Too many to fail? Inter-enterprise arrears in transition economies

In advanced market economies, the use of trade credits is an important way of short-term financing and generally considered as being part of normal business practice. Some transition economies, however, have experienced a rapid accumulation of trade credits which have led to interlocking webs of arrears and collective bailouts by the government. In this paper, firm-level data is used to test whether trade credits are just part of normal business practice comparable to more advanced market-economies or whether trade credits represent a systematic phenomena supporting soft budget constraints of firms in transition. The results suggest that trade credits are not just normal business practice but that they can have negative spill-over effects on other firms by worsening their financial situation. We conclude that the problem of interlocking effects is more pronounced in countries with less developed institutions, low financial intermediation and, overall, no credible commitment to market economic reforms.inter-enterprise arrears, soft budget constraints, transition economies

Too many to fail? Inter-enterprise arrears in transition economies

In advanced market economies, the use of trade credits is an important way of short-term financing and generally considered as being part of normal business practice. Some transition economies, however, have experienced a rapid accumulation of trade credits which have led to interlocking webs of arrears and collective bailouts by the government. In this paper, firm-level data is used to test whether trade credits are just part of normal business practice comparable to more advanced market-economies or whether trade credits represent a systematic phenomena supporting soft budget constraints of firms in transition. The results suggest that trade credits are not just normal business practice but that they can have negative spill-over effects on other firms by worsening their financial situation. We conclude that the problem of interlocking effects is more pronounced in countries with less developed institutions, low financial intermediation and, overall, no credible commitment to market economic reforms.inter-enterprise arrears; soft budget constraints; transition economies

Learning about the 60s: choreography as a practice of archiving

In this article I suggest looking at the choreographer from the position of the archivist. I will do so by contextualising a video entitled Learning about the 60s, a piece that came out of a practice-based research project that I undertook together with three second year BA dance students in March 2012. Within a time period of four weeks (thirty hours) we looked at different creative strategies and choreographic methods and processes for translating Trio A (1966) by the American choreographer and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer. The project initially set out as an enquiry into the relationship between movement and language, which arises from a concern with how meaning is created from what we see and hear when we watch a performance. Over the duration of the project I questioned the piece’s prominent place in postmodern dance history and both its legacy and relevance to contemporary dance practices. This shifted the focus of the project towards an ontological investigation. There are several specific research questions that emerged in the course of the project: How can I offer an alternative reading of Trio A, one that goes beyond what we already know about it? How can I dialogue with what I see as an “object” that has primarily presented itself to me as video documentation? If Trio A has become an object, how can I comment on the fetishization of it? How can I challenge, destabilise and/or interrupt the ‘thingness’ of Trio A? Finally, how do I place my work next to Rainer’s? Trio A is such an interesting work to look at because it is, and simultaneously is not, a “thing”. On the one hand, it is certainly an object with a fixed and distinguishable character, style, label and history attached. On the other hand, as it is continuously reproduced, represented, reconstructed, reinterpreted, re-enacted and re-performed throughout the years, Trio A also exceeds being an object, as it exists in multiple bodies. This idea undermines the argument that Trio A can ever fully be present as a “thing” or object. On the contrary I argue that the piece can only ever be present partially, existing in a tension between absence and presence

The intimated spectator: one to one encounters in BADco.’s Memories Are Made of This…

In this article, I seek to contextualise the work of Croatian collaborative performance collective BADco., specifically their performance Memories Are Made of This…Performance Notes (2006) which I witnessed at Chelsea Theatre (London) on 8 November 2008. By doing so I will perform an act of ‘double exposure’. Firstly, and perhaps on a meta-level, I will expose myself by describing a very personal experience of a performance that I felt intrigued, but also exposed by. Secondly, I will discuss the potentials of ‘inserting’ One to One encounters and their aftermaths into a formal theatrical framework by paying careful attention to the complex relationship between spectator and performer. Writer and academic Rachel Zerihan has stated: ‘to feel an intimate interaction with ‘the performer’ can heighten the intensity of audience reception’ (2008: [my notes]). Within this proposed framework, I will consider concepts such as intimacy and exposure as possible effects that can develop from this relationship. Furthermore, I will explore the problematic dynamics and ethical implications that arise from an unusual performance situation. What happens when collective and singular spectatorship meet in one performance

Economic Recovery in the Euro Area and in Austria in a Dynamic Global Economic Environment

Economic Recovery in the Euro Area and in Austria in a Dynamic Global Economic EnvironmentEconomic Growth

Expanding the Object: Post-conceptual dance and choreographic performance practices

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyThis project is concerned with exploring the relationship between postconceptual dance and its state as object. As a practice-led research project it aims to do so both through the written thesis and through artistic practice, which is here presented as a series of video projects that extend representations of dance. Over five chapters I trace the permutation of the ‘object’ from choreographer to spectator, participant, editor, collector and ‘reframer’, arguing for the multiplicity of roles that choreographers, and by extension dancers, take on at the beginning of the 21st century. My interdisciplinary research draws from a variety of theoretical discourses including performance theory, visual cultures and critical theory, and is therefore both relevant to the field of dance studies and beyond the discipline. Given the practice-led nature of the project, my aim has been to expand choreographic performance practices and to increases the range of ‘objects’ that can be considered dance. Therefore, the project resides in the gaps and tensions between practice and theory, performance and documentation, language and dance, text and movement, choreography and objecthood. Throughout I argue that post-conceptual dance operates within an extended field in which dancers and choreographers are expanding the boundaries of the art form, making dance relevant to a broader artistic, cultural, political and social context