Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'History of Economic and Social Development'
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1
Brown, R. P. "Social development and economic dependence, northern Sardinia, c.1100-1330." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1985. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/272913.
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Tepper, Alexander. "Essays in economic and financial history." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:9f10c836-05be-4fe8-ba57-1ce237fa0d9f.
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Division One: “Malthus Gets Fat” (Two Chapters) Chapter One develops a simple dynamic model to examine the takeoff from a Malthusian economy to a modern growth regime. It finds that several factors, most notably the rate of technological progress and the economic structure, determine the fastest rate at which the population can grow without declining living standards; this is termed maximum sustainable population growth. It is only when this maximum sustainable rate exceeds the peak rate at which a society expands that takeoff can occur. I also investigate the effects of trade and international income transfers on the ability to sustain takeoff. It is also shown that present income growth is not necessarily indicative of the ability to sustain takeoff and that factors which increase current income growth may actually inhibit takeoff, and vice versa. Chapter Two applies the sustainable population growth framework to Britain during the Industrial Revolution. The model shows a dramatic increase in sustainable population growth at the time of the Industrial Revolution, well before the beginning of modern levels of income growth. The main contributions to the British breakout were technological improvements and structural change away from agricultural production. At least until the middle of the 19th Century, coal, capital and trade played a minor role. Division Two: “Leverage and Financial Market Instability” (Four Chapters) Chapter One develops a model of how leverage induces explosive behavior in financial markets. I show that when levered investors become too large relative to the market as a whole, the demand curve for securities can suddenly become upward-sloping as levered investors are exposed to forced liquidations. The size and leverage of all levered investors defines the minimum elasticity-adjusted market size for stability or MinEAMASS, which is the smallest elasticity-adjusted market size that can support the group of levered investors analyzed. This gives rise to a measure of instability that can predict when markets become vulnerable to a leverage-driven market liquidity crisis. Chapter Two iterates the model of Chapter One forward in time to generate an inflating bubble that suddenly bursts, reproducing many of Kindleberger's (1996) stylized facts about the dynamics of bubbles in a simple framework. Chapter Three applies my measure of instability in a historical investigation of the 1998 demise of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM). I find that a forced liquidation of LTCM threatened to destabilize some financial markets, particularly for bank funding and equity volatility. Chapter Four discusses how the model applied to the stock market crash of 1929. There the evidence suggests that a tightening of margin requirements in the first nine months of 1929 combined with price declines in September and early October caused enough investors to become constrained that the market was tipped into instability, triggering the sudden crash of October and November.
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Connolly, Richard M. "Economic structure and social order development in Post-Socialist Europe." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2010. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1065/.
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This study examines the role of economic structure in explaining the different trajectories of social order development across the post-socialist region. Social orders are shown to differ according to the extent to which competitive tendencies contained within them – economic, political, social and cultural – are resolved according to open, rule-based processes. Social orders are also assumed to exhibit a ‘double balance’ between political and economic systems in which political systems will tend to reflect the prevailing economic system within a society. The focus of this dissertation is placed on tracing which economic conditions facilitate increased levels of political competition. Principally, it will test the hypothesis that the nature of a country’s ties with the international economy, and the level of competition within a country’s economic system, will shape the nature of political competition within that society. After several decades of relative ‘bloc autarky’, the ongoing process of reintegration across the post-socialist region has resulted in varying patterns of interaction with the international economy. This study will focus primarily on the links with the international economy that are formed through export sectors.
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Gulesci, Selim. "Poverty, occupational choice and social networks : essays in development economics." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2011. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/205/.
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This thesis contains three independent chapters that are aimed towards contributing to our understanding of three questions in the literature on poverty, occupational choice and social networks. The first chapter asks whether labor contracts in a rural economy play a significant role in insuring workers against risks and if the outside options of workers determine the extent to which their labor contracts are interlinked with their insurance arrangements. As such, it provides evidence on a well-established idea in the study of rural labor markets - that of labor-tying - by showing that it is an important channel through which the poor workers smooth their income and that an exogenous improvement in their outside options induces them to exit labor-tying and switch to alternative channels of informal insurance. The second chapter provides evidence on whether transfer of capital and skills enable the poor to permanently exit poverty by entering into higher return occupations. It shows that such a transfer not only transforms the occupational choices of the targeted poor, but has significant general equilibrium effects on the local markets, and corresponding spillover effects on non- targeted households. The third chapter provides evidence on the question \do formal transfers crowd out informal transfers", exploiting the randomized roll-out of a large scale asset transfer and training program to test for its effects on the informal transfer arrangements of the poor. It shows that the informal transfers to the poor are crowded out by the program, but this effect is highly heterogenous depending on the location of the sender and the vulnerability of the targeted poor.
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Waldinger, Maria. "Historical events and their effects on long-term economic and social development." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2014. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/963/.
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This thesis uses econometric methods to examine the effects of historical events and developments on aspects of economic and social development. Its objective is two-fold: The thesis examines causes and effects of different historical events using econometric methods and newly constructed and newly available data sets. By studying these historical events, broader theoretical questions are addressed that are relevant and have implications for today. The first chapter studies the economic effects of the Little Ice Age, a climatic period that brought markedly colder conditions to large parts of Europe. The theoretical interest of this study lies in the question whether gradual temperature changes affect economic growth in the long-run, despite people’s efforts to adapt. This question is highly relevant in the current debate on the economic effects of climate change. Results show that the effect of temperature varies across climate zones, that temperature affected economic growth through its effect on agricultural productivity and that cities that were especially dependent on agriculture were especially affected. The second chapter examines the role of adverse climatic conditions on political protest. In particular, it assesses the role of adverse climate on the eve of the French Revolution on peasant uprisings in 1789. Historians have argued that crop failure in 1788 and cold weather in the winter of 1788/89 led to peasant revolts in various parts of France. I construct a cross section data set with information on temperature in 1788 and 1789 and on the precise location of peasant revolts. Results show that adverse climatic conditions significantly affected peasant uprisings. The third chapter examines the role of different Catholic missionary orders in colonial Mexico on long term educational outcomes. I construct a data set of the location of 1000 historical mission stations. I use OLS and instrumental variables estimation to show that only Mendicant mission stations have affected educational attainment while all orders affected conversion.
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Beltrán, Tapia Francisco J. "Common lands and economic development in 19th and early 20th century Spain." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:4215d6d1-e979-4ac5-b023-b49a4a01d9a0.
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This dissertation contributes to the long-standing debate between those who argue that the enclosure of the commons was as a precondition to foster economic growth and those who defend common property regimes can be efficient and sustainable. Exploiting historical evidence from 19th century and early 20th century Spain, this research shows that the persistence of the commons in some Spanish regions was not detrimental to economic development, at least relative to the institutional arrangements they were replaced with. On the contrary, during the early stages of modern economic growth, the communal regime not only did not limit agricultural productivity growth, but indeed constituted a crucial part of the functioning of the rural economics in a number of ways. On the one hand, these collective resources complemented rural incomes and, subsequently, sustained households' consumption capacity. The reduction in life expectancy and heights in the provinces where privatisation was more intense, as well as the negative effect on literacy levels, strongly supports that the privatisation of the commons deteriorated the living standards of a relatively large part of the population. On the other hand, the communal regime also significantly contributed to financing the municipal budget. Deprived from this important source of revenue, local councils became unable to adequately fund local public goods and ended up increasing local taxes. Lastly, the social networks developed around the use and management of these collective resources facilitated the diffusion of information and the building of mutual knowledge and trust, thus constituting a vital ingredient of the social glue that hold these rural communities together. All things considered, the persistence of the commons in some regions provided peasants with cooperation mechanisms different from the market and made the transition to modern economic growth more socially sustainable.
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Robertson, A. F. F. H. "The army in Colchester and its influence on the social, economic development of the town 1854-1914." Thesis, University of Essex, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.304942.
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Ridner, Judith A. ""A handsomely improved place" : economic, social, and gender-role development in a backcountry town, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1750-1810." W&M ScholarWorks, 1994. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539623849.
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As a social history of the town and people of Carlisle, Pennsylvania from 1750 to 1810, this dissertation traces the evolution of communal identity in the early American backcountry. By focusing on the growth and development of one urban community, this work details not only how and why one group of backcountry inhabitants took pride in their town's outward accomplishments and material prosperity, but also explains how Carlisle's evolutionary growth prompted the town's people to see themselves as key players in an economic and social universe that stretched far beyond the geographic boundaries of their localized realm.;Using state and county records, personal correspondence, business account books, and material evidence to delineate expanding networks of association on the local and regional levels, this study demonstrates that it was the combined expectations and aspirations generated by personal interactions and economic exchanges that governed how the men and women of Carlisle defined themselves and their roles within the rapidly changing worlds of colonial, revolutionary, and early national America.;In Carlisle, as in the rest of the American backcountry, communal identity was ultimately determined by the convergence of several competing, but nonetheless complementary, developmental forces. Carlisle's sense of itself was profoundly shaped by the independent and highly localized social, economic, and personal associations forged among the town's men and women in the private sphere of backcountry homes and in the public realm of frontier marketplaces. Carlisle's identity was also derived, however, from the town's gradual social, economic, and cultural integration into the metropolitan realms of the eastern port cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore.
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Biswas, Margaret Rose. "FAO : its history and its achievements during the first four decades, 1945-1985." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2008. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0b79db50-0d09-422e-8a11-d0ef8e9d47c3.
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Athey, Glenn C. "Evaluating a best practice model for an economic development agency." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1998. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3129/.
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This thesis is concerned with evaluating effectiveness and performance in economic development agencies. Development agencies are typically quasi- public bodies that operate at metropolitan, sub-regional and local scales with the purpose of promoting and realising economic development in their areas. The aim of this thesis is to develop a best practice model for such agencies. The institutions that were studied as part of this project included a wide range of different economic development organisations located in Belfast, Berlin, Glasgow and London. Initially, the thesis discusses the history of economic development activity at sub-national scales in the UK and internationally, and explores the role that such agencies play. Aspects of organisational performance and effectiveness in the context of economic development agencies are further discussed. The research proceeds according to a framework of organisational analysis, describing and analysing the environment that agencies operate in, the most influential characteristics and factors for agency performance, and features of operational design and implementation. The basis for the original research in this thesis is data from a substantial number of qualitative interviews with individuals from development agencies and other interest groups. The thesis argues that there are a wide range of characteristics and factors that contribute to agency effectiveness and performance, and that these have been insufficiently explored in past research. Economic development agencies are also significantly influenced by the environment which they operate in. Overall, it is argued that in order to be successful at their task, economic development agencies need to be truly excellent organisations. This includes developing effective mechanisms for corporate management, staff development, and a market-led rationale for organisational philosophy and action. The concluding chapter of this thesis develops a framework for creating and sustaining excellence in economic development organisations.
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Dedman, Martin John. "Economic and social factors affecting the development of youth organisations for civilian boys in Britain between 1880 and 1914." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1985. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.246082.
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Strong, Paul Nicholas. "The economic consequences of ethno-national conflict in Cyprus : the development of two siege economies after 1963 and 1974." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1999. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/97/.
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This thesis examines the economic aftermath of ethno-national conflict in a small European economy. Events in 1963 and 1974, led to the de facto division of a small nation-state, ethnically and geographically. Since the conflict, the different communities have remained on a war footing, having had no normal communications. For each, one of these watersheds is perceived as an economic catastrophe. The effect of arbitrarily dividing an already small economy was significant. It has been argued, however, that the large-scale uprooting of one community was seized on as a development opportunity, so the thesis examines the recovery mechanisms employed by both communities and assesses their relative economic impact. In a comparative context, economic growth and development are compared before and after de facto division, both across the ethnic division and with similar small and regional economies that have, in the period, largely retained conflict within the politicai process. Despite Problems, economic growth both sides of a UN Buffer Zone compare favourably with ali of the selected peer economies. However, with both communities having a clear perception of the cost of division, a dynamic model has been created to determine a benchmark for all-island, integrated economic growth. How would the economy have performed, if growth had not been disrupted by ethno-national conflict? How sustainable are two competing, non-communicating economies, sharing one small Mediterranean island?
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Karlsson, Johan. "Development and Standardization of a "Failure". : Ericsson and the Video Telephone in the 1970's." Thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Economic History, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-122924.
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Mapunda, Angelo Mtitu. "Legal regulation of prices in Tanzania : an examination of the Regulation of Prices Act 1973 as a tool of social change and development." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1987. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/3846/.
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Drawing mainly from the Tazanian experience this study attempts to review the principal issues in the legal regulation of prices, by identifying both the general and specific importance of law in this respect. The position I shall present is that legal control is both necessary and desirable for the welfare and social development of the people. The key issue is whether the market-place will perform its function satisfactory: Will it produce socially desirable results? If it will not, why will it not? And will legal regulation help to do the job a little better? In an attempt to answer some of these questions, first of all, outline the basic issues raised by the study in the first Chapter. Then I examine the general case for price controls - the theory about the controls, the motives and reasons for their imposition and the manner in which they are effected in different economic systems. This is done in Chapter Two. Relying most on the available literature on the regulatory process, this Chapter also looks at the relationship between law and economic regulation and concludes that the effectiveness of law depends on the existence of a conducive socio-economic environment. In Chapter Three I describe the past record of price control laws in Tanzania. I conclude that despite the failure in the past, the controls still constitute an important policy instrument in the transition to socialism. In Chapters Four and Five I describe the manner in which the current regulations are implemented and the problems encountered. I conclude that the operational performance of the controls is constrained by internal and external influences on the economic and political life of the country. In the concluding Chapter I assess the impact of the controls: Do the controls work? Do people buy goods at the controlled prices? Why today the controls are almost popularly accepted as worthwhile? I conclude that while there may be no measurable economic gains derived by consumers, the controls have a stabilising effect on the social and political front. In the final section I argue that the future success of the legislation depends on creating a correspondence between the economic structures and the control system. What makes the controls ineffective is not so much defects in the law but the contradictions between the orientation of and functioning of the economic system and the ideological commitment.
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Huneidi, Laila. "The Values, Beliefs, and Attitudes of Elites in Jordan towards Political, Social, and Economic Development." PDXScholar, 2014. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2017.
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This mixed-method study is focused on the values, beliefs, and attitudes of Jordanian elites towards liberalization, democratization and development. The study aims to describe elites' political culture and centers of influence, as well as Jordan's viability of achieving higher developmental levels. Survey results are presented. The study argues that the Jordanian regime remains congruent with elites' political culture and other patterns of authority within the elite strata. However, until this "cautious liberal" political culture of Jordanian elites changes, a transitional movement cannot arise that would lead Jordan towards greater liberalism, constitutionalism and development. The study concludes with implications for transitional movements in other developing countries, particularly in the Arab region.
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Inguscio, Agostino. "Reassessing civil conflicts in Genoa, 1160-1220." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:dc63c921-0069-49a1-b9cb-30e0c768f67c.
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This thesis examines the phenomenon of civil violence in Genoa (1160-1220). Genoese civil conflicts in the period are victim to a historiographical paradox. While their importance for the survival of communal institutions has been frequently underlined, they have often been misrepresented in the historiography. Our current understanding of civil conflicts in Genoa is in need of a reassessment if we want to deepen our comprehension of the history of a city that is considered a key centre and fundamental building bloc in the rise of the European continent to economic prominence. This thesis studies civil violence from a perspective that takes into account the shifting form of Genoese conflicts and their protagonists. The civil conflicts in Genoa saw constant development in their intricacy, nature and participants (Chapter one). I distance myself from the issue of motives and causation, a pursuit which has misled scholars. Instead I focus my attention on the underlying patterns that made conflicts in Genoa possible -- the web of relationships among the families of the Genoese elite – in order to study how the individuals and families that were involved in civil violence made their decisions (Chapter two). The understanding of these links and of the development of conflict in Genoa is an important thread to follow in order to reassess several aspects of the political history of the city between the twelfth and the thirteenth century (Chapter three). In light of my findings, the institutional transition of the city from a commune led by consuls to one led by a foreign podestà (Chapter four) and the Genoese involvement in the Mediterranean scenario (Conclusion), appear shaped by the maturing phenomenon of civil violence. This thesis aims to fill the current gap in academic studies on civil conflict in Genoa and to turn the phenomenon from a footnote to the current historiography into a rich vein of historical understanding of the fundamental dynamics of the city and its development.
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Ersoy, Aksel. "Dynamics and drivers of Turkish regional development : a Curate’s Egg." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2012. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/3423/.
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Understanding of the economic processes shaping regional economies is in a constant state of change. These processes are important to understand for policy making as governments seek to improve the economic well-being of citizens. Existing empirical research in this field has focussed on regions in economically advanced and technologically innovative economies. As a consequence, the broader picture of the dynamics of regional development in less developed countries, particularly its social and political origins and the overall changes in regional inequality, have remained elusive and less clear. The purpose of this thesis has been to develop an understanding of the local and regional dynamics of economic development in the context of the transitioning and emerging economy of Turkey. The approach has been to unpack a series of local and regional development theories and, from the drivers identified, to develop an econometric model calibrated for the Turkish context using available and appropriate proxy measures. Document analysis supported by interviews with groups of policy makers has been intertwined with the results of the model. The results of the study explain that implications of the current local and regional economic development theories are a Curate’s Egg – good in parts – because these theories are only partially relevant in the Turkish context.
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Browning-Aiken, Anne. "The transformation of Mexican copper miners: The dynamics of social agency and mineral policy as economic development tools." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289205.
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Since the copper boom of the late nineteenth century, mining companies have been riding "the copper roller coaster." The well being of miners and their families appears to be tied to international market forces beyond their control. This dissertation uses a case study of miners in Cananea, Sonora, to analyze the relationships between changes in Mexican mineral policy from 1960 to 1998 and Mexico's economic connections with the United States. It employs Immanuel Wallerstein's framework of a world-system linked through hegemonic relationships between a core country, a semiperiphery and periphery (C-SP-P), and looks at the economic and political circumstances under which shifts in this system occur. Within this world-system Kondratieff waves are used to depict periods of stagnation and growth. Policy changes are reflected in economic cycles, and policy also shapes copper extraction, production and marketing. Until the 1970s American multinational corporations under privatization extracted surplus copper from Sonora as a peripheral region. However, once Mexico embarked on a policy of nationalization of the mineral industry (1971-1989), the country intentionally delinked from the U.S. In 1990 the Cananea mine was again privatized as part of Mexico's economic restructuring, with production directed toward international markets. Policy changes are evaluated in terms of Mexican development and the well being of the miners. This analysis is based upon the concept of articulation between capitalist modes of production within the world-system. The concept "articulation" includes confrontations and alliances between classes within each region or country as well as the relations between the C-SP-P. In particular, the miners use political linkages with the national union to defend their interests. However, with economic restructuring and privatization in the 1980s and 1990s, the government-labor alliance is supplanted by government-business alliance, and labor conflict and workforce transformation result. Policy turnovers influence everyday practices in gender relations as families face economic crises. Miners' wives form a political front to support their husbands' struggles with the company and to maintain access to potable water. Furthermore, attitudes toward environmental resource use are caught between maintaining the miners' job source and securing a safe and reliable source of water for the region.
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Chang, Ting Ting. "Re-examination on the role of the state in the development of Taiwan's small and medium-sized enterprises, 1950-2000 : the state, market and social institution." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2011. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/174/.
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Much research has been devoted to the story of Taiwan’s post-war economic development. The neo-classical economists argue that its government created a free market economy which led to rapid economic growth. The revisionists, Robert Wade and Alice Amsden, address the role of the state in formulating and leading the economic miracle. One of the characteristics of the Taiwanese economy was that the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were found in great numbers (around 90%) in Taiwanese manufacturing industry. These SMEs were export-oriented and contributed greatly to the export growth in the 1970s and the 1980s. The success of the Taiwanese manufacturing SMEs was usually attributed to the market and the development policies which the state established and enforced. However, the existing literature ignores (1) the further development of the SMEs after the late 1980s; (2) the role which Taiwanese society played in the rise and the development of the SMEs. This ignorance over-estimates the role of the state in the development of the SMEs in the post-war era. The present dissertation reexamines the argument of the neo-classical economists and the revisionists by finding a historical pattern and tracing the further development of the SMEs after the late 1980s. To what extent did the market established by the state and the state development policy supported the rise and the development of the Taiwanese manufacturing SMEs from 1950 to 1980? What puts into question the influences of the state on the SMEs after the late 1980s? Why did the state have limited influences on the SMEs after the late 1980s? The dissertation finds that Wade and Amsden over-estimated the role of the state in the rise and development of the SMEs by explaining the limited influences of the state on the SMEs after the late 1980s. The research, by clarifying the relation of the state, market and social institutions from the historical pattern, demonstrates that the social institutions are adapted to the changing environment and continuously provided important financial sources to facilitate the SMEs’ business operations from 1950 to 2000.
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Kossev, Kiril Danailov. "Finance and economic development in historical perspective : South East Europe in the interwar period, 1919-1941." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:b29cf66a-9823-4aac-b2ab-10b629dd36b6.
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The positive contribution of finance to the process of economic development has been debated ever since Joseph Schumpeter famously argued in 1911 that services provided by finance are essential for technological innovation and growth. A substantial theoretical literature has produced increasingly sophisticated economic models endogenising the role of finance into the growth process, while empirical studies have put forward data to detect the link between the two. Yet a large part of the empirical surveys operate with macroeconomic or cross-section data and have little to say about the channels through which finance affects growth. This is where this dissertation comes in. It provides firm-level data from Bulgaria and Yugoslavia from the period 1919-1941 to tackle a number of questions related to finance, banking, and economic performance of the European economic periphery. The analysis is broadly divided into three parts – capital flows and the effects of international investment on domestic firms, banks and the real sector during the Great Depression, and the political economy of government intervention during the Depression and post-Depression period. The first substantive chapter (chapter 2) contributes to the literature on growth and capital flows by testing the hypothesis that foreign direct investment brings about productivity improvements to host economies via the channels of technology, liquidity and know-how transfer, as opposed to market access or increased competition. Chapter 3 revisits the prominent debate over the origins of the banking crises during the Great Depression and the effects these had on the real sectors. Evidence is provided in support of the debt deflation theory of banking crises, but the broad effects of the Depression on banks’ and firms’ balance is also explored. The higher the involvement of banks with industry both directly (via interlocking directorates or equity ownership), and indirectly, via the lending channel, the greater the negative effects of the crisis on banks’ balance sheets. The evidence points to negative feedbacks from bank distress to firms’ output losses in the form of a credit crunch. Chapter 4 uses a political economy framework to analyse the state interventions in the Balkan economies during and after the Depression. The data suggests that direct and indirect bailouts of banking and industry defined the role of the state. Government cronies from the financial and economic elite, as well as the agricultural sector ended up as winners from the process, while semi-skilled and unskilled labour paid the tax bill. These quantitative findings are in agreement with the broad conclusions of transaction cost economics where finance can play an important sorting role. They also support the empirical literature that rejects the contributions of portfolio investment but argues that direct foreign investment is a source of technological progress. The conclusions of the thesis, however, call for caution as market failure in the financial sector was abundant and political economy frictions could cause lasting damage to development.
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Asongwe, Michael N. (Michael Nde). "Population Growth and Socioeconomic Development in Nigeria 1960 - 1984." Thesis, North Texas State University, 1987. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc501243/.
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This study is directed toward the relationship between population growth and socioeconomic development in Nigeria for the period 1960-1984. A controlled population growth would positively affect every segment of the economic and social environment. With hunger and starvation, disease, poverty and illiteracy plaguing large portions of the world, Nigeria's limited resources would best be utilized if shared among a smaller population, Nigeria, like other developing African countries, does not have an official population control policy. The diversity in the Nigerian culture, the controversial nature of the subject of population control, and possibly, implementation difficulties, account for the absence of a population control policy in Nigeria. This study offers in its concluding section some policy recommendations on how to tackle Nigeria's population problem.
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Matthews, Sally Joanne. "Responding to poverty and injustice in the light of the post-development debate : insights from a Sengalese non-governmental organisation." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2008. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/328/.
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This thesis intervenes in one of the most prominent recent debates in development theory – that between post-development theorists and their critics – and brings to it insights drawn from the experiences of a Senegalese non-governmental organisation, Enda Graf Sahel. I begin by providing a critical discussion of the post-development debate and then detail the question which guides this investigation, namely: how can we, the relatively privileged, respond meaningfully to poverty and injustice in the light of the post-development debate? I present three possible responses to my research question. Firstly, I argue that the relatively privileged have a role to play in rethinking the concepts of ‘poverty’ and ‘injustice’. Secondly, I discuss the kinds of support that we may provide to popular organisations; and finally, I describe ways in which those of us who are relatively privileged may change aspects of our own lives and settings in solidarity with the struggles of the poor and oppressed. Throughout, I draw extensively both on the post-development debate and on the experiences and insights of Enda Graf Sahel to show how we can move past a simple defence or rejection of post-development theory in order to meaningfully respond to poverty and injustice.
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Higgins, Claire Michelle. "New evidence on the development of Australian refugee policy, 1976 to 1983." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c8e5abc0-d906-40b3-861c-8fbd82fcb71d.
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This thesis aims to improve historical knowledge of Australian refugee policy between 1976 and 1983, a unique and transitional moment in the nation’s history and in international refugee movements. The discussion will be based on original evidence drawn from archival records and oral history interviews, and informed by a broad literature which recognises that refugee policy is a product of varied political imperatives and historical context. First, Chapter Three reveals that because the Fraser government could not deport the Indochinese boatpeople who sailed to Australia, it sought to approve their refugee status in order to legitimate its announcements that only ‘genuine’ refugees were being admitted. In doing so, the Fraser government was required to defend the processing of boat arrivals to the public and within the bureaucracy. Chapter Four finds that historical and political considerations informed the Fraser government’s choice not to reject or detain boat arrivals but to instead introduce legislation against people smuggling. The chapter presents new evidence to disprove claims expressed in recent academic and media commentary that the government’s Immigration (Unauthorised Arrivals) Act 1980 (Cth) marked a particularly harsh stance and that passengers on the VT838 were deported without due process, and draws from ideas within the literature concerning the need for states to promote the integrity of the refugee concept. Chapter Five contributes to international literature on refugee status determination procedure by studying the Australian government’s assessment of non-Indochinese. Through a dataset created from UNHCR archives it is found that the quality of briefing material and political considerations could influence deliberations on individual cases. Chapter Six contributes to literature on in-country processing, revealing how Australia’s programme in Chile and El Salvador was a means of diversifying the refugee intake but caused tensions between the Department of Immigration and the Department of Foreign Affairs.
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Chatta, Ilyas Ahmad. "Partition and its aftermath : violence, migration and the role of refugees in the socio-economic development of Gujranwala and Sialkot cities, 1947-1961." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2009. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/366712/.
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The partition of India in August 1947 was marked by the greatest migration in the Twentieth Century and the death of an estimated one million persons. Yet until recently (Ansari 2005; Talbot 2006) little was written about the longer term socioeconomic consequences of this massive dislocation, especially for Pakistan. Even when the 'human dimension' of refugee experience rather than the 'high politics' of partition was addressed, it was not specifically tied to local case studies (Butalia, 1998). A comparative dimension was also missing, even in the 'new history' of partition. The thesis through case studies of the Pakistan Punjab cities of Gujranwala and Sialkot examines partition related episodes of violence, migration and resettlement. It draws on hitherto unexplored original sources to explain the nature, motivation and purpose of violence at the local level. It argues that the violence in both cities was clearly politically rather than culturally and religiously rooted. The problems of finding accommodation and employment as well as patterns of urban resettlement are also explored. The thesis shows how the massive shifts in population influenced and transformed the socio-economic landscape of the two cities. It also addresses wider issues regarding the relative roles of refugees and locally skilled craftsmen in rebuilding the cities' economies following the migration of the Hindu and Sikh trading and commercial class. This analysis reveals that while partition represented a major disruption, continuities persisted from the colonial era. Indeed, Sialkot's post-independence development owed more to the skill base it inherited than to the refugee influx.
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Leseeto, Saidimu. "The role of risk management in pastoral policy development and poverty measurement : system dynamics simulation approach." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2012. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/344349/.
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Livestock-based agriculture plays an important role in the development of sub-saharan Africa, especially those countries whose livestock industry contributes significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In Kenya, agriculture alone accounts for 21% of the GDP and provides employment directly or indirectly to over 75% of the total labour force. The livestock industry, mainly arid rangelands, contributes 50% of the agricultural productivity. However, these Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) are exposed to a myriad of risks affecting the environment which is the pastoral core asset. These risks arise from climatic change and variability, growth in human population and expanding settlements, changes in the land use systems, poor infrastructure, diseases, wildlife predation, and inter-ethnic conflicts. The consequences of these pastoral risks include: (1) declining per capita asset value, (2) increased health problems, (3) increased poverty, and (4) declining GDP generated from pastoralism. While a lot of resources have been invested in responding to the pastoral crisis associated with droughts, there is still inadequate understanding of the policy measures to put in place as mitigation strategies. The aims of this research are (1) identify the main pastoral risks and community response strategies, (2) assess the impact the identified risks on the wellbeing of pastoralists based on financial, human, physical, natural and social capital measurements (5 C‘s), and (3) develop a System Dynamics (SD) model to assess the holistic impact of community and government response strategies on pastoral wellbeing. Samburu district, in northern Kenya, was chosen as a study area because it is classified as 100% ASAL and experiences frequent droughts and changing land use systems. The research process involved literature synthesis, analysis of both cross-sectional and a 5-year panel data, and the development of a System Dynamics model. Cross-section data was primarily collected for the purposes of identifying the extent to which risks affect households, while the 5-year panel data was sourced from the Arid Lands Resource Management Project (ALRMP). Descriptive and empirical analysis showed that droughts, land use system and human population were considered as the main cause of shrinking rangeland productivity and as a result declining per capita livestock. This was further confirmed from the panel data analysis indicating climate variability as the main driver of pastoral wellbeing. Droughts affect rangeland pasture productivity, market prices, livestock assets, and households‘ nutritional status and poverty levels. These results imply a multifaceted nature of pastoral system with compound affects. The SD simulation result, which was run over the period January 2006 to December 2030, provided insights on policy evaluation and the state of pastoral wellbeing. Baseline scenario indicated reducing livestock ownership, causing high malnutrition and poverty rates. Strategies which incorporated rangeland rehabilitation, planned settlements, livestock disease control, insurance against droughts, reducing inter-ethnic conflicts, and timely destocking offered better policy options. These strategies resulted in reduced malnutrition, increased pasture productivity, reduced livestock losses and ultimately reducing poverty rates among the pastoral communities.
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Marshall, Richard Graham. "A social and cultural history of Grahamstown, 1812 to c1845." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002401.
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This thesis examines the development of Grahamstown from its inception in 1812 to the mid-1840s, paying particular attention to the social and cultural life of the town. It traces the economic development of the town from a military outpost to a thriving commercial settlement, noting the essential factor of the town's proximity to the Cape frontier in this process. The economic interaction between diverse groups in the town mirrors the social and cultural interaction which occurred between British settlers, Khoekhoe and Africans. The result of these interactions was the creation of a new, distinctively South African urban society and culture, despite the desire of the white settlers to reproduce a “typical” English environment in their new home. The conflict between attempts to anglicise the urban environment and the realities of Grahamstown's situation on a colonial frontier was reflected in the architecture and layout of the town. Attempts to recreate an English social environment also failed. New classes arose in the town in response to the economic opportunities available on the frontier. Although some settlers prospered, many did not, and the presence of an impoverished white working class undermines settler historians' picture of settler success and affluence. The poorest people in the town, though, were the increasing numbers of Khoekhoe and Africans who migrated from the surrounding countryside, and who were unequally incorporated into the urban community as a colonial labouring class. In response to these unique circumstances, white settlers in Grahamstown developed a powerful political and propaganda machine, which helped lay the foundations of a distinct settler identity in the eastern Cape.
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Wagner, John P. "Circles of glass and grain| Economic differences between core and semi-peripheral zones, a study of public center lithics from the Tequila Valleys of West Mexico." Thesis, University of Colorado at Denver, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1588218.
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The dynamics of expanding polities and relationships between cultural core groups, peripheral populations and sites in semi-peripheral areas between the two groups are important topics in studies of complex societies. One area where these distinctions are clearly identified within the settlement pattern formed by the relationship between the cultural and the natural landscape is the Tequila Valleys of Western Mexico. The Teuchitlán culture of the Late Formative and Early Classic periods formed distinctive settlements around the edges of the valleys, which were also marginally bound to most complex social developments within the cultural core region near the center of the valleys. Semi-peripheral sites between cultural traditions are of particular interest as focal points for economic, political, and social relationships. This thesis focuses on two sites which occupied very different environments, namely Llano Grande and Las Navajas. I ask whether these sites show different degrees of emphasis on two basic economic strategies in ways which capitalized on the advantages of each site's respective environment. Specifically, did Llano Grande's relative physical isolation from the cultural core area, more distant location and differences in available resources reflect a greater reliance on trade via exported obsidian? Alternatively, did Navajas' closer relation to the core allow a continuance of the core's degree of emphasis on the staple-oriented economy, with less emphasis on obsidian production and trade than Llano Grande? This thesis draws upon the work of Earle (1991) to structure the analysis, particularly his contrast between wealth and staple finance. Past research is reviewed to develop expectations for each model, which are tested using the analysis of obsidian debitage and products within the ritual centers of each site.
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Mark-Thiesen, Cassandra. "West African labour and the development of mechanised mining in southwest Ghana, c.1870s to 1910." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2a086cfd-2398-4d14-9a28-c2252176d2a4.
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Wassa in southwest Ghana was the location of the largest mining sector in colonial British West Africa. The gold mines provide an excellent case study of how labour was mobilised for large-scale production immediately after the legal end of slavery, in the context of an expansive independent labour market. Divided into three sections, this thesis examines the practice of indirect labour recruitment for the mines during the formative years of colonial rule; the incorporation of ‘traditional’ credit relationships into ‘modern’ commerce. The starting point for this study is the analysis of precolonial strategies for mobilising labour. Part one examines the most pervasive and coercive employer-employee relationship in precolonial West Africa, namely the master-slave relationship. Even enslaved Africans could expect individual economic opportunity, and related to such, debt protection, and the power of labourers increased significantly after abolition. Starting in the 1870s, mine management found that the most effective way of recruiting long-term wage earners was through headmen; African authorities who established temporary patronage relationships with a group of labourers by offering them credit. Moreover, administrative and court records indicate that there were various forms of headship, some which the mines managed to impose greater regulation over than others. Therefore, part two demonstrates that issues of cost and control of recruitment differed depending on whether the labour recruiter had been furnished with the capital of a mining firm to conduct his business, whether he had done so with his own personal savings, or whether he was in the employment of the colonial government. Finally, part three takes a comparative look at headship and recruitment through rural chiefs, which began in 1906; two successive forms of non-free wage labour mobilisation. In 1909, mine management reverted to the headship system that many colonial commentators regarded as being more compatible with the colonial political order, albeit under considerably stricter regulations.
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Jafar-Shaghaghi, Kayhan. "The development of the legal parameters of the waqf institution in contemporary Iran and its socioeconomic impact." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/4509.
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This thesis argues that the laws of waqf in Iran lack modern relevance. Such laws have never been completely modernised, and the waqf system, no longer responsible for the delivery of public goods, still holds a vast array of properties and resources. Many of the ongoing socioeconomic and political disappointments of Iran, which, at the core, are the weakness of the country's private economic sector and its human capital deficiency, stand among the lasting consequences of the deficiency of resources which the institution of waqf has under its control. Traditional Islamic law laid the ground for the economic infrastructure of the Middle Eastern countries until the late 19th century. Among the institutions that contributed to shaping the economy of the region are the Islamic law of inheritance, which inhibited capital accumulation; the absence in Islamic law of the concept of a corporation and the consequent weaknesses of civil society; and the waqf, which locked vast resources into unproductive organisations for the delivery of social services. It is often argued that many of these obstacles to economic development were largely overcome through radical reforms initiated in the 19th century. However, the modern civil law of Iran has kept traditional Islamic law at the core of laws of waqf, and the process of modernisation of its laws remains incomplete.
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Silva, Claiton Marcio da. "Agricultura e cooperação internacional: a atuação da American International Association for Economic and Social Development (AIA) e os programas de modernização no Brasil (1946-1961)." reponame:Repositório Institucional da FIOCRUZ, 2009. http://www.arca.fiocruz.br/handle/icict/15974.
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Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Casa de Oswaldo Cruz. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
O tema central deste trabalho é analisar a atuação da American International Association for Economic and Social Development (AIA), agência filantrópica fundada por Nelson Rockefeller, durante o período compreendido entre 1946 e 1961 no Brasil. Procurando promover projetos que levassem à obtenção melhores padrões de vida à população latino-americana, principalmente àquelas do meio rural, a AIA atuou num contexto de consolidação da influência norte-americana e manutenção de interesses políticos e econômicos na América Latina e no Brasil, difundindo e adaptando programas de assistência técnica originados nos Estados Unidos às realidades locais. Contudo, este trabalho procura demonstrar que o processo de negociação envolvendo a realização das atividades da AIA foi cercada por resistências e dificuldades de adaptação, levando a constantes reorientações dos trabalhos.
It aims to analize the work of American International Association for Economic and Social Development (AIA), a philanthropic agency founded by Nelson Rockefeller, between 1946 and 1961 in Brazil. Aiming to promote better standards of living to the Latin American rural population, AIA’s emerged in a historical context of increasing US economic and politic influence over Latin America and Brazil, diffusing and adapting US technical assistance programs to local contexts. However, this research developed the idea of an intense process of political negociation, including resistance from Brazilian political staff. Also, there was many difficulties in adapting these programs to the local context, leading to constant reorganization of the AIA’s work in Brazil.
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Di, Cataldo Marco. "Regional and local development in Europe: Public policies, investment strategies, institutions." Doctoral thesis, LSE, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10278/3727743.
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The development strategies being promoted in the EU – Europe 2020 and the 2014-2020 Cohesion Policy – aim to supersede the presumed incompatibility between efficiency and equity through a policy approach tailoring interventions to the key specificities of all territories, including the most disadvantaged. In this view, the socio-economic progress of lagging regions would help keeping under control any increase in inequalities potentially associated with the economic development process. However, the idea of promoting spatially-targeted interventions in economically backward areas has been conceptually questioned, and the effectiveness of the Cohesion Policy programme in poorer regions is yet to be convincingly proven.
In the policy framework underpinning EU strategies, a key role is assigned to the quality of regional and local government institutions. Public institutions are conceived as instrumental for identifying and solving the bottlenecks inhibiting economic growth and perpetuating social exclusion in poorer places. Nevertheless, local governments may also be responsible for wastes and misallocations of financial resources. While theoretical contributions on the importance of government institutions for regional and local development abound, empirical evidence on their functioning is scarce. Through which mechanisms they influence the design and outcomes of public policies is unclear.
Drawing from cross-country investigations and case-studies in the European context, the four quantitative studies composing this Thesis contribute to shed light on these related issues.
Focusing on the United Kingdom, the first paper evaluates the economic and labour market impact of EU Cohesion Policy. Counterfactual analyses demonstrate that EU regional policies may have a beneficial impact on the labour market and growth path of peripheral regions. The study warns over possible negative repercussions of a discontinuation of EU financial support to poorer areas, a result of obvious relevance for the country after ‘Brexit’.
By exploiting panel samples of EU regions, the second and third papers shed light on the role of government institutions for the returns of regional investments and for labour market and social conditions in Europe. The second paper examines the link between institutional quality, transport infrastructure investments, and economic growth. It shows that improvements in secondary (local) roads are conducive to a better economic performance only in presence of sound regional governments. The third paper investigates the extent to which the factors at the centre of European growth strategies – institutions, innovation, human capital and transport infrastructure – contribute to the generation of employment and to social inclusion in EU regions. The evidence produced suggests that regional government institutions have been essential to mitigate social exclusion issues in EU regions.
The fourth paper focuses on Southern Italy to examine how public finances are distorted by ‘local governments captures’ operated by organised crime. Collusions between mafia and local politics have a significant impact on the selection of investments and on the collection of fiscal revenues. The local policy agenda is modified to the advantage of the interests of organised crime.
Overall, the evidence emerging from this Thesis suggests that policy interventions have the potential to boost the economic and labour market performance of the less developed EU regions. However, any favourable policy outcome (both in terms of efficiency and equity) is conditioned by the competence and the goodwill of government institutions responsible for defining development targets and enforcing investment plans. When politicians are conditioned by illegal pressures from criminal groups, investment decisions follow special interests rather than general welfare goals. In turn, inadequate governance harms the economic impact of selected interventions. The results are particularly relevant for the lively debate, within economic geography, on the pre-conditions and policy measures enabling ‘smart and inclusive’ development at the sub-national level.
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Tankard, Keith Peter Tempest. "The development of East London through four decades of municipal control, 1873-1914." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002413.
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This thesis is a study in Urban History which explores the development of East London, a port in the Border region of the Eastern Cape, South Africa, through four decades of municipal control from 1873 to 1914. The town had been established in 1847 as a supply route for the British forces during the War of the Axe (7th Frontier War) but the frontier nature of the port led to economic and physical stagnation during its initial 25 years of existence. Indeed, by the time that the municipality was established in 1873, there were still no streets beyond cart tracks, no established water supply, and sanitary conditions were medieval. The Town Council therefore had much to occupy its attention but lack of positive leadership resulted in failure to capitalise on prosperous economic conditions, while a depression in the 1880's led to a further truncation of growth. It was only in the 1890's that a combination of economic growth and vibrant leadership brought about rapid civic advance, with large-scale expenditure on street construction, as well as the establishment of electricity and a tramway system. The outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in 1899 slowed progress, however, and a post-war depression placed renewed stress on the municipality. The thesis examines the progress of the town on a broad front, dealing with the issues of economic fluctuations, the growth of the harbour as the heart of the trading sector, the physical advance of the municipality, the search for a viable water supply, the evolution of public health and sanitation, and the establishment of the port as a coastal resort. In addition, it studies the conflict of social attitudes among the townspeople, the evolution of racial segregation, and the effects of the Anglo-Boer War on the town, with the influx of some 5 000 Uitlander refugees and the establishment of a Boer concentration camp. A final chapter attempts an analysis of the reasons behind the Town Council's inability to make the best use of its opportunities to foster the development of East London.
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Schneider, Eric B. "Studies in historical living standards and health : integrating the household and children into historical measures of living standards and health." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f2e55a37-c605-4aba-8a2e-3d699c6b82b7.
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This dissertation attempts to integrate the household and children more fluidly into measures of well-being in the past. In part one, I develop a Monte Carlo simulation to test some of the assumptions of Allen’s welfare ratio methodology. These included his assumptions that family size was constant over time, that there were no female-headed households and that women and children did not participate in the labour force. After all of the adjustments, it appears that Allen’s welfare ratios underestimate the welfare ratios of a demographically representative group of families, especially if women and children’s labour force participation is included. However, the predicted distributions also highlight the struggles of agricultural labourers, who are given separate consideration. Even the average agricultural labourers’ family with women and children working would have had to rely of self- provisioning, gleaning, poor relief or the extension of the working year to make ends meet at the poorest point in their family life cycle. Part two adjusts Floud et al.’s estimates of calorie availability in the English economy from 1700 to 1909 for the costs of digestion, pregnancy and lactation. Taken together, these three additional costs reduced the amount calories available by around 15 per cent in 1700 but only by 5 per cent in 1909 because of the changing composition of the English diet. Part three presents a new adaptive framework for studying changes in children’s growth patterns over time and a new methodology, longitudinal growth studies, for measuring gender disparities in health in the past. An adaptive framework for understanding growth provides a more parsimonious explanation for the vast catch-up growth achieved by slave children in the antebellum American South. The slave children were only able to achieve this catch-up growth because they were programmed for a tall height trajectory by relatively good conditions in utero. Finally, impoverished girls experienced greater catch-up growth than boys in two schools in late-nineteenth century Boston, USA and early-twentieth century London, suggesting that girls were deprived relative to boys before entering these institutions.
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Justice, Robert A. "Historic Preservation Leading to Heritage Tourism as an Economic Development Strategy for Small Tennessee Towns." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2007. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2066.
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Historic preservation has been a successful economic development tool that has led to heritage tourism in some Tennessee towns but not in others. The problem studied was to determine if there was a set of tangible attributes a town must possess to be successful in using historic preservation as an economic development tool. Through an extensive literature review, 59 predictor variables were identified and arranged into 6 research questions looking at the tangible attributes related to town demographics, geography, organizational structure, historic preservation organizations, heritage tourism organizations, and town financial structure. Data were collected from a mailed survey of 32 town managers. The response rate was 68.8% (N = 22). Secondary sources, such as U.S. Census data, were used to collect data when those sources appeared consistent and mandatory. The study used logistic regression analysis to compare successful towns, defined as those towns in the upper third of study towns for tourism expenditures per capita, with less than successful towns. The 32 study towns met the criteria of having a 2003 population of fewer than 10,000 and a nationally-recognized historic district that coincided with the towns' central business districts. The results of the logistic regression analysis on the individual predictor variables indicated that 5 were statistically significant--median age, distance to a major city, restaurant beer sales, Grand Division, and merchants' association. Constraining the final predictive model (Garson, 2006) to no more than 1 variable per 10 cases 3 led to the inclusion of median age and merchants' association as the 2 predictor variables that provided the highest predictive value of correctly classified towns (95.8%). In summary, this study is inconclusive in determining whether historic preservation leads to heritage tourism and can be used as an economic development tool by small Tennessee towns. However, it has been established that 5 attributes or characteristics of small towns does contribute to the probability of success and that median age and the existence of a merchants' association proved to be the best predictive model.
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Lundström, Markus. "Prosperity and marginalization : - An analysis of the expanding meat production in southern Brazil." Thesis, Stockholm University, Department of Economic History, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-32343.
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The production of meat has risen dramatically during the past decades. This process, generally referred to as the Livestock Revolution, particularly includes so called “developing countries”, hosting the most intensive augmentation of both production and consumption. As agricultural activities often are performed by small-scale farmers in these countries, the principal question for this study has been how family farmers are affected by the Livestock Revolution.
This study approaches the Livestock Revolution in Brazil, the world’s biggest national exporter of meats and animal feeds, from the small-scale farmer perspective. Drawing on a case study of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state, it is argued that family farmers experience multi-level marginalization. Smallholders of pork and poultry face direct marginalization through vertical integration with the large-scale meat processors (the agribusiness). Other family farmers experience marginalization through the actual exclusion from ‘integration’, as the combined corporate forces of agribusiness and supermarket chains control the principal distributive channels. Small-scale farmers also face indirect marginalization as the increasing production of soybeans (used as animal feeds) and large-scale cattle raising create an unfortunate ‘competition for arable land’. Overall, the case study seems to reflect a national tendency, in which the Livestock Revolution intensifies the polarization of the agrarian community in Brazil, thus creating parallel patterns of prosperity for the agribusiness and marginalization for the small-scale farmers.
As the Food Regime analysis aims to approach the global political economy by analysing agri-food structures, this theoretical approach has been used to contextualize the case of Livestock Revolution in Brazil. From this viewpoint, the Livestock Revolution constitutes an explicit expression of a corporate Food Regime, increasing the power of private companies at the expense of family farmers. However, the Food Regime analysis also identifies divergent patterns of this Third Food Regime, in which the corporate discourse is being challenged by an alternative paradigm of food and agriculture. The marginalization of farmers in rural Brazil has indeed provoked emancipatory responses, including alternative patterns of production and distribution, as well as direct confrontations such as land occupations. This ‘resistance from the margins’ accentuates the conflict between contrasting visions for food and agriculture, apparently embedded in the Food Regime. The farmers’ emancipation is therefore somewhat determined by the rather uncertain progress of the Third Food Regime.
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Atal, Maha Rafi. "When companies rule : corporate political authority in India, Kenya and South Africa." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2019. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/289776.
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This thesis examines the role of corporations as political authorities, focusing on corporate land acquisition and corporate provision of services and infrastructure. It considers these activities as "Company Rule," a political project to secure corporate control of territory and population, shaping power relations between corporations and the people they govern. The thesis asks what motivates companies to rule, and whether Company Rule can achieve political legitimacy. The thesis makes four main contributions. First, it develops a framework for analysing the political agency of corporations, informed by international relations theory, management science, and economic history, including empirical analysis of three historical cases of Company Rule: the British East India Company, the British South Africa Company, and the New Lanark mill town. Second, the thesis applies the framework to three contemporary case studies: the Reliance oil refinery and township in India, the Del Monte pineapple plantation and estate in Kenya, and the Lonmin platinum mine and surrounding settlements in South Africa. It finds that company actors are motivated by one or more of three key factors: utopian visions of the society their governance can deliver, a desire to counter resistance to business operations from labour, community groups or other stakeholders, and internal bureaucratic power struggles which take governance policies as a site of conflict. Third, the thesis finds that the balance of these motives varies across time and space. The policy context in which companies operate influences the particular ideological motives expressed in Company Rule. In highlighting the significance of policies that postcolonial governments have taken on the regulation of land, the thesis situates Company Rule in wider discussions of the role of territory and the social construction of space in the creation of political authority. Fourth, the thesis finds that any legitimacy Company Rule achieves relies not only on the material quality of company-provided services and infrastructure, but significantly on their normative content. Workers, communities and regulators respond to the ideological motives expressed in company governance, and it is their acceptance or rejection of these motives that determines the legitimacy of Company Rule.
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Elliott, Michael H. "Economic Specialization in Sugar Cane Wage Labor: Ethnographic Case Study of a Rural Nicaraguan Community." Ohio : Ohio University, 2008. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1212519949.
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Sayers, Adrian. "Development transformation and freedom : critical perspectives on development, transformation and freedom, with reference to a social and economic history of the state, markets and civil practices in the Western Cape of South Africa, c. 1910-1984." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8170.
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-288).This dissertation examines the history of its evolution with particular reference to regional development and planning. Regional and local development and planning practices emerged, offering possibilities for more efficient resource allocative arrangements that distinguished not only between sectors, but also provided the promise of its inter-relationship and urban and rural dimensions.
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Alves, Valder Jadson Costa. "Desenvolvimento e dependência no Brasil: da República ao Neoliberalismo." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2018. https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/21243.
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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES
Development and dependence in Brazil is an subject controversial today yet. Identifying the moorings and bottlenecks that does not allow us to provide a dignified life to all our nationals is a subject studied for more than a century, since the creation of the national academy. This paper aims to reinterpret Brazilian historiography, from the Proclamation of the Republic to the period of Neoliberalism, under the methodology of dialectical historical materialism, with the purpose of elucidating the real and theoretical evolution of Brazilian dependent capitalism. It begins with the Proclamation of the Republic because it is understood here that Brazilian critical thinking developed along with the development of the specifically capitalist mode of production in the country. The Proclamation of the Republic being soon after the abolition of slavery and, therefore, a milestone in the capitalist relations of production. It was also the moment when the state passed into the hands of the national bourgeoisie directly. The extension of the temporal clipping to the present period of neoliberalism is done to elucidate the transformations of the world and national economy that took place during this period and of how the developmental economic theory was presented before it. Understanding Dependency Theory as a critique of developmentalism, the heart of this paper deals with the analysis of this theory, in its main currents - the Marxist Theory of Dependency and the Dependency Theory of Cardoso and Faletto - looking to identify the most accurate analysis after 50 years of its initial elaborations. It is concluded that, despite the appearance of development in the short term, sustained, above all, by the State's effort to promote development, the dependent capitalism, as an alternative development, failed. Thus, the initial thesis of André Gunder Frank, the Development of Underdevelopment in the relation between peripheral countries and central countries, remains alive, maintaining itself as a starting point for the explanation of the national reality
Desenvolvimento e dependência no Brasil é um assunto tão polêmico quanto atual no país. Identificar as amarras e gargalos que não nos permite proporcionar uma vida digna a todos os nossos nacionais é tema estudado pelo menos a mais de um século, deste o surgimento da academia nacional. Este trabalho tem por objetivo reinterpretar a historiografia brasileira, da Proclamação da República ao período de Neoliberalismo, sob a metodologia do materialismo histórico dialético, com o intuito de elucidar a evolução real e teórica do capitalismo dependente brasileiro. Inicia da Proclamação da República porque se entende, aqui, que o pensamento crítico brasileiro se gestou junto ao desenvolvimento do modo de produção especificamente capitalista no país, ocorrendo logo após a abolição da escravidão foi um marco no aprofundamento das relações capitalistas de produção. Também foi o momento em que o Estado passou para as mãos da burguesia nacional diretamente. A extensão do recorte temporal ao período atual, de neoliberalismo, se faz para elucidar as transformações da economia mundial e nacional que ocorreram ao longo desse período e de como a teoria econômica desenvolvimentista se portou diante dela. Entendendo a Teoria da Dependência como uma crítica ao desenvolvimentismo, o coração deste trabalho trata da análise desta teoria, em suas principais correntes – a Teoria Marxista da Dependência e a Teoria da Dependência de Cardoso e Faletto – vislumbrando identificar a análise mais acertada após 50 anos de suas elaborações iniciais. Conclui-se que, apesar da aparência de desenvolvimento no curto prazo, sustentada, sobretudo, pelo esforço do Estado para a promoção do desenvolvimento, o capitalismo dependente, enquanto alternativa de desenvolvimento, fracassou. Desse modo, a tese inicial de André Gunder Frank, a de Desenvolvimento do Subdesenvolvimento na relação entre países periféricos e países centrais, permanece viva, mantendo-se como ponto de partida para a explicação da realidade nacional
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Rossello-Roig, M. "Essays on the spillovers of the household environment on childhood development : domestic violence, health and education, and maternal working hours on children's wellbeing." Thesis, City, University of London, 2017. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/19371/.
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This thesis contains three chapters that each study the spillover effects of two aspects of the child's household environment, Domestic Violence (chapter one and two) and Maternal Working Hours (chapter three). The first chapter looks at Children's Health, the second at Education Outcomes and the third looks at children's Well-Being. Understanding what influences a child's early development is of paramount importance as it explains future job market performance and success in life in general. All chapters exploit the data set UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a longitudinal survey following around 19,000 children born in the UK in 2000-01. The first chapter studies the effect of Domestic Violence on children's health production function. We use waves 4 and 5 of the MCS, when children are aged 7 and 11, respectively. We find that there is a strong negative externality of living in a household where there is violence on children's parental-assessed health outcomes. Simultaneity between the child's health and the existence of Domestic Violence in the household makes it diffcult to establish a causal relationship, so we use an instrumental approach to address the potential bias caused by this. In particular, our results show that children exposed to Domestic Violence appear to be between 55% and 61% less likely to have their health rated as Excellent. Our results are robust and statistically significant across all specifications. Our paper not only sheds light on the negative impact of Domestic Violence on children's health but provides a robust quantification of this effect. This chapter is co-authored with Prof. Jofre-Bonet and Dr. Serra-Sastre. The second chapter studies the spillover effect on children's educational attainment of living in a household in which mothers are subject to Domestic Violence. To do so, we exploit measurements of the child's educational performance in English, Science, Mathematics, Physical Education, Creativity, and Information and Technology by the age of 7 and 11, available in the MCS. Our results suggest that growing up in a household where there is Domestic Violence has a negative impact on all educational outcomes. Our results are robust and hold when addressing several potential sources of sample selection bias. Children from domestically abused mothers lose around 0.20 standard deviations in English and 0.30 standard deviations in Mathematics scores at an age as early as 11 years. The cumulative negative effect is heterogenous across academic areas, being more pronounced for those subjects where past knowledge acquisition is essential (i.e., Mathematics and Science). This chapter is co-authored with Prof. Jofre-Bonet and Dr. Serra-Sastre. The third chapter investigates how maternal working status is connected to children's well-being at ages 7 and 11. The rapid increase of female participation in the labour market, along with the impact that well-being levels during childhood has on their psychological development and labour market outcomes later in adulthood, calls for a closer examination of this topic. To do so, we also exploit the MCS, which contains a very complete set of children's well-being outcomes and the intensity of the engagement of mothers with the labour market. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to use such a full array of children's well-being indicators and relate it to maternal labour supply. Our results show that in households in which mothers work fulltime, children are, on average, happier, less worried, as well as less likely to lose their temper. Further, we investigate whether child obesity, which has been related to children's well-being, is associated to the mother's working hours, the mother's commuting time and the father's employment status. We find that higher the number of working hours of the mother increases the likelihood of the child being obese at 7 and 11 years of age, in line with previous literature. This chapter is co-authored with Prof. Jofre-Bonet and Dr. Serra-Sastre.
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Aguiar, Lopes José. "Citizens’ Revolution: transformations and legacy." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Latinamerikainstitutet, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-184713.
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The following study provides a critical interpretation of the ten years’ administration of Rafael Correa in Ecuador. The main goal is to comprehend to which extent structural transformations were achieved during his period in power and what lessons can be drawn in order to conceptualize strategies for the complete emancipation of Latin America.
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BRUNAZZI, GIANMARIA. "RAPPORTI SOCIALI E CONFLITTI DI CLASSE NELL'INGHILTERRA DEL XVIII SECOLO: VERSO UNA NUOVA TEORIA MATERIALISTA DELLA TRANSIZIONE AL CAPITALISMO." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/2434/921478.
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This work has two main aims: it wants, from one side, to revive the debate on the Transition to Capitalism, whereas, on the other side, it proposes a new political approach to historical materialism.
Triggered by social concerns about our times - which are characterised by growing inequality and poverty, by class polarisation, climate emergences, economic crises and new wars - the research devotes theoretical attention to the dialectics between political present and the writing of history.
While the world leaves behind thirty years of neo-liberal unipolarism, and History, in its magnitude, gets back into the scene, the paper, critically focusing on the origins of Capitalism and on the praxis of change, shakes the hypostatization of the present social system and, highlighting the specific features that make it finite and superable, historicises it.
The work challenges those academic studies which have dealt, in the wake of several cultural trends, with the history of economic and social development, counterposing to micro-specialisation, post-modern fragmentation and the multiplication of perspectives, a systematic contestation of the whole bulk of relations which Capitalism entails.
Devoting a new importance to class paradigm - even with respect to materialist traditional approaches - the essay contributes to Marxist historiography, originally investigating theoretical nodes such as the relationship between base and superstructure, history and theory, materiality and ideology, objectivity and subjectivity.
Group interests, class relations and conflicts in XVIII century England are inspected with the goal of defining a new method for historical investigation: the social praxis, as a methodological criterion, does not only permit us to reframe the dynamics relating economic (structural) and social transformations, but proves to be a valid guide to preserve the researcher’s writing from from the ideological influence of his time hegemony.
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Bain, Courtney. "Entrepreneurship in Russia patterns and problems of its development in the post-Soviet period /." Thesis, Connect to e-thesis. Move to record for print version, 2007. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/18/.
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Thesis (Ph.D) - University of Glasgow, 2007.Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Department of Central and East European Studies, Faculty of Law, Business and Social Sciences, 2007. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.
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Davis, Angela. "Motherhood in Oxfordshire c. 1945-1970 : a study of attitudes, experiences and ideals." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2007. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a36c1331-6550-4856-a81b-3d08d6888f2d.
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Parsons, Elizabeth C. "Provoking the Rocks: A Study of Reality and Meaning on the Zambian Copperbelt." Thesis, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/61.
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Even though the West, or Global North, initiates extensive development policymaking and project activity on the African continent, this study argues that one source of major frustration between different parties entrusted to do the work arises from cognitive differences in their worldviews. These differences affect people's actions and have theological ramifications involving how we all understand meaning and reality. The study employs a case method analyzed through the lens of Alfred Schutz's sociology of knowledge theories and augmented by insights from African scholars to look at basic perceptual differences between Zambians and expatriates working on the Copperbelt Province's mines. After exploring how participants in the study interpreted various experiences, this study concludes that Zambians and expatriates were essentially living in "parallel universes" of meaning regardless of their apparently shared activities and objectives. The study further argues that viewpoints expressed by Zambian participants can be extrapolated into powerful lessons for members of civil society who are concerned about international development and the environment. Such teaching elements could especially help reshape how Americans and other Westerners understand ourselves in relation to physical creation and the cosmos as well as to those from radically different cultures. Lessons learned from the Zambian perspective could also help reinvigorate Western theological thinking, providing much needed critiques of discourses that currently dominate international development policymaking and planning and that determine value principally according to economic strategies and fulfillment of efficient, measurable objectives.Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.
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Veiga, Pilar Leminski. "Políticas de governo, crescimento e desenvolvimento no Uruguai, 2005-2014." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UFABC, 2017.
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Orientador: Prof. Dr. Vitor Eduardo SchincariolDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Humanas e Sociais, 2017.
Este trabalho disserta sobre o processo de desenvolvimento uruguaio, sob a ótica da teoria estruturalista, no período 2005-2014. Este período abarca as duas primeiras administrações frenteamplistas na presidência do país: Tabaré Vázquez (2005-2010) e Pepe Mujica (2010-2015). A Frente Amplio foi o primeiro partido de esquerda a chegar à presidência em 170 anos de história e de bipartidarismo no Uruguai. O período precedente foi marcado pela maior crise já enfrentada pelo país: entre 1998 e 2003 o Uruguai entra numa recessão profunda. No ápice, em 2002, o PIB chega a retroceder 11%. Os níveis de pobreza e desemprego atingiram recordes históricos. Os governos Sanguinetti e Lacalle, que atravessaram esse período promoveram políticas restritivas tentando diminuir o déficit fiscal, agravando e prolongando os efeitos da crise. Argumentamos que as causas da recessão foram de natureza externa, com a crise asiática que se espalhou pelo mundo e atingiu a América Latina na forma de crise financeira e bancária, e interna, com uma seca prolongada e febre aftosa que atingiram a indústria da carne, a mais importante do país. Neste trabalho argumentamos que com a entrada da Frente Amplio houve de fato uma ruptura na lógica de administração do Estado, porém muito mais progressista no campo social do que no econômico. A equipe econômica foi formada por conservadores com orientação neoliberal. O equilíbrio fiscal passou ser a ser a meta principal da administração das contas do Estado, migrando-se para um regime de metas de inflação e de superávit primário. Por outro lado, o governo foi capaz de levar a cabo uma reforma tributária progressiva, instaurando o Imposto de Renda de Pessoa Física e a desoneração de diversos impostos menores sobre consumo. Quando a crise de 2007-08 atingiu o país, o setor público inclusive aumentou seus gastos, numa atitude keynesiana. Assim, apesar do conservadorismo econômico, argumentamos que houve claras diferenças na gestão da política econômica com relação aos governos anteriores.
This work discusses the process of economic development of Uruguay, from the point of view of the structuralist theory, in the period 2005-2014. This period includes the first two Frente Amplio administrations in front of the presidency of the country: Tabaré Vázquez (2005-2010) and Pepe Mujica (2010-2015). Frente Amplio was the first left-wing party to reach the presidency in 170 years of history and bipartisanship in Uruguay. The preceding period was marked by the greatest crisis the country ever faced: between 1998 and 2003, Uruguay entered a deep recession. At the peak, in 2002, GDP declined 11%. The levels of poverty and unemployment reached historic records. The Sanguinetti and Lacalle governments, which went through this period, promoted restrictive policies, trying to reduce the fiscal deficit, aggravating and prolonging the effects of the crisis. The causes of the recession were of an external nature, with the Asian crisis that spread throughout the world and reached Latin America in the form of financial and banking crisis, and domestic, through a prolonged drought and foot-and-mouth disease that hit the meat industry, the most important in the country. We argue in this work that with the entrance of the Frente Amplio there was indeed a rupture regarding the administration of State, but much more progressive in the social field than in the economic one. The economic team was formed by conservatives with neoliberal orientation. The fiscal balance has become the main target migrating to a regime of inflation targets and primary surplus. On the other hand, the government was able to carry out a progressive tax reform, instituting the Income Tax of Individuals and the exemption of several minor taxes on consumption. When the crisis of 2007-08 reached the country, the public sector even increased its spending, in a Keynesian attitude. Thus, despite economic conservatism, we argue that that was clear differences from previous governments.
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Padró, i. Caminal Roc. "Agroecological Landscape Modelling as a Deliberative Tool, Learning from Social Metabolism Assessment of Historical Transitions to Industrial Agriculture for Future Sustainable Food System." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/463069.
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The fundamental objective of this thesis is setting up a model to optimize the functioning of agricultural activity at the landscape level. It is a thesis with a strong methodological component. However, to base how the functioning of agrarian systems would have to improve their efficiency in the use of natural resources, as well as their organic logic, I base myself on the study of agrarian systems in historical perspective.
Thus, in the first three chapters of this doctoral thesis I analyze the socio-metabolic transition from organic to industrial agriculture using the methodology of social metabolism and the analysis of material and energy flows (chapter 2) as well as incorporating the analysis in terms of landscape ecology (chapter 3) and food systems analysis (chapter 4). I apply it for a case study located in the Catalan pre-littoral Mediterranean (the historical region of Vallés), in three different historical moments: i) around 1860, in a context of viticultural specialization and in full development of agrarian capitalism; ii) in 1956, just at the time of the departure of the autarchic period in Spain and in a transition prior to the Green Revolution; iii) in 1999, after the Green Revolution and in a situation of livestock specialization, derived from the integration of local agriculture in the global regime.
Once the keys to the functioning of the agrarian systems prior to the green revolution have been identified, I have laid the foundations for the second part of the doctoral thesis. In it I propose first (chapter 5) the theoretical development of an optimization model that allows us to analyze what would have been (or could be in the future) the most optimal functioning of the various assets of agroecosystems that allow to meet certain objectives social.
In chapter 6 I apply this model in the case of Sentmenat (El Vallès) for 1860, to see what would have been, in a context of non-existence of inequality, the best way to have organized the territory in order to meet different objectives: minimize the amount of surface needed per family, minimize the amount of work required, or deepen the specialization by maximizing the amount of vineyard that existed in the territory and could be maintained in a sustainable manner.
Finally, chapter 7 is dedicated to applying the model again but at a prospective level of future agroecological scenarios. This allows us to characterize the limits of agroecological landscape strategies, basically due to the prevailing condition of closing the nutrient cycles. In spite of this, if a rational use of the nutrient stocks of the soil were made, it would be possible to reach sustainable population densities of up to more than 150 people / km2 with a depletion horizon of the phosphorus stock of about 1000 years. In addition, we verified how the current diet strongly limits the sustainable population density (around 70 people / km2) due to the high consumption of animal products. Thus, following a Mediterranean diet, which allows a balance between the wills of the consumer and the capacity of the territory, would achieve levels of satisfaction of much higher needs. Lastly, the strategy of maximizing production instead of meeting local needs could allow an increase of up to 30% in the final product (in terms of metabolizable energy).
With this, we consider that this new proposed methodology opens a new tool that facilitates these social debates, taking into account the complexity of the functioning of the agrarian systems and without trying to simplify them to purely technical decisions.El objetivo fundamental de esta tesis es la generación de un modelo de optimización del funcionamiento de la actividad agraria a nivel de paisaje. Se trata de una tesis con un fuerte componente metodológico. Sin embargo, para fundamentar cómo tendría que ser el funcionamiento de los sistemas agrarios para que mejoraran su eficiencia en el uso de los recursos naturales, así como su lógica orgánica, me baso en el estudio de los sistemas agrarios en perspectiva histórica. Así, en los tres primeros capítulos de esta tesis doctoral analizo la transición socio-metabólica de las agriculturas orgánicas a las industriales haciendo uso de la metodología del metabolismo social y el análisis de flujos de materiales y energía (capítulo 2) así como incorporando el análisis en términos de ecología del paisaje (capítulo 3) y de sistema alimentario (capítulo 4). Lo aplico para un caso de estudio situado en el pre-litoral mediterráneo catalán (la comarca histórica del Vallés), en tres momentos históricos distintos: cerca de 1860, en 1956 y 1999. Una vez identificadas las claves del funcionamiento de los sistemas agrarios previos a la revolución verde, he sentado las bases para la segunda parte de la tesis doctoral. En ella propongo en primer lugar (capítulo 5), el desarrollo teórico de un modelo de optimización que permite analizar cuál hubiera sido (o podría ser en un futuro) el funcionamiento más óptimo de los distintos bienes fondo de los agroecosistemas que permitan satisfacer determinados objetivos sociales. En primer lugar lo aplico como análisis contrafactual de las posibles configuraciones del territorio bajo un contexto de desigualdad en las agriculturas orgánicas avanzadas, para 1860 (capítulo 6). Posteriormente se aplica a nivel prospectivo de futuros escenarios agroecológicos (capítulo 7). Esto nos permite caracterizar los límites de las estrategias a nivel agroecológico de paisaje, básicamente debidos al condicionante imperante del cierre de ciclos de nutrientes. Con ello, consideramos que esta nueva metodología propuesta abre una nueva herramienta que facilite estos debates sociales, teniendo en cuenta la complejidad del funcionamiento de los sistemas agrarios y sin pretender simplificarlos a decisiones puramente técnicas.
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Marquis, Danika Ewen. "Ties that bind: a critical discourse analysis of the coverage of the Millennium Development Goals in the Mail and Guardian." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015462.
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This study analysed the representation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Mail and Guardian from 2000 to 2007. It drew on perspectives from cultural studies, the constructionist approach to representation and the sociology of news production. Through the use of the quantitative and qualitative research methods, content analysis and critical discourse analysis, this study established first, that few significant changes have occurred within the newspaper's coverage of the MDGs during this period, and second, that the people most affected by the MDGs and affiliated programmes are seriously under-represented and that the manner of representation marginalises and subordinates them.
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Fernández, de Sevilla i. Mansanet Tomàs. "El desarrollo de la industria del automóvil en España: El caso de FASA-Renault, 1951-1985." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/108949.
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La presente tesis doctoral quiere contribuir al conocimiento del proceso de desarrollo de la industria automovilística en España mediante la elaboración de una historia económica y empresarial de FASA (FASA-Renault), desde su constitución, en 1951, hasta 1985, momento en que tanto la empresa como el sector en su conjunto se encuentran ya en su madurez. El estudio de FASA es pertinente y relevante, ya que estuvo presente desde los inicios del despegue del sector y representó un 24% de la producción acumulada durante el período. La mayor novedad de la investigación es la explotación de unas fuentes directas de información hasta el presente no exploradas –Actas del Consejo de Administración y las Actas de la Junta General de Accionistas– o infrautilizadas –Memorias de Actividad.
Los principales trabajos que han analizado el proceso de desarrollo de la industria automovilística en España son los de Jordi Catalan y José Luis García Ruiz. Jordi Catalan sostiene que entre los factores explicativos del despegue sobresale la aplicación de políticas estratégica. Por su parte García Ruiz resta importancia al posible efecto de las políticas aplicadas.
El primer objetivo del trabajo es aportar evidencia empírica que refuerce la hipótesis sobre el papel propulsor de las políticas industriales estratégicas de corte proteccionista en los procesos de industrialización de los países en fase de actualización en la línea trazada por las investigaciones de Ha-Joon Chang. Sin embargo, aunque las políticas aplicadas pueden explicar parte del desarrollo de una industria, no justifican el éxito de una empresa en concreto. Por ello, el segundo objetivo del trabajo es establecer los factores determinantes del proceso de crecimiento de FASA. La hipótesis examinada es que el éxito de FASA provino de la materialización de la triple inversión descrita por Chandler y que ello fue posible por la transferencia de recursos y capacidades por parte de Renault.
La tesis doctoral consta de una introducción, a modo de capítulo inicial, más otros cuatro capítulos en los que se ofrece una historia económica y empresarial de FASA que sigue un orden cronológico y adopta una perspectiva evolutiva. En el primer capítulo se expone el proceso de constitución de la empresa y se analizan los años en que se ensambló el Renault 4CV. En el siguiente capítulo, que transcurre entre 1958 y 1965, se estudia la transformación de FASA de simple planta ensambladora a auténtica fabricante de automóviles de turismo. En el tercer capítulo, que abarca de 1965 a 1974, se analiza el proceso de transformación de FASA-Renault en una gran empresa mediante la realización de la triple inversión. Finalmente, en el último capítulo se analiza la trayectoria de FASA-Renault durante la crisis de la estanflación.
En primer lugar, el trabajo ha aportado nueva evidencia empírica que refuerza la hipótesis de Chang conforme la mayor parte de economías en proceso de actualización han empleado políticas activas para la promoción del desarrollo económico. La evidencia aportada en los dos primeros capítulos muestra como fue la política industrial consistente en reservar el mercado del automóvil a los fabricantes instalados, la condición necesaria que forzó a Renault a ceder las licencias de producción. Es importante resaltar que para Renault su óptimo era vender directamente en España la producción realizada en Francia, mientras que su second best era montar en Valladolid los conjuntos completos fabricados en Billancourt. Además, fue la obligatoriedad de incorporar unos amplios porcentajes de producción doméstica la que obligó a Renault a ceder la producción de componentes estratégicos como el motor.
La evidencia aportada en los capítulos tercero y cuarto valida la hipótesis conforme el éxito de FASA-Renault se sostuvo en la materialización de la triple inversión –en producción, comercialización y managment– que Chandler relaciona directamente con el auge de la gran empresa industrial moderna. Asimismo, los datos analizados señalan que fue la transferencia de recursos financieros, humanos y técnicos por parte de la régie Renault la que posibilitó que la compañía castellana alcanzara las capacidades competitivas necesarias, situándose en el mismo nivel de desarrollo que las factorías francesas. Merced a ello FASA-Renault se convirtió en el principal centro de producción de automóviles Renault fuera de Francia.The aim of the Ph.D. dissertation is to contribute to improve our knowledge of the development process in the automotive industry in Spain. This research undertakes an economic history of the firm “FASA-Renault” between its foundation in 1951 and 1985 when the Spanish economy was about to join the EEC. In the analysis of the firm through the thesis, a chronological structure and an evolutionary perspective is adopted. The study of FASA is relevant: throughout the period examined, the firm produced on average up to a 24% of the total volume of cars manufactured in Spain. The objective is twofold. First, in chapters 1 and 2 empirical evidence of the role of strategic policy on the industrialization of developing countries is provided. The results go in line with the hypothesis drawn by Chang (1994, 2002). Market protection was the necessary condition that forced Renault to transfer its technology and its production licenses to FASA. More importantly, the optimum for Renault was to sell in Spain the cars that were produced in France, while its second best was to assemble in Spain the complete sets manufactured in the France. Second, in chapters 3 and 4 the key factors for FASA-Renault’s success are established. Following Chandler (1990), it is possible to argue that the accomplishments of the firm came from the realization of the triple investment in production, commercialization and management. As a result, FASA became the main Renault production center outside France.
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White, Richard Charles Crookes. "Small town South Africa: the historical geography of selected Eastern Cape towns and current development initiatives within them." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003288.
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Small towns can be seen as the fundamental building blocks of tbe urban system. Through time, some of these towns have lost the primary reason for their existence. Some towns that have been declining or stagnating include old mining and industrial towns, such as Indwe in the Eastern Cape or Welkom in the Free State. Some towns have also changed the main focus of tbeir economy, for example, from that of mining to that of tourism, as in the case of Utrecht in Kwa-Zulu Natal (Nel, 2002). In light of the above, this thesis seeks to critically evaluate what has happened in selected small towns in the Eastern Cape. The research investigated a number of towns in the Eastern Cape, looking at the history and influence of colonisation, population dynamics, education levels, employment opportunities, migration and the influence of capitalism on the economic and social structure of the town, as well as tbe evolution of its economy. The research sample consisted of interviews witb local historians, community leaders, development agencies and individuals who were benefiting from tbe various development initiatives/project in the towns. These interviews, in conjunction with the literature identified, were conducted in the selected small towns, assessing whether development was succeeding and, in conclusion, identifying witb reference to the study sites, what was learnt. The research process generated a number of lessons that need to be taken into consideration when attempting social and economic upliftment in small towns. These include: the need for leadership, support from the local population and the need for financial assistance to support and uplift the community.KMBT_363
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