Download or read book Making Public in a Privatized World written by David A. McDonald and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2016-02-15 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do we provide effective public services in a deeply neoliberal world? In the wake of the widespread failure of privatisation efforts, societies in the global south are increasingly seeking progressive ways of recreating the public sector. With contributors ranging from cutting-edge scholars to activists working in health, water, and energy provision, and with case studies covering a broad spectrum of localities and actors, Making Public in a Privatized World uncovers the radically different ways in which public services are being reshaped from the grassroots up. From communities holding the state accountable for public health in rural Guatemala, to waste pickers in India and decentralized solar electricity initiatives in Africa, the essays in this collection offer probing insights into the complex ways in which people are building genuine alternatives to privatization, while also illustrating the challenges which communities face in creating public services which are not subordinated to the logic of the market, or to the monolithic state entities of the past.
Download or read book Making Public in a Privatized World written by David A. McDonald and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-15 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do we provide effective public services in a deeply neoliberal world? In the wake of the widespread failure of privatisation efforts, societies in the global south are increasingly seeking progressive ways of recreating the public sector. With contributors ranging from cutting-edge scholars to activists working in health, water, and energy provision, and with case studies covering a broad spectrum of localities and actors, Making Public in a Privatized World uncovers the radically different ways in which public services are being reshaped from the grassroots up. From communities holding the state accountable for public health in rural Guatemala, to waste pickers in India and decentralized solar electricity initiatives in Africa, the essays in this collection offer probing insights into the complex ways in which people are building genuine alternatives to privatization, while also illustrating the challenges which communities face in creating public services which are not subordinated to the logic of the market, or to the monolithic state entities of the past.
Download or read book Public Banks written by Thomas Marois and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-10 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public banks are dynamic, contested institutions with the potential to decarbonize the environment, definancialise the economy, and democratise global development.
Download or read book Privatization in Turkey written by Ahmet Zaifer and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-06-27 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Privatization in Turkey: Power Bloc, Capital Accumulation and State, Ahmet Zaifer offers a rare look on privatization in Turkey that involves all three historical periods of Turkish privatization process -1980s and 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s- and covers different forms of privatization from divestiture to public-private partnership. Benefiting from theoretically informed qualitative research spanning nearly a decade that has involved several interviews with key informant groups, extensive review of newspaper articles and detailed analysis of annual reports of businesses, Ahmet Zaifer convincingly proves that the acceleration of privatization in Turkey has not only provided advantages to so-called favourable capital groups and the government elites, but also consolidated the position of Capital in General at the expense of labouring-popular classes and the natural environment of the entire country.
Download or read book The Privatization of Everything written by Donald Cohen and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2021-11-23 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book the American Prospect calls “an essential resource for future reformers on how not to govern,” by America’s leading defender of the public interest and a bestselling historian “An essential read for those who want to fight the assault on public goods and the commons.” —Naomi Klein A sweeping exposé of the ways in which private interests strip public goods of their power and diminish democracy, the hardcover edition of The Privatization of Everything elicited a wide spectrum of praise: Kirkus Reviews hailed it as “a strong, economics-based argument for restoring the boundaries between public goods and private gains,” Literary Hub featured the book on a Best Nonfiction list, calling it “a far-reaching, comprehensible, and necessary book,” and Publishers Weekly dubbed it a “persuasive takedown of the idea that the private sector knows best.” From Diane Ravitch (“an important new book about the dangers of privatization”) to Heather McGhee (“a well-researched call to action”), the rave reviews mirror the expansive nature of the book itself, covering the impact of privatization on every aspect of our lives, from water and trash collection to the justice system and the military. Cohen and Mikaelian also demonstrate how citizens can—and are—wresting back what is ours: A Montana city took back its water infrastructure after finding that they could do it better and cheaper. Colorado towns fought back well-funded campaigns to preserve telecom monopolies and hamstring public broadband. A motivated lawyer fought all the way to the Supreme Court after the state of Georgia erected privatized paywalls around its legal code. “Enlightening and sobering” (Rosanne Cash), The Privatization of Everything connects the dots across a wide range of issues and offers what Cash calls “a progressive voice with a firm eye on justice [that] can carefully parse out complex issues for those of us who take pride in citizenship.”
Download or read book Compliance or Defiance written by Mireia Tutusaus and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-11-28 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whereas the global water community may have reached consensus on the need for water providers to operate on the basis of commercial principles, staff of water utilities are faced with the challenge of implementing these principles in their everyday work. In the everyday domain, these principles appear to directly conflict with the mandate of water operators to provide water services to all. Moreover, the socio-political, economic and bio-physical context in which these water operate may be ill-suited to implement commercialization. In pursuing commercialization these operators adapt, reinterpret, modify, deflect, alter or betray the original principles of commercialization during implementation. This research takes inspiration from the rich literature on policy implementation and policy translation, which argues that policy models need to be transformed and modified if they are to be successfully adopted or implemented. This research analyzes the alterations visible in the daily implementation of commercial models of water provisioning and, in doing so, present a better understanding of how water operators implement policy prescriptions of commercialization in practice. Based on the analysis of the adaptations and (re)interpretations of the implemented model of commercialization in the different cases, this thesis argues that a new way of speaking about commercialization should be developed.
Download or read book Corporatizing Canada written by Jamie Brownlee and published by Between the Lines. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Water Politics written by Farhana Sultana and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-09-06 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholarship on the right to water has proliferated in interesting and unexpected ways in recent years. This book broadens existing discussions on the right to water in order to shed critical light on the pathways, pitfalls, prospects, and constraints that exist in achieving global goals, as well as advancing debates around water governance and water justice. The book shows how both discourses and struggles around the right to water have opened new perspectives, and possibilities in water governance, fostering new collective and moral claims for water justice, while effecting changes in laws and policies around the world. In light of the 2010 UN ratification on the human right to water and sanitation, shifts have taken place in policy, legal frameworks, local implementation, as well as in national dialogues. Chapters in the book illustrate the novel ways in which the right to water has been taken up in locations drawn globally, highlighting the material politics that are enabled and negotiated through this framework in order to address ongoing water insecurities. This book reflects the urgent need to take stock of debates in light of new concerns around post-neoliberal political developments, the challenges of the Anthropocene and climate change, the transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as the mobilizations around the right to water in the global North. This book is essential reading for scholars and students of water governance, environmental policy, politics, geography, and law. It will be of great interest to policymakers and practitioners working in water governance, as well as the human right to water and sanitation.
Download or read book Beyond Free Market written by Fayyaz Baqir and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-05-19 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the causes and consequences of market failure in bridging societal differences to create a shared economy. It questions the current world order and evaluates socio-economic gains in reference to the social origins of the economic agents. With a need to counterbalance economic growth with social equality and environmental sustainability, the book proposes innovative approaches to address key questions on the contemporary global economy such as, "Is the Global socio-economic order supportive of the pursuit of rational and enlightened self -interest?", "Is it a unipolar power centre and neoliberal economic policy regime?", "Can the system reinvent itself?", etc. One approach encourages going back to the golden past and making things "great again", insisting that history has ended and the failures of old global institutions be blamed on the "Clash of Civilizations". Another approach advocates giving up the intellectual comfort zone of elegant but irrelevant neo-liberal explanations of global challenges and asking new questions that take academic debate to the public square. The book examines the internal challenges and contradictions that cause disintegration and proposes alternative ideas and practices in moving the global community beyond the free market regime. The book will appeal to students and academics of development studies, political economy, political science, sociology, as well as policymakers and public opinion makers interested in creating a new egalitarian global society.
Download or read book The Changing Politics and Policy of Austerity written by Stephen McBride and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2021-09-30 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of original essays explores the myriad expressions of austerity since the 2008 financial crisis. Case studies drawn from Canada, Australia and the European Union provide extensive comparative analysis of fiscal consolidation and the varied political responses against austerity. Contributions examine such themes as privatization, class mobilization and resistance, the crisis of liberal democracy and the rise of the far right. The potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in shaping future austerity and alternatives is signalled. Given the rapidly shifting terrain, this comprehensive handbook provides important insights into a complex and fast-changing period of politics and policy.
Download or read book Urban Resilience in a Global Context written by Dorothee Brantz and published by transcript Verlag. This book was released on 2020-10-31 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urban Resilience is seen by many as a tool to mitigate harm in times of extreme social, political, financial, and environmental stress. Despite its widespread usage, however, resilience is used in different ways by policy makers, activists, academics, and practitioners. Some see it as a key to unlocking a more stable and secure urban future in times of extreme global insecurity; for others, it is a neoliberal technology that marginalizes the voices of already marginal peoples. This volume moves beyond praise and critique by focusing on the actors, narratives and temporalities that define urban resilience in a global context. By exploring the past, present, and future of urban resilience, this volume unlocks the potential of this concept to build more sustainable, inclusive, and secure cities in the 21st century.
Download or read book Making Publics in Early Modern Europe written by Bronwen Wilson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-07-21 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book looks at how people, things, and new forms of knowledge created "publics" in early modern Europe, and how publics changed the shape of early modern society. The focus is on what the authors call "making publics" — the active creation of new forms of association that allowed people to connect with others in ways not rooted in family, rank or vocation, but rather founded in voluntary groupings built on the shared interests, tastes, commitments, and desires of individuals. By creating new forms of association, cultural producers and consumers challenged dominant ideas about just who could be a public person, greatly expanded the resources of public life for ordinary people in their own time, and developed ideas and practices that have helped create the political culture of modernity. Coming from a number of disciplines including literary and cultural studies, art history, history of religion, history of science, and musicology, the contributors develop analyses of a range of cases of early modern public-making that together demonstrate the rich inventiveness and formative social power of artistic and intellectual publication in this period.
Download or read book The Privatized State written by Chiara Cordelli and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-24 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why government outsourcing of public powers is making us less free Many governmental functions today—from the management of prisons and welfare offices to warfare and financial regulation—are outsourced to private entities. Education and health care are funded in part through private philanthropy rather than taxation. Can a privatized government rule legitimately? The Privatized State argues that it cannot. In this boldly provocative book, Chiara Cordelli argues that privatization constitutes a regression to a precivil condition—what philosophers centuries ago called "a state of nature." Developing a compelling case for the democratic state and its administrative apparatus, she shows how privatization reproduces the very same defects that Enlightenment thinkers attributed to the precivil condition, and which only properly constituted political institutions can overcome—defects such as provisional justice, undue dependence, and unfreedom. Cordelli advocates for constitutional limits on privatization and a more democratic system of public administration, and lays out the central responsibilities of private actors in contexts where governance is already extensively privatized. Charting a way forward, she presents a new conceptual account of political representation and novel philosophical theories of democratic authority and legitimate lawmaking. The Privatized State shows how privatization undermines the very reason political institutions exist in the first place, and advocates for a new way of administering public affairs that is more democratic and just.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Environmental Politics written by Jeannie Sowers and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 873 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Environmental Politics' explores some of the most important environmental issues through the lens of comparative politics, including energy, climate change, food, health, urbanization, waste, and sustainability. The chapters delve into more traditional forms of comparative environmental politics (CEP) - the political economy of natural resources and the role of corporations and supply chains - while also showcasing new trends in CEP scholarship, particularly the comparative study of environmental injustice and intersectional inequities.
Download or read book Public Law Values in a Privatized World written by Laura Dickinson and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although domestic administrative law scholars have long debated privatization within the US, this debate has not confronted the growing phenomenon of privatization in the international realm or its impact on the values embodied in public international law. Yet, with both nation-states and international organizations increasingly privatizing foreign affairs functions, privatization is now as significant a phenomenon internationally as it is domestically. For example, states are turning to private actors to perform core military, foreign aid, and diplomatic functions. Military privatization entered the popular consciousness in 2004, when private contractors working for the US government abused detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. The US is increasingly using private actors for logistical support to combat troops and to provide strategic planning and tactical advice. Other states, such as Sierra Leone, have used private contractors to engage in direct combat, and international organizations have weighed the possibilities of using private contractors to perform peacekeeping. In the foreign aid context, states and international organizations are entering into agreements with private non-profit and for-profit entities to deliver all forms of aid, including humanitarian relief, development assistance, and post-conflict reconstruction. Even diplomatic tasks such as peacekeeping negotiations are being undertaken by private actors. In this Essay I suggest that the domestic U.S. administrative law literature may provide a useful set of responses to privatization that has been largely overlooked by international law scholars, policy-makers, and activists. In particular, I argue that possibilities for extending public law values inhere in the privatized relationship itself, particularly in the government contracts that are the very engine of privatization. Thus, the contracts governments enter into with non-state actors can include many provisions that would help to create both standards of behavior, performance benchmarks, and a means of providing some measure of public accountability. In this Essay, I outline nine such contractual provisions. Specifically, I suggest that contracts be drafted to: (1) explicitly extend relevant norms of public international law to private contractors, (2) specify training requirements, (3) provide for enhanced monitoring both within the government and by independent third-party monitors, (4) require accreditation, (5) establish clear performance benchmarks, (6) mandate self-evaluation by the contractors, (7) provide for governmental takeovers of failing contracts, (8) include opportunities for public participation in the contract negotiation process, and (9) enhance whistleblower protections and rights of third-party beneficiaries to enforce contractual terms. And while these provisions are not a panacea, they may be at least as effective as the relatively weak enforcement regime of public international law. At the same time, by considering the field of international privatization, I seek to open what I believe could be a fruitful dialogue between domestic administrative law scholars and international law scholars about possible responses.
Download or read book Remaking the Urban Social Contract written by Michael A. Pagano and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2016-08-30 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new volume draws from provocative discussions on the urban social contract among policy makers, researchers, public intellectuals, and citizens at the 2015 UIC Urban Forum. Michael A. Pagano presents papers that emphasize political agreements, disagreements, challenges, and controversies on health, energy, and environmental policies. Authors explore the substantive and philosophical changes in the urban social contract and offer proposals for remaking it in the new century. Topics range from big-picture analyses to specifics covering areas like public services, the smart cities movement, and greening strategies. Contributors: Alba Alexander, Megan Houston, Dennis R. Judd, Cynthia Klein-Banai, William C. Kling, Howard A. Learner, David A. McDonald, David C. Perry, Emily Stiehl, Anthony Townsend, Natalia Villamizar-Duarte, and Moira Zellner.
Download or read book The Privatization of Hope written by Peter Thompson and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-31 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of hope is central to the work of the German philosopher Ernst Bloch (1885–1977), especially in his magnum opus, The Principle of Hope (1959). The "speculative materialism" that he first developed in the 1930s asserts a commitment to humanity's potential that continued through his later work. In The Privatization of Hope, leading thinkers in utopian studies explore the insights that Bloch's ideas provide in understanding the present. Mired in the excesses and disaffections of contemporary capitalist society, hope in the Blochian sense has become atomized, desocialized, and privatized. From myriad perspectives, the contributors clearly delineate the renewed value of Bloch's theories in this age of hopelessness. Bringing Bloch's "ontology of Not Yet Being" into conversation with twenty-first-century concerns, this collection is intended to help revive and revitalize philosophy's commitment to the generative force of hope. Contributors. Roland Boer, Frances Daly, Henk de Berg, Vincent Geoghegan, Wayne Hudson, Ruth Levitas, David Miller, Catherine Moir, Caitríona Ní Dhúill, Welf Schröter, Johan Siebers, Peter Thompson, Francesca Vidal, Rainer Ernst Zimmermann, Slavoj Žižek
