Rights, symbolic violence and the micro-politics of the rural: the case of the Parish Paths Partnership scheme

In this paper microlevel politics and conflict associated with social and economic change in the countryside and linked changes in rural governance are explored with a focus upon research carried out on a recent rural policy initiative aimed at local 'empowerment'. This acts as a touchstone for a wider theoretical discussion. The paper is theorised within a conceptual framework derived and extended from the work of Pierre Bourdieu and others in order to explore case studies of the English Countryside Commission's Parish Paths Partnership scheme. The micropolitics involved with this scheme are examined and used to highlight more general issues raised by increased 'parish empowerment' in the 'postrural'.

Agents for change and changed agents:the micro-politics of change and feminism in the academy

This article explores gender politics and processes in the academy and investigates change from the perspectives of feminist academics. In particular, it explores the experiences of women academics attempting to effect change to the gendered status quo of their own institutions. Focusing on micro-politics, the feminist movement is empirically explored in localized spaces of resistance and in the small but significant individual efforts at making changes in academic institutions. The analysis is based on interviews with female academics working in business and management schools and focuses on the challenges for change and how change attempts affect their personal and professional identities. The article explores the range of change strategies that participants use as they try to progress in their academic career while staying true to their feminist values and priorities through both resisting and incorporating dominant discourses of academic work. The analysis highlights such tensions and focuses on a contextualized, bottom-up perspective on change that, unlike more totalizing theorization, takes into account mundane and lived experiences at the level of the individual. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The micro-politics of operational adjustment:veto players and the consolidation of demand in the NHS

Recent reports about procurement within the NHS have been highly critical. One problem identified in the reports is the fragmentation of NHS demand across an unnecessarily large number of suppliers. This fragmentation is said to increase transaction costs, reduce opportunities for scale economies and reduce NHS leverage over suppliers. It has been suggested, therefore, that an important way of improving procurement in the NHS is the better consolidation of demand with a lower number of preferred suppliers. However, such a policy, because it will create ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ within NHS organisations, has political as well as technical and practical ramifications. In this article, the authors present a model, the Veto Players Model, in order to assist managers to address these political ramifications. In the article, the authors not only demonstrate the utility of this model with regard to demand consolidation policies, but also argue that the model provides useful lessons for change management initiatives more generally.

Margaret Thatcher, Dress and the Politics of Fashion

Through Margaret Thatcher’s private and public performances, the micro-politics of dress translated into the macro-politics of power. Thatcher’s changing career can be traced through her dress (see Young 1991: 416-417); analysis of her dress leading up to and during her Premiership reveals both her aspirations and increasing power. Understanding of Thatcher’s agency in her embodied, dressed performances can be informed and developed through Butler’s (1999) conceptualization of performativity. Through adaptation, repetition and divergent dress, Thatcher constructed different identities, some of which became iconic symbols of her self and her politics. Examination of Thatcher’s dress refines the understanding of the relationship between constraints and agency experienced by actors in the public realm. Upon becoming party leader, Margaret Thatcher’s gender, class and ideological viewpoints were incongruent with her unprecedented political status and she faced many challenges in attempting to overcome this. Dress became a potentially destabilising focus for her critics and symbolic of her “outsider” status. Yet in the face of these challenges she recognized and learned from the expectations of others, adapting and changing her dress. However, this was not an instantaneous, complete or permanent transformation. What Thatcher achieved, as she crafted her dressed performances, was agency over a further aspect of her life and her politics. There was also an evolving alignment of her dress with her political ideology and domestic and international roles over time.

Apoio como dispositivo: conexões, invenções e provocações à produção coletiva do cuidado e da gestão no município de São Bernardo do Campo

A transformação nos modos de organizar e produzir atenção em saúde exige a invenção de dispositivos com potência para proporcionar espaços coletivos de análise acerca da produção da gestão e do cuidado. O apoio é tecido por múltiplas relações, interesses, projetos e agenciamentos. Fabricado no encontro, é um intercessor que pode favorecer reflexões sobre a micropolítica do trabalho, sobre os encontros entre trabalhadores e usuários, entre trabalhadores e entre trabalhadores e gestão, agenciando possibilidades de análise do cotidiano e interferências sobre os modos de cuidar e de gerir. As interrogações sobre o cuidado podem abrir zonas de visibilidade aos processos de trabalho, discursos, práticas e relações de poder. A pesquisa procurou analisar o processo de fabricação do apoio na rede de atenção à saúde no município de São Bernardo do Campo e seus efeitos. O município organizou nove núcleos territoriais em saúde, cada qual com um grupo de até cinco apoiadores constituído por trabalhadores com formações variadas. Ademais, conta com uma dupla de facilitadores de educação permanente, ligados à gestão nos diferentes departamentos da Secretaria de Saúde e orientadores de educação permanente que tem a função de dar suporte aos apoiadores e facilitar os processos de educação permanente nos territórios. No desenho de São Bernardo, o apoio é uma ferramenta estratégica para a construção do cuidado em rede e para a análise das práticas de saúde. Há uma forte aposta da gestão na criação de espaços coletivos e dispositivos de conexão entre os departamentos, serviços, gestores e trabalhadores na intenção de suscitar transversalidade e combater a estrutura vertical de sua organização. O município vive uma intensa criação de dispositivos mobilizadores de encontros, propostos para a construção de redes e de gestão compartilhada do cuidado. Por meio de andanças com os apoiadores em variados territórios, conversas, afecções, registros em diário de campo, narrativas e documentos, tecemos uma cartografia: composição de cenários, de perspectivas e de analisadores, sentidos abertos, múltiplos e conectáveis. A abordagem cartográfica acompanha processos, persegue rastros e traçados, se movimenta entre linhas, sustenta problemáticas; nela, somos pesquisadores in-mundos, nos infectamos, nos misturamos, sempre implicados e em produção com os mundos pesquisados. Mesmo sendo uma aposta de governo, tensionamentos e conflitos acontecem no cotidiano, relacionados a diferentes prioridades, agendas, quebra de acordos, interrupção de projetos. As produções do apoio vêm fomentando conexões entre os serviços, contribuindo com o matriciamento de saúde mental e de outras especialidades na atenção básica e entre os trabalhadores da atenção especializada, fortalecendo redes, estimulando análises coletivas sobre o cuidado, criando estratégias e ferramentas, transformações em fluxos e na regulação. O apoio não é função somente do apoiador, pode ser agenciado por variados atores. Por fim, a auto-análise, quando acontece, potencializa o apoio como dispositivo, provisório, ativador de processos e de protagonismo coletivo.

The politics of temporary work deregulation in Europe: solving the French puzzle

Temporary work has expanded in the last three decades with adverse implications for inequalities. Because temporary workers are a constituency that is unlikely to impose political costs, governments often choose to reduce temporary work regulations. While most European countries have indeed implemented such reforms, France went in the opposite direction, despite having both rigid labour markets and high unemployment. My argument to solve this puzzle is that where replaceability is high, workers in permanent and temporary contracts have overlapping interests, and governments choose to regulate temporary work to protect permanent workers. In turn, replaceability is higher where permanent workers’ skills are general and wage coordination is low. Logistic regression analysis of the determinants of replaceability — and how this affects governments’ reforms of temporary work regulations — supports my argument. Process tracing of French reforms also confirm that the left has tightened temporary work regulations to compensate for the high replaceability.

The politics of in-work benefits: The case of the ‘active income of solidarity’ in France

In-work benefits have been introduced in a number of Bismarckian welfare regimes in a context of austerity despite being targeted at politically weak constituents and representing a deviation from prevailing welfare institutions. This article addresses this puzzle by looking at the introduction in 2008 of an in-work benefit scheme in France, the Active Income of Solidarity. The analysis reveals that this reform was the result of a cross-cutting alliance between the conservative party and employers, as well as parts of the socialist party and the union movement. The alliance was possible thanks to actors’ multiple interpretations of the reform. The reform was difficult to oppose given its support by experts and public opinion and because it entailed an increase in revenues for low-income workers.

The Malleable Politics of Welfare-to-Work Reform: Germany's "Hartz" activation compared with Dutch, British and Irish cases. ACES Cases No. 2009.1

We compare the Hartz reforms in Germany with three other major labor market activation reforms carried out by center-left governments. Britain and Germany developed radically neoliberal “mandatory” activation policies, whereas in the Netherlands and Ireland radical activation change took a very different “enabling” form. The Irish and German cases were path deviant, the British and Dutch path dependent. We explain why Germany underwent “mandatory” and path deviant activation by focusing on two features of the policy discourse. First, the elite level discourse was “ensilaged” sealing policy formation off from dissenting actors. This is what the British and German cases had in common and the result was reform that identified long term unemployment as social delinquency rather than market failure. Second, although the German policy-making system lacked the “authoritative” features that facilitated reform in the British case, and the Irish policy-making system lacked the “reflexive” mechanisms that facilitated reform in the Dutch case, in both Germany and Ireland the wider legitimating discourses were reshaped by novel institutional vehicles (the Hartz Commission and FÁS) that served to fundamentally alter system-constitutive perceptions about policy. The findings suggest that major reform of welfare-to-work policy may be much more malleable than previously thought.

Changes in wood-water relationship due to heat treatment assessed on micro-samples of three Eucalyptus species

Wood-water relationship of untreated and heat-treated wood was studied. Specimens of Eucalyptus grandis, E saligna, and E citriodora were submitted to five conditions of heat treatment: 180 degrees C and 220 degrees C with air; 220 degrees C, 250 degrees C, and 280 degrees C with N(2). The wood-water relationships were accurately studied in a special device, in which the moisture content (MC) of the sample was measured with a highly sensitive electronic microbalance placed in a climatic chamber. The dimensions of the sample were collected continuously without contact by means of two high-speed laser scan micrometers. Sorption curves and shrinkage-MC relationships were observed. To study the effects of heat treatment, the following parameters were also determined: fiber saturation point (FPS), wood anisotropy (T/R ratio), shrinkage slope, reduction in hygroscopicity, and anti-shrink efficiency (ASE). The physical properties were significantly affected only at 220 degrees C and above. At heat temperature levels higher than 220 degrees C, the reduction in hygroscopicity and ASE are higher than 40% and continue to be reduced with increasing temperature level. This work also demonstrates that heat treatment does not change the slope of the curves shrinkage vs. MC, proving that heat treatment affects the domain of alterations in wood properties, but not the behavior within this domain.

Updating the Politics of Experience: Angela Carter's Translation of Charles Perrault's Le Petit Chaperon Rouge.

AbstractThis article seeks to assess the importance of Angela Carter's little-known work as a translator of Perrault's tales in The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault (1977) through an examination of her "Little Red Riding Hood". Carter is mostly famous today for The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (1979), a collection of innovative and thought-provoking fairy-tale rewritings infused with feminist concerns, strategies and perspectives. Insofar as Carter was translating Perrault's tales while writing her own "stories about fairy stories", an analysis of her translations reveals them as part of an ongoing dialogue with the work of the French author. While Carter's translations consciously update and adapt the material for children whom she seeks to sensitize to gender issues, she does not so much challenge the sexual politics of her source as recognize the emancipatory potential of Perrault's contes as useful "fables of the politics of experience".RésuméCet article vise à rendre compte de l'activité méconnue de traductrice déployée par l'auteure anglaise Angela Carter conjointement à son oeuvre de fiction, et à en reconnaître l'importance dans sa trajectoire d'écrivain. Une analyse de « Little Red Riding Hood », publié dans The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault (1977), permet d'éclairer la poétique particulière qu'elle développera dans le recueil qui l'a rendue célèbre, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (1979), des « histoires sur des contes de fées » qui reflètent la perspective et les stratégies féministes de l'auteure. Carter a mené de front ses traductions et réécritures, envisagées ici comme deux formes du dialogue très riche et complexe qu'elle engage à cette période avec l'oeuvre de Perrault, plutôt qu'une subversion de celui-ci. Ainsi, sa traduction modernise et simplifie le texte des contes pour de jeunes lecteurs qu'elle cherche à sensibiliser à des problématiques de genre, en leur révélant la portée émancipatrice des contes de Perrault qu'elle envisage comme « des fables utiles sur la politique de l'expérience » plutôt qu'en contestant la politique sexuelle de sa source.

The neoliberalization of street vending policy in Lima, Peru: the politics of citizenship. property and public space in the production of a new urban marginality

Neoliberalism is having a significant and global impact on political, social and economic life across spaces. This work illustrates how neoliberalism is attempting to change the ways in which the urban poor - particularly those that participate in street vending - use urban spaces in Lima, Peru. Using municipal policies, newspaper articles and local academic texts I argue that there is a changing marginality in Lima that is being experienced by street vendors, and currently in los canas of Lima. In particular, I discuss formalization, a neoliberal strategy in street vending policy, which is used with eradication and social assistance strategies in attempts to re-regulate street vendors.

Challenges of Deliberation and Participation

The future of sustainability is tied to the future of our ability to manage interconnectedness and interdependence, and thus to our abilities to engage in cooperative, value-creating public deliberations and negotiations.To understand these issues,we need a better understanding of the micro-politics of planning and public participation, the relationships between our received theories and our practices, and in particular, the work of public dispute resolution and its implications for democratic deliberation and governance.We need better to understand the differences between dialogue, debate, and negotiation, as well as the corresponding work of facilitating a dialogue, moderating a debate, and mediating an actual negotiation. Contrasting processes and practical attitudes of dialogue, debate, and negotiation can teach us, in the context of creating a sustainable future, that we must devise discursive and conversational political processes and institutions that explore possible commitments so that we not only know the right things to do but actually bring ourselves and one another to do those right things.

Intersectionality in Practice : The Politics of Inclusion in the Québécois Women's Movement

En tant qu'acteur important de la vie politique québécoise, le mouvement des femmes a réussi à garantir de nouveaux droits pour les femmes et a fortement contribué à améliorer leurs conditions de vie. Cependant, son incapacité à reconnaître et à prendre en compte les expériences particulières des femmes qui vivent de multiple discriminations a été critiquée entre autres par les femmes autochtones, les femmes de couleur, les femmes immigrantes, les lesbiennes et les femmes handicapées. Par exemple, dans les 40 dernières années, un nombre croissant de femmes immigrantes et racisées se sont organisées en parallèle au mouvement pour défendre leurs intérêts spécifiques. Dans ce mémoire, je me penche sur la façon dont le mouvement des femmes québécois a répondu à leurs demandes de reconnaissance et adapté ses pratiques pour inclure les femmes de groupes ethniques et raciaux minoritaires. Bien que la littérature sur l'intersectionalité ait fourni de nombreuses critiques des tentatives des mouvements sociaux d'inclure la diversité, seulement quelques recherches se sont penchées sur la façon dont les organisations tiennent compte, dans leurs pratiques et discours, des identités et intérêts particuliers des groupes qui sont intersectionnellement marginalisés. En me basant sur la littérature sur l'instersectionnalité et les mouvements sociaux, j'analyse un corpus de 24 entretiens effectués auprès d'activistes travaillant dans des associations de femmes au Québec afin d'observer comment elles comprennent et conceptualisent les différences ethniques et raciales et comment cela influence en retour leurs stratégies d'inclusion. Je constate que la façon dont les activistes conceptualisent l'interconnexion des rapports de genre et de race/ethnicité en tant qu'axes d'oppression des femmes a un impact sur les plateformes politiques des organisations, sur les stratégies qu'elles mettent de l'avant pour favoriser l'inclusion et l'intégration des femmes immigrantes et racisées et sur leur capacité à travailler en coalition.