Marjorie Griffin-Cohen - Böcker

This book analyses changes in gender relations, as a result of globalization, in countries on the semi-periphery of power. Semi-periphery refers to those nations which are not drivers of change globally, but have enough economic and political security to have some power in determining their own responses to global forces. Individual countries obviously face challenges that are to some extent unique, although the prescriptions for economic and social restructuring are based on a common competitive logic.Remapping Gender in the New Global Order draws on examples from four countries on the semi-periphery of power but still located in the top category of the UNDP’s Human Development Index. At one end is Norway, one of the world’s richest and most developed welfare-states, and, at the other, is Mexico, a country that is considerably poorer and more susceptible to the power of the United States and international agencies. Australia and Canada, the other two semi-peripheral countries examined, are in the middle. Also included are comparisons with the epicentre of the ‘core’ base of power – the United States. The individual chapters focus on the effect on specific groups of people, including males and indigenous groups, the mechanisms people use to both cope with dramatic social changes, and the strategies and alliances that are used to affect the course of changes. It covers topics that range from implications of labour migration on care regimes to globalism’s effect on masculinity and the ‘male breadwinner’ model.

This book analyses changes in gender relations, as a result of globalization, in countries on the semi-periphery of power. Semi-periphery refers to those nations which are not drivers of change globally, but have enough economic and political security to have some power in determining their own responses to global forces. Individual countries obviously face challenges that are to some extent unique, although the prescriptions for economic and social restructuring are based on a common competitive logic.Remapping Gender in the New Global Order draws on examples from four countries on the semi-periphery of power but still located in the top category of the UNDP’s Human Development Index. At one end is Norway, one of the world’s richest and most developed welfare-states, and, at the other, is Mexico, a country that is considerably poorer and more susceptible to the power of the United States and international agencies. Australia and Canada, the other two semi-peripheral countries examined, are in the middle. Also included are comparisons with the epicentre of the ‘core’ base of power – the United States. The individual chapters focus on the effect on specific groups of people, including males and indigenous groups, the mechanisms people use to both cope with dramatic social changes, and the strategies and alliances that are used to affect the course of changes. It covers topics that range from implications of labour migration on care regimes to globalism’s effect on masculinity and the ‘male breadwinner’ model.

In recent years job training programs have suffered severe fundingcuts and the focus of training programs has shifted to meet thedirectives of funders rather than the needs of the community. How dothese changes to job training affect disadvantaged workers and theunemployed?In an insightful and comprehensive discussion of job education inCanada, Cohen and her contributors pool findings from a five-yearcollaborative study of training programs. Good training programs, theyargue, are essential in providing people who are chronicallydisadvantaged in the workplace with tools to acquire more secure,better-paying jobs. In the ongoing shift toward a neo-liberal economicmodel, government policies have engendered a growing reliance onprivate and market-based training schemes. These new training policieshave undermined equity.In an attempt to redress social inequities in the workplace, theauthors examine various kinds of training programs and recommendspecific policy initiatives to improve access to these programs. Thisbook will be of interest to policymakers, academics, and studentsinterested in policy, work, equity, gender and education.

In recent years job training programs have suffered severe fundingcuts and the focus of training programs has shifted to meet thedirectives of funders rather than the needs of the community. How dothese changes to job training affect disadvantaged workers and theunemployed?In an insightful and comprehensive discussion of job education inCanada, Cohen and her contributors pool findings from a five-yearcollaborative study of training programs. Good training programs, theyargue, are essential in providing people who are chronicallydisadvantaged in the workplace with tools to acquire more secure,better-paying jobs. In the ongoing shift toward a neo-liberal economicmodel, government policies have engendered a growing reliance onprivate and market-based training schemes. These new training policieshave undermined equity.In an attempt to redress social inequities in the workplace, theauthors examine various kinds of training programs and recommendspecific policy initiatives to improve access to these programs. Thisbook will be of interest to policymakers, academics, and studentsinterested in policy, work, equity, gender and education.

Climate change is at the forefront of ideas about public policy, the economy and labour issues. However, the gendered dimensions of climate change and the public policy issues associated with it in wealthy nations are much less understood.Climate Change and Gender in Rich Countries covers a wide range of issues dealing with work and working life. The book demonstrates the gendered distinctions in both experiences of climate change and the ways that public policy deals with it. The book draws on case studies from the UK, Sweden, Australia, Canada, Spain and the US to address key issues such as: how gendered distinctions affect the most vulnerable; paid and unpaid work; and activism on climate change. It is argued that including gender as part of the analysis will lead to more equitable and stronger societies as solutions to climate change advance.This volume will be of great relevance to students, scholars, trade unionists and international organisations with an interest in climate change, gender, public policy and environmental studies.

Climate change is at the forefront of ideas about public policy, the economy and labour issues. However, the gendered dimensions of climate change and the public policy issues associated with it in wealthy nations are much less understood.Climate Change and Gender in Rich Countries covers a wide range of issues dealing with work and working life. The book demonstrates the gendered distinctions in both experiences of climate change and the ways that public policy deals with it. The book draws on case studies from the UK, Sweden, Australia, Canada, Spain and the US to address key issues such as: how gendered distinctions affect the most vulnerable; paid and unpaid work; and activism on climate change. It is argued that including gender as part of the analysis will lead to more equitable and stronger societies as solutions to climate change advance.This volume will be of great relevance to students, scholars, trade unionists and international organisations with an interest in climate change, gender, public policy and environmental studies.

Global Instability: Uncertainty and New Visions in Political Economy presents a series of papers that address the political consequences of globalization for states and their populations, while exploring the issue of alternatives to the model of globalization we are presently experiencing. The focus moves from the world of international agreements to the national and sub-national dilemmas that are posed by attempting to manage a set of global developments within a given territory. The initial chapter, by Daniel Drache, explores a still-born post-war international organization, the International Trade Organization, that offers a different vision of how a globally integrated economy might operate. A number of papers then explore the challenges posed by today's globalization, including currency instability in an environment of financial deregulation, the rights conferred on investors by the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the progressive liberalization of trade in services built into the General Agreement on Trade in Services. The difficulties faced by states are analyzed in a number of chapters that address industrial and social policy issues.A final group of papers explores some theoretical alternatives to a globalized world. Responses at the level of institutions as well as ideas are canvassed and the urgency of the problem is highlighted by Duncan Cameron's concluding article which argues that we are already living in which he terms a 'quasi-democracy.' The various chapters attempt to ground their analysis of instability, uncertainty and change in the real problems that globalization creates for states and peoples, and for those who might attempt to devise alternatives. As a group, these papers offer a unique and timely synthesis of key themes in the political economy of globalization suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate students in political science, economics, and business.

This volume is the first work to emerge from a major international comparative research project exploring the political economy of globalization. This inter-disciplinary team of scholars is focusing on the semi-periphery of world power. Whether defined in social, cultural, economic or simply spatial terms, 'semi-peripheral' countries share two qualities: they are conscious of their subordination to the hegemonic powers at the centre of the global system - the United States and the European Union; they are also strong enough to have some ability to resist their domination. The structural position of these middle powers in global capitalism is unlike those countries at the centre that do not experience domination, and different from those Third World countries on the periphery that have no means to achieve more cultural and political autonomy, more distinctive and diversified development, or greater social equity and better income redistribution.Four countries in North America, Central America, Europe and the Antipodes - namely Canada, Mexico, Norway and Australia - have been selected in order to explore the complexities of globalization from the perspective of the semi-periphery. Opening chapters examine the international institutions, including the North America Free Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization and the European Union, which now amount to a quasi-constitutional conditioning framework for middle powers under globalization. In the second part, contributors detail the pressures with which these countries have to cope and consider their ability to pursue policies appropriate to the needs and democratically defined goals of each. And in the concluding part, after discussing the new economic, political and social issues of 'governing under stress', they appraise the possibilities for middle powers to chart distinctive national courses in the face of globalization's constraining challenge.

This book discusses the development of Canadian political economy through the legacy of Stephen Clarkson, who for over 40 years analyzed the challenges that economic changes brought to the economic governance of Canada, North America, and the world.