Decommodification

Abstract: We present and discuss a replication and reassessment of the welfare-state decommodification index, and introduce a new, publicly available data set of key welfare-state programme characteristics Using the same programme features used to create the ‘decommodification index’ in The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, one of the most widely cited sources in the field, we are able to replicate the results quite closely However, our investigation suggests a number of likely errors in the original formulation Once these are accounted for, we find very limited empirical support for the ‘three worlds’ typology in the decommodification data Though some clear differences remain, there is also much less overall variation among countries Furthermore, there is little evidence of ‘clustering’ among programme scores, a finding which is at odds with the idea of distinctive national regimes Our results point to the need for a detailed re-investigation of welfare-state benefits in advanced industrial democracies Ou

Abstract: This article examines the effects on national homicide rates of political efforts to insulate personal well-being from market forces. Drawing upon recent work by EspingAndersen and the institutional-anomie theory of crime, we hypothesize that levels of homicide will vary inversely with the "decommodification of labor." We develop a measure of decommodification based on levels and patterns of welfare expenditures and include this measure in a multivariate, cross-national analysis of homicide rates. The results support our hypothesis and lend credibility to the institutional-anomie perspective. The degree of decommodification is negatively related to homicide rates, net of controls for other characteristics of nations. Interest in explaining differences among nations in rates of crime and violence is as old as the sociology of crime itself. The quantitative measurement of these differences by the nineteenth-century moral statisticians Quetelet and Guerry marks the beginning of scientific criminological inquiry (Beirne 1993). Marx also refers to national crime data in the course of developing his critique of the inherent flaws of capitalism. "There must be something rotten in the very core of a social system," Marx (1859) writes, "which increases its wealth without diminishing its misery, and increases in crimes even more rapidly

Abstract: Preface. Abbreviations. Introduction. Karl Polanyi for the neoliberal age. Individual responsibility and the quest for community. Some systemically satanic features of capitalism. From civilizational breakdown to neoliberalism. Chapter 1: The economics and ethics of socialism. Responsibility and 'overview': the socialist accounting debate. Critique and rejoinder. The subjugation of moral ends to economic means. Towards a synthesis of Communism and Christianity. Chapter 2: The Great Transformation. The Liberal Century: contradictions of a golden age. Birth of the market economy. Malthus, Ricardo and Speenhamland. Marketization and its backwash. Disruptive strains and the end of elasticity. The originality of The Great Transformation. Some criticisms of the conceptual framework. Some criticisms of the historical argument. Chapter 3: The descent of Economic Man. From homo conomicus to homo communisticus. The debate over methods. From marginalism to formalism. Two meanings of economic. Mechanisms of integration. Inconsistencies and ambiguities. The formalist rejoinder. Marxist interpositions. The debate scatters and dissolves. Chapter 4: Trade, markets and money in archaic societies. Introduction: the oikos debate. 'Primitive' and archaic trade, markets and money. Ancient Mesopotamia: three theses. Mesopotamia: evaluation and critique. Trade and markets in Bronze and Iron Age Greece. Greece: evaluation and critique. West Africa: Dahomey, Whydah and Tivland. Dahomey and the Tiv: evaluation and critique. From Meso-America to rural India via the Berber Highlands. Conclusion. Chapter 5: 'Disembedded' and 'always embedded' economies. Embeddedness: a genealogy. Further adventures of a concept. Embeddedness and decommodification in the mid-twentieth century. Chapter 6: 'At the brink of a great transformation?' Neoliberalism and the countermovement today. Explaining the neoliberal ascendancy. Alternative futures: participatory planning and the mixed economy. No dearth of countermovements. Pendular forces. The Great Oscillation. In place of a conclusion: thoughts on the current predicament. Conclusion. A liberal anti-Communist? A Marxist? A Romantic? Tribute and critique. Notes. References. Index.

Abstract: Table of Contents of the CD.Notes on Contributors.Acknowledgments.Series Editors' Preface.Foreword: Saskia Sassen.Introducing European Cities.1 Introduction: Cities of Europe: Changing Contexts, Local Arrangements, and the Challenge to Social Cohesion: Yuri Kazepov.2 The European City: A Conceptual Framework and Normative Project: Hartmut Haussermann and Anne Haila.Part I The Changing Context of European Cities.3 Urban Social Change: A Socio-Historical Framework of Analysis: Enzo Mingione.4 Social Morphology and Governance in the New Metropolis: Guido Martinotti.5 Capitalism and the City: Globalization, Flexibility, and Indifference: Richard Sennett.6 Urban Socio-Spatial Configurations and the Future of European Cities: Christian Kesteloot.Part II The Spatial Impact of Ongoing Transformation Processes.7 The Dynamics of Social Exclusion and Neighbourhood Decline: Welfare Regimes, Decommodification, Housing, and Urban Inequality: Alan Murie.8 Social Exclusion, Segregation, and Neighborhood Effects: Sako Musterd and Wim Ostendorf.9 Segregation and Housing Conditions of Immigrants in Western European Cities: Ronald van Kempen.10 Gentrification of Old Neighborhoods and Social Integration in Europe: Patrick Simon.Part III Social Exclusion, Governance, and Social Cohesion in European Cities.11 Elusive Urban Policies in Europe: Patrick Le Gales.12 Changing Forms of Solidarity: Urban Development Programs in Europe: Jan Vranken.13 Challenging the Family: The New Urban Poverty in Southern Europe: Enrica Morlicchio.14 Minimum Income Policies to Combat Poverty: Local Practices and Social Justice in the "European Social Model": Marisol Garcia.Visual Paths Through Urban Europe (CD-Rom).Index