Diss., Stockholm : Handelshögsk. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk.

In the context of democratisation in the early 1990s, the governments in Central and East Europe (CEE) had to decide how to deal with property that had been confiscated under state socialism. Nationalised housing and collectivised land were to a varying extent returned to former owners and their heirs by means of restitution, as well as being distributed to other citizens who were in possession of the users’ rights to such properties. This thesis examines the spatial impacts, in terms of ownership patterns, of the way the redistribution of nationalised housing and collectivised land has been dealt with politically and at the local level in post-socialist Romania. It also locates the Romanian property reforms in relation to those of the rest of CEE. The impact of political directives on the property redistribution is analysed in relation to both structural influences, such as democratisation and antecedent property regimes, and implementation patterns in varied place-contexts. The thesis demonstrates that restitution was stifled due to disagreements between leftist and rightist political blocs, with the latter arguing for restitution whilst their opponents wrote the first restitution laws. A re-privatisation law allowed for the public sale of nationalised housing to tenants and thereby blocked the implementation of a restitution law, thus constituting a dilemma for constitutional democracy. In liberal place-contexts in West Romania, these obstacles to housing restitution were in part avoided. By contrast, land restitution was most widespread in the east, a stronghold of the left. This was because the legislation gives priority to restitution in areas of this kind, where smaller land-holdings dominated prior to 1945. The left-wing government pursued an electoral strategy of distributing small properties to a large number of citizens, and to current users in particular. This resulted in a fragmentation of historical property.

This thesis investigates the factors that influence the locational choices of foreign firms investing in China and the factors that influence the level of intermediate goods produced by domestic suppliers in China. It finds that some characteristics of the domestic economy are associated with both, and that foreign enterprises? activities are particularly important in determining the output of domestic suppliers. / PhD Doctorate

In the context of a peripheral, small and largely resource-based economy, New Zealand’s economic policy makers have for long faced the key challenge of influencing global connections of local actors in value-adding activities. This dissertation seeks to interpret the nature and trajectories of governance activities relating to economic processes in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city-region, in the 1990’s and 2000’s. This period, a time of neoliberalising political-economic conditions following intensive economic restructuring in the 1980s, saw a re-entry of central government to the governing landscape of Auckland. The research focuses on how regional actors such as the Auckland Regional Growth Forum, the Auckland Regional Economic Development Strategy and the business-driven initiatives of ‘Competitive Auckland’, ‘Committee for Auckland’ and the ‘Knowledge Wave’ conferences, gradually became aligned with an emerging governmental project from central government that re-defined perceptions of and expectations about Auckland’s economic role. The research approach is informed by several literatures, especially those of the regulation, actor-network and governmentality schools. The different questions that spring from these literatures enable scrutiny of Auckland’s institutional developments in terms of the identification of interdependencies amongst governing interests, the nature and degree of mediation of investment processes from institutional experimentation and the possible emergence of effects from new governance arrangements. The thesis situates and uses the policy and academic positioning of the researcher to develop methodologies to interrogate the emergence of the material and discursive dimensions of the regional economic governance framework of Auckland. This thesis argues that ongoing institutional experimentation has been both a pre-cursor to and an active ingredient in the re-appearance of the New Zealand central state in Auckland’s economic governance. Importantly, governing is increasingly complex; and about mobilising a range of actors by influencing their perceptions about governing and investment goals through discursive governance practices. In this context, current socio-economic interventions can be best understood as contingent assemblages of governing resources, producing discursive alignments of interests that lead to a re-working of processes and practices of the state-regulatory apparatus. The effects of the institutional developments on private investment decisions are largely unknown however. While the emerging institutional framework for economic governance involving Auckland is increasingly embracing Auckland’s globalising character, influencing the city-region’s economic participation in the globalising world economy may be harder to achieve as a political project than current policy rhetoric implies. Theoretically, this research challenges territorial conceptualisations of political economic management and contributes to the wider development of a relational-institutional framework for understanding sub-national economic governance. Auckland, globalising economic processes, economic governance, state, institutions, policy, knowledge, contingency, regulation, discourses

In the context of a peripheral, small and largely resource-based economy, New Zealand’s economic policy makers have for long faced the key challenge of influencing global connections of local actors in value-adding activities. This dissertation seeks to interpret the nature and trajectories of governance activities relating to economic processes in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city-region, in the 1990’s and 2000’s. This period, a time of neoliberalising political-economic conditions following intensive economic restructuring in the 1980s, saw a re-entry of central government to the governing landscape of Auckland. The research focuses on how regional actors such as the Auckland Regional Growth Forum, the Auckland Regional Economic Development Strategy and the business-driven initiatives of ‘Competitive Auckland’, ‘Committee for Auckland’ and the ‘Knowledge Wave’ conferences, gradually became aligned with an emerging governmental project from central government that re-defined perceptions of and expectations about Auckland’s economic role. The research approach is informed by several literatures, especially those of the regulation, actor-network and governmentality schools. The different questions that spring from these literatures enable scrutiny of Auckland’s institutional developments in terms of the identification of interdependencies amongst governing interests, the nature and degree of mediation of investment processes from institutional experimentation and the possible emergence of effects from new governance arrangements. The thesis situates and uses the policy and academic positioning of the researcher to develop methodologies to interrogate the emergence of the material and discursive dimensions of the regional economic governance framework of Auckland. This thesis argues that ongoing institutional experimentation has been both a pre-cursor to and an active ingredient in the re-appearance of the New Zealand central state in Auckland’s economic governance. Importantly, governing is increasingly complex; and about mobilising a range of actors by influencing their perceptions about governing and investment goals through discursive governance practices. In this context, current socio-economic interventions can be best understood as contingent assemblages of governing resources, producing discursive alignments of interests that lead to a re-working of processes and practices of the state-regulatory apparatus. The effects of the institutional developments on private investment decisions are largely unknown however. While the emerging institutional framework for economic governance involving Auckland is increasingly embracing Auckland’s globalising character, influencing the city-region’s economic participation in the globalising world economy may be harder to achieve as a political project than current policy rhetoric implies. Theoretically, this research challenges territorial conceptualisations of political economic management and contributes to the wider development of a relational-institutional framework for understanding sub-national economic governance. Auckland, globalising economic processes, economic governance, state, institutions, policy, knowledge, contingency, regulation, discourses

In the context of a peripheral, small and largely resource-based economy, New Zealand’s economic policy makers have for long faced the key challenge of influencing global connections of local actors in value-adding activities. This dissertation seeks to interpret the nature and trajectories of governance activities relating to economic processes in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city-region, in the 1990’s and 2000’s. This period, a time of neoliberalising political-economic conditions following intensive economic restructuring in the 1980s, saw a re-entry of central government to the governing landscape of Auckland. The research focuses on how regional actors such as the Auckland Regional Growth Forum, the Auckland Regional Economic Development Strategy and the business-driven initiatives of ‘Competitive Auckland’, ‘Committee for Auckland’ and the ‘Knowledge Wave’ conferences, gradually became aligned with an emerging governmental project from central government that re-defined perceptions of and expectations about Auckland’s economic role. The research approach is informed by several literatures, especially those of the regulation, actor-network and governmentality schools. The different questions that spring from these literatures enable scrutiny of Auckland’s institutional developments in terms of the identification of interdependencies amongst governing interests, the nature and degree of mediation of investment processes from institutional experimentation and the possible emergence of effects from new governance arrangements. The thesis situates and uses the policy and academic positioning of the researcher to develop methodologies to interrogate the emergence of the material and discursive dimensions of the regional economic governance framework of Auckland. This thesis argues that ongoing institutional experimentation has been both a pre-cursor to and an active ingredient in the re-appearance of the New Zealand central state in Auckland’s economic governance. Importantly, governing is increasingly complex; and about mobilising a range of actors by influencing their perceptions about governing and investment goals through discursive governance practices. In this context, current socio-economic interventions can be best understood as contingent assemblages of governing resources, producing discursive alignments of interests that lead to a re-working of processes and practices of the state-regulatory apparatus. The effects of the institutional developments on private investment decisions are largely unknown however. While the emerging institutional framework for economic governance involving Auckland is increasingly embracing Auckland’s globalising character, influencing the city-region’s economic participation in the globalising world economy may be harder to achieve as a political project than current policy rhetoric implies. Theoretically, this research challenges territorial conceptualisations of political economic management and contributes to the wider development of a relational-institutional framework for understanding sub-national economic governance. Auckland, globalising economic processes, economic governance, state, institutions, policy, knowledge, contingency, regulation, discourses

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis contributes to debates regarding the future of organised labour, the ability of global civil society networks to influence the practices of powerful institutions, and the value of non-state forms of corporate regulation. It focuses on the anti-sweatshop movement’s campaigns targeting three transnational corporations (TNCs) which design and market sportswear—Nike, Reebok and Adidas. These three TNCs are members of the Fair Labour Association (FLA), a voluntary, non-state regulatory system negotiated between participating companies and a number of civil society organisations. The thesis assesses how the FLA’s processes, the companies’ own labour programs, and interventions by labour activists are combining to influence sportswear workers’ rights to form trade unions and bargain collectively. The thesis is based on decentred, institutionalist characterisations of the firm and its regulation. From this perspective, an effective system for regulating corporate labour practices must powerfully insert discourses promoting workers’ rights into the internal debates, power plays and resulting regularised processes which produce corporate behaviour. Whereas many theoretical approaches portray voluntary regulatory initiatives as antithetical to state regulation, this thesis is influenced by those institutionalist thinkers who argue that effective voluntary initiatives can help build the political will necessary for regulatory reform by states. Research methods employed in this thesis include interviews with Indonesian workers, FLA board members, company representatives and anti-sweatshop activists. This research indicates labour compliance staff within Nike, Reebok and Adidas have made serious, if inconsistent, efforts to persuade suppliers to respect labour rights. These efforts have been undermined by their colleagues in buying departments, who have intensified demands that suppliers produce cheaply and quickly. Partly as a result of this tension, the labour programs of Nike, Reebok and Adidas have only contributed to improved respect for trade union rights in a relatively small number of sportswear factories, and in some cases these improvements have proved fragile. The FLA’s regulatory system relies on participating TNCs threatening to cut orders if their suppliers fail to comply with the FLA’s labour code. This thesis argues that if TNC compliance staff could also offer incentives—such as higher prices or more stable, long-term ordering relationships—then it would enhance their ability to convince suppliers to respect trade union rights. Such a change would require TNCs to give a higher priority to labour rights than to cost-minimisation. Unfortunately, within Nike, Reebok and Adidas, labour rights and other ethical agendas appear to be in the process of being subsumed into a more dominant discourse associated with profit-making and growth, so that labour compliance staff must establish the “business case” for each aspect of their regulatory work. The anti-sweatshop movement has a loose, networked form of organisation which has proved remarkably successful in putting public pressure on sportswear corporations to accept responsibility for labour conditions in their supply networks. If the movement wants to see substantial improvements in respect for sportswear workers’ trade union rights, then it needs to persuade sports companies to go further and make costly improvements to their labour rights programs. Relatively broad agreement across the movement on a system of rating companies’ progress would likely help achieve this ambitious goal, not least by offering opportunities for re-invigorating the movement itself.

In the context of a peripheral, small and largely resource-based economy, New Zealand’s economic policy makers have for long faced the key challenge of influencing global connections of local actors in value-adding activities. This dissertation seeks to interpret the nature and trajectories of governance activities relating to economic processes in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city-region, in the 1990’s and 2000’s. This period, a time of neoliberalising political-economic conditions following intensive economic restructuring in the 1980s, saw a re-entry of central government to the governing landscape of Auckland. The research focuses on how regional actors such as the Auckland Regional Growth Forum, the Auckland Regional Economic Development Strategy and the business-driven initiatives of ‘Competitive Auckland’, ‘Committee for Auckland’ and the ‘Knowledge Wave’ conferences, gradually became aligned with an emerging governmental project from central government that re-defined perceptions of and expectations about Auckland’s economic role. The research approach is informed by several literatures, especially those of the regulation, actor-network and governmentality schools. The different questions that spring from these literatures enable scrutiny of Auckland’s institutional developments in terms of the identification of interdependencies amongst governing interests, the nature and degree of mediation of investment processes from institutional experimentation and the possible emergence of effects from new governance arrangements. The thesis situates and uses the policy and academic positioning of the researcher to develop methodologies to interrogate the emergence of the material and discursive dimensions of the regional economic governance framework of Auckland. This thesis argues that ongoing institutional experimentation has been both a pre-cursor to and an active ingredient in the re-appearance of the New Zealand central state in Auckland’s economic governance. Importantly, governing is increasingly complex; and about mobilising a range of actors by influencing their perceptions about governing and investment goals through discursive governance practices. In this context, current socio-economic interventions can be best understood as contingent assemblages of governing resources, producing discursive alignments of interests that lead to a re-working of processes and practices of the state-regulatory apparatus. The effects of the institutional developments on private investment decisions are largely unknown however. While the emerging institutional framework for economic governance involving Auckland is increasingly embracing Auckland’s globalising character, influencing the city-region’s economic participation in the globalising world economy may be harder to achieve as a political project than current policy rhetoric implies. Theoretically, this research challenges territorial conceptualisations of political economic management and contributes to the wider development of a relational-institutional framework for understanding sub-national economic governance. Auckland, globalising economic processes, economic governance, state, institutions, policy, knowledge, contingency, regulation, discourses

Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2005.

Diss. Linköping : Linköpings universitet, 2005.