Martin Bak Jørgensen

The Nelson and Winter Models Revisited: Prototypes for Computer-Based Reconstruction of Schumpeterian Competition

The report deals with the reconstruction and further development of the models of industrial dynamics developed by Nelson and Winter and summarised in their famous 1982-book. The basic idea underlying the Nelson and Winter models is that a verbal account of Schumpeterian competition can naturally be transformed into a description of a computational process in which firms not only make short-term production decisions and investment decisions but also performs a search for new technologies. The latter search is successful in a probabilistic manner, and its successes and failures determine an evolutionary process of the industry. Although the simulation models of Nelson and Winter have played a central role the ‘take-off’ of evolutionary economics, they have never been fully documented and their differences have never been explored. The resulting problems are obvious for students who start from Nelson’s and Winter’s most famous accounts, but even for researchers with a full collection of the underlying research papers, the situation is quite confusing. The report tries to make things easier by presenting overviews of the structure of Nelson and Winter models as well as fully implemented versions of their simulation models – especially NELWIN78 based on ch. 13 of the 1982-book and NELWIN77 based on ch. 12. The report furthermore presents a computer-based environment (implemented in MAPLE V Rev2) for revision of the models and for analysis of the overwhelming number of data resulting from simulation runs.

The Diverging Logics of Integration Policy Making at National and City Level

This paper examines the institutional logics of migration policy making at local city level, comparing four Danish municipal approaches. Using a theoretical framework on political opportunity structures, policy frames, and institutional logics, the paper argues that divergences between national and local level can be explained not only as an unsuccessful transposition of nationally formulated policies, but also as an outcome of divergence in alternative and competing policy frames, political rationales, and institutional logics. Investigating factors such as size, economy, and organizational structure, the paper offers three interrelated explanations for divergences between national and local level and between different local approaches. The paper argues that the difference in national and local level political opportunity structures makes a difference; that ideas diffused from outside the national context can inform local-level policy making; and that policies are situated within and adjusted to the broader cultural economy and city branding as part of competition between cities.

Understanding the Research-Policy Nexus in Denmark and Sweden: The Field of Migration and Integration

This article investigates the role of expert knowledge in integration policy-making in the case of Sweden and Denmark. The two countries have developed very different integration policies and therefore provide an interesting comparison of the research–policy nexus. It is argued that social scientists play a role in the construction of policy narratives, but that their role can be very different. In Sweden, social scientists have been influential in agenda-setting and conceptual rethinking of immigrant integration policies. In Denmark social science research has been utilised in a more selective ‘pick-and-choose’ manner to legitimate government policies.

Framing Scandinavian Conceptualizations of Irregular Migration

Abstract In the academic literature there seems to be consensus on irregular migration being a marginal phenomenon in the Scandinavian countries. The reason for this is found in the highly regulated labour markets and strict control migration regimes both internally and externally. The article addresses the ‘myth’ of the non-presence of irregular migration in Scandinavia. Firstly, we look at how irregular migration is framed academically; secondly, we analyze how irregular migration is conceptualized more broadly in the three countries, looking at the different political strategies relating to this conceptualization such as normalization, regularization and criminalization.

The politics and policies of welfare chauvinism under the economic crisis

The ongoing economic crisis that emerged in the wake of the global recession in 2008, and was followed by the more recent crisis of the Eurozone, has introduced new themes and remoulded old ways of approaching the welfare state, immigration, national belonging and racism in Northern Europe. This article identifies two main ways of understanding welfare chauvinism: 1) as a broad concept that covers all sorts of claims and policies to reserve welfare benefits for the ‘native’ population; 2) an ethno-nationalist and racialising political agenda, characteristic especially of right-wing populist parties. Focusing on the relationship between politics and policies, we examine how welfare chauvinist political agendas are turned into policies and what hinders welfare chauvinist claims from becoming policy matters and welfare practices. It is argued that welfare chauvinism targeting migrants is part of a broader neoliberal restructuring of the welfare state and of welfare retrenchment.

Deservingness in the Danish context: Welfare chauvinism in times of crisis

This article examines categories of deservingness in social policy. It argues that immigrant groups are positioned differently according to their status and perceived ‘value’ for society. On the one hand, most states need several types of migrant labour; on the other hand, they wish to limit other types of migrants. The balance between humanitarian obligations and this urge to control has led to the development of ambiguous policy designs. This tendency can also be found in Denmark. Public policies and the attribution of public goods and rights are increasingly developed within a hierarchical system of civic stratification that legitimises welfare chauvinism, rather than defending the universalist principle embedded in a universal/social-democratic welfare state model. The article investigates welfare chauvinism in relation to unemployment/social security benefits for labour migrants and refugees.

Precariat – What it Is and Isn’t – Towards an Understanding of What it Does:

Guy Standing’s description of the precariat in his 2011 book has revitalized the debate on what the precariat is, and what it is not. Although the book faced criticism from labour studies, Marxist approaches and others, it opened up a new discussion of precarity under neoliberal capitalism. This article draws on understandings that link the notion of the precariat (and processes of precarization) to practices and investigates links between immigration and precarity. It argues that the analysis of what precarity is should be supplemented by an inquiry into what it does. Precarity is here understood as a mode for analysing economy and for rethinking heterogeneous identities and group formations. The article uses two cases, Lampedusa in Hamburg 2013–2015 and the “Freedom Not Frontex” action in June 2014, to illustrate how processes of precarization play out in everyday life situations and the economic, legal and social system for immigrants.

An Introduction to the Special Issue. Politics of Precarity: Migrant Conditions, Struggles and Experiences:

The current special issue examines the range and strength of analysing contemporary transformations and struggles through the lens of ‘precarity’. Rather than defining a single precariat, the interest is in exploring ‘varieties of precarity’. These take different forms in different parts of the world, on different scales and in different socio-economic contexts, and yet they share certain characteristics in terms of conditions and capacity for agency. Contributions to this volume testify that precarity may be a political proposition as much as a sociological category that offers an analytical description of current transformations. The selection of articles has the ‘politics of precarity’ as a frame of reference. It describes the political economy of neoliberal globalization producing institutionally embedded precarization of labour, livelihoods and citizenship, but also resistance against the systemic structuration within which it is embedded.

Politics of Dissent

In Politics of Dissent the framework for analysing politics of dissent is outlined. The outlined framework problematizes the conventional understandings of dissent as something characterising individual historical figures. The chapter provides both a theoretical underpinning of dissent as well as an approach to investigate the current contestations taking place on a global level. Politics of dissent entails the questioning of consensus. It conceptualises dissent as a collective process taking place on everyday level. It conceptualises moments of dissent. Finally it investigates the emergent institutions of dissent. That is the creation of new institutions or the renewal of the existing ones.

Politics of Precarity

In Politics of Precarity: Migrant Conditions, Struggles and Experiences, edited by Carl-Ulrik Schierup and Martin Bak Jorgensen, the conditions of precarity caused by neoliberal globalization are linked to migrant struggles and experiences across the globe.