The political economy of an African public enterprise: A longitudinal case study of the administrative and economic operations of the Sierra Leone Port Organization

1984 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Fashole Luke
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Public Enterprise ◽  
The Political ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study

Language Movement and Civil War in West Africa

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ericka A. Albaugh
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Language Spread ◽  
The 1960S

This chapter examines how civil war can influence the spread of language. Specifically, it takes Sierra Leone as a case study to demonstrate how Krio grew from being primarily a language of urban areas in the 1960s to one spoken by most of the population in the 2000s. While some of this was due to “normal” factors such as population movement and growing urbanization, the civil war from 1991 to 2002 certainly catalyzed the process of language spread in the 1990s. Using census documents and surveys, the chapter tests the hypothesis at the national, regional, and individual levels. The spread of a language has political consequences, as it allows for citizen participation in the political process. It is an example of political scientists’ approach to uncovering the mechanisms for and evidence of language movement in Africa.

scholarly journals Distributing productive play: a materialist analysis of Steam

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Interaction Design ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sales Promotions ◽  
Historical Continuity ◽  
New Space ◽  
A Site

Valve Corporation’s digital game distribution platform, Steam, is the largest distributor of games on personal computers, analyzed here as a site where control over the production, design and use of digital games is established. Steam creates and exercises processes and techniques such as monopolization and enclosure over creative products, online labour, and exchange among game designers. Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding framework places communication at the centre of the political economy, here of digital commodities distributed and produced by online platforms like Steam. James Gibson’s affordance theory allows the market Steam’s owners create for its users to be cast in terms of visuality and interaction design. These theories are largely neglected in the existing literature in game studies, platform studies, and political economy, but they allow intervention in an ongoing debate concerning the ontological status of work and play as distinct, separate human activities by offering a specific focus on the political economy of visual or algorithmic communication. Three case studies then analyze Steam as a site where the slippage between game-play and work is constant and deepening. The first isolates three sales promotions on Steam as forms of work disguised as online shopping. The second is a discourse analysis of a crisis within the community of mod creators for the game Skyrim, triggered by changes implemented on Steam. The third case study critiques Valve Corporation’s positioning of Steam as a new space to extract value from play by demonstrating historical continuity with consumer monopolies. A concluding discussion argues Steam is a platform that evolves to meet distinct crises and problems in the production and circulation of its digital commodities as contradictions arise. Ultimately, Steam shows how the cycle of capital accumulation encourages monopolization and centralization.

Accounting for the Corporate: An Analytic Framework for Understanding Corporations in Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 232-240
Author(s):  
Kathryn Moeller
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
The Political ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Analytic Framework

Drawing on an integrative review of the literature on the privatization of education and an empirical case study of technology corporations in education, this article examines the corporate within the political economy of education. It argues that by analytically conceiving of corporations under the banner of the private sphere and, correspondingly, by subsuming the processes of corporatization within the processes of privatization, the literature on privatization conceals the very specific role and influence of corporations. The article puts forward an analytic framework for researching and theorizing corporations in education. How the field of education conceives of corporate actors and their related practices, processes, and power relations is analytically and empirically significant for ensuring equitable, transparent, and accountable educational systems in the United States and globally.

Women in Rebellion

2018 ◽  
pp. 488-500
Author(s):  
Zoe Marks
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
The Political ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
Political Entrepreneurship ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Intimate Partnerships ◽  
Experiences Of Women ◽  
Insight Into

A key objective for the women, peace, and security agenda going forward is to disaggregate the experiences of women as a group, and to understand how gender functions in conflict contexts. This chapter focuses on the diverse roles of female combatants in rebel groups to gain insight into how power is distributed, not only between men and women, or combatants and civilians, but within groups. Rebel groups are characterized by military and political apparatuses that are built side by side and often entangled. Organizational power structures are often dominated by men, but not exclusively so. Using interviews and archival data from the Sierra Leone Civil War case study, this chapter delivers an analysis of women’s experiences in rebel movements. It explores the individual trajectories of mobilization and victimization in Sierra Leone. Next, it examines the unique experiences of female combatants, before situating them in the broader political context. Finally, the chapter considers cases of sexual violence, intimate partnerships, conflict among women, and the political entrepreneurship of elite women to understand female participation in rebellion in its entirety.

scholarly journals The Political Economy of Policy Reform: Insights from Southeast Asia

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hal Hill
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
The Political ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Economics And Politics ◽  
Political Economy Of Reform

Economists broadly agree on many key economic policy issues, but economics as a discipline has provided much less guidance on why and how economic policy reform occurs and how to develop institutional mechanisms that enable governments to adopt “good” economic policy. Political scientists are adept at identifying coalitions, constituencies, institutions, and interest groups, but they less commonly examine the implications for economic policy. Thus, work at the intersection between economics and politics—of why and how policy reform takes place—remains relatively unexplored territory. This is especially so in developing countries where political processes are more personalistic, institutions often less well established, outcomes more fluid, and the detailed case study literature on economic policy making still in its infancy. This paper provides an analytical survey of economic policy reform in Southeast Asia. It ranges across the major policy U-turns and the incremental reforms, with special reference to macroeconomic management and trade policy. On the basis of several case studies and set against the broader international literature, we advance nine conclusions on the political economy of reform.

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