Blog

2015

Making sense of fiscal devolution in public-sector service delivery

Kevin Muldoon-Smith & Paul Greenhalgh - 22 December 2015

Local authorities will be expected to fend for themselves within a new model of civic financialisation and entrepreneurialism

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Cannabis in the USA Part II: … losing the (drug) war?

Matt Bishop - 17 December 2015

Reforms represent just one battle in a bigger war that is far from over

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Social exclusion and labour rights in the banlieues of Paris

Heather Connolly - 16 December 2015

Trade unions can support the integration of migrants and minorities in France and must do so more actively in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks

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Cannabis in the USA Part I: winning the battle…

Matt Bishop - 15 December 2015

Ambitious reforms to cannabis policy in the US are long overdue, with cracks finally appearing in the edifice of the failed ‘War on Drugs’

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Berry’s ‘disoriented left’ and the possibilities of an alternative

Dan Silver - 10 December 2015

Connecting abstract ideas about political economy with people’s everyday lives is what politics in the UK should now be about

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Bad things can still happen to ‘good pupils’ in the Eurozone

Neil Dooley - 09 December 2015

Portugal’s aspirant ‘good behaviour’ has contributed not only to its recent political crisis, but also its longstanding economic woes

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‘Old’ leftism, made new?

Stephanie L. Mudge - 08 December 2015

An important part of the ‘Millennial’ appeal of Jeremy Corbyn in the UK and Bernie Sanders in the US lies in the economic insecurity of younger generations

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Will devolution bring an economic and democratic dividend?

Dan Bailey & Matt Wood - 03 December 2015

Our briefing for the New Economics Foundation (NEF) supports the existing literature in suggesting that such a relationship cannot be taken for granted

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Back to a Trade Union Bill in the United Kingdom

Jason Heyes - 02 December 2015

The new majority Conservative government seems to be seeking to complete some of its unfinished business from the 1980s

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The rise and fall of the World Bank’s global pension model

Martin Heneghan - 01 December 2015

The global economic crisis has prompted the rapid demise of a treasured neoliberal pet project

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SPERI spotlight on the UN climate summit V

Martin Craig - 30 November 2015

From the politics of climate summitry to the political economy of climate-change mitigation

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SPERI spotlight on the UN climate summit IV

Greg Fry - 26 November 2015

Climate diplomacy in the Pacific region

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SPERI spotlight on the UN climate summit III

Matthew Patersen - 25 November 2015

Beyond ‘Deadline Multilateralism’

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Who governs local economies?

Tom Hunt - 24 November 2015

Cities like Sheffield need more skilled jobs, but delivering them has to be both a national and a local priority

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TPP time in America

David Coates - 23 November 2015

President Obama may view this as his legacy, but it may well not be something of which he will long be proud

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SPERI spotlight on the UN climate summit II

Sian Sullivan - 19 November 2015

On climate change ontologies and the spirit(s) of oil

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SPERI spotlight on the UN climate summit I

Hayley Stevenson - 17 November 2015

Democratising decarbonisation after the COP

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What next for Labour’s ABC tendency

Tony Payne - 29 September 2015

The party desperately needs to go back and come fully to terms with what went right and what went wrong during the Blair/Brown era

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The self-protection of European society (inside and outside the EU)

Owen Parker - 24 September 2015

Growing political turmoil in Greece, Spain and Turkey could be a precursor to a Polanyian ‘great transformation’ away from neoliberalism

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Innovation, research and the UK’s productivity crisis

Richard Jones - 23 September 2015

Continuing on our current path of stagnating productivity and stagnating innovation isn’t inevitable: it’s a political choice

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The Scottish Indyref, one year on

Arianna Giovannini - 22 September 2015

Devolution in England ignores the key lessons from Scotland’s referendum

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Political party conferences: A look ahead

Michael Kenny, Tim Bale & Andrew Gamble - 17 September 2015

As the party conferences get underway this weekend three experienced analysts share their thoughts on what we might expect to hear at the Lib Dem, Labour and Conservative conferences, and the challenges facing each party.

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Paul Romer on mathiness and orthodox economics methodology

Matthew Watson - 16 September 2015

Recent criticisms of the mathiness of many economists has raised the question within the blogosphere of whether a fundamental fault-line has now punctured economics orthodoxy

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You wanted it, you got it

Craig Berry - 14 September 2015

New Labour offered change for two decades, without ever really meaning it. Jeremy Corbyn is the near-inevitable consequence

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Wellbeing and happiness

Ian Bache - 10 September 2015

These two concepts are different: conflating them can undermine the potential for progressive change

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Getting ready for Donald Trump

David Coates - 09 September 2015

It is time to begin worrying about his misguided, superficial and bombastic approach to US problems and politics

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The political economy of ‘good parenting’

Daniela Tepe-Belfrage, Alex Nunn & Shirin Rai - 08 September 2015

‘Good parenting’ is grounded in a white middle-class ideal of what the family is and thus shifts responsibility for nurturing from society to individuals, mostly women

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The political difficulties of ‘Corbynomics’

Andrew Baker - 03 September 2015

The problems are not really the economics at all, but much more the politics

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The real political economy of Ireland

Neil Dooley - 02 September 2015

Contrary to official EU claims, Ireland tells a cautionary tale, undeserving of its current poster-child status

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Austerity rests on a thesis the government doesn’t believe in

Tom Hunt & Craig Berry - 01 September 2015

Concentration of infrastructure investment in areas with high levels of business activity suggests the government is unconcerned by ‘crowding out’

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Citizenship in a financialised society

Craig Berry - 28 August 2015

The Conservative government’s promotion of financialisation is transforming citizenship in the UK

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Variations in austerity-based reform

Thomas Hastings - 26 August 2015

PIIGS and GIPSIs may appear to face common problems, but we should always respect the uniqueness of each country’s particular crisis

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Brazil’s ‘neodevelopmentalism’: autopsy and adjustment

Giselle Datz - 19 August 2015

The problems the Brazilian economy now faces reveal that ‘hybrid’ development models are no panacea for sustained growth

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Child poverty and the unravelling of New Labour’s ‘hybrid’ political economy

Scott Lavery - 12 August 2015

Cameron claims to lead a ‘One Nation’ government, but pursues a ‘two nations’ governing strategy

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Independence by increments

Paul Sutton - 05 August 2015

The SNP still pushes ‘full fiscal autonomy’ even though this will make Scotland worse off financially

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A terminal crisis of Anglo-America?

Jeremy Green - 30 July 2015

In the wake of the global financial crisis new strains have emerged within the US-UK ‘Special Relationship’

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Transport investment and the North’s development dilemmas

Tom Hunt & Craig Berry - 28 July 2015

The gap between rhetoric and reality with regard to transport investment in the North of England encapsulates all the problems of Northern economic development

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Fundamental rights and neoliberalism in Crisis Spain (and Crisis EU)

Owen Parker - 25 June 2015

The gap between rhetoric and reality with regard to transport investment in the North of England encapsulates all the problems of Northern economic development

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Rethinking Recovery IV: Britain’s recovery industry - profiting from austerity?

Emma Dowling - 24 June 2015

This post investigates the burgeoning ‘recovery industry’ in Britain.  As the government cuts welfare and pushes people into precarious labour markets in the name of austerity, it is simultaneously opening up new spheres of profitability for firms.  This is stabilising the status quo of profits over people who are being pushed to produce a recovery that will not serve them.

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The political economy of (ecological) crisis displacement: Part II

Martin Craig - 23 June 2015

Failure to begin the difficult process of questioning the purposes of economic activity may produce even more intractable ecological crises in the future

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It’s the political economy, stupid!

Colin Hay & Tony Payne - 18 June 2015

Labour desperately needs a new and compelling narrative about how it would build a different economy from the Conservatives – and time is already running out

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Rethinking Recovery III: The gendered impact of Universal Credit

Ruth Cain - 17 June 2015

As part of the Conservative Government’s welfare reform, Universal Credit (UC) is now being rolled out across the UK.  UC negatively and disproportionately impacts women and low-paid families.  Not only does it do little to address the social crises sparked by austerity, it also enacts punitive sanctions on to individuals unable to amass sufficient wages through precarious work – even if these conflict with childcare responsibilities.

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Reforming FIFA?

Matt Bishop - 16 June 2015

The issue lays bare the broader trade-offs between democracy, efficiency and legitimacy that epitomise global governance.

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Why the North, why now, and what’s new?: Part II

Craig Berry - 11 June 2015

Osborne’s plans spell ‘devo-danger’ for the left in Northern England

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Rethinking Recovery II: The long, rocky ride of crisis and austerity

Mary Evans - 10 June 2015

In this next post of the series, it is suggested that the discursive justifications of austerity and touting of the moral certainty of markets advanced by politicians hide the fact that capitalism’s crises are always borne by the poor and the weak

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QE, labour market restructuring and the ‘regressive recovery’

Jeremy Green & Scott Lavery - 09 June 2015

Cameron’s continuing ‘two nations’ governing strategy prepares the way for a further economic crisis

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Why the North, why now, and what’s new? Part I

Craig Berry - 04 June 2015

For England’s sake, the time has come for Northern England to find its ‘inner powerhouse’

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Rethinking Recovery I: Inequality and insecurity in UK households

Genevieve LeBaron, Johnna Montgomerie & Daniela Tepe-Belfrage - 03 June 2015

This is the first in a series of ten SPERI Comments on the theme of rethinking recovery.  In this introductory post the authors warn that measurements of, and debates about, economic recovery in the UK have tended to overlook deepening inequality along the lines of class, gender, race, ability, age and sexuality.

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Prospects for Britain’s socially and territorially fractured polity

Colin Hay - 02 June 2015

It’s still a ‘good election to lose, but too important not to win’

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Resource security and energy abundance

John Mathews - 28 May 2015

Unless Western countries intervene in their economies to build green energy and resource systems, they will continue to go down to defeat in this field to China

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Vorsprung durch Technik?  Germany and the Eurozone crisis

Simon Bulmer - 27 May 2015

Key aspects of Germany’s approach to the Eurozone crisis are structural, but they still have a ‘dark side’

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Thought experiments in the political economy of (ecological) crisis displacement: Part 1

Martin Craig - 26 May 2015

The future crises that we confront depend, above all, on the way we choose to respond to the present ecological crisis

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Fostering ‘Civic Capitalism’ within regional polities

Dan Bailey - 21 May 2015

Not all devolution is necessarily ‘good devolution’

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Building a different future out of a crisis of housing

Mònica Clua Losada - 20 May 2015

The PAH, or ‘Platform of Those Affected by Mortgages’, has stirred a genuine social and political awakening in Spain

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When in Russia, do as the Russians do?

Peter Rodgers - 19 May 2015

Putin’s system of control requires businesses constantly to negotiate challenging formal and informal rules of the game

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Interpreting the SNP’s landslide

Nicola McEwen- 15 May 2015

The election outcome in Scotland challenges the UK political establishment to respond to the multinational character of the state

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Labour’s historic defeat: learning the right lessons

David Coates - 14 May 2015

Designing and refining a new growth strategy that rejects austerity are the most pressing tasks before us

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‘It’s the economy wot won it’

Mick Moran - 13 May 2015

Labour’s argument on the economy was condemned by the association of ‘the two Eds’ with New Labour’s record

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Ed Miliband didn’t convince the electorate, because he didn’t convince himself

Craig Berry - 12 May 2015

An ambivalence towards the state meant Labour failed to offer a meaningful alternative to the Conservatives

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A tale of two elections

Andrew Gamble - 11 May 2015

Labour is now confronted with a serious strategic dilemma, but the Conservatives also face huge economic and political challenges

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Votes for vocational education?

Sir Keith Burnett - 23 March 2015

Through advanced apprenticeships, universities and industry can unite to manufacture a more sustainable future for the UK economy

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Inequality Redux V

Hannah Lambie-Mumford - 19 March 2015

Equity, entitlements and the changing nature of welfare

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The G20 and China

Gregory Chin & Hugo Dobson - 18 March 2015

The decision to hold the 2016 summit in China creates both opportunities and challenges in relation to the prospect of a new phase of Asian global leadership

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The Premier League television bonanza

Wyn Grant - 17 March 2015

Opinions differ as to whether this represents the market economy at its worst or its most competitive

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Will the Budget reinforce Britain’s lopsided housing recovery?

Craig Berry - 15 March 2015

Regional housing inequalities continue to widen – because the game is rigged

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Inequality Redux IV

Thomas Hastings - 12 March 2015

Shedding light and turning down the heat in the debate on welfare reform

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The two sides of speaking up for business

Matthew Watson - 10 March 2015

Business executives will continue to tell us how to cast our votes in May’s general election, but, before being persuaded, check the evidence on both sides of the argument

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Inequality Redux III

Genevieve LeBaron - 05 March 2015

Fighting slavery, flaming labour exploitation?

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Election 2015: not a good one to win … but too important to lose

Colin Hay - 04 March 2015

In these circumstances there is no good excuse for not voting, and for not voting extremely wisely

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What does a sustainable economy look like?

Hayley Stevenson - 03 March 2015

Research suggests the existence of no less than three distinct visions

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Inequality Redux II

Martin Craig - 26 February 2015

The ‘trilemma’ of equality, accumulation and ecology

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Capitalism, greening and political economy

Matthew Patersen - 25 February 2015

China and other countries in the global South are leading the way in the uptake of renewable energy and the pursuit of green growth

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Singaporean lessons? 

Matt Bishop - 24 February 2015

Singapore is often held up as a model of development, and it does indeed carry some interesting lessons for other countries, both small and large, to consider

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Inequality Redux

Scott Lavery - 19 February 2015

Wage decline, welfare retrenchment and the politics of austerity in Britain

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The material benefits of being a former leader

Andrew F. Cooper - 18 February 2015

Blair and Clinton highlight the growing trend for ex-leaders to enjoy highly lucrative afterlives

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Turkish delight 

Tony Payne - 17 February 2015

The Presidency of the G20 has now passed to Turkey, but the global political economy looks like remaining dangerously under-governed

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Inequality Redux

Colin Hay - 12 February 2015

Introduction to a series of weekly SPERI Comments by SPERI staff and students on the theme of inequality. 

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We are all developing countries now. Are we?

Graham Harrison- 11 February 2015

Tony Payne’s argument needs to be set in the context of the global ‘structural power’ of a still highly uneven capitalist political economy

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Discovering and discussing the hidden costs of recovery

Genevieve LeBaron & Daniela Tepe-Belfrage - 10 February 2015

Forthcoming seminars at SPERI will endeavour to rethink recovery in a radical way, taking gender and social reproduction fully into account

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Merkel, Draghi and Tsipras

Simon Bulmer - 05 February 2015

These are the three key European leaders of the moment, but a Eurozone ménage à trois remains highly unlikely…

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