Category: Useful

Who will foot the bill? Distribution of EFSF commitments

The KPI library collected various data from Eurostat, OECD, IMF, Worldbank and plugged it into a cool visualizer. Germany is by far the main contributor, followed by France, Italy and Spain. 
Per capita contributions though look a bit different with Luxembourg, Netherlands and Finland coming first (3855, 2,677 and 2,599, respectively). Germany still comes fourth and France fifth.
As a % of national GDP, the first three biggest contributors are… Estonia, Slovakia and Malta (13.9, 11.7 and 11.4%, respectively). Germany only comes in 8th position.
German solidarity should therefore be put into perspective… In any case, the consensus seems increasingly to be that the EFSF won’t cut it… To the extent that there will not be any major overhaul of the degree of EU integration or the introduction of a system of fiscal insurance, only the ECB can save us now…

Europe needs a large Social Sciences and Humanities -centered research programme to tackle its "Grand Societal Challenges"!

Sign the open letter:
“An Open Letter to the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation,
Maire Geoghegan-Quinn.

A sustained and substantial European investment in cutting-edge Socio-economic Sciences and the Humanities (SSH) can unlock new knowledge and insights that are necessary for Europe

  • to overcome inequality, exclusion and poverty and to adapt to demographic change (migration, ageing, gender relations etc.);
  • to develop resilient institutions that can strengthen sustainable growth, innovation processes, and social and political participation;
  • to exploit cultural diversity as a source for creativity, adaptive capabilities and social innovation;
  • to advance our understanding of cognitive processes and create educational opportunities in inclusive and democratic societies;
  • to understand the complexity of value systems, worldviews and behavioural patterns, and address issues of openness or resistance to change and
  • to move towards successful intercultural dialogue and global diplomacy.

If you agree with the need for SSH to produce policy-oriented research for Europe, and if you wish to see a strong SSH-programme under the new European Framework Programme Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) we invite you to read the Open Letter to the Commissioner and sign it!
The voice of SSH researchers must be heard in the design of the new framework programme. Join your name to the list of colleagues from across Europe and beyond!”

The economics of academic publishing

Interesting article by George Monbiot on academic publishing. His quote of Deutsche Bank analysis sums it up pretty well:

“But an analysis by Deutsche Bank reaches different conclusions. “We believe the publisher adds relatively little value to the publishing process … if the process really were as complex, costly and value-added as the publishers protest that it is, 40% margins wouldn’t be available.”(11) Far from assisting the dissemination of research, the big publishers impede it, as their long turnaround times can delay the release of findings by a year or more(12).”

New issue of Capital & Class

1 February 2011; Vol. 35, No. 1 – available online:
_______________________________________
Articles
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Critical realism, Marxism and the critique of neoclassical economics

Brian O’Boyle and Terrence McDonough

Capital & Class 2011;35 3-22

http://cnc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/1/3

Unfree labour as primitive accumulation?

Tom Brass

Capital & Class 2011;35 23-38

http://cnc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/1/23

Who rules Iran? The June 2009 election and political turmoil

Farhang Morady

Capital & Class 2011;35 39-61

http://cnc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/1/39

The construction of a trans-European labour movement

Dan Jakopovich

Capital & Class 2011;35 63-79

http://cnc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/1/63

The internationalisation of Gulf capital and Palestinian class formation

Adam Hanieh

Capital & Class 2011;35 81-106

http://cnc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/1/81

Ranking of ‘welfare and work’ Journals

In an earlier post, I had presented a brief ranking of political science journals. Though there is some degree of overlap, I thought it useful to look at Journals that deal more specifically with the welfare state. So here is the 2008 Impact factor for selected Journals on the welfare state:

European Journal of Political Research     2.51
Journal of Common Market Studies       1.84
Journal of European Public Policy          1.81
Comparative Political Studies                 1.71
Politics and Society                                1.45
West European Politics                         1.42
Public Administration                             1.27
Scandinavian Political Studies                1.26
Ageing and Society                               1.22
Journal of European Social Policy          1.16
Governance                                         1.14
Social Policy and Administration           1.00
British Journal of Political Science         0.96
Critical Social Policy                            0.90
Journal of Social Policy                        0.73
Acta Politica                                         0.67
Comparative Politics                             0.65
Political Studies                                    0.63
International Journal of Social Welfare  0.63
Social Politics                                       0.51

This list is taken from page 25 of the  Editorial resources in work and welfare which is compiled by the publication centre of the RECwowe network. Disclaimer: as they note on page 24 “the rankings with which we come up in the … tables should not be interpreted uncritically”.