Blog
2020
2020
As we slowly emerge from the second lockdown and prepare with hope for the new year, I though it timely [...]
Why Brexit negotiations on the level playing field should be seen in light of the EU’s experience with FTAs and criticisms of labour standards provisions.
While Central and Eastern European states were initially constrained by neoliberalism, the rise of populism has lead to a form of developmental 'statism'.
Despite growing concern about the power of Big Tech, regulators have struggled to hold these companies and their executives to account. Here's why.
The influence of private lobbies in policymaking is dependent on the two-directional interaction between policymakers and lobbyists.
In part 2 of this two-part blog, we consider divides constructed between the permanent/temporary and the skilled/unskilled in relation to workers rights
The legal characterisation of people who move across borders for work has profound implications for their labour rights. In Part One of this two-part blog, three legal scholars consider some of the binaries used to justify their legal characterisation and suggest that we need a new way to discuss this phenomenon. The authors begin by considering the inside/outside jurisdiction binary.
While social and environmental problems persist within global supply chains, our new report highlights some possible solutions to overcoming these governance challenges
The COVID-19 pandemic burst in the midst of an already agitated geopolitical scenery punctuated by the fallout of Brexit and turbulent trade wars. This is the final blog in the series 'Studying an Uncertain Future' written by members of SPERI’s Doctoral Researchers Network.
COVID-19 has demonstrated how we need to rethink the trade-offs between efficiency and resilience if we are to meet the even greater challenge of climate change. This blog is Part 6 of our new series on ‘Studying an Uncertain Future‘ written by members of SPERI’s Doctoral Researchers Network.
Developing countries have become connected to the cycles of global market-based finance. This has important implications for external debt sustainability, debt relief, and the financing of development.
Kenya’s ongoing commercialisation of its water sector creates two positive feedback loops that need careful regulation to live up to the commitment of water as a human right. Recent events distressingly demonstrate and urgently demand that this must include prioritising underserved areas. This blog is Part 5 of our new series on ‘Studying an Uncertain Future‘ written by members of SPERI’s doctoral researchers network.
The UK’s food standards would be put at risk by a UK-US free trade agreement, but don’t expect to see chlorinated chicken on UK supermarket shelves any time soon.
With vegan and environmentally-friendly diets on the rise in the UK, this blog asks what these changes in consumption behaviour imply for the political economy of food production and how might the state support such a transition? This blog is part 4 of the ‘Studying an Uncertain Future‘ written by members of SPERI’s Doctoral Researchers Network.
The unquestioning faith of supply chain management (SCM) studies in unconditional economic growth and free trade policy has left us unprepared to confront the pandemic, leading us to a sudden and uncontrollable collapse.
Harold Laski’s influence in China has been under-researched for decades. A new workshop held this week will explore the legacy of his legal philosophy.
On the first anniversary of the ILO’s adoption of C190 on Violence and Sexual Harassment, we are now grappling with seismic shocks to economic security, public health, and freedom of association and assembly caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
We need to extend critiques of undervalued labour beyond those that we see as having ‘social value’ in order to engender improvements in the material value of labour globally. This blog is Part 3 of the series ‘Studying an uncertain future‘ written by members of SPERI’s doctoral researchers network.
Cash Assistance Programmes have proliferated in recent years in order to offer financial support to asylum seekers. This blog examines the impact of the cash card scheme on refugee’s lives. This is ninth blog in the SPERI-Finance Watch series 'Untold stories of personal debt in Europe'.
The threat posed by the novel Coronavirus has evidently led to a reassertion of political power over economic demands and global market forces.
Why an ecological approach is necessary for tackling contemporary global crises. This blog is Part 2 of the series ‘Studying an uncertain future‘ written by members of SPERI’s doctoral researchers network.
EU institutions are encouraging the development of distressed debt markets, thereby meeting banks’ needs while opening up profit opportunities for private equity investors and debt collectors. This is the eighth part of the SPERI- Finance Watch series 'Untold stories of personal debt in Europe'.
A new generation of political economists, drawn from SPERI’s Doctoral Researcher Network reflect on what their work tells us about where the world may be going in the next ten years.
If the British government chooses not to align with EU regulations post-Brexit, the consequences for inward foreign direct investment to the UK may be significant.
Creating fiscal space to write-off household debt will bring macroeconomic renewal and end the era of debt-dependent growth.
EU regulation should provide citizens – both households and entrepreneurs – a concrete possibility for a ‘second chance’ and for a fresh start from the chain of over-indebtedness. This is the fifth part of a new joint SPERI-Finance Watch series on 'Untold stories of personal debt in Europe'.
The measures taken to pull the economy out of the 2008 crisis involving quantitative easing coupled with austerity were flawed. Twelve years on, wealth for the top percentile has increased exponentially whilst incomes have stagnated. Meanwhile inequality has worsened. For a real recovery this time round, it is time to target wealth.
Could the current crisis challenge the independence of the central bank?
In spite of clear evidence that those in debt may experience associated health issues, little has been done to address the connections. This is the fourth part of a SPERI-Finance Watch series on 'Untold stories of personal debt in Europe'.
The outbreak of COVID 19 has enlarged the UK state. This blog explores whether this emergency enlargement of the state may come to serve progressive purposes.
Will the covid-19 pandemic prompt the EU to take the decisive integrative steps that it failed to take in the context of the Eurozone crisis? Or will this be a crisis too far?
It appears that the protection of the economy is often a factor in the types of exceptionalist policies designed to ensure the public’s security throughout the COVID19 pandemic.
While the Chancellor’s injection of money into the economy is welcome, it highlights just how undervalued ‘women’s work’ still is in our societies.
There is evidence of social solidarity emerging in the current crisis. Can this sense of community be maintained to help shape the reconstruction of a post-crisis world?
Pre-pandemic class relationships are both shaping and disrupting the politics of covidism.
UK public transport is undergoing a crisis as bus networks across the country have seen huge cutbacks in service provision. What are the possible solutions?
Why ‘plugging’ infrastructure gaps through international finance can generate new problems for African cities.
A market for values would reconcile economics and ethics, individual and community, capitalism and democracy.
A 19th Century trade agenda will decimate the most productive parts of the 21st Century economy. This is the sixth part of SPERI’s new series on Brexit, the Conservative Majority and the UK Political Economy.
While the case of UK agriculture illustrates an exception to the rule of ‘ending’ low skill immigration, there are many sectors in which demand for migrant workers are not being met under current immigration policy proposals. This is the fifth part of SPERI’s new series on Brexit, the Conservative Majority and the UK Political Economy.
The UK Prime Minister has pledged to end low skilled immigration by 2021. Why have exceptions have been made for the agricultural sector? This is the fourth part of SPERI’s new series on Brexit, the Conservative Majority and the UK Political Economy.
Leaving the EU means our rights at work will now be shaped by the UK government, and that means they will become a key area of political contest. This is the third part in SPERI’s new series on Brexit, the Conservative Majority and the UK Political Economy.
Our new research shows that proximity to terrorist attacks increased support for Remain.
Contradictions have emerged within the Tory party between their ‘Global Britain’ free trade agenda and their pledge to ‘level up’ the country and to end the inequalities which emerged under globalisation. This is the second part in SPERI’s new series on Brexit, the Conservative Majority and the UK Political Economy.
Our new blog series examines the policy implications of the 2019 UK general election, examining trade, immigration, environment and labour market policy under the recently elected Conservative government.
Critical security studies can help to make sense of the complex ways through which states have used claims of ‘exceptionalisation’ to respond to economic crises.
Our recent research on international networks within UK higher education questions the claim that UK scientists will be able to forge wider collaborations with peers in the USA, China and the Commonwealth after Brexit
It appears that there is a gaping hole in our understanding of how immigration affects job prospects in the UK.
Responding to climate change poses a fundamental challenge to the ideas that shape globalisation. This blog explores potential solutions to the crisis.
Through our new guidelines we aim to help political economy become a more diverse and inclusive intellectual discipline.
Firms like Netflix and Spotify are changing the way we consume. What does this mean for how we study and understand finance?
Exploring the common assumptions about populism shared by academic approaches to both economy and security provides an opportunity to rethink our understanding of the phenomena.
Neoliberalism is said to have taken an authoritarian or punitive turn since 2008. But political economy tends to underplay how the war on terror has initiated its own authoritarian turn prior to global financial crash.
Examining the commodification of an everyday object, an Afghan rug, reveals a complex interconnection of economy and security.
Exploring the mobilisation of fears of violence linked to public transport exposes a complex picture in which it can be difficult to characterise and approach desires for safety in society. This has significant implications for those concerned with tackling inequalities.
This blog series presents research from SPERI’s 2019 PREPPE programme. This year’s PREPPE team asks: What sorts of analyses might we be able to generate if we move beyond treating ‘economy’ and ‘security’ as separate? The blogs in this series each question how helpful this distinction is by focusing on four cases: community safety, war, neoliberalism, and populism.
In this blog we argue that there is a need for new research which explores the role of life course factors on inequalities in opportunities to prolong employment.
In the second part of this blog, we examine the ways through which Germany and France have adopted various strategies of refugee management and how these responses are shaped by austerity.