and which has been defined in terms of every social science. For this purpose, the ideas of Adam Smith who handled and examined the state in terms of its functions especially in economic realm were prioritised general overview of the state. Since, Adam Smith’s conception of the state presents a different content than the other prominent mainstream economic thinkers of his time. In order to understand Smith’s thought system and his views of state from a managerial perspective, his views in his two primary works – The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations and other discussions concerned with these views in literature were included in this study.

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Adam Smith’s Concept of Value of Labor. Anglo-American Perspective till Mid-19th Century

Author(s): Magdalena Modrzejewska / Language(s): English / Issue: 25/2017

The aim of this paper is to investigate applicability of Adam Smith’s Labor Theory of Value (LTV) and present both: the development of Adam Smith’s LTV as well as the early Anglo-American respond to the thesis that lab-our is real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities. The research problem and methods: Paper analyses premises that led Adam Smith to formulate his thesis that the labor it the only common measure of all value; as well as the reasons for critiques and appraisals of Smith’s thesis. Using analytical methods, as Frederic Beiser defined it, paper will “identify the problem behind a passage, the question the author is attempting to answer, (…) reconstruct the arguments the author gives for its solution, i.e., formulate them into premises and conclusion [and] (…) appraise these arguments, determining their formal validity and the quality of the evidence for them.” The process of argumentation: After taking preliminary considerations on development of Smith’s theory the paper examines the earliest critique by the Anglo-American thinker Thomas Pownall. Finally, to investigate shortcomings of Pownall’s criticism, the paper explores various British and American attempts to implement LTV in Utopian experiments and validate ac curacy of Smith’s assumptions in practice. Research results: The result of the study is to clarify the Smith’s LTV concept and present it in new light, without the Marxist distortion given to it by both: Karl Marx itself and Marxists supporters. Conclusions, innovations and recommendations: This proves that no matter how disputable and undefined the LTV concept might be, and besides all imperfections of LTV theory emphasized by Pownall, under specific circumstances it might be implemented into practice. The paper focuses on pre-Ricardian economy and Utopian social experiment and there fore it provides new context of analysis does not intend to present the Marxist variations on LTV.

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Adam Smith’s natural liberty system

Author(s): Janina Godlów-Legiedz / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

The aim of the article is to show the falsity of the dominant perception of Adam Smith’s doctrine. In the context of different interpretations, the paper draws attention to four issues. Firstly, the formalistic revolution in economics contributed to ignoring the institutional dimension of the market mechanism. Secondly, the idea of natural liberty emerged as a reaction to the mercantilist policy and was directed not against the sovereign as such but against policies advancing particular interests. Thirdly, the liberty was to serve not only the capital and the employer but, above all, the labor and the employee. Fourthly, the Smithian market order is a form of metacoordination, hence John Nash's game theory cannot prove Smith's ideas wrong.

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Afektywne dostrojenia i sprawczość w czasach późnego industrializmu

Author(s): Marek Pawlak / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2018

The article explores the context of the expansion of Opole Power Plant, which has fuelled new migration patterns in the region of Dobrzeń Wielki. By drawing on the ethnographic fieldwork among construction workers working at the expansion site and living temporarily in the region, it aims to problematise the relationship between their mobile livelihood, agency and affective attunements. It argues that the emergence of late industrialism, which coincided with the neoliberal reconfigurations of global political economy, has produced different modes of uncertainties, forced flexibilities and rather bleak futures.

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Agrarne początki kapitalizmu

Author(s): Ellen Meiksins Wood / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 26/2017

This article presents the underlying assumptions and main arguments of "political Marxism." The author shows how and why the beginning of capitalism should be primarily associated with the countryside and agriculture, and secondarily with the city and trade. The subordination of food production processes to the imperatives of capitalism determines capitalism’s revolutionary character. The main reason for that lies in the transformation of the processes responsible for the reproduction of the whole society and not only for the distribution or redistribution of surpluses.

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Akumulacja pierwotna i czasowości kapitalizmu

Author(s): Joanna Bednarek / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 16/2015

The main thesis of the article is the statement that capitalism is composed of many different, incoherent temporalities, as well as that apprehension of capitalism from the angle of primitive accumulation enables the more accurate grasp of the modes of its functioning, including the complexity created by the interactions of the temporalities mentionned. The problem of primitive accumulation is, as Sandro Mezzadra proves, a good starting point for analysing this issue. It allows us to pose two questions: first, the question of the relation between the historical dimension and the structural logic of capitalism; second, the question of hierarchical relation between the center and the periphery of the capitalist system. Dipesh Chakrabarty’s project of ‘provincializing Europe’ proves helpful here, as it’s goal is deconstruction of the categories of progress, modernization and the capital with its abstract structure. The aim is not to negate the fact that capitalist abstraction is a real force, but to show that this force develops by means of constant assimiliation of the other – redefined as ‘backward’ or archaic. The linear scheme is in force, because it is the main mechanism of imposing the power of capital; as such, it is not politically neutral.

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Alex Gourevitch, From Slavery to the Cooperative Commonwealth

Author(s): Szilárd Tóth / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

Alex Gourevitch, From Slavery to the Cooperative Commonwealth - Labor and Republican Liberty in the Nineteenth Century, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2015

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Alienacja: problem wciąż aktualny. W nawiązaniu do myśli Karola Wojtyły–Jana Pawła II

Author(s): Andrzej Szostek Mic / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2018

The author presents a brief outline of Karl Marx’s concepts of economic alienation and social revolution (the latter conceived of as fight for human emancipation) in order to confront them with Karol Wojtyla’s theory of participation, which is the main focus of the considerations. Unlike Marx, Wojtyla holds that, rather than the economic relations, it is the category of the ‘neighbor,’ together with the derivative commandment of love (“thou shalt love...”), that provide the deepest ground for participation. Therefore, Wojtyla emphasizes that the Marxist theory of alienation is essentially the antithesis of the theory of participation, while the postulate of a class-struggle-based revolution, which follows from the theory of alienation, deepens the condition in question rather than contributes to overcoming it. In the concluding part of the paper, the author refers to the fact that Pope John Paul II did not consider overcoming the so-called socialist system, which began in 1989, as the end of working against alienation. Rather, he would stress that the problem of alienation is still acute, since alienation is now engendered by materialistic consumer attitudes which undermine the possibilities of participation. The author holds that the mark of the consumer mentality characteristic primarily of Western societies is that their members are no longer aware of the alienation they experience and, consequently, they no longer strive to overcome this condition.

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Alternative

Author(s): Branko Horvat / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 12/2001

Bruto nacionalni proizvod neke zemlje može se razdijeliti na različite načine. Konkretno, može se razdijeliti tako da bolje zadovoljava manje hitne nego hitnije potrebe. U tom je slučaju opće blagostanje stanovništva ispod objektivno postizive razine. Ovaj jednostavni zdravorazumski pristup potiče dobro poznate i goleme analitičke i teoretske probleme. Ako prihvatimo - kao što se to općenito čini - da međupersonalne usporedbe blagostanja nisu moguće ili opravdane, tada izgleda da nema objektivnih kriterija za prosuđivanje relativne hitnosti potreba. Uz to, opće blagostanje ovisi ne samo o raspodjeli, već i o proizvodnji. Stoga imamo zamku povratne sprege u sistemu koji ne možemo mjeriti - jasnu analitički mrtvu točku.

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Aluminij d.d. Mostar na isteku mandata Vlade FBiH - Oktobar 2018. godine -

Author(s): Samir Mušovic / Language(s): Bosnian / Publication Year: 2018

Nije rijetkost da se značajni društveni i privredni problemi, slučajno ili namjerno, lansiraju u javnost usred predizborne kampanje ili u prva 3-4 mjeseca novog mandatnog perioda. Podešavanje objave vijesti o krupnim aferama i krupnim društvenim problemima u predizbornom periodu ili u prvim mjesecima novih mandata nije slučajno: javna pažnja je zasićena izbornom kampanjom i dodatno, kao u ovom slučaju, dokazanim odsustvom javne pažnje uobičajenim za mjesece ljetnih godišnjih odmora (dovoljno se prisjetiti najpoznatijih vremenskih podešavanja objave loših vijesti u slučajevima poskupljenja osnovnih namirnica i usluga, koje se ćešće objavljuju u trećem večernjem dnevniku, a znatno rjeđe u udarnom terminu drugog TV dnevnika). Tako su vijesti, objavljene krajem mjeseca juna 2018. godine, vezane za smjenu direktora Aluminija d.d. Mostar i istovremena objava vijesti da to preduzeće ima akumulirani gubitak blizu 180 miliona Eura, zadržale javnu pažnju na problemima preduzeća Aluminij Mostar čak i kraće od «tri dana BiH čuđenja», koliko se BiH javnost uobičajeno zadržava na tzv. udarnim problemima.

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Amerikanski eksperimenat

Author(s): Milan Curcin / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 03/1934

Kada bi nešto danas besmrtni Servantes imao da šalje svoga Don Kihota da se za svoje ideale bori protiv ovaca i vetrenjača, bio bi u najvećoj nedoumici, po kakvoj narodnosti da svoga junaka krsti, osobito ako je bio uveren da se dogadjaji u svetu odigravaju predvidjanjima i voljom samih ljudi. Samo što, govoreći o Don Kihotu u vezi s privrednim vetrenjačama, mi njega ne uzimamo kao tragičnu figuru, figuru idealista i sanjalice, već ga uzimamo onako kako ga shvata široka publika.

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