Papers by Erica Schoenberger
Academy of Management Review, Apr 1, 1998
... The cultural crisis of the firm. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Schoenberger, Erica J.... more ... The cultural crisis of the firm. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Schoenberger, Erica J. PUBLISHER: Blackwell Publishers (Cambridge, Mass.). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1997. PUB TYPE: Book (ISBN 1557866376 ). VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): ...
Blackwell Publishing Ltd eBooks, Sep 8, 2017
Taylor & Francis eBooks, Feb 16, 2010
Environment and Planning A, Oct 1, 1986
Dialogues in human geography, Jul 1, 2016
To address the deep contradictions in social and economic life that motivated Keynes, I propose a... more To address the deep contradictions in social and economic life that motivated Keynes, I propose a combination of “environmental Keynesianism” and “deep democracy.” Massive state investment in infrastructure and environmental remediation would be an excellent way of soaking up capital in the ground, thus responding to the overaccumulation crisis feared by Keynes. Deep democracy, proposed by Iris Marion Young, proposes a sustained political engagement at different scales with different interlocutors on different issues. This is a kind of politics that, she suggests, requires people to pay attention to each other’s circumstances, needs and beliefs and thereby arrive at outcomes perceived as fair and fairly arrived at.
Acta Sociologica, Jul 1, 1988
ABSTRACT
International Regional Science Review, Aug 1, 1988
The new international division of labor model assigns a major role to the multinational corporati... more The new international division of labor model assigns a major role to the multinational corporation as the orchestrator of a global reallocation of manufacturing away from core industrial countries towards the periphery. Here it is argued that the new international division of labor thesis construes too narrowly the relationship between technological and organizational change in production, cost competitiveness, and corporate location strategies. Further, understanding the role of the multinational corporation depends also on an analysis of the nature of output markets and the competitive strategies of firms. Evidence concerning the distribution of U.S. manufacturing investment abroad is presented, followed by a discussion of changes in production processes, markets, and competitive strategies as they influence international location choice.
Blackwell Publishing Ltd eBooks, Jan 14, 2008
This article examines the way in which our disciplinary discourse shapes our material practices a... more This article examines the way in which our disciplinary discourse shapes our material practices as researchers and our ways of thinking. It uses as a case study the term`competitiveness', considering its origins and meanings within economics and business, the way these are imported into our own work, and the consequences of an unexamined acceptance of the validity and meaning of the term. The article works through two examples of discourse in action, asking to what degree Nike's`competitiveness' depends on access to low-cost labour in offshore production sites, and whether the`competitiveness' of Baltimore would be harmed by adopting thè living wage' as the local minimum. The article argues the necessity of analysing ourselves as social and historical actors and assessing the way we work and the way we use language in order to strengthen our research and improve the standing of the discipline.
In this paper we examine the inevitable interconnection between engineering, economics and enviro... more In this paper we examine the inevitable interconnection between engineering, economics and environmental impact in the electricity industry, and how they shape the roles engineers can and should play in designing the energy systems of the future. Involvement of engineers needs to happen in two ways: engineers can bring a technological awareness to the policy debate; and engineers need to be able to identify and rethink their own assumptions about engineering problems, particularly during times of economic and regulatory change. In other words, engineers must help others rethink their assumptions, and engineers must allow others to help them rethink their own. But how do we know which assumptions are valid or invalid in times of change? Often qualitative methods and interdisciplinary collaboration can help.
The AAG review of books, Apr 3, 2018
Journal of Economic Geography, May 19, 2016
The conversation between economic geographers and political economists has not made much progress... more The conversation between economic geographers and political economists has not made much progress. The former focus on exchange, markets and efficiency, as can be seen in work on urban economies. We want the field to pay more attention to two processes crucial to the growth of cities often lying outside market exchange and agglomeration economies: how resources are managed across time and space and how the urban environment creates challenges demanding collective responses. We first make the case for the two processes using historical examples and then argue for the importance of similar processes today. We do not propose to make a definitive argument, but rather to challenge economic geographers with an expanded research agenda for the future.
cultural geographies, 2011
The paper proposes a social history of the value of gold that stresses its connection to the acqu... more The paper proposes a social history of the value of gold that stresses its connection to the acquisition, use and defense of social power. Gold’s natural scarcity has continually been reinforced by an artificial scarcity arising from how powerful groups have used it, but the ruling class monopoly of control has alternated with periods of more widespread social access. In one period, gold is very closely held by a small number of very high-status people, followed by a time, often related to war, when the distribution of gold is significantly expanded socially. Then gold is drawn back in to the center and is closely held once more. This pattern is evident in Antiquity and, surprisingly, the 20th century. The paper explores the way in which the value of things established under one social order may continue to inflect the perception of value in later periods.
Environment and Planning A, Apr 1, 1998
Environment and Planning A, Aug 19, 2016
My thought on finishing this book was that this was a book that needed to be written, although I ... more My thought on finishing this book was that this was a book that needed to be written, although I didn’t know that before I read it. It is original and more than thought-provoking: it really makes you think hard about what you think you know and why. Because The Great Leveler so ably occupies the high ground of theory and big-picture history, it is difficult to find a singular avenue of approach to analyzing it. What follows, then, is a collection of comments on different elements of the book. An important point, and one that the text doesn’t really announce, is that this is an intellectual as well as an economic history. The intellectual history has a dual focus. It traces mainstream theories and perceptions of monopoly and competition in the economies of the US and the UK as these bear on the thinking of the political establishment and the judiciary. This is critical for understanding why legislation and courtroom judgment viewed ‘excess’ industrial concentration or ‘excess’ competition as the greater threat to the stability of the system at any given moment. The second level of intellectual history traces the discussions within Marxism about the role of competition and monopoly in the functioning of the capitalist system and its tendency to crisis. Christophers retrieves an often-overlooked aspect of Marx’s analysis: against the notion that competition gives way eventually to monopoly capital in a linear historical trajectory (à la Baran and Sweezy), his central argument is that competition and monopoly are dialectically related. By this he means first that each calls forth the other: in the face of ‘excess’ competition that drives down the rate of profit, firms will begin to fail and others will be devoured until the industrial structure shifts towards monopoly, and in the face of ‘excess’ monopoly that raises prices and profits, new firms will spring up in competition. Christophers quotes Marx: ‘‘Monopoly produces competition, competition produces monopoly.’’ Further, the stability of the system requires a balance between the two forces – a kind of equilibrium of monopolistic competition – even though maintaining such a balance is well nigh impossible. As a result, the system tends to veer excessively towards one or the other until crisis looms, when ways are found to rebalance it – always for the time being. In this, Christophers draws heavily on Harvey’s characteristic line of argument that seeks to understand the stability conditions of the system in order to better get at how crises work and how the system survives them.
Habitat international, Oct 1, 2015
Four decades of reorganization of waste management in Kathmandu, Nepal funded by foreign aid fail... more Four decades of reorganization of waste management in Kathmandu, Nepal funded by foreign aid failed to provide adequate services and led to the return of riverbank waste disposal by 1994. To assess the results of foreign aid in waste management in Kathmandu from 1970 to 2010, the researchers utilized qualitative and field methods and examined three major international projects sponsored by the governments of Germany, India, and Japan. Results suggest that German aid was too technical, undermining municipal capacity and burdening the city with a second waste disposal institution while failing to sustain its own infrastructure. The Indian project lacked focus and follow up programs and encumbered a poor country with outdated equipment that did not meet the local needs. Japanese aid depended on wrong assumptions, stressing costly landfilling that employed heavy machinery and upgraded equipment inappropriate for local conditions. The study recommends that Nepal institute bottom-up and participatory style of waste management that identifies where the resources will come from, who will manage them, and how they will be sustained.
Waste Management & Research, Apr 9, 2017
Solid waste management in Nairobi County is a growing threat to environmental health and wellbein... more Solid waste management in Nairobi County is a growing threat to environmental health and wellbeing if the policy implementation is not governed appropriately. Dumpsites are sprouting everywhere exposing the inefficiencies in the policy implementation in Solid Waste Management. Environmental governance takes center stage in setting standards in policy implementation in terms of capacity, financial prudence and enforcement. The study was guided by this objective; to analyze the existing policy framework on solid waste management and its effectiveness in addressing SWM in Nairobi County. The study adopted descriptive research design, interrogating the stakeholders involved in the implementation of the policy frameworks in place through a good governance practices. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires administered to 385 respondents and 10 key informants' interviews with specialization in Solid Waste Management. The theoretical framework was based on Institutional theory and capacity building theories which expound the gaps in policy implementation. Environmental Governance in SWM dominates the development agenda and is key to sustainable waste management. This paper highlights the role of environmental governance in the context of policy implementation and the constraints.
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Papers by Erica Schoenberger