Supply Chain Linkages and the Extended Carbon Coalition

Which firms oppose action to fight climate change? Networks of input sourcing and sales to downstream customers ought to propagate and reinforce opposition to decarbonization beyond direct emitters of CO₂. To test this claim, we build the largest data set of public political activity for and against climate action in the United States, revealing that the majority of corporate opposition to climate action comes from outside the highest‐emitting industries. We construct new measures of the carbon intensity of firms and show that policy exposure via carbon‐intensive inputs and sales to downstream emitters explains this large volume of opposition from non‐emitting industries. Sixty‐six percent of U.S. lobbying on climate policy has been conducted by an extended coalition of firms, associations, and other groups that have publicly opposed reducing carbon emissions. Public opposition to climate action by carbon‐connected industries is therefore broad‐based, highly organized, and matched with extensive lobbying.     

The paradox of Turkish–Iranian relations in the Syrian Crisis

Abstract

Iran and Turkey have competed for regional power projection in Syria and sought through cooperation to find a peaceful end to the conflict in the Astana talks, while also at the same time confronting each other in Idlib province via proxies. This simultaneity of competition, cooperation and confrontation in the Syrian Crisis presents a picture of a relationship that is riddled with contradictions and is in effect a paradox. The question that must be asked is, how can we understand this puzzle of competition, cooperation and confrontation in Turkish–Iranian relations in the Syrian Crisis? International historical sociology (IHS) research brings in discussions on the longue durée, narratives, domestic constraints and, most important, the international which can help decipher this intellectual puzzle. Moreover, the ‘relationality’ of each country’s policies in Syria combined with IHS can help unlock the puzzle of the Turkish–Iranian relationship in the Syrian Crisis and provide insight into the debate surrounding the outbreak of war.     

Bringing Economics Back into Assimilation: The Select Committee of Inquiry into the Grievances of The Yirrkala Aborigines 1963

This article takes as its starting point Marcia Langton's argument for a clearer understanding of the role of economic history in Australian Indigenous affairs in order to examine the testimony presented to the Select Committee established to respond to the Bark Petitions in 1963. The testimony is discussed in four categories, dealing with questions of (a) land and land use; (b) employment, education and training; (c) infrastructure, water, health and housing, and (d) the distinct perspective of the Indigenous witnesses and those sympathetic to their viewpoint. I highlight the various ways in which the economic dimensions of the Yirrkala community's relationship to land were systematically ignored and suppressed, despite the claim among proponents of assimilation to be seeking the incorporation of Australian Aborigines into mainstream economic activity. I conclude by identifying the light thrown by the Select Committee's testimony on the ways in which Aboriginal Australians have been ignored as economic actors, thus systematically undermining the aims of assimilation policy rather than advancing them. “We would not mind the natives standing on the banks and watching the shovels work if they want to do so.” 1     

The origins of international child sponsorship

International child sponsorship typically involves the pairing of an individual, identifiable child, or young adult in a developing country with an individual donor or sponsor in a relatively wealthy country. Regular payments by sponsors, accompanied by the exchange of personal information, characterise a fundraising phenomenon which currently links sponsors to more than eight million children globally. Although child sponsorship underpins a multi-billion dollar flow of funds to developing countries, its origins have become obscured by the passing of time, to the point where many international NGOs utilising it as a fundraising mechanism are unaware of the aims and context of its early use. This article argues that the pairing of individual children with international donors was initiated by the UK-based Save the Children Fund and the Society of Friends Relief Mission in post-First World War Austria in 1919. Unlike the long-term support that would characterise later programmes, early sponsorship funded the short-term assistance of children and avoided the creation of dependency.     

Fairness and the Neurobiology of Social Cognition: Commentary on “Nonhuman species’ reactions to inequity and their implications for fairness” by Sarah Brosnan

Behavioral responses to social norm violation, such as those described in non-human primates by Brosnan, require, at the very least, attention to social cues, sensitivity to change (e.g., disappointment), and behavioral inhibition. Neurobiological evidence suggests that these various processes are instantiated in neural circuits localized to the parietal cortex, the striatum, and prefrontal cortex, respectively. Here we provide a brief overview of these neural mechanisms, which are likely to be involved in the perception of, and reaction to, social inequity.     

On the Postcapitalist Nature of Learning Spaces

This paper uses the concept of learning spaces to reflect on the pedagogies that will help humans acquire the wisdom to support a transition to a durable postcapitalist socioeconomy. Since Plato’s Academy dedicated “academic” spaces have been set aside from economic life. While humans naturally learn all the time, access to higher status learning remains restricted. Most learning is informal and outside academic spaces. An example is given from a novel published more than 100 years ago of an unpromising workplace becoming a space for deep learning about socialist resistance. I will suggest that all spaces occupied by humans at every scale from the room to the globe, and not just those of formal education, are learning spaces. The question is how they can be linked up to form a global space of exchange that could be called a learning society or, alternatively, postcapitalism, socialism, communism, or the society of associated producers. The ideas outlined here were presented in a module on Geographies of Education that I designed and taught at the University of Brighton until my recent retirement.