Blog
2019
Post-election reflections on the Labour Party: Part 2
Owen Parker - 24 December 2019Whatever it does moving forwards, Labour must continue to reject the neoliberalism of the New and the nativism of the Blue.
Post-election reflections on the Labour Party: Part 1
Owen Parker - 20 December 2019Whatever the future holds Labour should beware both the New and the Blue.
Steering towards the future
Matt Bishop & Tony Payne - 17 December 2019For all its disappointments and flaws, the G20 still has the best chance of delivering the comprehensive global oversight of global governance that we need. This is part 8 in the series 'Reglobalisation in action'.
Envisioning ‘global migration governance’
Antoine Pécoud - 10 December 2019There is ample evidence that we need to reform the governance of migration, but we are a long way from agreeing upon how this should be done. This is part 7 in the series 'Reglobalisation in action'.
The return of economic exceptionalism
Jacqueline Best - 9 December 2019A new animated video by Jacqueline Best examines the role of economic exceptionalism – and asks what it means for political life today.
The latest IMF Package: a Déjà vu for Pakistan?
Muhammad Ali Nasir & Muhammad Shahbaz - 20 November 2019Pakistan’s dependence on IMF support has a long legacy. How might the country make this latest IMF package its last?
Global climate governance in an age of bullshit
Hayley Stevenson - 19 November 2019Holding leaders to account for their lack of ecological integrity requires greater local and global democratic engagement.
Theorising global value chains in a changing global order
Scott Lavery - 14 November 2019Global value chain analysis is a key approach to studying the changing character of global production, but is limited in its firm-centricity and neglects the wider structural context within which industrial development takes place. This is part 7 in the series 'Industrial development in a post-crash world'.
Towards a globalist feminist trade politics
Erin Hannah, Adrienne Roberts & Silke Trommer - 12 November 2019A truly progressive agenda has to recognise the centrality of gendered and other social hierarchies to the deeper workings of the global political economy. This is part 5 of the series 'Reglobalisation in action'.
The European periphery and the Eurozone Crisis
Niall Dooley - 9 November 2019European elites have argued that ‘peripheral’ Eurozone states such as Greece and Ireland must ‘follow the rules’. But ‘following the rules’ of European integration – particularly in the domain of financial services – drove divergence and led to their original crises. This is part 6 in the series 'Industrial development in a post-crash world'.
Rethinking the role of the WTO
James Scott & Rorden Wilkinson - 5 November 2019Given that global trade integration has produced great wealth and great inequality, its governance needs to be reformed in ways that preserve the former and ameliorate the latter. This is part 4 in the series 'Reglobalisation in action'.
The crisis in the Eurozone: what role did production play?
Victoria Stadheim - 31 October 2019The widespread belief that divergences in the Eurozone were driven by ‘unit labour costs’ is mistaken. We need to focus instead on the specific production structures and specialisations of ‘peripheral’ states and their relationship with wider processes of global economic integration. This is part 5 of the series 'Industrial development in a post-crash world'.
Rethinking the role of the IMF
Ben Clift - 29 October 2019The Fund’s new prescriptive discourse on the need to tackle inequality is being challenged and undermined by its own continuing economistic conventions. This is part 3 of the series 'Reglobalisation in action'.
The use of industrial policy to meet emissions reductions: is it enough?
James Jackson - 28 October 2019While the UK’s industrial strategy is an important step in meeting the 2050 net zero carbon target set under the Climate Change Act, there are limits to these policies.
Tackling the Big Four accountancy firms: The new acolytes of finance
Manolis Kalaitzake - 24 October 2019If economies are to be ‘rebalanced’ away from speculative activity and towards productive investment, policymakers must challenge the close political alliance between global finance and the major accountancy firms. This is part 4 of the series 'Industrial development in a post-crash world'.
Changing norms in global tax governance
Andrew Baker & Richard Murphy - 22 October 2019National spillover assessments would provide a decent start along this road and are now attracting the attention of both international and non-governmental organisations. This is part 2 in the series 'Reglobalisation in action'.
Labour’s Green New Deal is among the most radical in the world- but can it be done by 2030?
Michael Jacobs - 21 October 2019Whilst the ambition of Labour’s GND should be applauded, questions remain regarding its technological and political feasibility.
Is economic adjustment driven by business interests? German state capacity and the changing nature of industrial policy
Inga Rademacher - 17 October 2019Many commentators have viewed Germany’s sustained export-led growth as representing the return of a distinctive ‘German Model’ underpinned by an interventionist ‘German industrial state’. However, over the past 30 years, many elements of state support for industries, including tax concessions, subsidies and patient capital, have been reduced. This is part 3 in the series 'Industrial development in a post-crash world'.
Reglobalisation in action: rehearsing the concept
Matt Bishop & Tony Payne - 15 October 2019Globalisation should not – indeed, must not – be abandoned, but it needs to be rebuilt around a new normative framework of ‘re-embedded post-neoliberalism’. This is the first part in the series 'Reglobalisation in action'.
Renationalising finance after the 2008 crisis: External and domestic obstacles to financial reform in emerging markets
Natalya Naqvi - 10 October 2019Has the post-2008 period opened-up a new space for public development banking in emerging economies? The cases of Brazil and South Africa suggest that new opportunities – as well as old constraints – shape states’ ability to pursue industrial development. This is part 2 in the series 'Industrial development in a post-crash world'.
A sputtering car goes into reverse: The German recession and its consequences
Heiner Flassbeck & Patrick Kaczmarczyk - 17 September 2019Amidst global political and economic fragility, the downturn in the Germany economy adds to the uncertainty in a world that, as Paul Krugman put it, has a “Germany problem”. It raises questions over the future of the largest European economy, and of the Eurozone and Europe as a whole.
Calling Out Brexit ‘Bullshit’ in ‘Left Behind’ Britain
Ivanka Antona, Mark Flear, Matthew Wood & Tamara Hervey - 17 September 2019New research by Matt Wood, Ivanka Antova, Mark Flear and Tamara Hervey explores people’s reactions to the claim that leaving the EU will enable £350 million a week to be spent on the NHS.
Advocates of the SDGs have a monetarism problem
Rick Rowden - 9 September 2019More expansionary fiscal and monetary policies are needed to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.
Reading the results of the 2019 local elections in Turkey
Merve Sancak - 3 September 2019While Erdoğan’s party the AKP had previously enjoyed widespread support in Turkey, recent elections showed a decline in the party’s popularity in major cities. What are the factors influencing the recent election results?
Ethical standards in emerging markets: just how different are they?
Natalie Langford - 30 August 2019Ethical standards have typically been driven by firms and NGOs in the global North, and their legitimacy has often been questioned due to their lack of stakeholder inclusion. Just how different are the latest ethical standards emerging in the global South?
Fair Pay and Minimum Wages: A Role for the Living Wage?
Stuart Hill - 23 August 2019The Living Wage has gained popularity as a minimum wage response in the UK. But can it contribute to the wider debate on fair pay?
What happens to the environment in times of economic trouble and why should we care?
Charlotte Burns - 12 August 2019With no-deal Brexit looming, and with predictions of a £30 billion hit upon the economy, it seems a timely moment to reflect upon what impact economic downturns have upon the environment and how a no-deal Brexit may shape the future face of UK environmental governance.
Achieving a Living Wage for UK workers: voluntary vs public policy responses
Calum Carson - 5 August 2019The campaign for a Living Wage for low-paid workers has been gathering steam in Britain for almost twenty years, whereby individual employers voluntarily commit to pay their workers a living wage. But what possibilities are there for a public policy approach to this issue and an effective legislative response to in-work poverty rates in the UK?
How to spur corporate accountability with modern slavery legislation
Genevieve LeBaron - 24 July 2019Governments are increasingly considering anti-slavery legislation to combat forced labour in the supply chains of global companies. But what makes for effective legislation, and how could existing laws be improved?
New frontiers of pink capitalism: Or why sandwiches won’t lead to queer liberation
Ellie Gore - 17 July 2019Greater representation for LGBT+ individuals in mainstream ads and marketing may seem like an important step forward. But there’s a tension between a liberal politics of representation and more radical, structural change, particularly when it comes to connecting LGBT+ rights to other forms of oppression and struggle.
Conservative Fantasies of ‘the Market’
Matthew Watson - 11 July 2019The UK Chancellor Philip Hammond recently declared (surprisingly for a Conservative party politician) that ‘the market’ is currently failing fairness tests in the distributional outcomes it is producing in the UK. Yet, his solution saw him quickly restored to partisan type, idealising textbook market institutions and setting as the future goal returning to the way market outcomes are “supposed to” operate.
The Green New Deal: Easier said than done?
Michael Jacobs - 03 July 2019How might a Green New Deal be imagined in the UK context? And what are the challenges that would face advocates of the GND given the current political and institutional climate?
What exactly is the Green New Deal?
Michael Jacobs - 26 June 2019The Green New Deal is being championed in the USA as a solution to the joint problems of climate change and economic inequality. But what exactly is it, and what is its wider significance?
Economic exceptionalism past and present: or whatever happened to normal?
Jacqueline Best - 25 June 2019Exceptionalist policies can play a critical role in changing norms and perceptions of what constitutes the status quo. What role does exceptionalism play within our society today?
‘Net Zero’ and the innovation-policy nexus
Jacqueline Best - 14 June 2019Ignorance is not the antithesis to knowledge, but it is part of it. Wishful thinking, muddling through and other forms of ignorance play a crucial role in shaping economic policy and its effects on society.
‘Net Zero’ and the innovation-policy nexus
Michael Jacobs - 13 June 2019The adoption of radical policies and targets to combat climate change can speed up the process of innovation and reduce costs associated with emissions reductions
Neoliberalism’s ‘unfailures’
Jacqueline Best - 05 June 2019Economic policies enacted under neoliberalism have often failed to meet their objectives, but have remained unchallenged. Why do certain policy failures have so little impact?
The framing of solidarity in the Euro crisis
Stefan Wallaschek - 22 May 2019Why solidarity and austerity are close (and not oppositional) friends in the Euro crisis discourse
The onshore urban impact of offshore property investors
Rex McKenzie & Rowland Atkinson - 09 May 2019How wealth chains can be used to map the impact of offshore investments on luxury housing markets
Global governance and multilateralism in an age of anti-globalists
Martin Heneghan - 02 May 2019The battle between nationalists and globalists may have opened up a new front – inside the headquarters of international organisations.
Regionally Adjusted Domestic Product – A New Statistic for Seeing the Shape of the Economy
Ed Pemberton - 15 April 2019Ed Pemberton, Doctoral Researcher at SPERI has been named runner-up in the 2018/19 Bennett Prospect Public Policy Prize. His essay submission to the prize can be read here.
Compromise seems to be the hardest word
Michael Jacobs - 11 April 2019Politics is the art of compromise, isn’t it? The EU gave us a good example last night, splitting the difference between the long extension of Article 50 sought by most of its members and the much shorter one demanded by President Macron. But in the UK Parliament compromise seems to be the hardest word. And the result, it is now clear, threatens to leave the UK in European limbo not just till the new October deadline, but indefinitely.
Review of ‘Commodity: The Global Commodity System in the 21st Century’
Scott Lavery - 05 April 2019Photis Lysandrou’s brilliant new book deploys the Hegelian-Marxist method of abstraction in order to understand the heavily financialised regime of capitalism in the twenty-first century.
The political economies of different globalisations – Part 4: ‘Reglobalisation’
Matt Bishop & Tony Payne - 28 March 2019A new mode of globalisation, grounded in the notion of ‘re-embedded post-neoliberalism’, can be charted and built by states if, collectively, they want to do so.
New buzzword, same problem: ‘worker voice’ initiatives and the shortcomings of traditional social auditing
Genevieve LeBaron, Mark Anner & Penelope Kyritsis - 25 March 2019Ultimately, the only way to root out labour abuses in global supply chains is by disrupting traditional power relations between workers and businesses.
The political economies of different globalisations – Part 3: ‘Deglobalisation from the left’
Matt Bishop & Tony Payne - 21 March 2019The left-wing critique of neoliberal globalisation is powerful up to a point, but ultimately it doesn’t stand on the ground where the real battle has to take place.
Territorial peace in Colombia: A transformative concept?
Juan Mario Diaz & Melanie Lombard - 20 March 2019Can peace ever be attained without addressing the structural inequalities inherent in liberal market democracy?
What do England’s towns need from devolution post-Brexit?
Charlotte Hoole - 15 March 2019With just a couple of weeks to go until the UK’s planned exit from the European Union, the country still faces significant uncertainties about the shape Brexit will take and the impact it will have on businesses and livelihoods.
The political economies of different globalisations – Part 2: ‘Deglobalisation from the right’
Matt Bishop & Tony Payne - 14 March 2019With just a couple of weeks to go until the UK’s planned exit from the European Union, the country still faces significant uncertainties about the shape Brexit will take and the impact it will have on businesses and livelihoods.
Economic development in Palestine and beyond
Patrick Kaczmarczyk - 13 March 2019Successful economic development in Palestine will require an adequate theory of development, industrial policy, and institutional reforms
The political economies of different globalisations – Part 1: Neoliberal globalisation
Matt Bishop & Tony Payne - 07 March 2019Globalisation should not be seen as some kind of inevitable technological imperative but rather as a political construction born of a particular phase in history
Susan Strange: a great thinker or a ‘journalist’?
Nat Dyer - 27 February 2019The works of political economist Susan Strange are experiencing a revival of interest. But what are her big ideas?
Using education to promote sustainability in the textile industry
Jon Morris - 13 February 2019While efforts are underway to promote social and environmental sustainability within the global textile industry, the role of education can act as a key enabler of change.
Knowing commodities through corporate narratives: the poor prospects for ethical consumption
Remi Edwards - 12 February 2019Commodities are often represented to consumers based on corporate promises of social responsibility. But with little evidence of positive impact on the ground for workers, is ethical consumption really a move in the right direction?
Is Britain ‘undeveloping’ before our eyes? Part II
Matt Bishop & Tony Payne - 30 January 2019The country needs an accurate analysis of its plight, a strategy for addressing it and a developmental state to drive forward economic and political change.
Is Britain ‘undeveloping’ before our eyes? Part I
Matt Bishop & Tony Payne - 29 January 2019The pathologies characterising Britain’s emergence as the first ‘early developer’ may have accumulated to the point where they undermine its prospect of continuing development
A New Era for SPERI
Colin Hay & Genevieve LeBaron - 4 January 2019In the first blog in a new series, SPERI Directors Colin Hay and Genevieve LeBaron describe SPERI’s evolution since 2012 and set out a new research agenda.
Capitalism, Democracy & the State
SPERI research team - 3 January 2019The second blog in our new series sets out SPERI’s research agenda on Capitalism, Democracy & the State.
Finance, Debt & Society
SPERI research team - 3 January 2019The third blog in our new series sets out SPERI’s research agenda on Finance, Debt & Society.
Corporate Power & the Global Economy
SPERI research team - 3 January 2019The fourth blog in our new series sets out SPERI’s research agenda on Corporate Power & the Global Economy.
Labour & Decent Work
SPERI research team - 3 January 2019The fifth blog in our new series sets out SPERI’s research agenda on Labour & Decent Work.