What is a service of general economic interest?

European Journal of Law and Economics - The definition of the concept a “service of general economic interest” (SGEI) known from Article 106(2) treaty of the functioning of the European...     

The culture of skilled work in a Norwegian shipyard, 1945–90

We anatomise the culture of skilled work in the Solheimsviken shipyard in Bergen, Norway, from 1945 to 1990, linking it to democratic impulses within the workforce. This independent culture had strong if bounded democratic elements that were ultimately reflected in the institutions of a worker’s cooperative which operated from 1985. However, a shift away from shipbuilding immediately preceded the cooperative’s foundation and eroded the position of the older skilled workers who had carried the culture, undermining it even before the cooperative’s collapse.     

‘Made in China’. Contraband,Labour and the Gendered Effects of ‘Free-Trade’, China-Peru

In Peru, textiles have increasingly become contested as commodities and objects of consumption, especially following the free trade agreement between Peru and China, signed in 2009, which accommodates increased importation of Chinese textiles. This article discusses how local intermediaries, often women who have found a livelihood working with the importation and vending of textiles, are affected by increased border regulations and competition from over-seas, more formalised forms of importation. Reflecting on enactments of femininities and the social and spatial embeddedness of trade in the border areas, the article discusses the multifaceted and gendered implications of a de-localisation of commodity flows.     

Islamism,Pluralism and the Palestine Question: The Case of Hizbullah

The political vocabulary of the Lebanese Islamist party and militia Hizbullah in relation to pluralism exhibits an important self-contradiction. In Lebanon, Hizbullah has adapted to a process of national integration after 15 years of civil war, and appears as much more positive towards pluralism now than in 1985, when it made itself known officially. However, the Palestinian resistance struggle constitutes an ever more important part of the party's political and religious identity, and in this area the party relies on a vocabulary of absolute and religiously motivated conflict. Hizbullah has made the Palestine Question into a religious absolute at the same time as it connects this question to the issue of national unity in Lebanon, questioning the patriotic credibility of every Lebanese who disagrees with it on this issue. Consequently, a conflict-oriented vocabulary ‘colonizes’ Hizbullah's more tolerant and pluralist vocabulary within Lebanon, thus hindering a further development of pluralist attitudes.     

The Icelandic parliamentary election of 1987

In the election to the Althingi on 25 April 1987, the established party system in Iceland received its greatest blow so far. The four main parties between them managed only three-quarters of the valid votes, the Independence Party and the People's Alliance, both suffered their worst defeats ever. The new parties had a field day, as the Citizens' Party—the first major splinter group from the large Independence Party since its foundation—and the Women's Alliance received over 10 per cent of the votes each. Thus, the signs of crisis in the established party system—increasingly visible since around 1970—indicate an uncertain future for the four-party format in Icelandic politics.     

The cumulation problem

Abstract After a discussion of possible components in a definition of 'cumulation' and the relative lack of cumulation in political science, a scheme for research strategies is outlined with the aim of facilitating cumulation, or at least facilitating a diagnosis of the state of political science in this respect. The scheme includes three types of studies: (1) analysis of the formal properties of theoretical approaches in political science, (2) content analyses in the form of inventories of problems, propositions and concepts in the discipline, (3) evaluational analysis, i.e. an assessment of what 'theory criteria' to use for evaluating the approaches and of the probable relations between these criteria.     

Methodological development: structured outcome assessment and community risk monitoring (SORM)

This paper describes an effort to develop a clinical tool for the continuous monitoring of risk for violence in forensic mental health clients who have left their institutions and who are dwelling in the community on a conditional release basis. The model is called Structured Outcome Assessment and Community Risk Monitoring (SORM). The SORM consists of 30 dynamic factors and each factor in SORM is assessed in two ways: The current absence, presence or partial och intermittent presence of the factors, which is an actuarial (systematized and 'objective') assessment. Secondly, the risk effect, i.e. whether the presence/absence of factors currently increases, decreases or is perceived as unrelated to violence risk, is a clinical (or impressionistic) assessment. Thus, the factors considered via the SORM can be coded as risk factors or protective factors (or as factors unimportant to risk of violence) depending on circumstances that apply in the individual case. Further, the SORM has a built-in module for gathering idiographical information about risk-affecting contextual factors. The use of the SORM and its potential as a risk monitoring instrument is illustrated via preliminary data and case vignettes from an ongoing multicenter project. In this research project, patients leaving any of the 9 participating forensic hospitals in Sweden is assessed at release on a variety of static background factors, and the SORM is then administered every 30 days for 2 years.