Resolving corporate bribery through deferred prosecution agreements:Lessons from the US, UK and France for China

While bribery is designated as a criminal offense in most jurisdictions, the enforcement of anti-bribery laws in the corporate context is far from satisfactory. The weak enforcement can be mainly attributed to the practical challenges of doing so. Benefiting from deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs), the U.S., UK and French authorities have significantly ramped up their anti-bribery enforcement and encouraged corporate self-policing activities. Inspired by the foreign DPA developments, China’s prosecutorial authorities have been actively promoting the compliance non-prosecution program (CNP) since 2020. Introduced amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the ever-intensive U.S.-China trade conflicts, the CNP aims to mitigate the adverse economic implications of corporate criminal enforcement and foster corporate compliance.Combining legal doctrinal research, comparative research and insights from the law and economics literature, this thesis provides an overview of the DPA regimes in the U.S., UK and France and the CNP in China. It analyzes the advantages and weakness of the DPA programs in the three jurisdictions, aiming to draw lessons for developing the Chinese version of DPA program to address corporate bribery. Meanwhile, it also identifies the reasons for the inactive role played by the corporations in China’s anti-bribery movement and the challenges caused for the authorities in the anti-bribery enforcement. It is proposed that a Chinese version of DPA program be established based on the existing CNP to resolve corporate bribery cases. When designing and applying the Chinese version of DPA program and complementary regimes, special attention should be paid to deterrence, rehabilitation, and individual accountability.<br/

Resolving corporate bribery through deferred prosecution agreements:Lessons from the US, UK and France for China

While bribery is designated as a criminal offense in most jurisdictions, the enforcement of anti-bribery laws in the corporate context is far from satisfactory. The weak enforcement can be mainly attributed to the practical challenges of doing so. Benefiting from deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs), the U.S., UK and French authorities have significantly ramped up their anti-bribery enforcement and encouraged corporate self-policing activities. Inspired by the foreign DPA developments, China’s prosecutorial authorities have been actively promoting the compliance non-prosecution program (CNP) since 2020. Introduced amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the ever-intensive U.S.-China trade conflicts, the CNP aims to mitigate the adverse economic implications of corporate criminal enforcement and foster corporate compliance.Combining legal doctrinal research, comparative research and insights from the law and economics literature, this thesis provides an overview of the DPA regimes in the U.S., UK and France and the CNP in China. It analyzes the advantages and weakness of the DPA programs in the three jurisdictions, aiming to draw lessons for developing the Chinese version of DPA program to address corporate bribery. Meanwhile, it also identifies the reasons for the inactive role played by the corporations in China’s anti-bribery movement and the challenges caused for the authorities in the anti-bribery enforcement. It is proposed that a Chinese version of DPA program be established based on the existing CNP to resolve corporate bribery cases. When designing and applying the Chinese version of DPA program and complementary regimes, special attention should be paid to deterrence, rehabilitation, and individual accountability.<br/

Intergenerational Perspectives on Ageing in Australia ‘Companions on a Journey - they did it for you, you do it for them’

The broad research question that this thesis aims to address is: what are the intergenerational lived experiences of ageing in Australia and how do intergenerational relations impact this experience? In particular, the thesis set out to explore older and younger peoples’ perceptions and experiences of ageing and consider this in light of dominant discourses on ageing. The thesis explores intergenerational interactions and expectations of each other in relation to ageing and arrangements, or plans to deal with ageing. For many people ageing is a shared intergenerational journey, yet this is an underexplored area of research in Australia and is why the focus of this study is important. The study involves in-depth narrative interviews with 13 participants over the age of 70, along with 13 significant people each selected from a younger generation. This qualitative study explores how ageing is socially constructed, understood, experienced, planned and negotiated, between older and younger generations. It explores lived experiences of ageing and intergenerational relations, whilst taking into account institutional narratives, which for the most part paint ageing as a problem and claims that there are significant inequities and division between older and younger generations. This thesis has been theoretically and methodologically framed to allow participants considerable scope to discuss what was important to them. The study was underpinned by social constructionism, postmodernism, narrative inquiry, Foucauldian ideas and critical social work. Societal dominant negative discourses about ageing and intergenerational relations are not supported by the findings in this thesis. Instead of divisions and inequities between generations, this study has revealed high levels of intergenerational commitment, loyalty, reciprocity and concern for each other. Ageing is very much a shared intergenerational journey. When it comes to planning for ageing, there is no one size that fits all. In some cases making formal or informal plans is useful, whilst in other cases it can increase risk or result in family conflict. Making specific plans for healthcare appears much more complex and unpredictable than what is promoted and advertised in popular planning tools. Intergenerational relations are central to how older people think about making plans. Older participants are particularly concerned that governments have not initiated more creative options in relation to care and accommodation and have instead turned to expensive market solutions. Later life for many participants is a time of much opportunity; a time to pursue lifelong interests and ongoing learning, and a time of being busy and productive well into later years. Participants experienced great respect within their families, close networks, local communities and with their GPs, and were much more likely to encounter ageism in the context of institutions, such as in government and media discourses about ageing and when interacting with healthcare institutions and residential aged care facilities. As such, social workers and other professionals have much serious work to do to combat institutional ageism and to promote the desires and rights of older people

Neoliberalized Feminism in Nigeria: “Developing” the Global Entrepreneurial Woman

L’imbrication toujours plus grande entre les secteurs privé et public par le biais des partenariats public-privé (PPP) pour l'autonomisation des femmes et l'égalité de genre, aussi appelée "économie intelligente" et/ou "analyse de rentabilité" pour l'égalité de genre, est un phénomène nouveau que les féministes qualifient de processus de "néolibéralisation du féminisme" ou, simplement, de "féminisme néolibéral". La présente recherche souhaite ainsi élucider l'ambiguïté de ce phénomène à l’aide de deux questions : 1) De quelle manière l’implication du secteur privé, par le biais des projets d’économie intelligente (PEI), a-t-elle influencé le fonctionnement et le ciblage de ces nouvelles initiatives ? 2) De quelle manière le féminisme néolibéral, à travers ses PEI, transforme-t-il les subjectivités des femmes, notamment des femmes bénéficiaires, dans le monde en développement ? Si l'émergence des PPP et la relation croissante entre le développement et les entreprises a déjà fait l’objet de recherches, les effets de ces programmes sur les subjectivités des femmes et sur l'égalité de genre n’ont jamais encore été étudiés. Du reste, contrairement à une critique féministe du néolibéralisme généralement théorique, la présente recherche est de nature empirique et prend pour cas d’étude l'initiative «Goldman Sachs 10 000 femmes» au Nigeria. Comme le montre ma recherche, le féminisme néolibéral, phénomène d'une extrême complexité, repose sur la récupération des principes critiques du projet politique féministe, en en dépolitisant les objectifs au nom de la colonisation néolibérale et au profit des acteurs des secteurs public et privé, lesquels s’y conforment d’une manière différenciée en fonction de leurs intérêts respectifs. À travers ces processus, les femmes bénéficiaires de l’Initiative Goldman Sachs, apprennent à se comporter comme des sujets entrepreneuriaux néolibéraux, ce que j'ai appelé la subjectivité de la Femme Entrepreneure Globale (GEW), c’est-à-dire qu’elles apprennent à se voir, avec le féminisme néolibéral, comme autonomisées et libres. -- The ever-increasing overlap of private and public through public-private partnerships (PPPs) for women’s empowerment and gender equality, referred to as smart economics and/or the business case for gender equality, is an emerging phenomenon which feminists distinguish as the process of the “neoliberalization of feminism” or simply “neoliberalized feminism.” In light of this development, this research is therefore motivated in part by the ambiguity of how these unique PPPs for gender equality and women’s empowerment emerged, how these partnerships and their smart economics projects (SEPs) are formed and for what reason, and how the engagement of the private sector has gone to influence how these initiatives look and function, and who they target. This thesis project asks the questions: 1) How has the engagement of the private sector, through SEPs, gone to influence how these new gender equality and women’s empowerment initiatives function and who they target? 2) How is neoliberalized feminism, through its SEPs, transforming the subjectivities of women, particularly women beneficiaries, in the developing world? Although some research has explored the emergence of PPPs and the growing relationship between development and business, there is a research gap when it comes to the effects of these public-private programs on women’s subjectivities and on gender equality. Also, since much of the feminist critique of neoliberalism is at the level of theory and discourse, this research empirically investigates what some of these projects are accomplishing on the ground using the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Initiative in the context of Nigeria as the case study. As evidenced in my research, a tediously complex emerging phenomenon, neoliberalized feminism has co-opted critical tenets of the feminist political project, depoliticizing its objectives for the sake of neoliberal colonization and for the benefit of public and private sector actors, who are differentially compliant on the basis of their interests. Through the processes of this neoliberalization of feminism, women beneficiaries learn to conduct themselves as neoliberal entrepreneurial subjects, what I coin as the Global Entrepreneurial Woman (GEW) subjectivity, as they learn to see themselves as empowered and free through the lens of neoliberalism

Sustainability, Human Well-Being, and the Future of Education

This open access book explores the key dimensions of a future education system designed to enable individuals, schools, and communities to achieve the twin twenty-first century challenges of sustainability and human well-being. For much of the twentieth century, Western education systems prepared students to enter the workforce, contribute to society and succeed in relatively predictable contexts. Today, people are at the controls of the planet—making decisions that are dramatically reshaping social, economic, and environmental systems at a global scale. What is education’s purpose in this new reality? What and how must we learn now? The volatility and uncertainty caused by digitalization, globalization, and climate change weave a common backdrop through each chapter. Using case studies drawn from Finland and the US, chapter authors explore various aspects of learning and education system design through the lenses of sustainability and human well-being to evaluate how our understanding and practice of education must transform. Using their scholarly research and experience as practitioners, the authors propose new approaches to preparing learners for a new frontier of the human experience fraught with risks but full of opportunity

Rooting a Successful Model for Agriculture in a Politics of Possibility: The Case of The Land Institute

This research considers the potential for social movement organizations (SMOs) to bring about a comprehensive transformation to the current system of industrial agriculture by asking, How can a SMO outside a field of power advance an oppositional model while not being coopted by the dominant system? In Part One, I provide the background context for agricultural research systems in the U.S., describing the rise of the current landscape setting the national agenda and its consequences. To explain power dynamics, I apply a synthesis of Pierre Bourdieu’s and Raymond Williams’ relational theory models for considering the trends of dominant, alternative, and oppositional ideas and practices in a field of power. Next, I present Gibson-Graham’s “politics of possibility” conceptualization along with a concept I term “liberated ecosystem,” to visualize a SMO functioning outside a field of power and investing in a counterhegemonic project. I use the interplay of these concepts to examine the process of pre-emergence, defined as interactional relationships in some measure formulating new experiences that are not compatible to the dominant position. I contend that cultural work is an important factor in the process of pre-emergence. In Part Two, I pick up on the cultural strategies for pre-emerging social change. I start by introducing the case of The Land Institute (TLI) and then proceed to my methods in which I used a historical, multi-modal framework to analyze the cultural work enacted by activists advancing a progressive agenda for sustainability. I describe each strategic action based on its active making of culture, culture as product, and reception of culture. I conclude that the hegemonic nature of industrial agriculture continues to be alive and well, but SMOs have the potential to challenge the ruling social order through deliberate cultural work. Collective action among activists means moving between a liberated ecosystem and a field of power to create new language and new subjectivities. This research shows that comprehensive transformation relies on activists who sustain a comprehensive shared vision, provide values-based education, conduct place-based research, and gather together to nurture a politics of possibility

Social Capital Processes: An Owner-Manager Perspective

Abstract This thesis investigates the management of social capital processes as they are accomplished-understood, experienced and shaped-by owner-managers. The aim of the thesis is to develop a deeper understanding of the management of social capital processes, to achieve a greater congruence between real-life perspectives and experiences and social capital literature. The thesis argues that social capital is situational, and in the economic situation the theory has been bounded by rational choice framing assumptions. The research problem is that claims for the universality of the economic way of looking at life, and for looking at social capital processes are over-stated. Predicated on this insight the research investigates economic notions of rationality, and low and non-rationality, as well as their inter-dependence in the management of social capital processes. The research follows a qualitative approach for data collection, with flexible pre-coding to guide the research where to look, while retaining an inductive openness to emergent data. The research population is drawn from SME owner-managers in the service and retail sectors, who were researched over two years using semi-structured interviews, observation, and by researcher participant observation. The thesis presents a number of contributions to knowledge. First, the thesis offers an in-depth, single source review explicating the meaning of the economic form of social capital, with reference to its intellectual antecedents, conceptual debates and key theoretical authors. The second (emergent research) contribution is to identify the significance of ethics and autodidactic reading for managing social capital processes. The third (theoretical) contribution argues for an expanded social capital perspective, beyond the prevailing and over-confident rational framing assumptions, and also for a new holistic ontological understanding. The fourth contribution is to identify a number of generic processes which can guide the management of social capital processes.

Rethinking agency & responsibility in contemporary international political theory

The core argument of this work is that the individualist conceptions of agency and responsibility inherent in the contemporary ethical structure of international relations are highly problematic, serve political purposes which are often unacknowledged, and have led to the establishment of an international institutional regime which is limited in the kind of justice it can bring to international affairs. Cosmopolitan liberalism has led to the privileging of the discourse of rights over that of responsibility, through its emphasis on legality and the role of the individual as the agent and subject of ethics; this has culminated in the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC, described by its supporters as the missing link in human rights enforcement, is a result of changing conceptions of agency and responsibility beyond borders – normative discourse has moved from state to individual, from politics and ethics to law, and from peace to justice, but I argue that it has not yet moved beyond the dichotomy of cosmopolitan and communitarian thinking. I contend that neither of these two positions can offer us a satisfactory way forward, so new thinking is required. The core of the thesis therefore explores alternative views of agency and responsibility – concepts which are central to international political theory, but not systematically theorized within the discipline. I outline models of agency as sociality and responsibility as a social practice, arguing that these models both better describe the way we talk about and experience our social lives, and also offer significant possibilities to broaden the scope of international justice and enable human flourishing. I end the research by considering the implications of these more nuanced accounts of agency and responsibility for ongoing theorising and practice

Narrative as an emotion-focused coping strategy in career

PhD ThesisThis thesis develops a theoretical framework for studying the impact of emotion on career, following Kidd's lament that emotion is `an absent presence in career theory' (Kidd, 1998). In the proposed framework, career is treated as a narrative construction (Bujold, 2004) and viewed as a significant component of an individual's identity (McAdams, 1995). Events which disrupt the career narrative will be experienced as disruptive to identity and to the achievement of the individual's goals, and will therefore stimulate emotion which in turn leads to sensemaking aimed at repairing the disruption (Weick et al, 2005). This sensemaking produces a revised career narrative, which the individual subsequently enacts. This proposition is explored through the use of autoethnographic case studies, and the use of this methodology is itself one of the major contributions of this thesis; autoethnography (Ellis, 2004) is an uncommon methodology in social science generally and its use is unheard of within organisational psychology. The case studies allow for theory development, though do not represent an empirical test of the framework, so following the autoethnographic analyses, a refined framework is outlined, together with proposals for research to test the framework. The thesis concludes that narrative coping is the dominant response to emotion in career, and outlines a number of implications for this proposition, including important directions for future research

Explanation and penal change: A study in the epistemology of criminal justice.

This thesis defends epistemological pragmatism against arguments which see it as a compromise position and the term 'reflexive pragmatism' is adopted as a theoretical position suitable for a post-modern perspective. The route to this pragmatic perspective is outlined in criminal justice by a historical narrative of the development of criminal justice perspectives. "Progressive" criminal justice is seen as having undergone three stages: an early modern founding in philosophical construction; a modern faith in science based on the naturalist conception of the so-called natural sciences; and a late-modern pluralism of conceptions which serves as the backdrop to the rise in Just Deserts ideology. The present is seen as a complex and ambiguous situation. The advent of the post-modern consciousness, or the pragmatisation of belonging, both lowers modernist confidence and allows the possibility of confident power plays to dominate. The allure of simplistic solutions is ever present and the rhetoric of Just Deserts is seen as one socio-political choice concerning the proceduralisation of justice when the foundational security of rationalism or empiricism is seen to be lacking. This choice is implicitly contrasted to a reflexive pragmatic position, which, although underdeveloped and only possible to conceive of as 'notes for a potential', is radically different to the formalism of Just Deserts on issues such as objectivity, fairness and in the self-consciousness of the relativism, and human foundation it offers the notion of 'justice'. Considering contemporary penal practice, although Just Deserts espouses the rhetoric of return to punishment and strict formalism, other factors ensure that a complementary provisions to imprisonment are being utilized. In the range of arguments and conflicting perspectives room for experimentation may well exist. Considering the macro-sociological perspectives of Norbert Elias and Niklas Luhmann there are grounds for believing that rehabilitation was not merely a product of criminological positivism or the welfare state, but is reflective of the demands of increasingly differentiated and interfunctional societies. There are grounds therefore, for seeing the rhetoric of Just Deserts as only one facet - the production of post-modern 'selves' able to play their part in complex, differentiated and interdependent post-modern societies demands techniques of installing self-discipline. The catch is that such societies may require less selves, hence there is also the prospect of a developing underclass who will provide the basis of coercive control whilst alternative forms of social control structure the life games of the supra-class. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)