Labouring to Learn: Towards the Political Economy of Plantations, People and Education in Sri Lanka (International Political Economy Series)

"Global issues have become an increasingly vital part of environmental debates. They are closely interrelated with problems at local levels. In this wide-ranging study, Robert Boardman argues that investigation of environmental issues raises complex theoretical questions, and requires more sustained links between the natural and social sciences.". "In a closely integrated account of problems in critical ecological theory, Boardman draws extensively on current research in sociology, ecology, economics, the earth sciences and other disciplines. He suggests that ideas from these can be used to expand attention to and the understanding of environmental issues in international relations and international political economy, as well as in social theory more generally.". "The discussion identifies five main theoretical bases for these tasks. These are ecology and earth-system science; constructionist approaches; environmental ethics; micro-level research, particularly perspectives based on rational expectations and on agency; and governance. Connections among these are examined in the context of debates on economics globlization and ecological transformation."--BOOK JACKET. Cover Title Copyright Contents List of Tables List of Figures Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction I.1 What form should the payment take? I.2 At what level should the income be paid? I.3 Should the income be paid unconditionally? I.4 Should the income be universal, paid to all citizens in a country, or should it be targeted to a particular section of the population? I.5 Can basic income be afforded? And how is it to be funded? Part I Experiments 1 The United States: The Basic Income Guarantee – Past Experience, Current Proposals 1.1 Alaska’s permanent fund dividend 1.2 The guaranteed income movement of the 1960s and 1970s 1.3 From the family assistance plan to temporary assistance for needy families 1.4 Offshoots of the guaranteed income movement 1.5 The negative income tax experiments 1.6 The standard tax credit proposal and the current discussion of the basic income guarantee in the United States 1.7 The background of the standard tax credit proposal 1.8 The proposal 1.9 Why we need the STC 1.10 Response to the standard tax credit proposal 1.11 Conclusion 2 Namibia: Seeing the Sun Rise – The Realities and Hopes of the Basic Income Grant Pilot Project 2.1 History of the BIG coalition and reasons for the pilot project 2.2 The dawn of economic security for all – results from the pilot project 2.3 Will a national BIG in Namibia see the light of 3 Brazil: Basic Income – A New Model of Innovation Diffusion 3.1 The debate in Brazil: main actors, arenas and political strategies 3.2 The victory of the political entrepreneurs: minimum income at the federal capital and in the city of Campinas 3.3 An increasing political competition: from municipal to state diffusion 3.4 The federal government enters the scene: the creation of the first national programmes 3.5 The competitive adherence of the municipalities to the federal programmes 3.6 Minimum income in Brazil: a brief description of the programmes of the federal government 3.7 Conclusion 4 Canada: The Case for Basic Income 4.1 Welfare, welfare reform and a guaranteed income 4.2 The Royal Commission on the Economic Union and development prospects for Canada 4.3 Reconsidering Dauphin 4.4 Conclusion Part II Proposals 5 East Timor and Catalonia: Basic Income – Proposals for North and South 5.1 Freedom and material independence 5.2 Basic income and freedom in North and South 5.3 Financing freedom in North and South: basic income in Catalonia and East Timor 5.4 Basic income in Catalonia: simulating a financial model 5.5 Basic income in East Timor: guidelines for a financial model 5.6 Conclusion 6 South Africa: The Continuing Politics of Basic Income Jeremy Seekings and Heidi Matisonn 6.1 Expansion without restructuring: welfare reform, 1994–2002 6.2 The Basic Income Grant and its critics 6.3 Parametric reforms as an alternative to a Basic Income Grant, 2002–10 6.4 Explaining both the extent and limit of welfare reforms: government, parliament and courts 6.5 Civil and political society 6.6 Conclusion: prospects for welfare reform 7 Ireland: The Prospects for Basic Income Reform 7.1 First approach: maintaining much of the current structure 7.2 Second approach: replacing the current structure with a basic income system 7.3 Pathways to a basic income 7.4 Government-chaired working group on basic income 7.5 Government Green Paper 7.6 Towards a half-way house: making tax credits refundable 7.7 Working Group on refundable tax credits 7.8 Social Justice Ireland’s study of refundable tax credits 7.9 Parliamentary Committee on Social Protection 7.10 Challenges ahead 7.11 Conclusion 8 Germany: Basic Income in the German Debate Sascha Liebermann 8.1 A brief history of the current debate 8.2 Precursors – similarities and differences 8.3 Manifold possibilities and peculiar obstacles – arguments and debates 8.4 Families, childcare and emancipation 8.5 A note on taxation and social justice 8.6 Basic income – just a pipe dream or emerging reality? 9 New Zealand: Prospects for Basic Income Reform 9.1 Proportional (flat) taxes and the link to basic income 9.2 Taxation and basic income in New Zealand – the numbers 9.3 New Zealand superannuation 9.4 The political challenge 9.5 Universal welfare in New Zealand, 1898–1976 9.6 Winding back universal welfare, 1978–91 9.7 Basic income proposals, 1991–2009 9.8 Criticism of basic income proposals, 1991–2009 9.9 A new proposal for basic income 9.10 Summary and conclusion 10 Australia: Basic Income – A Distant Horizon 10.1 The poverty inquiry and its aftermath 10.2 The governmental income support policies – late 1970s to mid-1990s 10.3 From “mutual obligation” to the intervention 10.4 Economic stimulation, but business as usual on the welfare front 10.5 Private superannuation 10.6 Division and downward envy 10.7 Basic income as an alternative to the existing income maintenance system 10.8 What would an Australian basic income look like? 10.9 Is a basic income affordable? 10.10 Conclusion – is a universal basic income likely to be introduced in Australia? Conclusion: A New Day Index Internationally the trade union movement is finding itself peripheralized by a series of mutually reinforcing processes - the ongoing world economic crisis; the uneven transition from an industrial to an information and service capitalism; the aggressive policies of neoliberalism; the collapse of communism and radical nationalism; the decline of the social-democratic or labour tradition - and by a globalization that undermines the nation-state to which union hopes have long been pinned. The editors argue that this crisis provides an opportunity for labour to recover or reinvent itself. They see this in terms of a labour response to the waves of energy coming from the new global social movements (women, ecology, human rights/democracy, and so on). The authors examine various aspects of Japanese financial markets. This analysis is interspersed with the relevant institutional/historical background on Japanese financial markets necessary for the non-specialist. Principal chapters include: an institutional overview; a chapter on the comparative costs of capital (both internationally and among Japanese firms); causes and implications of the high degree of financial intermediation in Japan; and an invaluable analysis of the most recent trends in the Japanese/Asian financial markets "Many in South Africa have begun to cope with globalization, regionalization, a depleting ozone layer, new disease, rampant militarization, and structures of influence like race, class, and gender. In this book scholars present a wide variety of thoughts on the future of the region and the place of theory in helping us to understand the array of events characterizing the early 21st-century world."--Jacket Written in the context of contemporary theoretical debate in international political economy, this book overturns a number of myths about the political economy of trade in one of the oldest areas of industry.