In recent years we have seen the predictions of our forebears that leisure time would increase as the years pass utterly confounded. It is a fact of life that in major cities across the world, transport systems are full to bursting with people on their way to and from work. As people have come to accept longer working hours as a way of life, a number of new issues have come into play. These include labour market regulation, contract work and outsourcing, wages and increased attempts at bet...

"Education, education, education" has become an obsession for politicians and the public alike. It is seen as an economic panacea: an engine for growth and prosperity. But is there a link between increased spending on higher eductaion and economicgrowth? Professor Alison Wolf takes a critical look at successive governments' education policy and challenges many of the tenets of received wisdom: there are no economic reasons for spending more on higher education in order to stimulate growth....

The neo-liberalism that dominated economic thinking since the advent of Thatcher and Reagan is now seen to have serious flaws. Progressive Capitalism seeks to replace it with a new Progressive political economy, based on an analysis of why the growth rates of countries differ, and what firms have to do to achieve competitive advantage in today's global economy. The cornerstone of the political economy of Progressive Capitalism is a belief in capitalism. But it also incorporates the three d...

The strategies adopted by governments and public officials can have dramatic effects on peoples' lives. The best ones can transform economic laggards into trailblazers, eliminate diseases, or sharply cut crime. Strategic failures can result in highly visible disasters, like the shrinking of the Russian economy in the 1990s, or the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. This book is about how strategies take shape, and how money, people, technologies, and public commitment c...

In principle the advanced, market-driven world in which we now live is fuelled by knowledge, information and transparency, but in practice the processes that produce this world systematically corrupt and denigrate knowledge: this is the powerful and provocative argument advanced by Colin Crouch in his latest exploration of societies on the road to post-democracy.Crouch shows that executives in profit-maximizing corporations have incentives to ignore or distort knowledge, especially...

A collection of stimulating essays exploring the wide-ranging debates surrounding the relationship between business and society in 21st century Ireland.Wide-ranging, diverse and thought-provoking contributions from leading business researchers, economists, sociologists and political scientists from Ireland and abroad probe five central themes: the making and unmaking of the Celtic Tiger; governance, regulation and justice; partnership and participation; the nature of Irish borders ...

There is little doubt that in recent years, enterprise has been considered an essential approach in the alleviation of deprivation existing in the developed world. The assumption is that area-based initiatives provide a means by which enterprise can include all members of society in mainstream social and economic activities. The rationale behind Enterprise, Deprivation and Social Exclusion is to critically challenge the notion that enterprise can address the complexity behind depr...

State Management offers a comprehensive yet concise introduction to the new field of state management, presenting an analysis of basic questions within the theories of bureaucracy, policy-making, principal-agent modelling and policy networks. Focussing upon recent state transformation, it illuminates public sector reform strategies such as New Public Management as well as incorporation, tendering and bidding, decentralization, team production and privatization.This book ar...

The foundational economy is everywhere: from clean water to care homes, schools to hospitals, these vital services were established between 1880 and 1980 to be collectively paid for, collectively delivered and collectively consumed. This essential framework has transformed the lives of billions, but in the last generation it has come under considerable attack. Privatisation, market choice and outsourcing have depleted the material infrastructure at the core of everyday life, and the founda...

The Covid-19 pandemic has tragically exposed how today’s welfare state cannot properly protect its citizens. Despite the valiant efforts of public sector workers, from under-resourced hospitals to a shortage of housing and affordable social care, the pandemic has shown how decades of neglect has caused hundreds to die. In this bold new book, leading policy analyst Ursula Huws shows how we can create a welfare state that is fair, affordable, and offers security for all.Huws focuses ...

Mining can have negative environmental and social impacts, but can also be responsible. However corporations have little impetus to act responsibly without being held to account by an informed and active public, and by strong institutions and governments which not only create but also enforce legislation. Yet what does such practice look like?This book shows how the concept of responsible mining is based on five key principles or pillars: holistic assessment; ethical relationships;...

The corporation has become an increasingly dominant force in contemporary society. However, comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the concept of the corporation is often restricted, or limited to one disciplinary approach. This handbook brings together the cutting-edge scholarship, expertise and insight of leading scholars in a wide range of disciplines, notably management studies, law, history, political science, anthropology, sociology and criminology, using a critical approach to dissect ...