Research in behavioural economics, as in economic geography, seeks to address fundamental questions about cognition, the status of human rationality, and social-cum-spatial structure in economic ...decision making. Critiques of the ‘strong’ model of economic rationality that underpins models of behaviour in orthodox economics by those working under the rubric of the former, such as Thaler and Sunstein, are gaining the attention of politicians and policy makers. Yet the ‘limits to rationality’ thesis nevertheless lacks a credible appreciation of the diversity of social life and the significance of context in framing behaviour. Economic geography, while taking seriously the issues of the coconstitution of culture and economy and the relational nature of economic decision making, has moved away from behaviouralism at a time when critical approaches are arguably more salient than ever. I put forward the argument for an engagement with behavioural economic approaches to decision making while critically examining the need for multimethod approach that can accommodate quantitative, statistical, and experimental approaches and qualitative work that takes seriously social identity and attributes including gender, age, social class, and aspirations. The challenge of theorising the social context in which choices are made is discussed with reference to Bourdieu's notion of habitus, and three exemplars are used to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of different methodological approaches. Herbert Simon's metaphor, which conceptualises the decision-making moment as a pair of scissors, is suggested as a way of thinking about the intersection between cognition and the decision-making environment.
Demographic aging can alter physical and social infrastructures in cities, and reshape the broader dynamic processes that theories of urbanization seek to describe and analyze. We argue that both ...urban and eldercare policy often render paid reproductive labor and the workers who do it invisible. They are invisiblized in both policy and urban space. A neoliberal bias in urban policies, reconstructed in the rhetoric of global cities/creative cities, denies care needs. Normative approaches exacerbate this issue, as in gendered ideologies of home, care and familial responsibility. These approaches too often detach the delicate social problem of eldercare in itself from its feasibility and desirability as a site for paid labor. In that separation, the paid workforce typically disappears from the spotlight. We use comparative case studies and the concept of territorialization to refocus on the urban context of paid eldercare work in two “aspiring” global cities, Shanghai and Vancouver.
These Overheating Worlds Strauss, Kendra
Annals of the Association of American Geographers,
03/2015, Letnik:
105, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
In 2003 the British literary magazine Granta published an issue on climate change, "This Overheating World," containing reportage and essays but almost no fiction-and the claim that our "failure of ...the imagination" regarding socioenvironmental change is both a political and a literary one. The decade since has seen a relative burgeoning of what has been dubbed "cli-fi," dominated by apocalyptic and dystopian literary-geographical imaginations. In this article I ask this question: If these are our ways of imagining the future, what are the relationships among cultural imaginaries, theories, and politics of socioenvironmental change? Engaging the work of Frederic Jameson on utopia, and the novels of Margaret Atwood and Barbara Kingsolver, I argue that the flourishing interest in narrative, stories, and storytelling in human geography opens up opportunities for exploring political imaginaries of climate change through utopian and dystopian impulses present in its "fictionable worlds."
US rules on child agricultural labour have remained largely unchanged since the 1960s. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Labour (DOL) announced a rulemaking proposal to limit child farm labour, ...especially for migrant children. Yet by 2012, the DOL abandoned its proposed changes following heavy opposition. Based on a random sample and grounded thematic analysis of public submissions to the 2011 rulemaking proposal, our research explores how meanings of work and family surfaced in submissions from rural constituents. Linking Kathi Weeks' feminist critique of the work and family ethic to the agrarian geographical imaginary, we identify how family farm operations were conceived as a locus for the making of 'good' American workers and national (white, settler) citizens. Our analysis explores the ideological function of these 'regressive solidarities' - internalized expressions and experiences of the agrarian work-family ethic - in relation to historical and contemporary unfreedoms embedded in North American food systems.
The global economic recession has hit the U.K. service economy hard; less remarked on has been the recession’s effect on the British pension system. As private-sector occupational pension coverage ...continues to plummet, public-sector pensions are also in the sights of politicians looking to cut public spending. The government, which in 2005 announced plans for a universal (citizen’s) state pension, has now shifted its focus to a new system of personal accounts to impel medium- and low-income workers without pensions to save for retirement. In this article, the author argues that only a system built on a universal pension in the “first pillar” can guarantee an adequate pension for all, especially part-time and/or temporary workers, carers, and those with interrupted careers. Many such women are workers, and many are in service-sector jobs. Unions and organizations representing service-sector workers therefore need to consider whether to focus their energies on preserving existing benefits for the few or on campaigning for adequate pensions for all.
In sum, radical political economists need to work harder to break down the walls between the spheres of "economy" and "society." Mann takes important steps in this direction and does so moreover with ...his gaze fixed firmly on praxis beyond academia's walls. To grasp the power of capitalism and "work to prepare a ground upon which greater change is possible," as this wonderful book urges us to do, we must take further steps to recognize the relevance of reproduction to power within capitalism.
This paper explores the relationships between labour organising, globalisation and national identity through an engagement with the 2009 Lindsey Oil Refinery strikes. Some strikers adopted the ...controversial slogan ‘British Jobs for British Workers’ in response to employers' attempts to undercut existing wages and conditions with a new migrant workforce. This led to accusations of xenophobia. We make three inter‐related arguments. First, we contend that it is necessary to interrogate the spatialised power relations generated through particular forms of labour agency enacted in relation to globalising processes. Second, since these responses can be politically ambiguous, success in territorially based disputes does not always equate with broader (transnational) class agency. Third, relevant to the project of labour geography, we propose that labour scholars and activists be more attuned to the mundane ambiguities in labour agency, and the subsequent need to frame local action within a broader relational politics of global labour solidarity.
This paper evidences persistent gender inequalities in UK higher education (HE) geography departments. The two key sources of data used are: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data for staff ...and students, which affords a longitudinal response to earlier surveys by McDowell and McDowell and Peake of women in UK university geography departments, and a qualitative survey of the UK HE geography community undertaken in 2010 that sought more roundly to capture respondent reflections on their careers, choices, status and experiences. Findings show that although the gender gap is closing within HE geography in the UK there are significant ongoing gender disparities. Therefore, the paper argues that the long and demanding process of reducing gender inequalities (alongside other, equally vital intersectional inequalities) requires continued commitment. Furthermore, respondents evidence the cost of these inequalities: enablers and barriers to job security and career progression can have long-term impacts on quality of life and financial security, and affect personal life decisions. In recent years the UK-based Athena Swan and Gender Equality Charter Mark agendas have prompted universities to address gendered disparities and the authors note a changing zeitgeist. The survey findings point to the need for sustained leadership within geography departments to address the day-to-day gender – and other – inequalities experienced in the workplace.
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