1,721,019 research outputs found
A Marxist/Institutionalist framework for the analysis of contemporary capitalism
No full textDisponibile online:
http://www.qeh.ox.ac.uk/pdf/qehconf/basile.pd
Civil society in contemporary India. An analysis in the conceptual framework of Western social theory
No full textLo scritto analizza la natura e il funzionamento della società civile indiana. Poggia sull’ipotesi che la società civile eserciti un forte impatto sull’organizzazione economica e sulle relazioni di potere nella società e nell’economia. Sostiene che interpretare la società civile indiana come la ‘buona’ società descritta da Tocqueville non è corretto, mentre, per conseguenza della forte influenza degli interessi di parte, l’interpretazione di Gramsci appare molto più aderente all’evidenza empirica. Sostiene anche che le associazioni della società civile costruiscono il consenso sociale sugli interessi egemonici.
Lo scritto è organizzato in due parti. La prima parte presenta l’analisi teorica. Dopo un’introduzione ai principali approcci teorici alla società civile, sono passate in rassegna le diverse categorie di associazioni per mezzo delle quali la società civile svolge le proprie funzioni. La seconda parte è dedicata all’India. In primo luogo, sono analizzati le caratteristiche e gli obiettivi delle associazioni della società civile; e successivamente sono commentati i loro ruoli e gli interessi che esse rappresentano e organizzano.The paper explores the nature and working of India’s civil society. Building on the hypothesis that civil society exercises a major impact on economic organization and power relations, it argues that it is hardly appropriate to interpret India’s organized society as the ‘good’ civil society theorized by Tocqueville, while, owing to the strong influence of partisan interests, Gramsci’s interpretation appears to be supported by the evidence. It also argues that civil society associations provide the tools to build social consensus over hegemonic interests.
The paper is organized in two parts. The first part introduces the theoretical framework for the analysis. After a discussion of the major conceptualizations of civil society, the different categories of associations through which civil society performs its functional contribution are reviewed. The second part is devoted to India. First, it explores the features and aims of civil society associations and, then, focuses on their roles and on the interests they represent and organize
Capitalist Development in India's Informal Economy
No full textThis book explores the economy and society of Provincial India in the post-Green Revolution period. It argues that the low 'quality' of capital development in India's villages and small towns is the joint outcome of the informal economic organisation, that is strongly biased in favour of capital, and of the complex stratification of the workforce along class and caste lines. Focusing on the processes of growth induced by the introduction of the high-yield varieties in agriculture, the book demonstrates that a low-road pattern of capitalist development has been emerging in provincial India: firms compete over price and not over efficiency, with a constant pressure to reduce costs, in particular labour costs. The book shows that low-skilled employment prevails and low wages and poor working conditions are widespread. Based on original empirical research, the book makes a valuable contribution to the debate on varieties of capitalism, in particular of the Global South. It is of interest to academics working in the fields of Development Studies, Political Economy and South Asian Studies
Civil society and small town capitalism: the case of Arni
No full textMy aim in this paper is to assess which view of civil society fits better to the case of India. I build my analysis on the hypothesis that, owing to the widespread informality of India’s economy and to the retreat of the state, civil society plays a major regulatory role, shaping power relations and economic organization.The paper explores the impact of civil society on India's capitalist development. While the concept of civil society is controversial, the interpretations of the phenomenon can be reduced to two major views. The first view builds on the optimistic analysis by Alexis de Tocqueville, who introduces the idea of civil society as a partnership of equal individuals that promote the common good, and the second view builds on the analysis by Antonio Gramsci, who sees civil society as the organization that supports the hegemony of the dominant classes pursuing particularistic interests. The paper focuses on India's civil society having in mind these alternative views in order to explore which one of the two fits better to the case. The paper builds on the hypothesis that, due to the widespread informality of India's economy, the associations of civil society are a major character in India's society, playing a crucial regulative role in substitution of the state, and that the analysis of civil society enhances the understanding of capitalist organization and of the power relations governing it. The argument is that it is hardly appropriate to interpret India's organized society as 'good' civil society, while the Gramscian interpretation appears to be more appropriate to the Indian case in which the organizations of civil society are the tools to regulate the economy, managing interest conflicts and building social consensus over the hegemony of the elites. The argument is supported with evidence coming from Arni, a market town in Provincial India in which the economy is vastly informalized and the market is not the prevailing organizing principle, while institutions and structures produced in civil society regulate economic transaction
From the Green Revolution to Industrial Dispersal: Informality and Flexibility in an Industrial District for Silk in Rural South India
No full textThis article explores social production relations in the silk economy of a rural town in South India which has experienced a major process of industrialisation in the post-Green Revolution. Being a market for agricultural products in the 1960s, the town has now become the centre of a manufacturing economy specialised in silk saris. The article argues that, since the Green Revolution, the town's silk economy has been organised as an industrial district, in which competitiveness relies on low labour costs and is enhanced by class and caste stratification and segmentation. Focusing on the relations between the economic organisation of the silk economy and the town's social structure, the analysis is carried out by means of the Marshallian concept of industrial district as theorised by Giacomo Becattini. © 2011 European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes
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