J. Shield Nicholson's Project of Empire: The Edinburgh Economist Evolved from a Free Trader into a Premier Apologist for Imperialism

Abstract . In the world economy at the turn of the century, great empires competed for position—those of Great Britain, the newly imperialistic United States, Germany, France and others. Britain, champion of free trade, finding its world status weakened by rising colonial nationalism, became racked with debate over imperial union or federation, empire free trade, preferential tariffs or protectionism, a common defense or independent strategy. A key figure in the controversies was J. Shield Nicholson, who evolved from a free trader into an imperialist apologist. Nicholson foresaw some of the problems the neglect of which explain in part the eventual dissolution of the empire: the colonies as sources of raw materials and foodstuffs or of manufactures, the allocation of the costs of defense and the protection of the mother country's economy. The debates, and especially the evolution of Nicholson's positions, illustrate how economic ideologies developed during the period.     

More than just a special case: The value of double bind theory for bringing light into the dark side of organizational paradoxes

In their recently published article, Berti and Simpson introduced a comprehensive framework for the systematic analysis of the dark side of organizational paradoxes. While I follow the authors in connecting the analysis of this dark side to types of organizational power, I am concerned with the narrow view on double binds as an expression of coercions only. This narrow view not only runs counter to the basic idea of double bind theory, but also neglects or even denies transition dynamics between different types of organizational double binds. To address these issues, I develop an alternative framework for the analysis of the dark side of organizational power that considers double binds in a broader and more fruitful way. This framework not only facilitates the analysis of transition dynamics between types of double binds, but also reveals practical strategies for mitigating paradoxes and disentangling them from implicit structures that are in the blind spot of Berti and Simpson's framework.