838 research outputs found
Protection and maintenance of permanent pastures
peer reviewedAll farmers receiving direct payments are subject to compulsory cross-compliance which includes standards related to the maintenance and protection of permanent pastures. Questionnaire techniques and spatio-temporal analyses demonstrated that the ratio of permanent pasture area to agricultural land provides a simple tool for monitoring and controlling the protection of permanent pastures at the regional to Member State level. Huge variations in the ratio across Europe were related to the importance of permanent pastures, the interpretation of definitions, sources of information used, differences in calculation, and the presence of protective and/or sensitive zones.
Precautionary or complementary measures are in place in most Member States in order to prevent decreases in the ratio. The implementation of GAEC standards related to permanent pastures overlaps with the standard management requirements, national legislation and current agri-environmental programmes. The study advocates the establishment of a comprehensive geo-information platform consisting of a topologically correct inventory of all permanent pasture parcels in a 1:1 geo-referenced relation between IACS and LPIS; ancillary spatially explicit data such as orthophotos, remote sensing images and other thematic geo-databases; and, geodatabases with parcel information compiled for other monitoring purposes such as those within the framework of the Nitrates Directive or 2nd pillar support
The impact of certain underlying comorbidities on the risk of developing hospitalised pneumonia in England
South Korea's automotive labour regime, Hyundai Motorsâ global production network and tradeâbased integration with the European Union
This article explores the interrelationship between global production networks(GPNs) and free trade agreements (FTAs) in the South Korean auto industry and its employment relations. It focuses on the production network of the Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) â the third biggest automobile manufacturer in the world â and the FTA between the EU and South Korea. This was the first of the EUâs ânew generationâ FTAs, which among other things contained provisions designed to protect and promote labour standards. The articleâs argument is twofold. First, that HMGâs production network and Koreaâs political economy (of which HMG is a crucial part) limited the possibilities for the FTAâs labour provisions to take effect. Second, that the commercial provisions in this same FTA simultaneously eroded HMGâs domestic market and corporate profitability, leading to adverse consequences for auto workers in the more
insecure and low-paid jobs. In making this argument, the article advances a multiscalar conceptualization of the labour regime as an analytical intermediary between GPNs and FTAs. It also provides one of the first empirical studies of the EUâSouth Korea FTA in terms of employment relations, drawing on 105 interviews with trade unions, employer associations, automobile companies and state officials across both parties
Capitalist crisis in the âage of global value chainsâ
In this article, we analyze the strategies, surprises, and sidesteps in the World Bankâs 2020 World Development Report, Trading for Development in the Age of Global Value Chains. Strategically, the Report promotes an expansion of neoliberal globalization couched in the language of global value chains. Curiously detached from the broader academic literature on global value chains in international trade, it promotes a sequentialist vision of global value chain upgrading that evokes the stagism of classic modernization theory. The authors sidestep important issues, such as China's pivotal role in the landscape of global trade, and are largely silent on others, including climate change. Significantly and somewhat surprisingly, given the general endorsement of global value chain integration, the Report acknowledges negative distributional trends associated with the rise of global value chains, including the excessive benefits reaped by âsuperstar firmsâ and the now well-documented decline in labor's income share. These observations are not reflected in the document's policy section, however, where the World Development Report largely recapitulates familiar prescriptions, with the threat of nationalist populism and rising protectionism providing a new bottle for this old wine. Drawing on a range of literature including United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's 2018 Trade and Development Report, we highlight not only the limits of the Bank's adherence to an increasingly embattled orthodoxy, but also the necessary starting points for a more useful discussion of the merits, limits, and future of global value chains.
This is the accepted manuscript of an article published online: 1. Bair J, Mahutga M, Werner M, Campling L. Capitalist crisis in the âage of global value chains.â Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. April 2021. doi:10.1177/0308518X21100671
Governing Labour Standards through Free Trade Agreements: Limits of the European Unionâs Trade and Sustainable Development Chapters
The EU has established a new architecture of international labour standards governance within the Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) chapters of its Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). To examine the operationalization of this framework, we draw upon 121 interviews undertaken with key informants in three FTAs signed with the Caribbean, South Korea and Moldova. We engage with wider debates over external governance and the projection of EU power by showing how operational failings, including a lack of legal and political prioritization of TSD chapters and shortcomings in the implementation of key provisions, have hindered the impact of the FTAs upon labour standards. We also identify significant limitations to the EUâs âcommon formulationâ approach when applied to different trading partner contexts, alongside ambiguities about the underlying purpose of the tradeâlabour linkage. Reflection about the function and purpose of labour standards provisions in EU trade policy is therefore required
A geopolitical-economy of distant water fisheries access arrangements
In recent decades, fishing fleets and effort have grown in aggregate throughout the waters of lower-income coastal countries, much of which is carried out by vessels registered in higher-income countries. Fisheries access arrangements (FAAs) underpin this key trend in ocean fisheries and have their origins in UNCLOSâs promise to establish resource ownership as a mechanism to increase benefits to newly independent coastal and island states. Coastal states use FAAs to permit a foreign state, firm, or industry association to fish within its waters. This paper provides a conceptual approach for understanding FAAs across the global ocean and for exploring their potential to deliver on the promise of UNCLOS. Illustrated with the findings from multiple case studies, we advance understanding of FAAs by developing a geopolitical-economy of access that attends to the combination of contingent and context-specific economic, ecologic, and geopolitical forces that shape the terms, conditions and practices of the FAAs shaping this persistent phenomenon of higher-income industrial fleets fishing throughout lower-income countriesâ waters
The Paradox of Power in CSR: A Case Study on Implementation
Purpose Although current literature assumes positive outcomes for stakeholders resulting from an increase in power associated with CSR, this research suggests that this increase can lead to conflict within organizations, resulting in almost complete inactivity on CSR.
Methods A single in-depth case study, focusing on power as an embedded concept.
Results Empirical evidence is used to demonstrate how some actors use CSR to improve their own positions within an organization. Resource dependence theory is used to highlight why this may be a more significant concern for CSR.
Conclusions Increasing power for CSR has the potential to offer actors associated with it increased personal power, and thus can attract opportunistic actors with little interest in realizing the benefits of CSR for the company and its stakeholders. Thus power can be an impediment to furthering CSR strategy and activities at the individual and organizational level
Labour Standards Provisions in EU Free Trade Agreements: Reflections on the European Commissionâs Reform Agenda
Supporting patient access to medicines in community palliative care: on-line survey of health professionalsâ practice, perceived effectiveness and influencing factors
Background:
Patient access to medicines at home during the last year of life is critical for symptom control, but is thought to be problematic. Little is known about healthcare professionalsâ practices in supporting timely medicines access and what influences their effectiveness. The purpose of the study was to evaluate health professionalsâ medicines access practices, perceived effectiveness and influencing factors.
Methods:
On-line questionnaire survey of health care professionals (General Practitioners, Community Pharmacists, community-based Clinical Nurse Specialists and Community Nurses) delivering end-of-life care in primary and community care settings in England. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics.
Results:
One thousand three hundred twenty-seven responses were received. All health professional groups are engaged in supporting access to prescriptions, using a number of different methods. GPs remain a predominant route for patients to access new prescriptions in working hours. However, nurses and, increasingly, primary care-based pharmacists are also actively contributing. However, only 42% (160) of Clinical Nurse Specialists and 27% (27) of Community Nurses were trained as prescribers. The majority (58% 142) of prescribing nurses and pharmacists did not have access to an electronic prescribing system. Satisfaction with access to shared patient records to facilitate medicines access was low: 39% (507) were either Not At All or only Slightly satisfied. Out-of-hours specialist cover was reported by less than half (49%; 656) and many General Practitioners and pharmacists lacked confidence advising about out-of-hours services. Respondents perceived there would be a significant improvement in pain control if access to medicines was greater. Those with shared records access reported significantly lower pain estimates for their caseload patients.
Conclusions:
Action is required to support a greater number of nurses and pharmacists to prescribe end-of-life medicines. Solutions are also required to enable shared access to patient records across health professional groups. Coverage and awareness of out-of-hours services to access medicines needs to be improved
- âŚ