107159 research outputs found
Sort by
Genealogies of race and religion in Kant
No full textImmanuel Kant is synonymous with modernity, enlightenment and secularity. This reputation is earned through the incredible influence of his three weighty critiques, which have laid the intellectual, moral and aesthetic foundations for modern philosophical thought. Despite his stellar reputation, many scholars in recent years have argued that Kant’s intellectual contribution to secularism, moral universality and political republicanism ought to be approached more critically. The ‘other’ Kant is also one of the progenitors of the modern concept of race. Kantians have defended Kant against accusations that race is essential to his entire critical project. This essay moves beyond the stalemate between race scholars and Kantians by reading his concept of race through his philosophy of religion. Drawing on critical approaches to religion, race and secularism, this essay argues that race is constitutive of his philosophy. More specifically, it demonstrates how race and religion are fundamentally entangled in Kant’s construction of Jews and Judaism as the fundamental outsider of Euro-Christian modernity
How likely is an inflation disaster?
No full textLong-dated inflation swap contracts provide widely used estimates of expected inflation. We develop methods to estimate complementary tail probabilities for persistently very high or low inflation using inflation options prices. We show that three new adjustments to conventional methods are crucial: inflation, horizon, and risk. We find that: (a) U.S. deflation risk in 2011–2014 has been overstated, (b) ECB unconventional policies lowered deflation disaster probabilities, (c) inflation expectations deanchored in 2021–2022, (d) reanchored as policy tightened, (e) but the 2021–2024 disaster left scars, and (f) U.S. expectations are less sensitive to inflation realizations than in the eurozone
Negotiating the caring role and carer identity over time: ‘living well’ and the longitudinal narratives of family members of people with dementia from the IDEAL cohort
No full textLongitudinal studies can provide insights into how family members negotiate the caring role and carer identity over time. The analyses of the longitudinal, qualitative interviews on 'living well' with dementia from the IDEAL cohort study aimed to identify the shifting, embedded narratives of family members of people with dementia as they negotiated the caring role and carer identity over time. Twenty semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted with family members of people with dementia and 14 were repeated one year later; these interviews were analysed using cross-sectional and longitudinal thematic and structural narrative analyses. Longitudinal, interrelated themes, including the care needs and decline of the person with dementia, relationship change and variable service support, framed the narrative types of family members. Six shifting narratives, apparent as dominant and secondary narrative types, characterized negotiating the caring role over time: absent/normalizing, active role adoption / carer identity, resistance, acceptance and resignation, hypervigilance/submergence and role entrapment, and foreshadowed future. The presence or absence of a carer identity was also evident from interviewees' accounts, although, even where family members were overburdened by the caring role, they did not necessarily express a carer identity. Rather than considering transition into a carer identity, hearing different narratives within the caring role is important to understand how family members experience caring, whether they see themselves as 'carers', and when and how they need support. Timely and continued post-diagnostic support, where different caring narratives are recognized, is needed, as well as international initiatives for carer identification
Cryptocurrency use for cross-border payments: understanding the popularity of crypto among Nigerians importing from China
No full textPurpose Developing countries are recording high cryptocurrency adoption rates surpassing more advanced economies. Considering that this is the opposite of the realities of most other technologies in these areas, this high uptake is puzzling. With a case study of crypto use for cross-border payments in the Nigerian context, this paper aims to address the paucity of empirical research on the phenomena of cryptocurrency adoption and diffusion in developing countries. We put forward a sociotechnical and empirically grounded innovation translation account of the high rates of crypto transactions in developing countries that overcome criticisms against extant arguments in the literature. Design/methodology/approach We take a case study approach and analyse the use of cryptocurrency for cross-border payments. Data collection involved two rounds of interviews with retailers from Nigeria, suppliers from China, informal exchangers, crypto brokers and mediators. We analysed themes using an approach sensitised by actor–network theory (ANT) constructs. Our methodological approach focuses on ANT’s relational dynamics to examine how human and non-human actors enable cryptocurrency adoption in a developing-country context. Findings We show evidence to suggest that crypto adoption and diffusion in developing countries occurs through an iterative process of technology transformation and appropriation, a strong coalition of the interests of diverse actors and a dynamic relationship between the technical elements of crypto and contextual political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental influences. Findings have implications for crypto-focused companies, development institutions and policymakers who increasingly show interest in the popularity of cryptocurrencies in developing countries. Originality/value This research breaks ground as a sociotechnical and empirically grounded description of the widespread use of cryptocurrencies in developing countries. The study provides an insightful approach to understanding technology adoption as a relational and context-sensitive process. Insights from the framework might be useful for addressing adoption challenges and designing inclusive financial systems in similar contexts
More than just carbon: the socioeconomic co-benefits of large-scale tree planting
No full textWe evaluate the poverty impacts of the Philippines’ National Greening Program, a large-scale tree planting initiative that generated hundreds of thousands of jobs. Exploiting the program’s staggered roll-out, a dynamic difference-in-differences strategy reveals significant gains in tree cover and reductions in poverty between 2011 and 2018. Poverty reduction is channeled through labor market shifts reducing agricultural work while increasing unskilled and service jobs, in turn generating gains in income, consumption, and assets. While payments have short-term effects, combining them with income-generating forest assets yields longer-lasting effects, highlighting how nature-based, multifaceted interventions can support rural economies
Biodiversity-food trade-offs when agricultural land is spared from production
No full textBiodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes, the world's predominant land use, could involve sparing, or setting aside, agricultural land from production, implying biodiversity–food trade‐offs. Employing bird species and agricultural data in two panel data sets, we evaluate the extent of set‐aside's trade‐offs in England between 1992 and 2007. Mixed biodiversity outcomes are reflected in a marginal effect, of a 100 ha increase in set‐aside, associated with a 1%–2% increase in species abundance and richness, no impact on Shannon‐Wiener diversity, and a 0.03 standard deviation fall in phylogenetic diversity. Lower phylogenetic diversity indicates that populations of less genetically distinct bird species appear when set‐aside increases. These effects are discontinuous for abundance and richness, and larger in the long run than in the short run for richness and phylogenetic diversity. Set‐aside led, on average, to a 7%–9% fall in cereal land. In turn, this led to an up to 2% decline in cereal output. A yield increase of 5%–10% is likely due to the setting aside of mostly marginal land. Biodiversity–food trade‐offs in agricultural landscapes could be minimized with a carefully targeted set‐aside policy, based on clearly defined biodiversity goals, and in settings where there is still scope for intensification
Devaluation, exports, and recovery from the Great Depression
No full textThis paper evaluates how a major policy shift – the suspension of the gold standard in September 1931 – affected employment outcomes in interwar Britain. We use a new high-frequency industry-level dataset and difference-in-differences techniques to isolate the impact of devaluation on exporters. At the micro level, the break from gold reduced the unemployment rate by 2.7 percentage points for export-intensive industries relative to non-export industries. At the aggregate level, this effect stimulated the labor market, the fiscal outlook, and economic growth. Devaluation was therefore an important initial spark of recovery from the depths of the Great Depression
Popular financial feminisms: mapping new mergers of feminism and capitalism
No full textThis article introduces and begins to conceptualise a new transnational phenomenon that we call ‘popular financial feminisms.’ Popular financial feminisms are highly mediated projects in which women claiming to have insight and expertise in financial matters – whether pertaining to everyday money management, the workings of complex financial instruments and investments, or anything in between – are moving to ‘empower’ other women with it, to disseminate or share what they know as a kind of feminist act. We contend that such texts and actors represent a culture of contemporary popular feminist solutionism applied to a generalised situation and sense of economic precarity, engendering a novel form and site of financial self-help. While these projects represent a pragmatic response to the binds many women find themselves in, we argue that aspects thereof are pernicious in terms of what they bind women as well as feminism to. We develop our arguments with reference to two illustrative cases from disparate national and cultural contexts, chosen purposively to demonstrate that these new money-focused feminisms span various forms of ‘difference’. The first is The Smart Money Woman, a fictionalised financial education book and television series from Nigeria, the second, Her First 100k, a multi-media brand created by American financial influencer Tori Dunlap, who declares herself a ‘financial feminist.’ We conclude by setting out a future research agenda, proposing themes and questions in need of urgent exploration by feminist scholars
Work and digital technology
No full textIt is now an almost unchallenged understanding that the future of work is going to be heavily shaped by and dependent on emerging digital technologies. And yet, globally, the terrain for the futures of work and digital technologies is uneven. In India, digitalisation is, in popular narrative, welcomed as a sign of the country’s modernisation and progress, as well as a promise for improved social inclusion. This chapter closely interrogates this understanding by reviewing the recent history of work, historical and structural inequalities, and workers’ experiences of digitalisation of work in India. In particular, it takes a close look at the boom in the services sector, particularly the information technology or IT industry in post-1990 India, engaging with debates over the measure and nature of unemployment in the country. It further explores the ways in which the influence of digital technology on work may reproduce and challenge long-standing patterns of work, such as, low female labour force participation, informal and insecure work, and caste-differentiation in work. Finally, it highlights scholarship that offers an insight into the everyday experiences of workers to understand digital futures of work in India
Processes of integrating care: discussing sociological and Gestalt relational perspectives
No full textPurpose In a recent paper in this journal, Clark et al. (2024) discuss insights from applying a sociologically grounded relational theoretical perspective to understanding integrating care. That paper formed the focus for an ongoing discussion between the authors of this paper about relational theories. Two of the authors have drawn on a Gestalt theoretical tradition to develop a Relational Organisational Gestalt perspective to understanding organisations. In this article, we continue the dialogue the authors have developed across the sociological and Gestalt relational perspectives and how these apply to understanding integrating care. Design/methodology/approach In this article, we consider the sociological and Gestalt relational perspectives and their application to understanding the process of integrating care. We discuss key conceptual elements of both approaches and their overlaps, and how these can be directly useful when organising for integrating care. Findings A sociological relational perspective and a Gestalt (particularly relational organisational Gestalt) one share key conceptual concerns. These include the primary focus on relations as the fabric of social phenomena, the ongoing flow and emergence from complex social webs of interactions, including people's identity. This leads to a different perspective on understanding integrating care, namely one focused on it as an ongoing process rather than an end state of correct organisational arrangements. Applying these fundamental insights to managing integrating care can be disconcerting, especially in an ideological environment emphasising individuals, hierarchy and control. However, the conceptual tools of the relational perspectives discussed can be useful in navigating integrating care. Research limitations/implications The sociological relational and Gestalt perspectives have many similarities which bring helpful perspectives to understanding integrating care. Although this article emerges from a dialogue amongst the authors, it is grounded in many years of experience of thinking about and applying the relational perspectives set out here. Adopting these perspectives will guide a research agenda for integrating care. More empirical work is required to further develop the evidence base for relational understanding of integrating care. Practical implications We highlight practical insights and lessons from these relational perspectives for understanding and managing integrating care. Originality/value This is the first article examining the links between the sociological perspective and Gestalt relational perspectives and their application to integrating care. From discussing these perspectives, we highlight conceptual and practical approaches to understanding and managing integrating care