Privatization

Advanced  by  powerful  venture  philanthropies,  educational  technology companies, and the US Department of Education, a growing movement to apply ‘big data’ through ‘learning analytics’ to create ‘personalized learning’ is currently underway in K-12 education in the United States. While scholars have offered various critiques of the corporate school reform agenda, the role  of  personalized  learning  technology  in  the  corporatization  of  public education has not been extensively examined. Through a content analysis of US Department of Education reports, personalized learning advocacy white papers,  and  published  research  monographs,  this  paper  details  how  big data and adaptive learning systems are functioning to redefine educational policy,  teaching,  and  learning  in  ways  that  transfer  educational  decisions from public school classrooms and teachers to private corporate spaces and authorities. The analysis shows that all three types of documents position education within a reductive set of economic rationalities that emphasize human capital development, the expansion of data-driven instruction and decision-making,  and  a  narrow  conception  of  learning  as  the  acquisition of  discrete  skills  and  behavior  modification  detached  from  broader  social contexts and culturally relevant forms of knowledge and inquiry. The paper concludes  by  drawing  out  the  contradictions  inherent  to  personalized learning technology and corporatization of schooling. It argues that these contradictions necessitate a broad rethinking of the value and purpose of new educational technology.

O objetivo deste artigo é examinar a evolução do direito de acesso à água, desde a perspectiva internacional global, passando pela regulação comparada na América do Sul, até o surgimento e a implementação do arcabouço regulatório brasileiro. Para atingir tal objetivo, analisou-se a formação do direito internacional de acesso à água, ressaltando o seu aspecto predominantemente econômico, bem como as políticas de privatização e monetarização da água enquanto bem de consumo, dotado de valor financeiro, apesar de já despontar no cenário internacional o reconhecimento do acesso à água como um direito humano. Visitaram-se os casos de Bolívia e Brasil, lugares onde o valor econômico da água redundou em privação do direito humano de acesso à água e de seus consectários, como dignidade humana e vida. Conclui-se que há dois macro-movimentos globais paralelos: o hegemônico, que defende o valor econômico da água e que tende à privatização do recurso, dificultando seu acesso aos mais vulneráveis e possibilitando futuros conflitos pelo direito à água; e o movimento que defende o acesso à água como um direito humano, ou mesmo como sujeito de direito e destinatário da norma, que tem embasado uma postura contra-hegemônica à comoditização dos “recursos” naturais. O presente artigo caracteriza-se como descritivo, exploratório e de natureza bibliográfica.

Shopping malls are often criticised as a cause of the privatisation of public space and the erosion of the public sphere. Some authors argue that to fight these negative processes, shopping malls should be considered equivalent to public spaces, and therefore entail the same rules enforced in public spaces (for instance, the right to free admission and to free speech). In our opinion these approaches are unsound. In this paper we argue that: 1) shopping malls do not necessarily entail a privatisation of public space, nor necessarily any erosion of the public sphere; 2) because they are not public spaces, they cannot be considered equivalent to them; 3) they are highly open access (compared to many other kinds of both private and public spaces), and the limits they impose on some political activities are, under certain conditions, acceptable. This does not mean that the owners of private spaces are completely free to act as they choose; it means that they cannot be equated with public entities that manage spaces that belong to the public.

Social science researchers interested in human health have generally neglected the production of health care spaces and the experience of medical workers, particularly physicians. Health care researchers have contributed to our knowledge of the discursive and material construction of disease and ill health, the
embodied experience of ill-health, and the socio-spatial relations of care networks. Yet, similar developments have been relatively absent in spatialities of medical services. This is particularly true if one looks beyond a few key sites in New Zealand, Canada, and England. This project reviews the geographies of medical services literature and then identifies three key areas which would benefit from greater engagement: macro- and micro-scale interactions, primary care spaces, and a greater range of places. I then use
a case study of the privatization of a primary care space in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to illustrate the usefulness of geographic approaches for medical service research.

בשנים האחרונות, עקב מספר תהליכים בהם קיצוץ בתקציב  הביטחון, שינוי תפיסות, ושינויים מבניים החל הצבא להפריט מספר תחומים. ככל שחולף הזמן יש יותר תחומים בצבא שמופרטים ולמעשה, הצבא "קונה"  שרות מהמגזר האזרחי ומכניס ל"שותפות" אתו שחקנים נוספים. דרכם הצבא מכניס  גם משאבים נוספים שלא עמדו לרשותו. התוצאות של המהלכים הללו זה צמצום ניכר בכמות אנשי המקצוע שלו (קצינים ונגדים המקבילים למגזר הציבורי במדינה). זאת ועוד, הצבא נחשף לסכנות של אבדן בלעדיות בתחומים שעד לא מכבר היו נתונים רק לשליטתו והחלטותיו. נשאלת השאלה, האם הצבא נמצא בתהליך של התרוקנות או שמדובר בתופעה  אחרת?

SEBASTIAN FITZEK SIMONA MARIA STĂNESCU n acest articol ne-am propus să analizăm principalele teme de reformă şi dezvoltare a programelor politice aflate la guvernare în perioada de tranziţie, pe două dimensiuni: a. stabilirea unor comportamente ale partidelor în contextul pluripartidismului ca element fundamental al jocurilor democratice; b. o analiză a raporturilor dintre programe şi cadrele ideologice. Articolul include trei părţi: o descriere generală a reformelor şi a deciziilor guvernamentale adoptate în primii ani de după Revoluţie; analiza tendinţelor şi transformarea sistemică în tipologia partidelor politice româneşti şi o evaluare a programelor de reformă a partidelor aflate la guvernare. Selecţia partidelor propuse pentru analiză a fost proiectată urmând două dimensiuni: analiza evoluţiei programelor şi a marilor teme care au marcat procesele de reformă economică şi politică. Programele electorale ale partidelor postdecembriste sunt astăzi legitimate de triumfalismul discursului populist, ineficient şi nesustenabil în procesele de guvernare. Conform teoriei alegerilor raţionale, scăderea competiţiei dintre partide, precum şi eficienţa unor aranjamente instituţionale trebuie să fie corelată cu resursele folosite de partide, precum şi cu costurile şi beneficiile rezultate în urma implementării unor anumite politici publice. Cuvinte-cheie: programe politice, ideologii, partide politice, tranziţie, reforme, privatizare. O DESCRIERE GENERALĂ A REFORMELOR ŞI A DECIZIILOR GUVERNAMENTALE IMPORTANTE ADOPTATE ÎN PRIMII ANI DE DUPĂ REVOLUŢIE În proaspătul drum spre capitalism, nevoia unei reforme economice care să legitimeze schimbarea ireversibilă a ordinii social-politice a fost una dintre priorităţile primelor guverne postdecembriste. Programul elaborat de academicianului Tudorel Postolache şi-a propus o "revoluţie managerială" aplicată în zona întreprinderilor

Longish Description, concentrating on the theoretical content:

The book has a very broad purview.  It examines paradigm change in several areas, including economic policy and welfare provision, but focusing on education reform. 

Accordingly, it has as one, among several alternative titles, including
SOCIAL LEARNING IN AN ERA OF TRANSNATIONALISM:  
Coalitions and the Effect of Neo-Liberalism on Institutional Models and
SOCIAL LEARNING AND HEGEMONY:  Framing Education Reform in the US

Most relevant, however, are two other alternates:
MARKET EMULATION MODELS IN EDUCATION REFORM, 
4th Order Change and Cultural Development Pathways:
Aristotle's 4 Causes, Social Learning and Theories of Hegemony
 and
4TH ORDER CHANGE AND EDUCATION REFORM:
Market Emulation Models, Aristotle's 4 Causes, 
Peter Hall's Social Learning and Theories of Hegemony

The phrase '4th order change' references Peter Hall’s 1993 article on social learning, compares his 3 orders of change to Gramsci's theory of hegemony, suggesting the struggles of hegemony are the arena of a 4th order of change. 

I add a 4th order of paradigm change – what I call changes in ideo-utopian visions – to arrive at 4 Levels of Analysis of Social Learning, the first three more or less from Hall, the last from Gramsci, although I will argue that some of the other levels are also present in his work: 
1. 'Settings' – how policy makers experiment with policy instruments, such as tax rates or the federal reserve rate.
2.  'Instruments'  – Methods by which policy goals are realized (or sought to be realized), such as choosing between an Income Tax, Tariffs, Value Added Taxes, etc.
3. 'Policy Goals and Political Coalitions'  – The selection of goals and the forming of decisive political coalitions, such as those behind Thatcher and Ronald Reagan's electoral victories, but which could be extended to the creation of historic blocs that supported the implementation of Neo-liberal policies in Chile and other countries.
4. 'Ideo-Utopian Visions'  – The shared understandings Political Coalitions use to justify their policies, whether by ideology (i.e., Keynesian and Social Welfare approaches versus Monetarist and Hayek-infused approaches), through campaign and their slogans (i.e., The New Frontier and Morning in America or manipulation of language (i.e., 'The Death Tax' and the meaning of the word 'trust').

This obviously casts a wide net.  However, it puts these in historical context by looking at the conditions that made possible the advent of neoliberalism through several pathways:  by force of arms in Chile, through the ballot box in the UK and the US, and with the aid of International Financial Institutions, such as the IMF, in much of the developing world. 

The main topic is how public K-12 education in the US has been affected.  Robert Slavin once noted that education in the US has been in “an uninterrupted state of reform . . .  since the publication of A NATION AT RISK “ in 1983 under the first Reagan-Bush Administration. RISK, like other influential documents before it, linked the nation’s temporary failures in international competition to the systematic failures of the school system.  Purposes of education were narrowed, with civics, art and music, physical education being marginalized and Science Technology Engineering and Math programs (STEM) programs expanded.  The emphasis became job and college readiness.  Accountability became a watchword of those called for systematic reform and a single metric of  'achievement' – achievement measured by standardized tests – became ascendant. 

Herbert M. Kliebard's THE STRUGGLE FOR THE AMERICAN CURRICULUM, 1893-1958, there are four types of curricula that have vied for dominance in American schools: 1) Social Efficiency, which  urges that schools be oriented to economic needs and training of the work force.  2) Humanism, or the Liberal Arts tradition,  emphasizes general intellectual skills and familiarity with the cultural traditions of society and understanding of other cultures.  3) Social Meliorism sees the schools as an instrument for social, political and economic change.  4) Developmentalism which starts with the psychological development of the learner and the needs of the individual learner. 

For the last 40 years, the first goal has eclipsed the others.  Moreover, Social Efficiency had been defined in terms of economic goals and the Humanist perspective has been challenged by the ideal of a 'modern individual,' competitive, entrepreneurial and acquisitive, in keeping with the creation of a 'nation of owners'.”  Accordingly, Social Meliorism has a new, highly influential school, with roots  in the works of Joseph Schumpeter and Ayn Rand, in which the entrepreneur is the hero of history.  Finally, Developmentalism, in the Neoliberal view, can be adequately addressed through Skinneresque theories and a type of mechanical causalism in which incentives, primarily monetary incentives, create the motive force of social change.

The central enquiry is theoretical – a connection between the theory of Gramscian hegemony and accounts of Social Learning in the social sciences literature.  Gramsci's work is concerned. in large part, with how we conceive of things.  Hall is concerned with the paradigms by which we understand phenomena and implement policy. My argument is that thery are complimentary – that what we normally refer to as cultural or ideological hegemony constitutes, is an extension of Hall's terminology, a 4th order of change. 

Hall famously (if you an academic with a taste for macro-economic policy analysis) built on accounts of social learning and policy learning, such as those put forth by Hugh Heclo.  Of his three orders of policy change and social learning, two were based on the study of state-centric models in which the decision makers were relatively insulated from public pressure.

Third order change was something different, however – a paradigm change usually caused by (or at least occasioned by) the failure of policy and involving sociological and discursive factors.  Thus something like the concept of hegemony seems to be implicit in Hall's original 1993 article. 

I point to the most general epistemological paradox: Facts without concepts are blind, concepts without facts are empty. This is directly descended from Kant's statement, “Thoughts without content [observations, facts] are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.” 

In Kant's framework, all mental activity results either from affection (receptivity) or from the mind’s self-prompted activity (spontaneity). Kant conceives of the mind as constituted by two fundamental capacities, which he labels “receptivity” [Receptivität] and “spontaneity” [Spontaneität]. The former is the mind’s capacity to be affected and produce “representations” [Vorstellungen]; the latter, however, comes from the mind itself without any external stimulus.

This leads to his distinction between “sensibility” [Sinnlichkeit], “understanding” [Verstand], and “reason” [Vernunft].  Sensibility is very much in the moment, Understanding has a largely analytic function (trying to break down the objects of sensibility), while Reason has a largely synthetic function (trying to unify the objects of sensibility into a coherent system).  This tension between Reason and Understanding manifests itself in the antinomies, which are the core paradoxes of the Kantian system.  Moreover, the tension presents a general danger; as argued by Gramsci, analytical distinctions which are treated as organic realities are worse than blind facts – they not only blind us, but can point us in the wrong direction and keep us from seeing properly. 

Eventually, I argue this is not a paradox because there are always feedbacks and interactions between the two.  In fact, I think of them not as two things, but as two faces of the same thing which we distinguish analytically and sometimes forget how they are organically united. And paradoxes, apparent or real, are important:  The force of paradoxes is that they are not contradictory; they rather allow us to be present at the genesis of the contradiction.

My reconstruction of Hall adds a 4th order or change, applying Aristotle's 4 causes and the introduction of theories of hegemony to explain 3rd and, especially, 4th order changes.  It also makes reference to Kant's antinomies, of which, like Aristotle's causes and the revamped orders of change,  there are 4.

I seek to make a connection between Aristotle's 4 causes and Kant's 4 Antinomies, but it is the latter which is most relevant.  For Kant, each antinomy describes a tension between the analytic and synthetic faculties of consciousness. I argue that this corresponds to the tension between the Incremental and the Constructionist.  It is a long argument, but I believe it is worthwhile and provides insight into paradigm change, whether in education, welfare provision or economic policy.

In the 1980s, and especially in the 1990s, the European countries went through a phase of privatization, which radically reduced the reach of the post-WWII welfare state.  The rationale for such an exercise varied, as did the forms of privatization across sectors, countries and time.  Irrespectively of such variations, however, privatization has been described as “… a stage in the evolution of capitalism … (representing) a shift in the relations between the state, society and the economy which is a pervasive process in political, social and economic terms” (Frangakis et al, 2009:10)[2].  The public debt crisis has deepened this shift in favour of private sector interests, as the Greek experience amply demonstrates.

Understanding contemporary conflicts in Africa remains directly dependent on the approaches employed to decipher or interpret them. This article first examines the bias of conventional approaches (inherited from the Cold War) and then those of a series of supposedly “newer” approaches. Relying primarily on West African examples, it offers a brief overview of current knowledge, issues, and avenues for research, based on three apparent characteristics of a “new generation” of conflicts: the regionalization of wars, the privatization of violence and security, and the recourse to extreme forms of brutality. These three major trends bear witness to a rapid transformation of war and armed violence over the past 20 years, but they are not sufficient to establish a radical historical break between “old” and “new” conflicts in Africa. By concealing elements of continuity a priori, the most influential “new” approaches actually make it impossible to ponder their own limits. To that end, fashionability and struggles for influence within the Africanist field play a major role in perpetuating dominant, sensationalistic, or simplistic (and invariably incorrect) portrayals of African conflicts.

A safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation service for all individuals is a human right recognized explicitly from the United Nations General Assembly (Resolution 64/292, July 2010). Access to clean drinking water is so crucial for development that developed countries have made significant investments in water infrastructure (production, distribution investments in investments in piping, pumps, water purification systems and wastewater treatment plants etc.), managerial structures and capacities. The picture is very different in developing countries. One of the main problems is the lack of efficiency of the water systems, leading to a higher loss rate (from system leakage and illegal connections to the system) and cost-recovery failure because of the low revenues from tap water sales. In most of the cases governments fail to finance the financial loss of the water suppliers and in this way fail to fulfill the public need for drinking water and sanitation and water treatment services. So an alternative to solve the situation is seen the privatization of drinking water sector. The paper will give a summarized picture of the phenomenon in the world having as the case study the situation in Albania during years starting from the legislative frame, previous attempts to future tendencies related to the privatization of drinking water sector. The main objective is to explore the arguments pros and cons related to the privatization of " an economic good " such as water suggesting different alternatives in this context.

New policies require legitimacy to survive. Prison privatization represents a policy challenged by initial perceptions of illegitimacy. In the 1980s, governments began to allow private firms to run correctional facilities, shifting an inherently coercive, traditionally governmental function—incarceration—to the private sector. With data from 706 articles in four major American newspapers spanning 24 years, this research uses Freudenburg and Alario’s concept of diversionary reframing to measure and track the moral legitimacy of prison privatization across time and place. Findings suggest that initially high levels of moral legitimacy facilitated some states’ adoption of private prisons, while initially low levels of moral legitimacy stunted the growth of privatization in other states. This study presents a novel way of measuring moral legitimacy, demonstrates how the concept may be used to help explain controversial public policy changes, and documents the cultural content of private prison debates in the United States.

This book aims to contextualize the debate of PSP and then present
the research findings. It starts by outlining the research objectives and
the framework. It then presents a historical perspective of PSP in the
water supply sector. In the third section, it tries to argue that water is
a different kind of good which merits different the adoption of policy
options. In the fourth section it presents the arguments for PSP,
some statistics and why there was an increase in PSP in the 1990s
and the early years of the twenty-first century. In the fifth section
it discusses why social policies and public provision were historically
important in increasing access to an affordable water supply. The final
section presents the research findings and shows why policy makers
should not forget about social policies when reforming their water
sector.

Belarus, as one of the least reformed post-Soviet countries, needs a large-scale privatization. Two attempts of privatization (1990-1996 and 2007-2013) failed, market reforms were stopped and reversed by Nomenklatura and President Alaksandr Lukashenka. Protracted reforms have led to companies’ inefficiency and long-time economic stagnation. In this paper, I emphasize mistakes and provide some recommendations for what could be done better. It is essential to combine different forms of privatization, including management/employees buyout and sellings to foreign companies through transparent auctions. This would help to destroy existing state monopoly and informal networks, integrate economy of Belarus into the international market, and attract investments for making companies more competitive.

Al considerar la orientación hacia la competencia y el mercado que han adoptado múltiples sistemas educativos durante las últimas décadas, el artículo analiza las características, consecuencias y principales implicancias de la instalación de estas lógicas en el campo educacional, a partir del estudio de un caso paradigmático: el sistema escolar chileno. Así, se muestra cómo este sistema, organizado en torno a la dimisión del rol del Estado, la centralidad de lo privado, la implementación de subsidios a la demanda y la generación
de fuertes políticas de rendición de cuentas, ha potenciado y profundizado fenómenos de segregación educativa, reducción de la libertad de elección y movilización social en el país,
produciendo transformaciones en las estructuras, procesos y resultados educativos. Frente a este escenario, se discute la necesidad y posibilidad de construir una nueva lógica educacional, basadas en la reflexividad, el desarrollo del espíritu crítico, el accountability inteligente y la formación integral.

The privatization of basic needs provision has seen a related and increasing reliance on corporate-community partnerships in serving the “last mile.” These relationships often seem promising because they suggest mutual benefit—corporations expand their customer base, while communities gain access to improved services. Indeed, the success of Manila’s water privatization project hinges in large part on the two utilities’ partnerships with community-based organizations to extend services to low-income areas.

Despite the promise of mutuality, Manila has seen localized contestations over this setup, as some communities sense disparities between their terms of access and those of households that are directly served by the utilities. However, rather than being targeted at the utilities, those challenges largely focus on the small providers—paradoxically, it is the community-based cooperatives and entrepreneurs that are accused of capitalistic exploitation. By distancing themselves from low-income communities, the utilities become relatively intangible, state-like entities, their financial motivations obscured from ordinary citizens. In contrast, community-based organizations are at the frontline—collecting payments, monitoring for theft, and seemingly earning profits at the expense of their neighbors. Corporate-community partnerships thus create an uneven terrain of empowerment, cooptation, and politicization, refocusing debates at a local level. In so doing, they alter the ways in which citizens view public, private, and community entities, complicating the public/private binaries that often dominate debates on privatization.

Bundeskoordination Internationalismus:
Seminar und Veranstaltung in Berlin:
“Von Bischofferode nach Athen
Die deutsche Vereinigungspolitik und die Zukunft der EU”
21.-23.10.2016
Vladimiro Giacché
Anschluss. Die deutsche Vereinigung und die Zukunft Europas
Text für den Vortrag, am 22.10.2016 zu halten

La privatización de la tierra fue un proceso de adaptación de la economía salvadoreña como respuesta a la transformación del mercado internacional donde a través de las reformas liberales se generó un transición en la concentración de producción del añil al café, suceso que desenlaza una cambio en los recursos de producción agrícola, en este caso, la tierra; sin embargo, las causas de dicha reforma y el papel que jugó en el país varían de acuerdo a la interpretaciones socio-históricas con que se analiza la temática. Antes, es importante conocer el contexto político y social en el que se produce esta transición. Antes de la independencia las instituciones coloniales se habían encargado de dirimir sus desacuerdos con la tradición indígena, al desaparecer las autoridades españolas los conflictos entre las clases antagónicas estallaron. En esta escena nos encontramos a los liberales, los conservadores y la población aborigen indígena. Los conservadores querían mantener las mismas autoridades y en la medida de lo posible el mismo sistema; por otro lado, los liberales querían cambiar la forma de gobierno; y finalmente, nos encontramos con la antigua tradición que se encontró amenazada por los nuevos idearios inspirados por la economía liberal y la ilustración. "Los liberales apoyaban la liberación del comercio, la separación entre iglesia y estado, la abolición de privilegios y el régimen federal. Los conservadores se identificaban con mayores restricciones al comercio, el mantenimiento de estrechos vínculos entre el estado y las autoridades eclesiásticas y la vigencia de las instituciones antiguas… Las diferencias cambiaron a través del tiempo…" (Ministerio de Educación, 1994) Desde de la instauración de la República las ansias por liberar las tierras e introducir reformas radicales era evidente. El líder independentista Juan Manuel Rodríguez en 1824 decía: "las tierras están mal repartidas…los indígenas poseen la mayor parte… e impiden que cultiven las demás tribus… la ley de igualdad debe abolir todo derecho particular…" 1. También Mariano Prado, quien

The collapse of cod stocks in the waters off Newfoundland in the early 1990s was widely understood as an ecological disaster and the death of a rural way of life that had endured for centuries. While many areas have remained closed to commercial cod fishing for two full decades, growing numbers of commercial fishers and some fisheries scientists now agree that stocks in several areas are finally showing signs of rebuilding. While the biological recovery of cod populations was once widely viewed as being essential to the future well-being of coastal communities, many commercial fishers now publicly express concerns about the possibility of this scenario actually coming to pass. This article explores the roots of these changing constructions of cod. I argue that making sense of the anxieties and uncertainties that presently surround the question of cod recovery requires paying close attention to the ways in which access to fishery resources has been transformed over time, as well as to the ways in which changing production chains for seafood products, shifting scientific paradigms and practices, and unexpected changes in the marine environment have converged in ways that are fundamentally challenging many previously held notions of the ecological good.

Methods We used multivariate longitudinal regression to analyse age-standardised mortality rates in working-age men (15-59 years) in post-communist countries of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union from 1989 to 2002. We defined mass privatisation programmes as transferring at least 25% of large state-owned enterprises to the private sector within 2 years with the use of vouchers and give-aways to

This essay will focus on the last four decades when these policies became relevant to the political and economic sphere of Pakistan and what culminated out of it. We will start with the 1970s when the Pakistan People’s Party came into power on their mandate of nationalizing all the industries in Pakistan and reshifting the wealth from the existing oligopolies. This resulted in a completely nationalized socialist economy which buckled under its inefficiencies till 1990 when the Soviet nation and its system collapsed and shattered the underpinnings of the nationalizing movement. This brought Pakistan Muslim League into power led by former industrialist and oligarch, Nawaz Sharif who was severely affected by the nationalization of his assets and industries and brought about a reversal with this privatization polices. Those stayed in effect to this day but were recently brought up short by the Supreme Court’s decision on the privatization of the Steel Mills case wherein the judiciary intervened to prevent a badly construed attempt at selling Pakistan’s only Steel Mill in a very suspicious and possibly corrupt manner and stalling the previous carte blanche that politicians have enjoyed in exploiting the process and taking ownership of previously State Owned Enterprises. Finally, we will conclude by assessing the past and its effects on Pakistan as a whole.