Deliberation and global civil society : agency, arena, affect

The article provides a critical analysis of the role and function of global civil society within deliberative approaches to global governance. It critiques a common view that global civil society can/should act as an agent for democratising global governance and seeks to explore the importance of global civil society as an arena of deliberation. This more reconstructive aim is supplemented by an empirically focused discussion of the affective dimensions of global civil society, in general, and the increasingly important use of film, in particular. Ultimately, this then yields an image of the deliberative politics of global civil society that is more reflective of the differences, ambiguities and contests that pervade its discourses about global governance. This is presented as a quality that debates about deliberative global governance might learn from as well as speak to

Private experiments in global governance : primary commodity roundtables and the politics of deliberation

Emerging scholarship on global governance offers ever-more detailed analyses of private regulatory regimes. These regimes aim to regulate some area of social activity without a mandate from, or participation of, states or international organizations. While there are numerous empirical studies of these regimes, the normative theoretical literature has arguably struggled to keep pace with such developments. This is unfortunate, as the proliferation of private regulatory regimes raises important issues about legitimacy in global governance. The aim of this paper is to address some of these issues by elaborating a theoretical framework that can orientate normative investigation of these schemes. It does this through turning to the idea of experimentalist governance. It is argued that experimentalism can provide an important and provocative set of insights about the processes and logics of emerging governance schemes. The critical purchase of this theory is illustrated through an application to the case of primary commodities roundtables, part of ongoing attempts by NGOs, producers, and buyers to set sustainability criteria for commodity production across a range of sectors. The idea of experimentalist governance, we argue, can lend much needed theoretical structure to debates about the normative legitimacy of private regulatory regimes

Innovation and Reduction in Contemporary Qualitative Methods: The Case of Conceptual Coupling, Activity-Type Pairs and Auto-Ethnography

During the course of this paper we mobilise an ideal typical framework that identifies three waves of reduction within contemporary qualitative inquiry as they relate to key aspects of the sociological tradition. The paper begins with a consideration of one of sociology\'s key questions; namely how is social organisation possible? The paper aims to demonstrate how this question moves from view as increased specialisation and differentiation in qualitative methodology within sociology and related disciplines results in a fragmentation and decontextualisation of social practices from social orders. Indeed, the extent to which qualitative methods have been detached from sociological principles is considered in relation to the emergence of a reductionist tendency. The paper argues that the first wave is typified by conceptual couplings such as \'discourse and the subject\', \'narrative and experience\', \'space and place\' and the second by \'activity type couplings\' such as \'walking and talking\' and \'making and telling\' and then, finally, the third wave exemplified through auto-ethnography and digital lifelogging. We argue each of these three waves represent a series of steps in qualitative reduction that, whilst representing innovation, need to reconnect with questions of action, order and social organisation as a complex whole as opposed to disparate parts.Social Order, Discourse, Narrative, Mobile Methods, Auto-Ethnography, Reflexivity, Innovation, Qualitative Methods

Political Parthenoi: The Social and Political Significanec of Female Performance in Archaic Greece

This thesis will explore how social and political conditions in archaic Greece affected the composition of poetry for female choral performance. My primary source material will be the poetry of Alcman and Sappho. I examine the evidence suggesting that poems by both Alcman and Sappho commented on political issues, using this as a basis to argue that women in archaic Greece may have had a more vocal public presence that has previously been imagined. Rather than viewing female performance as a means of discussing purely feminine themes or reinforcing the idea of a disempowered female gender, I argue that the poetry of Alman and Sappho gives parthenoi an authoritative public voice to comment on issues in front of the watching community. Part of this authority is derived from the social value of parthenoi, who can act as economically and socially valuable points of exchange between communities, but I shall also be looking at how traditional elements of female performance genre were used to enhance female authority in archaic Sparta and Lesbos. Once this has been established, this thesis will proceed to examine how public female performance dealt with major political and social issues in the archaic world. I shall argue that the performance of parthenoi did focus on primarily feminine concerns such as marriage, desire, and abduction, but that it could also be an opportunity to discuss much broader political themes that were of major importance to the entire polis. Alcman and Sappho use their poetry as a vehicle to comment on the society in which their poetry was composed, both discussing threats to order and representing solutions for a stable society. The content of female performed poetry was often composed as much for a male audience as for the performers themselves, using traditional female performance as a means of commenting on the current political climate. Through arguing these factors, the intention of this thesis is to suggest a much more prominent public role for archaic Greek females than has previously been recognised

Corporate governance deficiencies in the regulation and disclosure of director remuneration in the South African context of mergers and acquisitions

Includes bibliographical references.One of the first times the controversy of director remuneration reared its head was during the financial crisis of 2008 which was described as the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations body United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) both cited failures in corporate governance, the practices of director remuneration and inadequate regulation and control thereof, as specific causes of the financial crises of 2008. The reason for this is that remuneration systems employed by companies failed to sufficiently align remuneration packages of directors with the strategy, risk appetite and long-terms interests of the company and shareholders4 The controversy arose when even though many companies failed or showed great losses, directors were still paid out excessive bonuses and were considered to be rewarded for failure. This controversy was caused by the failure of corporate governance systems to effectively regulate and enforce company remuneration practices, the adequate disclosure of information regarding director remuneration, and the lack of shareholder input in the determination of director remuneration and bonuses. In addition is the fact that most corporate governance systems are based on a ‘comply or explain’ or ‘apply or explain’ approach which, despite its advantages, renders the application of corporate governance structures voluntary, or at a minimum, non-compliance could be explained away. This dissertation examines a weakness in the corporate governance structures of South Africa regarding the disclosure director remuneration in the context of mergers and acquisitions. The submission is that directors act in their own interests; that they benefit more from mergers and acquisitions than the company and its shareholders vis-à-vis short and long term incentives, contrary to the fiduciary duty owed to the latter; and posits that the current corporate governance system in South Africa, its disclosure requirements, and its application are insufficient

Slave trade ledger of William James Smith, 1844-1854

This ledger meticulously details the prices paid and received for scores of human beings (as slaves; only first names are recorded), as well as the expenses incurred by Smith in undertaking this business venture, such as feeding, clothing, sheltering, and nursing the people he purchased and sold. The details of the book illustrate that Smith took several trips between 1844 and 1854 to buy and sell slaves: detailed records of purchases and sales of Negroes exist for all of the years between 1844 and 1854. The listing of expenses for the year of 1844 (the most complete account) indicate that that year Smith traveled from the Piedmont to Charleston, then to Richmond, Virginia and other towns and cities in central Virginia such as Charlottesville, Madison, Orange, Gordonsville, and Fredericksburg. The expense records indicate that Smith returned to the Piedmont via an overland route that passed through Lincolnton, North Carolina (between Charlotte and Hickory). That year he undertook business as far south as Hamburg, South Carolina (near Augusta, Georgia). Personal Papers MSS 190530-01https://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/localhist/1002/thumbnail.jp

Interactionism and digital society

During this article we consider the extent to which interactionist ideas can inform the analysis of current socio-technical trends and practices that surround the emerging contours of digital society. We make reference to four field domains of inquiry that are relevant to this task and highlight how established interactionist insights can be carried forward and inform future studies in this developing area