bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Local autonomy, bond–rating agencies and neoliberal urbanism in the United States
Authors: Hackworth Jason 
Published: March 2003

The influence of bond–rating agencies on local autonomy is explored in light of recent research which views autonomy not as the degree of separation from the global economy, but rather as the nature of the interaction that places have with the wider politico–economic sphere. Based on the recent experience of American cities, it appears that the activities of rating agencies influence local autonomy more so now than during the immediate postwar period for three interrelated reasons. First, the governing turn away from federally–organized Keynesianism has transferred certain responsibilities to localities that are often funded with debt. Localities are thus more reliant on capital markets and the decisions that determine their access to such markets. Second, an increased presence of institutional investors in the municipal bond market has strengthened the investment–grade threshold because such investors are legally prohibited from holding a high percentage of speculative securities. Localities with speculative–grade debt are less able to sell their bonds than before. Third, commercial banks and locally–based lenders, which used to lend more frequently to cities (based on their own market research), are less involved in municipal debt markets than before. The knowledge vacuum created by their exit has been filled by the only other reputable sources on municipal credit: bond–rating agencies.Des recherches récentes montrent que l’autonomie locale ne se mesure pas en termes de séparation de l’économie globale mais à partir de l’interaction entre des localités et la sphère politico–économique au sens large. Dans cette perspective, l’article analyse l’influence des agences financières sur l’autonomie locale. A partir de l’expérience récente des villes américaines, il apparaît que les activités de ces agences de notation ont beaucoup plus d’influence sur l’autonomie locale que dans l’immédiate après guerre et ce pour trois raisons. Premièrement, en se détournant du keynésianisme organisé au niveau fédéral, le gouvernement a transféré des responsabilités aux localités qui sont souvent financées par la dette. Deuxièmement, le rôle accru des investisseurs institutionnels sur le marché de la dette des municipalités a renforcé le poids des notations et de seuils de risque car ces investisseurs n’ont légalement pas le droit de détenir un pourcentage élevé de titres à risque. Par conséquent, les localités dont la dette est considérée comme relevant du domaine de la spéculation sont moins capables d’émettre du papier. Troisièmement, les banques commerciales et les prêteurs locaux sont aujourd’hui moins impliqués sur ce marché. La perte de connaissance et d’information créée par leur départ a été compensée par la seule autre source fiable sur les finances municipales: la agences de notation financière.
Geographical proximity and supplying relationships in modular production
Authors: Frigant Vincent , Lung Yannick 
Published: March 2003

The geography of the automotive industry has changed in recent years. This article focuses on the changes that are associated with ‘modular production‘, whose diffusion has reinforced the need for proximity between auto–makers and parts–makers. The new geographical configurations that have cropped up, especially in the field of assembly operations, are based on spatial contiguity. On one hand, this spatial and organizational contiguity comprises a move away from former methods for managing vertical relationships; on the other hand, it has transformed the role that geographical proximity plays in the coordination of such activities. Such a co–evolution needs to be interpreted. Following a brief description of recent experimentation in this area, we try to determine how geographic proximity can drive the emergence of new methods for coordinating vertical relationships by highlighting some of the opportunities for organizational innovation that can result from proximity. Several factors will be discussed: the management of the logistical constraint; the convergence of representations; the site specificity by which vertical relationships can be stabilized; the different ways in which employment relationships can be managed; and the limits of all of these factors. We highlight both the benefits and the shortcomings of geographical proximity by drawing certain conclusions from the first experiments that the automobile industry has conducted.Cet article analyse les évolutions récentes concernant la géographie de l’industrie automobile autour de la ‘production modulaire‘. Cette production modulaire se traduit en effet par le renforcement de la proximité entre les constructeurs automobiles et leurs fournisseurs de premier rang, notamment par la recherche d’une contiguïté spatiale dans la phase d’assemblage. Cette contiguïté spatiale et organisationnelle marque une rupture à la fois dans la gestion des relations verticales et dans le rôle conféréà la proximité géographique au sein du processus de coordination de ces activités. Une interprétation de ces évolutions conjointes s’avère nécessaire. Après une brève présentation de quelques expériences récentes, le papier s’attache à préciser comment la proximité géographique participe à la construction de ces nouveaux modes de coordination des relations verticales, en spécifiant les opportunités d’innovations organisationnelles qu’elle suscite. Nous discutons des différents facteurs et de leurs limites: la gestion de la contrainte logistique, la convergence des représentations, la spécificité de site pour stabiliser les relations verticales, la gestion des relations salariales sur un même site. Nous soulignons ainsi les avantages et les limites de la proximité géographique en tirant un premier bilan des expériences engagées dans l’industrie automobile.
The development and regional significance of the automotive industry: supplier parks in western Europe
Authors: Larsson Anders 
Published: March 2003

Supplier relationships in the automotive industry have changed considerably in recent decades. Increasing levels of outsourcing and modular production combined with just–in–time deliveries have increased the demand for logistical coordination of the manufacturing process. This article specifically looks at the use of supplier parks in the automotive industry. Five supplier parks located in Sweden, Germany and Spain are analysed using case studies. One observation is that the logic of proximity in these cases is highly linked to the use of sequential synchronous just–in–time deliveries. This is combined with a high degree of modular production as well as outsourcing strategies. Together, these factors have pushed supplier companies to establish themselves in supplier parks. The cases also reveal very limited links to the local and regional economy. Most companies have the sole function of serving the adjacent customer with reliable deliveries. One further observation is that investment in infrastructure is to a great extent made through public funding, as supplier parks are typically ‘produced spaces’ in order to support the car–makers in the region.Les relations d’approvisionnement se sont profondément transformées au cours des deniers décennies dans l’industrie automobile. L’externalisation croissante et la modularisation associés à la gestion Juste–à–temps ont accentué le rôle de la logistique dans l’organisation du processus de production. Dans ce contexte, cet article étudie le rôle des parcs de fournisseurs dans l’industrie automobile. L’analyse se fonde sur l’étude approfondie de cinq parcs de fournisseurs localisés en Allemagne, Espagne et Suède. Une des conclusions de ses études de cas est que la logique de proximité est largement associée à la diffusion de la production synchrone, mais aussi à l’importance de la production modulaire et au degré d’externalisation. Ces trois facteurs explicatifs justifient la localisation des équipementiers dans les parcs de fournisseurs. Les cas étudiés mettent aussi en évidence un impact limité de ces complexes sur l’économie locale. La plupart des fournisseurs ne localisent qu’une simple fonction de préparation des sous–ensembles livrés en temps voulu sur les chaînes d’assemblage. Enfin, on peut noter que l’investissement dans l’infrastructure est pour une large part financée sur des fonds publics, les parcs de fournisseurs pouvant être qualifiés d’espaces produits’ afin de consolider l’implantation locale des constructeurs.
Bring back big government
Authors: Lake Robert W. 
Published: March 2003

Despite widespread claims of its demise, the national state is the scale of the state institution best able to marshal the political, discursive and material resources necessary to achieve goals of social justice, defined as a decrease in income inequality, at local, national and global scales. The appearance of the withering away of the state is deceptive, since it is the state itself that is enacting the distribution of functions that some observers interpret as a reduction in state power. The arguments for a return of big government are both strategic and tactical. Strategically, central government has been responsible for every major social policy advance in the United States in the twentieth century. Tactically, the institutions comprising decentralized governance, including local governments, non–profit foundations and community–based organizations, are inadequate to the task. The role of big government in pursuit of social justice entails discursive and regulatory functions, each in turn suggesting an attendant political project for academics and activists. What is at stake is not a quantitative redistribution of state power but a qualitative redirection of the purposes to which that power is applied. Uncritical insistence on the end of the nation state may create a self–defeating self–fulfilling prophecy that conceals important opportunities for political realignment.L’Etat nation est à la meilleure échelle pour mobiliser les ressources politiques, discursives et matérielles nécessaires à la poursuite de la justice sociale, définie comme la réduction des inégalités de revenu aux échelles locales, nationales et globales, et ce malgré les affirmations répandues sur le retrait de l’Etat. L’apparence d’effacement de l’Etat est trompeuse puisque c’est l’Etat luui même qui organise la réallocation des fonctions que certains observateurs interprètent comme une réduction du pouvoir de l’Etat. L’argument en faveur d’un retour du ‘big government’ sont à la fois stratégiques et tactiques. D’un point de vue stratégique, le gouvernement central a été responsable de toutes les grandes avancées sociales du Xxème siècle aux USA. Sur le plan tactique, les institutions de gouvernance décentralisée comprenant le gouvernement local, les fondations à but non lucratif et les organisations communautaires ne peuvent pas faire face à ces tâches. Le rôle du gouvernement dans la poursuite de la justice sociale comprend des fonctions régulatives et discursives, chacune d’entre elle renvoyant à des projets politiques pour les activistes et les universitaires. Ce n’est pas la réallocation de l’autorité qui est en jeu mais une réorientation des objectifs du pouvoir. L’accent mis sans réserve sur la fin de l’Etat nation pourrait crééer une prophétie auto–créatrice auto–défaitiste qui dissimulerait les vraies opportunités de réorientation politique.
The State, Refugees and Migration in Sub‐Saharan Africa
Authors: Akokpari John K. 
Published: March 2003

Population displacements, refugees and migration are not only common phenomena, but are also on the increase in sub‐Saharan Africa.Although scholarly explanations for the causes include political oppression, economic adversities and environmental degradation, conflicts and wars account for the bulk of sub‐Saharan Africa’s refugees and migration in recent years. These explanations are themselves dependent on, or symptomatic of, more fundamental causes, including “the problem of the African state” and its failure to address the region’s environmental crisis.States have shown incapacity to equitably distribute scarce resources among competing constituents or promote fair competition for these resources. By this, the state not only revives old tensions and sharpens deep‐seated contradictions in society, but aggravates conflicts which in turn lead to refugees and migration.Although environmental decadence is known to produce refugees or induce migration, the state is reluctant to establish credible environmental regimes capable of halting or reversing the current trend in ecological degradation.The exigencies of the international economy create further salutary conditions for conflict and environmental degradation. The pressures to adopt structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) in order to meet external debt obligations, for example, obligate sub‐Saharan governments to be outward‐looking rather than enhance their capacities to address the fundamental internal factors underlying the induction of refugees and migration.Once refugees and migration are induced, the effects are felt by the refugees themselves, the home governments as well as the host country. Refugees undergo traumatic experiences, the home government suffers from brain drain, and the host country is compelled to stretch its resources beyond limits to accommodate the new arrivees. While refugees further abuse the environment, illegal emigrants may resort to drugs pushing and prostitution (in the case of females) as part of their innovative survival strategies.Sub‐Saharan African states can significantly minimize the incidence of refugees and migration by shifting from the traditional partisan posture to distribute meagre resources fairly among the diverse social constituents in the state. Also, shifting environmental conservation from the margins to the centre of public policy will go a long way to reduce the number of persons who would otherwise be proactively or reactively displaced by ecological pressures.
The Need to Import Skilled Personnel: Factors Favouring and Hindering its International Mobility
Authors: Iredale Robyn 
Published: March 2003

Skilled migration has become a major element of contemporary flows. It has developed in scale and variety since the 1930s and now takes many forms, including “brain drain”, professional transients, skilled permanent migrants and business transfers. Nevertheless, the data are poor, inconsistent and usually not differentiated by sex.The importance of policies, both national and regional, to control the movement of skilled migrants has escalated. Receiving countries have come increasingly to see the benefits from admitting skilled workers and have adjusted their permanent and/or temporary migration laws/policies to facilitate entry, usually on the proviso that it does not disadvantage their own workers by taking away their jobs.Another set of policy frameworks within which skilled migration is occurring is regional blocs. The experience of the European Union (EU) in promoting the flow of skilled labour, movement in this direction in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mercosul, the Closer Economic Relations (CER) Agreement between Australia and New Zealand and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum are analysed.The article poses two sets of issues facing sending and receiving countries. For sending countries they are: whether to free up or tighten migration; whether to support temporary skilled flows; whether to introduce protective or preventive measures to stem skilled emigration; how to encourage the return of skilled nationals; and whether/how to pursue compensation from post‐industrialized countries.For receiving countries they are: whether to encourage temporary or permanent skilled immigration; the level of entry to permit/promote; how to select/process skilled immigrants; whether/how to protect the jobs of locals; and how they ensure the successful labour market integration of skilled immigrants.The article argues that the neo‐classical view that skilled migration leads to overall improvement in global development does not apply. “Brain waste” or “wasted skills” occur frequently, to the detriment of both individuals and nations. Improved data and constructive dialogue on skilled migration are needed. Within both regional and international contexts, countries have obligations and responsibilities towards each other which need to be taken seriously.
Chain Migration Through the Social Network: Experience of Labour Migrants in Kuwait
Authors: Shah Nasra M. , Menon Indu 
Published: March 2003

Labour migration to the Gulf countries is predominantly contract based and a majority of workers fall below the salary ceiling necessary for sponsoring family members. Despite this, social networks have expanded in Kuwait, primarily in the form of sponsorship of additional labour migrants by those already in the country.The objectives of the article are to describe how the process of arranging sponsorship works, to delineate the predictors of moving through a friend or relative, or arranging sponsorship for a subsequent labour migrant, and to assess the “multiplier” effect of the above process. The article is based on a survey among 800 South Asian skilled and unskilled male migrants, 200 each from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.About 34 per cent of all respondents moved through friends or relatives, 50 per cent through agents and 16 per cent through direct hiring or the government bureau. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the factors most likely to predict a move through the social network consisted of being a Pakistani or Indian, being a Muslim, and possessing some skills.One‐quarter of all migrants had arranged the visa for another migrant since they came to Kuwait. Logistic regression analysis showed the respondent’s duration of stay in Kuwait to be an exceptionally important predictor for arranging sponsorship for an additional migrant.Monthly income, being married and being a Muslim were also positively associated with arranging sponsorship. In terms of the multiplier effect, about 0.78 visas had been arranged per migrant. Pakistanis, who had the longest average duration of stay in Kuwait, arranged the maximum number (1.6) of visas on average.
To See and Not be Seen: Latin American Illegal Foreign Workers in Jerusalem
Authors: Roer‐Strier Dorit , Olshtain‐Mann Orly 
Published: March 2003

The article describes the formation and characteristics of the new evolving community of illegal Latin American foreign workers in Jerusalem while adopting the ecological perspective, which examines human development and behaviour in various contexts of their social and cultural environments.We have looked specifically at illegal Latin American foreign workers’ reasons for and process of migration, their accommodation and living conditions, allocation of employment, daily cultural and social conditions, education and health issues concerning children and families, perceptions of relations with host culture and perceptions of well‐being and future expectations.Our findings are based on the investigation of perspectives offered by the foreign workers themselves, by representatives of the various sectors of the host culture who are well acquainted with these workers, and by the researchers themselves, demonstrating how by means of triangulation these perceptions achieve extra validity or differ.The article further explores the contribution of the case study in the investigation of acculturation stress and migrant’s well‐being, and emphasizes the need to study specific populations of immigrants under specific ecological conditions.
Undocumented Migrants in Greece: Issues of Regularization
Authors: Lazaridis Gabriella , Poyago‐Theotoky Joanna 
Published: March 2003

This article studies migration from Albania into Greece and schematically looks at the socio‐economic integration and/or exclusion of Albanians.It explores the issue of regularization: first, providing an explanation for the choices made by a government by using a simple game‐theoretic framework and, second, it outlines the current efforts made towards regularization of undocumented migrants in Greece.The game‐theoretic example shows that, under certain conditions, the optimal policy for a government is not to legalize an illegal immigrant, whereas under different conditions the optimal policy is to regularize. These conditions relate to factors such as the relative magnitude of the government’s payoffs which are in turn dependent on public opinion, lobbying activities, the presence of migrants' associations and the like.The article then reviews the case of Greece, where initially migrant workers were not regularized whereas at present there exists a new legal framework for their regularization.The character of Albanian migration into Greece reflects two things: the changing global nature of international migration and the way in which migrants in Southern Europe are embedded in the specific model of Southern European post‐industrial society.
Return Migration: Changing Roles of Men and Women
Authors: Sakka Despina , Dikaiou Maria , Kiosseoglou Grigoris 
Published: March 2003

The study concerns Greek returnees from the Federal Republic of Germany and explores changes in task sharing behaviour and gender role attitudes resulting from changes in cultural environments.A group of return migrants was compared with a group of non‐migrants, both living in villages in the District of Drama, Greece. Groups were interviewed to investigate the extent to which each spouse shared house tasks as well as their attitudes towards gender roles in the family.The data were factor analysed and a t‐test was used to determine any differences between the groups. In addition to demographic variables, those concerning the “time lived abroad” and the “number of years in Greece” after return were inserted into a series of regression analyses for the purpose of explaining task sharing and gender role attitudes.The results showed that: (a) task sharing of return migrants differs from on‐migrants with respect to tasks which are peripheral to house organization. It seems that migrants’ task sharing behaviour changes to a certain degree as a result of their changing socio‐cultural environments. Results also suggest that migrant husbands and wives either take on new patterns of behaviour or maintain traditional ones only when these are congruent with the financial aims of the family or can be integrated into living conditions in Greece upon return. (b) Lack of differences between groups in an Attitude Questionnaire suggest that gender role attitudes have changed for both migrants and non‐migrants over the last 15 to 20 years, although for different reasons and the different conditions under which these groups had lived.