Peter Nolan

The causation and prevention of famines: A critique of A. K. Sen

A.K. Sen has dominated discussion of famines for the past decade. Hardly anyone analyses famine without reference to his ‘entitlement theory’. The rise to dominance of Sens approach towards famine is an important example of the way in which ‘knowledge’ and language gain ascendancy in an area of social thought. This article analyses why this has happened. It evaluates the usefulness of Sens contribution to the construction of policies to prevent famine. It summarises the major features of Sens approach; presents some general problems with it, then looks in detail at the demand side, the supply side, and the marketing system. It concludes by arguing that the correct approach towards avoiding famine is to consider more carefully then Sen does the wide range of possible causes, among which food output, transport inadequacy and warfare play much more important roles than one is led to believe from Sens analysis.

The Global Business Revolution and the Cascade Effect

Introduction The Debate The Global Business Revolution Systems Integration and the Cascade Effect The Aerospace Industry The Beverage Industry The Retail Industry Implications for Firm-Level Catch-up in Developing Countries

Regulatory change and performance in TV production

The last ten years of re-regulation and rapid technological change have had a significant impact on organizational structure and employment within television in the UK. While this may have resulted in one-off productivity gains, it has also seen progressive casualization of employment. The fragmentation of employment is rooted in both specific regulatory provisions and also the structure of commissioning in the independent sector. We argue that this not only threatens to undermine the skills base of the industry but also has generally negative performance attributes. Therefore, re-regulation has removed one source of x-inefficiency but created another with damaging long-term consequences for the industry. In order to sustain those efficiency gains that have been made, actors within the industry must, within regulatory constraints, attempt to continue to move towards stable organizational structures and long-term contracting relations that will provide the necessary continuity of employment.

Death rates, life expentancy and China's economic reforms: A critique of A.K. Sen

Abstract Sens recent work has emphasized the ineffectiveness of economic growth in achieving fundamentally important human ends. Here, his influential propositions concerning post-Mao China are assessed. Factors affecting mortality rates and life expectancy in China since the mid-1970s are discussed in section 2. In section 3 it is shown that, contrary to his claims, post-Mao China achieved a widespread decline in death rates, an improvement in life expectancy and a reduction in the number of people living in absolute poverty. The poorest rural households were not excluded from the benefits of rapid growth of output after the reforms.

Globalisation and Industrial Policy: The Case of China

After a quarter of a century of industrial policy, Chinas objective of nurturing a group of globally competitive state�?owned enterprises appears to have succeeded beyond most expectations. However, Chinas SOEs are far from catching up with the worlds leading firms. Protection through state ownership in a massive, fast�?growing economy has permitted Chinas SOEs to earn large profits and achieve high market capitalisations, but this is not the same thing as building globally competitive firms. The fact that Chinas industrial policy has been unsuccessful after a quarter of a century of intense effort demonstrates how difficult it is to construct an industrial policy in the era of capitalist globalisation, which has produced intense global industrial concentration across large parts of the global value chain. Although the detailed content of the next stage of reform of Chinas large state�?owned enterprises is unclear, Chinas determination to build a group of globally competitive large companies remains undimmed.

Industrial Policy and Global Big Business Revolution: the Case of the Chinese Coal Industry1

China has actively implemented an industrial policy during the last two decades. However, despite important progress, the overall result is rather disappointing. Should China continue to pursue industrial policy? Should China focus instead on developing successful globally competitive firms within the global value chain? This paper, based on an in-depth case study on the Shenhua Group, which has been deliberately built as an indigenous globally competitive coal corporation, argues that it is still possible for China to build powerful big businesses in some sectors. However, a well-designed industrial policy is necessary.

Unions, technologies of coordination, and the changing contours of globally distributed power

This article explores the emergence and significance of new technologies of coordination for globally distributed social movements attempting to shape the power relationship between themselves and the forces of international business. It challenges the entrenched perspective that global markets are constructed and dominated by global capital and the idea that attempts to regulate for decent work and economic justice are futile. It argues that newly available power resources can be harnessed to promote the globalization of labor movements and overcome barriers to international solidarity. It cites case materials from both the developed and the developing world to highlight the dimensions of communication which contribute towards the initiation of new processes of political challenge and material advancement. The article concludes with a brief discussion of some of the dilemmas posed by labor globalization for labor itself.

The changing world of work

Focusing on paid employment rather than work in its multiple forms, this paper highlights key developments in the UK labour market, presents new findings from two nationally representative sample surveys, and advances some conclusions about the contradictory effects of change and continuity in paid work in the early years of the twenty-first century. Reference is made to international developments to place the UK in a broader context.

The Third Technological Revolution

We have seen already that the revolution in information technology (IT) is changing massively the structure of business and daily life. Information technology will be at the heart of the global economy for at least the first few decades of the new millennium. The revolution is changing everything from the nature of the firm to the nature of warfare.

Reconnecting with History: The ESRC Future of Work Programme

he backdrop to the launch in 1998 of the ESRC Future of Work Programme was one of heightened speculation and deepening public policy interest in the prospects for paid and unpaid work in the 21st century. Although developments in employment relations remained central to the ESRC’s research portfolio during the 1980s and 1990s, through its stake in the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (now Workplace Employment Relations Survey), the wider issues concerning changes in the nature and experiences of work received less attention. The launch of the Future of Work Programme reversed this position and presented academic researchers with a new opportunity to restore ‘work’ to the centre of the social science research agenda. It allowed researchers to open up new lines of enquiry, generate new empirical data and challenge established orthodoxies. In the fullness of time the programme will contribute in significant ways to theory development. Many of the prevailing wisdoms about work, work relations and the future prospects for employment have been exposed as insubstantial conjecture as the programme has succeeded in demonstrating the explanatory power and policy relevance of historically grounded and empirically based research.