SheBelieves,but does she? Complicating white women’s understandings of the postfeminist-neoliberal empowerment discourse

Abstract

Though the academic literature focused on postfeminism, neoliberalism, and the relationship between the two is considerable, there is little exploration of these conjoined discourses as they relate to leisure culture in general, and women’s sporting lives in particular. At the level of lived experience, scholars have yet to empirically examine how women engage and are affected by the empowerment discourse punctuating many aspects of postfeminism. This study uses the U.S. Soccer Federation’s 2015 SheBelieves Campaign as an empirical site for critically examining women’s attitudes toward, and experiences of, issues of empowerment, feminism, and sexism associated with what scholars have labelled the postfeminist-neoliberal moment (McRobbie, 2009 McRobbie, A. (2009). The aftermath of feminism; gender, culture and social change. London, England: Sage. [Google Scholar]; Rottenberg, 2014 Rottenberg, C. (2014). The rise of neoliberal feminism. Cultural Studies, 28(3), 418–437. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.857361[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Working at the intersection of leisure studies, feminism, and physical cultural studies, this research provides a window into the complicated, and sometimes contradictory, ways women view and experience neoliberal empowerment discourses within and through sporting elements of their leisure lifestyles.     

Is bank staff interaction associated with customer saving behavior in banks?

Major changes are underway in the U.S. retail banking sector toward heavy investments in technology and fewer in personnel. Using the 2017 survey of household economics and decision‐making (SHED) (n = 11,359), we examine the relationship between saving behavior related to emergency, long‐term and periodic expenses and personal, technological, and hybrid bank account access methods. Binary logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds of reporting various saving behaviors in relation to various banking access methods. Findings suggest that the personal access method is positively associated with savings behavior for periodic expenses for the general population, and negatively associated with emergency savings in people with lower education attainment. Technology is associated with all types of saving behavior, while the hybrid access method is associated only with saving for periodic expenses. As investments in self‐service technology increase, the importance of access methods to savings behavior must be considered.     

Foreign inflows and economic growth: An emiprical study of the SAARC region

The study examines and highlights the impact of selected foreign inflows (aid, trade, FDI, debt and remittances) on the economic growth of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries. The existent literature lacks a comprehensive analysis of the SAARC countries as countries like Afghanistan, Bhutan and the Maldives have largely been ignored due to the shorter time periods of available data. The study is empirical in nature and utilizes panel data techniques on macroeconomic data for the period 2008–2015. Foreign aid and foreign direct investment are found to impact economic growth positively. Foreign debt and trade flows are found to adversely affect economic growth. No relationship is established between the flow of remittances and the economic growth of these countries. The obtained results are robust to different proxy variables and the addition of macroeconomic variables. For the first time, the study provides policy implications based on the data of all SAARC countries. The study recommends focusing on increasing the inflows of resources in the form of aid and foreign direct investment (FDI) from the developed world to achieve higher economic growth.     

From Socialist Subject to Capitalist Object: Industry Enclave Life Past and Present in Wuhan

There is no better place to explore the relationship of industry enclaves to urban life than China, where traditional danweis (work units) have coexisted with new foreign direct investment enclaves. Here we draw on original interviews with workers at Wuhan Iron and Steel Company (WISCO) and Foxconn in the city of Wuhan to examine industry enclaves old and new in terms of their spatial arrangement, work, institutions, and social life and identity. The article is one of the first to integrate urban and economic geographical perspectives on the subject of enclaves. It provides evidence of similarities and contrasts in the spatial arrangement of work, institutions, life and identity centred on industry enclaves old and new. These contrasts reflect wider relations between the state and the market and between social subject and commodified labour in China. In conclusion, we identify several research directions concerning the scale, diversity and reach of urban enclavism in China and beyond.     

Prediction regions for interval-valued time series

We approximate probabilistic forecasts for interval-valued time series by offering alternative approaches. After fitting a possibly non-Gaussian bivariate vector autoregression (VAR) model to the center/log-range system, we transform prediction regions (analytical and bootstrap) for this system into regions for center/range and upper/lower bounds systems. Monte Carlo simulations show that bootstrap methods are preferred according to several new metrics. For daily S&P 500 low/high returns, we build joint conditional prediction regions of the return level and volatility. We illustrate the usefulness of obtaining bootstrap forecasts regions for low/high returns by developing a trading strategy and showing its profitability when compared to using point forecasts.     

‘Real without being concrete’: the ontology of public concern and its significance for the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF)

Abstract

Public concern is a pivotal notion in the risk perception, communication and management literature. It is, for example, a central concept with regard to the social amplification of risk, and as a justification for policy attention. Despite its ubiquity, the notion of public concern remains a ‘black box’ presenting a poorly understood state of affairs as a reified matter-of-fact. Paying attention to the deployment and metrics of public concern, and the work it is required to do, will enhance the power of approaches to understanding risk, and policymaking. Thus, the broad purpose of this paper is to unpack the notion of public concern by adopting an ontological yet critical perspective, drawing on a range of literature that considers ontology. We reflect on how publics and public concern have been conceptualised with regard to the dichotomies of individual/social and private/public, given that they imply different levels and dimensions of concern. We draw on empirical work that illuminates the assessment and measurement of public concern and how the public have responded to risk events. Considering public concern through an ontological lens affords a means of drawing renewed critical attention to objects that might otherwise appear finished or ready-made.     

Forensic accounting services in English local government and the counter-fraud agenda

ABSTRACT

Fraud is a growing challenge for English local government, yet the resources and support local authorities (LAs) have available to prevent, detect and investigate it are limited. Forensic accounting services (FAS) provided by external specialist private sector firms, particularly those undertaking mandatory external audit, might be one solution. Research reported in this paper suggests, however, that existing English LA users are not all convinced. Nevertheless, better awareness and understanding of what FAS have to offer, perhaps through case studies of successful implementation, would be a valuable contribution to helping local government enhance its counter-fraud capabilities and make informed decisions about how best to meet the increasingly complex fraud challenge.     

Comparative Urbanism and the ‘Asian City': Implications for Research and Theory

While voices in the comparative urbanism literature call for researchers to approach comparison with more experimental and critical methodologies, there remains no consensus on how to design and realize these studies. This essay examines the implications of comparative urbanism for researching the ‘Asian City'. Given the critique of existing modes of comparison embedded in recent calls for a new comparative urbanism, researchers are faced with a number of pressing questions: How do we approach this ‘regional' topic in a way that both resists categorizing the ‘Asian City' as an exotic ‘other', elevating it onto a mythical pedestal, yet appreciates its differences, localisms and unique ‘cosmopolitan vernacular' (Clifford, 1997; Werbner and Modood, 1997)? This essay thus highlights the multiple challenges of applying the comparative lens to the ‘Asian City', arguing that broader conceptualizations of the ‘Asian City' help to address the dangers in isolating Asian research into its own canon of parochial urban theory and offering a greater diversity of possibilities for justifying case selection in comparative approaches. In doing so, we hope that this essay responds to the comparative turn by illuminating to some extent its inherent complexity and methodological challenges.     

Heigh Ho,Heigh Ho: flexible labor contracts with real option characteristics

Business Economics - What is the strategic value of flexible labor contracts to workers? To answer this question, we examine workers’ labor supply decisions when choosing among alternative...