Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society - recent issues

Online Resources

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:45:49 PST

Editorial Statement

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:45:50 PST

Transforming work: new forms of employment and their regulation

McDowell, L., Christopherson, S. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:45:50 PST

Subjective employment insecurity around the world

Green, F. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:45:50 PST

I consider the concept of employment insecurity (EI) and provide new evidence for 1997 and 2005 for many countries with widely differing institutional contexts and at varying stages of development. There are no grounds for accepting that workplaces were going through a sea change in EI. Workers in transitional economies and developing economies worried the most about insecurity. Insecurity tended to be greater for women, for less-educated and for older workers. However, these patterns vary across country groups, in ways that are only sometimes explicable in terms of their known institutional characteristics. In general, subjective EI tracks the unemployment rate.

Flexicurity as a moderator of the relationship between job insecurity and psychological well-being

Burchell, B. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:45:50 PST

Flexicurity has been heralded as the solution to simultaneously maintain the well-being of employees through employment security while allowing employers to benefit from flexibility. This paper examines one of the claimed benefits that countries with flexicurity policies will reduce the stress on employees who experience job insecurity. More specifically, it is argued that more generous unemployment benefits along with active labour market policies to facilitate rapid re-employment reduces the anxiety associated with insecurity. Analyses of two international data sets found little evidence for this moderation of the link between insecurity and well-being in countries that are assumed to be exemplars of flexicurity. The economic rationality behind these claims is questioned, and a psychological approach to job insecurity is suggested as an alternative.

Institutional regimes and employee influence at work: a European comparison

Gallie, D. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:45:50 PST

Employee's ability to exercise influence over their work tasks has long been seen as a critical aspect of the quality of work. Using comparative representative surveys, the paper examines how well the contrasting power resource and production regime theoretical perspectives account for the empirical differences between countries – taking Denmark, Finland, Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden as paradigmatic cases of different regime types. It examines individual task discretion, collective team decision-making and consultative influence through management. It reveals the distinctively high level of influence at work of employees in the Nordic countries, a pattern that is most consistent with power resources theory.

Less than adequate: regulating temporary agency work in the EU in the face of an internal market in services

Vosko, L. F. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:45:50 PST

This article analyzes the Directive on Temporary Agency Work (2008) in the face of a new internal market in services in the European Union. I argue that the adoption of this Directive is paradoxical: on the one hand, it breaks the lengthy stalemate characterizing workers’ and employers’ efforts to craft a framework agreement. On the other hand, the compromise reached marks a setback for workers’ protection because the Directive qualifies equal treatment and its adoption fuels pressure to include services provided by temporary work agencies within the Services Directive (2006).

Employed under different rules: the complexities of working across organizational boundaries

Rubery, J., Marchington, M., Grimshaw, D., Carroll, M., Pass, S. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:45:50 PST

A major element of the transforming work debate is the spread of complex organizational forms. Hierarchical and strictly bounded employing organizations are said to be being replaced by fluid networks of organizations, working in partnership to achieve shared goals. Case studies of four co-production networks cast doubts on the extent to which employment hierarchies have lost salience. Inter-organizational relations are found to result not in the absence of hierarchies but in their overlapping, intertwining and fragmentation. These interactions raise problems of consistency and fairness within the employment relationship, particularly related to distributive justice, procedural justice and career development.

Trade unions and contingent labour: scale and method

Heery, E. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:45:50 PST

In recent years, there has been a trend for trade unions to attempt to represent contingent workers, including agency staff, workers on fixed-term contracts and the self-employed. This article seeks to explain and characterize this development in the UK. The main conclusions are that contingent workers require an "upscaling" of union representation, beyond the workplace, and that methods other than collective bargaining are more important for advancing the interests of this group. These methods include attempts to regulate labour markets unilaterally, provide union services and make use of employment law.

Religion at work: the role of faith-based organizations in the London living wage campaign

Wills, J., Datta, K., Evans, Y., Herbert, J., May, J., McIlwaine, C. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:45:50 PST

This paper makes a contribution to debate about the intervention of religious organizations in matters of industrial relations, labour markets and public policy in relation to work. We draw on new empirical data to explore the involvement of low-paid migrant workers in faith organizations and relate this to the ways in which faith organizations have begun to engage in political campaigns to challenge the nature of work and immigration control. Using the example of London Citizens’ living wage and regularization campaigns, the paper explores the basis on which faith organizations can provide the space for social and political solidarity among and beyond immigrants in low-paid jobs in London today.

Referees 2008-2009

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:45:50 PST

Online Resources

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:34:54 PDT

Editorial Statement

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:27:06 PDT

Spatial circuits of global finance

Garretsen, H., Kitson, M., Martin, R. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:27:06 PDT

Monetary geography before the Industrial Revolution

Flandreau, M., Galimard, C., Jobst, C., Nogues-Marco, P. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:27:06 PDT

In this article, we study Europe's monetary geography on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. Our unit of analysis is the city and we explore inter-city linkages. Important findings include a considerable degree of integration and multilateralism with monetary centres having already emerged as vehicles for international settlements, before the Industrial Revolution.

Global banking and local markets: a national perspective

Alessandrini, P., Presbitero, A. F., Zazzaro, A. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:27:07 PDT

In the early 1990s, a widely shared opinion among scholars and practitioners was that the importance of physical proximity between banks and borrowers would be doomed to decrease drastically over time and, put in extreme terms, the end of banking geography would become a real possibility. However, the empirical evidence shows the continued importance of local credit markets for small borrowers and local economic development. In this paper, we selectively review the literature on the real effects of bank consolidation and produce new evidence on the role of headquarter-to-branch functional distance on relationship lending.

Financial centre bias in primary equity markets

Wojcik, D. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:27:07 PDT

This paper shows that firms from financial centres are more likely to go public than their provincial counterparts. The financial centre bias is analysed for 32 countries, including the European Union, the USA and Japan. It is particularly strong in countries with underdeveloped stock markets and closed corporate governance regimes, but it is still present in countries with the most developed stock markets and most open corporate governance, such as the UK and the USA. Potential reasons for the bias include the benefits of issuers’ proximity to Initial Public Offerings intermediaries and specialised labour markets, corporate governance incentives and institutional factors.

International capital mobility: linking the Feldstein-Horioka puzzle to the trade and equity home bias puzzles

Kool, C. J. M., Keijzer, L. M. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:27:07 PDT

We revisit the Feldstein–Horioka (FH) puzzle using data for 23 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for the period 1973–2003. We document a sharp decline in the FH coefficient from the mid-1990s onward, supporting the hypothesis of increased economic and financial integration. Subsequently, we extend the literature and use a non-linear specification with interaction terms to empirically show that observed decreases in equity home bias (EHB) and increases in trade openness are structurally linked to the time variation in the FH coefficient. Thus, this paper empirically establishes a structural link between three puzzles in international macroeconomics and finance: the FH puzzle, the EHB puzzle and the trade home bias puzzle.

Financial liberalization and the geography of poverty

Arestis, P., Caner, A. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:27:07 PDT

We investigate the possibility of further channels through which financial liberalization policies might affect poverty and discuss how various factors have produced varying outcomes in different countries. The growth channel is the only one widely accepted in the literature. We suggest that three further channels should be added to the list: the financial crises channel, the access to credit and financial services channel and the income share of labour channel. We discuss how these channels operate differently in different countries. As far as we know, no attempt has been made previously in the literature to go beyond the growth channel.

The geography of finance: after the storm

O'Brien, R., Keith, A. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:27:07 PDT

This article reviews the idea that geography is becoming less and less important in finance as a result of the revolution in information and communications technology and of deregulation, in the aftermath of the economic and financial crisis of 2008. Reviewing four scenarios for the future of finance, it seems likely that the drive towards ‘the end of geography’ will be slowed by the crisis, as the wisdom of allowing the marketplace to self-regulate is reconsidered. Future information and communication technology developments may help improve information management, combating one of the features of recent market failure.

The global financial customer and the spatiality of exclusion after the 'end of geography'

Dymski, G. A. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:27:07 PDT

This paper evaluates O'Brien's assertion that freer global financial flows and movement will eliminate the significance of geography for financial processes because enhanced global choice will create the global financial customer. We argue here, contra O'Brien, that expanded global choice in finance has contributed to the widening global income/wealth divide, both in the global North and the global South. Financial globalization has not made geography immaterial: instead, spatial location, informed by each area's historical and institutional background, continues to demarcate who has access to which financial services at what price. The US subprime crisis demonstrates dramatically that vulnerability to economically devastating financial crises varies dramatically across space at the national and sub-national levels.

A very geographical crisis: the making and breaking of the 2007-2008 financial crisis

French, S., Leyshon, A., Thrift, N. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:27:07 PDT

The paper argues that the origins of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 can ultimately be located in four spaces: in international financial centres, in particular, in the longstanding competition that has existed between London and New York; in the insularity of the everyday geographies of money that have emerged in such centres in the wake of the apparent hegemony of financialization; in the geographical recycling of surpluses and deficits and, more particularly, the structural dependency that has grown up between China and the USA, and, finally; in the growing power of the financial media, centred in international financial centres and an increasingly significant agent in performing money and the economy in general, and in engendering mimetic forms of rationality.

Financial stability, the Basel Process and the new geography of regulation

Bieri, D. S. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:27:07 PDT

The post-Bretton Woods era has witnessed the integration of the global financial system at an unprecedented pace. However, much of its institutional governance structure remains hinged on the old paradigm of national economies. Despite highly globalized financial markets, I find evidence of substantial clustering in the context of regional financial activity. Addressing the regulatory challenges of globalization, the so-called ‘Basel Process’ provides policy makers with a unique institutional arrangement that straddles the gap between the old and the new geographies of financial markets. The evolving architecture of the global financial system calls for a careful balancing of globally co-ordinated, locally decentralized regulation on the one hand and effective, centralized intervention mechanisms on the other hand.

Editorial Statement

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:32:52 PDT

Editorial: Rescaling the state: new modes of institutional-territorial organization

Lobao, L., Martin, R., Rodriguez-Pose, A. — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:32:52 PDT

The state and uneven development: the governance of economic development in England in the post-devolution UK

Pike, A., Tomaney, J. — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:32:52 PDT

This paper draws upon territorial and relational approaches as well as work on the economics and politics of devolution to argue that a geographically sensitive political economy of the ‘qualitative state’ can interpret the roles, structures, strategies and practices of states in attempting to resolve the governance of uneven development. An empirical analysis of the UK state's governance of economic development within England reveals the construction of enabling frameworks at the national level and, in the wake of regionalization and regionalism, the encouragement of new ‘spatial imaginaries’ (cities and/or city-regions, localisms and pan-regionalisms). The result has been complexity, experimentation, fragmentation and incoherence with largely negative implications for territorial equity and justice. We conclude by reflecting upon the limits of projects of state decentralization and spatial policy under a strong national economic growth orientation in addressing the governance of uneven development.

Examining the interaction between vertical and horizontal dimensions of state transformation

Buchs, M. — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:32:52 PDT

Two dimensions of state transformation often analysed separately can be identified as vertical authority shifts between different levels of government and horizontal authority transfers between state and non-state domains. This article firstly reviews three existing approaches that highlight links between vertical and horizontal state transformation: multi-level governance, policy networks and sections of the rescaling literature. However, these approaches do not yet provide a framework sufficient to enable a more thorough and detailed examination of the relationship between these two dimensions. The article thus proceeds to develop a multifaceted framework in order to facilitate further research into this relationship, a necessity if we are to understand more fully whether vertical and horizontal authority shifts complement or contradict one another within the transformation of the state's role in governing society and economy.

Territorial policy communities and devolution in the UK

Keating, M., Cairney, P., Hepburn, E. — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:32:52 PDT

Devolution in the UK forms part of a wider process of spatial rescaling across Europe. Little work has been done on its effect on interest articulation. The literature on policy communities treats them as sectoral in scope. We propose the concept of ‘territorial policy communities’ to designate territorially bounded constellations of actors within and across policy sectors, emerging in response to the rescaling of government. Devolution may leave existing systems of interest articulation unchanged, leaving ‘regions without regionalism’; it may confine some groups within territorial boundaries while allowing others the freedom to choose’ between levels of government; or it might promote a general territorialization of interest representation and the emergence of territorial policy communities. The UK's four models of devolution help test the effects of stronger and weaker forms of devolution on the territorialization of groups.

The scalar dimension of welfare state development: the case of Swedish and Finnish social assistance systems

Scarpa, S. — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:32:52 PDT

Following Neil Brenner's 3-fold periodization, the article analyses the historical development of the Swedish and the Finnish social assistance systems, from the early phase of Spatial-Keynesianism, through the phase of Endogenous Development Policies, to the present phase of Locational Policies. The Swedish and the Finnish cases have been often clustered in the same welfare regime typology but little investigation has been done on the ways in which the territorial organization of their welfare systems has differently affected their trajectories of development. The article explains how the interrelationship between national and local welfare policies has been firstly established and subsequently evolved in a different manner in the two countries.

A fiscal perspective of state rescaling

Martinez-Vazquez, J., Timofeev, A. — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:32:52 PDT

Recent socio-spatial studies point out a number of ongoing trends in the ‘scale division of labour of the state’, including among others, ‘destatization’, ‘denationalization’ and ‘internationalization’. We draw on the literature in public economics to review several approaches to measuring state rescaling. We employ these measures to produce empirical evidence on the extent of state rescaling and its determinants. We find that over the last two decades there has been a world trend towards decentralization while the average government size has not changed.

'Rescaling the state' in question

Cox, K. R. — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:32:52 PDT

This paper puts in critical focus a major tenet of the state rescaling literature. This is that over the last 25 years or so there has been a significant decentralization of state functions, largely with a view to re-energizing national economies. Several points are at issue. The first is that the evidence for a decentralization of any significance is insubstantial. Second, the territorial structure of the state has indeed been in question but largely as a result of bottom-up forces contesting it, in part, on distributional grounds. And third, the American case underlines both the Eurocentric character of this literature and the weakness of whatever decentralization has indeed occurred.

Open questions on state rescaling

Brenner, N. — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:32:52 PDT

Recent work on state rescaling has opened up productive lines of theorization and research. However, this literature contains many open theoretical, interpretive, methodological and empirical questions. By drawing attention to several of these, this article aims to promote reflection and debate on possible future lines of research within this field. I argue, in particular, for greater attention to questions of method—specifically, to the mediations linking abstract concepts to concrete, contextually specific investigations. The article concludes by outlining three research frontiers that could be productively explored within future work on state rescaling—logics of explanation, comparative analyses and questions of periodization.

Online Resources

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:32:52 PDT