In order to understand the effects of neoliberal globalization on trade unions in India, this paper investigates what have been the changes in trade union participation in modern Indian industrial...Show moreIn order to understand the effects of neoliberal globalization on trade unions in India, this paper investigates what have been the changes in trade union participation in modern Indian industrial relations. This paper uses data from the time period between 1993 and 2013 and utilizes three main variables; trade union membership, trade union density, and union wage changes in order to measure trade unions’ ability to engage and conduct their prime directive in industrial relations. This thesis finds that trade union participation has increased due to higher trade union membership, union density, and union wages while having mobilized in response to neoliberalism. Although the increase in union wages relative to non-union ones is subject to debate, a potential reason for explaining both sides is the abandonment or persistence of political incorporation and patronage of unions.Show less
This thesis explores the lobbying strategies used by multinational agribusinesses to shape the global food security regime as part of global capitalism management. My case study focuses on how the...Show moreThis thesis explores the lobbying strategies used by multinational agribusinesses to shape the global food security regime as part of global capitalism management. My case study focuses on how the four largest grain traders in the world lobby the Food and Agriculture Organization to promote market-based policies for global food security. I find substantial evidence for four strategies: multi-stakeholder fora, corporate-FAO partnerships, lobbying national governments, and revolving door practices. The four strategies help agribusinesses be involved in decision-making, increase their market and structural power, and promote the private sector as a legitimate and essential actor in the regime’s governance. The findings fit within a neo-Gramscian framework and can be interpreted as strategies used by the transnational capitalist class to support the transnationalization of social relations of production and the promotion of the neoliberal world order.Show less
Lebanon’s 17 October Uprising marked a watershed moment in the country’s history as it challenged the very foundation of the political system: sectarian power-sharing. It was the largest and most...Show moreLebanon’s 17 October Uprising marked a watershed moment in the country’s history as it challenged the very foundation of the political system: sectarian power-sharing. It was the largest and most diverse protest movement in decades and its anti-sectarian stature was entirely unprecedented. For the first time, many Lebanese called on their confessional leaders to resign. This thesis examines firstly why the uprising directed its focus toward political sectarianism as a primary cause of Lebanon’s political and economic plight. The inability or unwillingness of sectarian leaders to deliver basic services to their constituents created a situation in which Lebanese across all sects were more united than ever before in their collective plight. Second, it explores the timing of the uprising in the fall of 2019. It argues that the uprising was the culmination of simmering resentments that finally erupted as a result of deteriorating economic conditions, political corruption, and a series of disasters that the government failed to prevent or address. Lastly, the thesis investigates how the uprising helped propel anti-sectarian ideas that were previously taboo into mainstream political discourse. While the 17 October Uprising ultimately failed to achieve its objective of establishing a secular rather than sectarian political order, it stands as the most significant challenge to political sectarianism in the country’s history and could pave the way for future mobilizations in the same vein. This thesis will contribute to the nascent body of literature on the 17 October Uprising and the broader scholarship on sectarian power-sharing as a system of governance.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
Neoliberalism has altered the way in which the subject consumes and subsequently reflects upon media. A popular media genre on the internet nowadays is instruction videos, which can be consumed for...Show moreNeoliberalism has altered the way in which the subject consumes and subsequently reflects upon media. A popular media genre on the internet nowadays is instruction videos, which can be consumed for various reasons, but usually rely on the notion of conveying to the viewer a certain set of skills. Since these media are therefore consumed for a specific purpose intended, the viewer already pre-establishes a certain attitude and understanding, and furthermore gains a reflective understanding of this phenomenon itself. This thesis aims to reconsider the notion of spectatorship through a lens of phenomenology, in order to reevaluate the idea of a spectator's own understanding of their experience of a medium, which this thesis names "cognitive spectatorship," and shows how the genre of instruction videos and this new viewing attitude play into the Neoliberal ideology.Show less
Russia and Argentina have been, for different reasons, two important international actors over the course of the 20th century. During the 1990s, both countries have undergone a process of economic...Show moreRussia and Argentina have been, for different reasons, two important international actors over the course of the 20th century. During the 1990s, both countries have undergone a process of economic restructuring guided by the International Monetary Fund, at the end of which both experienced a financial crisis (Russia in 1998, Argentina in 2001). This thesis tries to place these events in historical perspective and share a snapshot on the similarities and differences of these experiments, according to the principles of world-system theory. The aim of the research is to determine whether there was a causal relationship between the neoliberal policies implemented at the beginning of the decade and the crises. A central finding of the research is that there is a specific trajectory of economic development and institutional response in semi-peripheral areas, which builds on the presence of weak democratic institutions and debt spirals.Show less
This thesis investigates how the German Federal Government lives up to its normative and international commitments and initiatives to harmonize arms export controls. By analyzing existing data from...Show moreThis thesis investigates how the German Federal Government lives up to its normative and international commitments and initiatives to harmonize arms export controls. By analyzing existing data from the Federal Government’s yearly reports on its policy on exports of conventional military equipment and applying the International Relations Theories of Neorealism and Neoliberalism, it highlights the inseparability of arms export policy frameworks and foreign and security policy interests in the case of Germany. Furthermore, this thesis calls attention to the hierarchical structure that exists within this inseparability where the country’s arms export policy framework is given a secondary role to its foreign and security interests.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (BSc)
closed access
China is growing as an international competitor with its gaze directed toward Africa. Chinese state-owned Multinational Corporations (MNCs) gradually gaining a foothold in African countries raise...Show moreChina is growing as an international competitor with its gaze directed toward Africa. Chinese state-owned Multinational Corporations (MNCs) gradually gaining a foothold in African countries raise worries for other investors like the West. The impacts of Chinese MNCs on the international capitalist market are researched in debt but I will connect this to the study of power relations. Not only will this give insights into the local employees as active subjects that are engaged in various relationships of power, but it will also highlight how macro and micro-level actors mutually influence each other. Eventually, I will argue that these power relations are unequal and used by actors to preserve relations of power. Central to this thesis is a discussion of power as a dynamic and socially constructed relationship that can be used to preserve structures of power. This approach toward power follows Foucault in his understanding and goes against the idea of power as a possession. Power relations become visible in Chinese Multinational Corporations (MNCs) expanding overseas to Africa which has implications for actors at both the micro and the macro-level. Power relations visualize that all actors are involved in processes of legitimizing themselves and through this process produce and reproduce power relations.Show less
Ten years have passed since Japan’s triple disaster on March 11, 2011. The earthquake that occurred off the coast of eastern Japan triggered a powerful tsunami that in turn caused a nuclear...Show moreTen years have passed since Japan’s triple disaster on March 11, 2011. The earthquake that occurred off the coast of eastern Japan triggered a powerful tsunami that in turn caused a nuclear meltdown. As with the Great Hanshin earthquake in Kobe in 1995, most of the victims were elderly people. This paper articulates the causes of Japan’s elderly population’s vulnerability to (natural) hazards by examining to what extent neoliberalism aggravates the Japanese elderly’s disaster vulnerability by using the Disaster as a Social Vulnerability framework. The prevailing consensus in studies that utilize this approach is that neoliberalism and the most common developments associated with the neoliberal ideology, privatization, and decentralization4, harm people’s vulnerability. This paper shows that while processes associated with neoliberalism can exacerbate the Japanese elderly’s disaster vulnerability, as will be demonstrated by discussing the pension system, there is no evidence for the accuracy of this consensus regarding the healthcare system. Based on these insights, this paper concludes that the “neoliberalism aggravates disaster vulnerability”-consensus is too simplistic to consider the elderly population in Japan.Show less
Neuroscience has since its institutionalization in the 19th century directed its scientific promise of the discovery of the relationship between the brain and mind and with it the explanation of...Show moreNeuroscience has since its institutionalization in the 19th century directed its scientific promise of the discovery of the relationship between the brain and mind and with it the explanation of mental illnesses and disorders to range of political actors. Where neuroscientists in the first decades after the Second World War failed to claim a position of scientific expertise, by the late 1980s the social and political context had changed in their favor with the rise of Neoliberal governance. During the 1990s Decade of the Brain, neuroscience’s promise of the ‘cure for mental illness’ was turned into a national project, first by the Bush administration in the United States and then followed up by nations around the globe. Neuroscientific reductionist explanations of mental illness were so successful because they aimed at and resembled neoliberal discourses on individual responsibility and the inability of governmental interference in the social environment. Where neuroscientists and governmental officials in the first years of the Decade mentioned social factors as causes for mental illness and disorders, by the beginning of the 21th century mental illness had become a ‘no-fault brain illness’, a neurobiological phenomenon without external causes and therefore also solutions. The consequences of this alliance between neuroscience and neoliberalism have been topic of many critical studies in the past decade, yet the Decade of the Brain until now have almost completely been ignored. This master thesis is the first step towards an understanding of the interplay between the local and global dimensions of this Decade and thereby also a step towards understanding the way mental health issues are seen and treated in the present. This understanding at the same time is meant to open up the possibility to imagine much needed change in the future.Show less
This thesis aims to explain why the cash reserves of Japanese firms have almost tripled in the years between 2013 and 2019, during a time where neoliberal policy reform should have encouraged...Show moreThis thesis aims to explain why the cash reserves of Japanese firms have almost tripled in the years between 2013 and 2019, during a time where neoliberal policy reform should have encouraged spending excess cash on extra investing. By combining a study of already existing literature on how these policy changes should have affected firms and a case study on how Japanese firms have actually reacted to the reforms, it becomes clear that they did not have the expected results. Investments are down and cash reserves keep going up. With the use of the theory of path dependency, this phenomenon can be explained. Traditional Japanese firms have a tendency to be more conservative and tend to be focussed on long term growth. While the business environment has significantly changed, the structure and institutions of the firms have stayed the same. Easier access to financial capital and lower interest rates have increased profits, but they have not changed the firm’s investment strategies. Instead the new earned profits have been assigned to the cash reserves for later use.Show less
Corruption as a systemic phenomenon is usually attributed to developing states and their weak institutional capacity to impose rule of law. However, unlike the predominant view which isolates state...Show moreCorruption as a systemic phenomenon is usually attributed to developing states and their weak institutional capacity to impose rule of law. However, unlike the predominant view which isolates state affairs to a national domain, alternative view states that when countries are becoming more financially and economically interdependent, they are inevitably faced with transnational issues which infuse their domestic sphere. This thesis continues to research corruption in a global context and particularly studies how neoliberal, i.e. pro-market and de-regulation norms and policies which dominated certain advanced economies’ spheres for the past decades, affect their institutional capacity to impose rule of law to control foreign corruption. A case study between Germany and the United States is conducted to test this theory and finds that the neoliberal policies and norms contribute to these countries’ struggle to impose adequate control even when corruption directly affects their domestic spheres. Yet, due to their institutional differences, their capabilities diverge in an interesting fashion.Show less
Studies have been carried out that explore the effect of the ILO's Decent Work Agenda but there has been a lack of focus of its effect on the working conditions of women working informally. Through...Show moreStudies have been carried out that explore the effect of the ILO's Decent Work Agenda but there has been a lack of focus of its effect on the working conditions of women working informally. Through carrying out a qualitative content analysis of key documents, the normative function of the ILO's Decent Work Agenda within the context of informal domestic workers in India between 2008 and 2018 was analysed. This provided a nuanced and in-depth understanding of the ILO's role in the development of women who work outside of the purview of the rule of law and are also often marginalised on the basis of social constructs such as class, caste, religion and gender. While the ILO's Decent Work Agenda has resulted in the limited improvement of the lives of Indian women working in the informal economy the organisation ability to drive change has been curbed by its inability to enforce international law, and the neoliberal global political economy.Show less
