Presidents shape the economy; the economy shapes presidencies. Yet analyses of presidential influence over the economy usually examine this interplay through an excessively narrow focus: the ability of presidents to shape short-term economic outcomes, particularly as these affect their own reelection prospects. Here, drawing on work in comparative political economy, we ask about the capacity of…
Critical scholarship investigating media and the Arab uprisings has called for "a return to history." This article argues that researching the contemporary constraints and opportunities of social movement media in the Arab region requires historicizing such practices. Reflecting on the role of media activism within the Arab uprisings necessitates broadening the historical context of social move…
The starting point for the book is fifteenth- and sixteenth-century northwest Europe, which seems rather curious considering the title of the book, and it is not unreasonable to expect a book about the postcolonial world to acknowledge the civilisations of Africa, Asia and South America. Hoogvelt, unfortunately seems to fall into the trap of framing the postcolonial countries within a Western v…
The 1990s have witnessed a wave of monetary reform throughout the world. More than 30 countries have increased the independence of their central banks, including many in Latin America and Eastern Europe. In Western Europe, countries of the European Union have agreed on plans to adopt a single currency, with an independent European central bank at the controls. Maxfield seeks to explain this tre…
To social workers, extreme economic inequality is primarily a violation of social justice, but this article shows how growing economic inequality since the mid-1970s was not only unjust, but also dysfunctional to the U.S. economy and linked to the recent economic crisis with its devastating effects, particularly on the social work clientele. The article identifies interrelated changes in ideolo…
Abstract The "end of welfare as we know it" constitutes an important challenge for poverty research, shifting the focus away from once-dominant themes of dependency and toward the reality of widespread "working poverty." The literature reviewed in this chapter points in the direction of a reformulated research agenda, built around issues of inequality, political economy, and stratification by g…
Scholarly accounts of screen media in the Palestinian Territories have traditionally focused on the means by which artists overcome tremendous financial and logistical obstacles to creatively express the histories, fears, and aspirations of Palestinian individuals and collectives. As Edward Said argues, visual storytelling plays a particularly crucial function in Palestinian society and politic…
This study critically examines whether BTS poses counterhegemony to the dominant Western popular culture as the literature claims. Investigating its recent hit music videos during the COVID-19 pandemic, I claim that BTS resuscitates the neoliberal hegemony in its seemingly empowering, positive messages and helps revive narratives of neoliberal biopolitics. Reviewing how hegemony becomes natural…
The decline in social capital has been cited as the main cause of popular discontent. Citizen disenchantment has been aggravated by economic restructuring, the dismantling of the welfare state and the devolution of government. The continued withdrawal and downsizing of state commitments fuels public perception that government does not work. As social welfare and safety net functions are devolve…
This article investigates the problems that confront academe and suggests that faculty work has changed so profoundly in recent years that tenure is no longer sufficient and/or necessary. The author argues that intellectual freedom and accountability are competing demands that must be met simultaneously. He reviews the problems that exist, how tenure exacerbates those problems, and how an expan…