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Women’s Labour Activism in Eastern Europe and Beyond:A new transnational history
No full textThis collaborative monograph presents a deeply researched, inclusive history of women’s labour activism in Eastern Europe, Austria, Turkey and transnationally, from the age of empires to the late twentieth century. It explores women’s activism and organizing to improve the working conditions and living circumstances of lower-income and working-class women and their communities in the region and internationally. Moving beyond the celebratory or partisan perspectives of many classical and some feminist labour histories, Women’s Labour Activism in Eastern Europe and Beyond provides a careful historicization of women’s actions in a multiscalar perspective. Through a study of diverse contexts, the authors follow women aligned with a wide range of political persuasions, highlighting unexpected elements and continuities of women’s labour activism. Women’s activities are seen in the workplace, in the everyday, within and across social movements and organizations, and inside the state, all presented through a framing that spotlights long-term developments and bridges the divide between the literatures on state socialist and capitalist societies concerning gendered labour politics and activism. Combining a regional focus and transnational perspectives, the authors examine the sources of women’s labour activism in the region and the role of activists from the region within international women’s, labour and inter-state organizations. Moving women’s labour activism from the margins of labour, gender and European history to the centre of historical study, the volume makes an innovative contribution to the new global histories of labour and gender
Hybrid universality classes of systemic cascades
No full textCascades are self-reinforcing processes underlying the systemic risk of many complex systems. Understanding the universal aspects of these phenomena is of fundamental interest, yet typically bound to numerical observations in ad-hoc models and limited insights. Here, we develop a unifying approach that reveals two distinct universality classes of cascades determined by the global symmetry of the cascading process. We provide hyperscaling arguments predicting hybrid critical phenomena characterized by a combination of both mean-field spinodal exponents and d-dimensional corrections, and show how parity invariance influences the geometry and lifetime of critical avalanches. Our theory applies to a wide range of networked systems in arbitrary dimensions, as we demonstrate by simulations encompassing classic and novel cascade models, revealing universal principles of cascade critical phenomena amenable to experimental validation
Lower taxes at all costs?:Evidence from a survey experiment in four European countries
No full textIt is commonly argued that citizens favour lower taxes, thereby exerting pressure for tax reductions that undermine the ability of governments to raise revenues. We argue that the ostensibly strong support for lower taxes is the result of survey measures that fail to account for fiscal trade-offs. An original survey experiment conducted in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom reveals that support for lower taxes declines significantly when this comes into conflict with other fiscal policy objectives, such as government spending, public debt, or other taxes. Overall, regressive changes receive less support than progressive reforms. At the individual level, preferences are shaped by self-interest and ideology, with ideology exerting a predominant influence. Notably, left-leaning, high-income voters exhibit an even stronger inclination to resist tax reductions compared to their low-income counterparts. Our findings challenge the assumption that tax cuts enjoy widespread popularity and suggest the potential for a progressive coalition against tax cuts, encompassing both low-income and affluent left-wing individuals
Neighbourhood topology unveils pathological hubs in the brain networks of epilepsy-surgery patients
No full textPathological hubs in the brain networks of epilepsy patients are hypothesized to drive seizure generation and propagation. In epilepsy-surgery patients, these hubs have traditionally been associated with the resection area (RA): the region removed during the surgery with the goal of stopping the seizures, and which is typically used as a proxy for the epileptogenic zone. However, recent studies hypothesize that pathological hubs may extend to the vicinity of the RA, potentially complicating post-surgical seizure control. Here we propose a neighbourhood-based analysis of brain organization to investigate this hypothesis. We exploit a large dataset of pre-surgical magnetoencephalography-derived whole-brain networks from 91 epilepsy-surgery patients. Our neighbourhood focus is 2-fold. Firstly, we propose a partition of the brain regions into three sets, namely resected nodes, their neighbours and the remaining network nodes. Secondly, we introduce generalized centrality metrics that describe the neighbourhood of each node, providing a regional measure of hubness. Our analyses reveal that both the RA and its neighbourhood present large hub status, but with significant variability across patients. For some, hubs appear in the RA; for others, in its neighbourhood. Moreover, this variability does not correlate with surgical outcome. These results highlight the potential of neighbourhood-based analyses to uncover novel insights into brain connectivity in brain pathologies, and the need for individualized studies, with large enough cohorts, that account for patient-specific variability
The public opinion effects of antisemitic elite cues:a survey experiment on the Hungarian Soros campaign
No full textRight-wing populist leaders have long vilified left-wing activist George Soros to justify their policies. They accuse Soros and his organisations of being globalist elites who attack national sovereignty and traditional family values. The accusations themselves are loaded with antisemitic tropes. Despite this, it is unclear whether these populist, anti-elite messages effectively persuade citizens, or if antisemitic appeals specifically drive their impact. To answer these questions, we conduct a survey experiment in Hungary mimicking the Hungarian government's propaganda, which sometimes uses Soros as a symbol to mobilise support. We show that a random Soros' endorsement reduced policy support among pro-government respondents but increased it among anti-government ones. This suggests that Soros-bashing serves as a partisan cue in populist communication, helping to shape constituent preferences. However, overt antisemitic priming did not amplify the effects of Soros cues on policy preferences. These findings highlight the potential and limits of populist elite cueing
Crisis corporatism under strain:institutional power and the protection of vulnerable groups in Türkiye and Serbia
No full textThis article examines crisis corporatism during the COVID-19 pandemic in Türkiye and Serbia. It focuses on how institutional power relations shaped policy responses for vulnerable groups in the labour market. These countries are semi-peripheral economies with weak corporatist traditions and centralised administration, but they diverge significantly with regard to labour relations. Türkiye’s crisis management was top-down with limited social partner input, and social policy measures tended to exacerbate existing inequalities. Serbia combined executive dominance with selective post hoc consultation, resulting in broader social protection through universal cash transfers and job subsidies. Our findings indicate that institutionalised social dialogue is crucial for inclusive crisis policy-making. Serbia’s modest engagement with social partners led to more effective support for vulnerable workers. The article underscores the centrality of institutionalised power relations in shaping corporatist responses during crises and calls for structurally embedded social dialogue to ensure equitable policy outcomes in future systemic shocks