We have recently witnessed a growing, if still arguably marginal, interest in `Critical Management Studies' (CMS). Our aim in this paper is to reflect upon the popularization of CMS; more specifically, we propose to examine the various factors that have contributed to its emergence, and to review the significance of its project. We start by exploring the conditions of possibility for CMS and point to a combination of political, institutional and epistemological trends. In the second part of the paper, we consider what constitutes `CMS' and suggest that whilst it draws upon a plurality of intellectual traditions, CMS is unified by an anti performative stance, and a commitment to (some form of) denaturalization and reflexivity. Finally, we articulate the polemics around which CMS politics have been contested, in particular we review the debates between neo-Marxism and post-structuralism, and discuss the issue of engagement with management practice.
The paper examines the deployment of 'professional' discourses in occupational domains not traditionally associated with the professions (eg management, clerical or sales staff are turned into 'providers of professional services'). It first proposes to analyse professionalism as a disciplinary logic which inscribes 'autonomous' professional practice within a network of accountability and governs professional conduct at a distance. It is argued that professional labour is autonomous labour where the conditions of autonomy have already been inscribed in particular forms of conduct embodied in the notion of 'professional competence'. The paper then suggests that the appeal to the discursive resources of professionalism in new occupational domains potentially acts as a disciplinary mechanism that serves to profess 'appropriate' work identities and conducts. The extension of the disciplinary logic of professionalism is illustrated with the turn to competencies to regulate managerial work in Teamco, a large privatised service company. However, the final section of the paper cautions against a deterministic analysis of the disciplinary logic of professionalism in regulating employees' conduct, and suggests that the constructed and contestable nature of professionalism makes it an inevitably imperfect form of government.
Experiments linking neonicotinoids and declining bee health have been criticized for not simulating realistic exposure. Here we quantified the duration and magnitude of neonicotinoid exposure in Canada's corn-growing regions and used these data to design realistic experiments to investigate the effect of such insecticides on honey bees. Colonies near corn were naturally exposed to neonicotinoids for up to 4 months-the majority of the honey bee's active season. Realistic experiments showed that neonicotinoids increased worker mortality and were associated with declines in social immunity and increased queenlessness over time. We also discovered that the acute toxicity of neonicotinoids to honey bees doubles in the presence of a commonly encountered fungicide. Our work demonstrates that field-realistic exposure to neonicotinoids can reduce honey bee health in corn-growing regions.
Purpose-Whilst there is a growing recognition of environmental degradation, the policies of sustainable development or ecological modernisation offered by national governments and international institutions seem to do little more than ''sustain the unsustainable''. By promising to reconcile growth with the environment, they fail to question the economic principle of endless growth that has caused environmental destruction in the first place. In this context, alternatives based on critiques of growth may offer more promising grounds. The aim of this paper is to explore how the degrowth movement that emerged in France over the last decade resonates with, and can contribute to, green politics. Design/methodology/approach-After locating the movement within environmental politics and providing a brief account of its development, the paper focuses on its core theme-escaping from the economy. Findings-Here it is argued that the movement's main emphasis is not merely on calling for less growth, consumption or production, but more fundamentally, in inviting one to shift and re-politicise the terms in which economic relations and identities are considered. This politicisation of the economy is discussed in terms of the movement's foregrounding of democracy and citizenship, and it is argued that the articulation of these two concepts may offer interesting points of departure for conceptualising and practising alternatives to consumer capitalism. Originality/value-The final part of the paper explores how the degrowth movement's stance on democracy and citizenship could help address two problematic issues within environmental politics: that of inclusion, and motivation Keywords Citizenship, National economy, Public policy, Sustainable development Paper type Conceptual paper At a time when it has finally become widely accepted that climate change was caused by man-made emission of CO 2 , the exploration of alternative economic models to consumer capitalism seems a more than ever pressing issue (Wall, 2007). Within this context, the degrowth movement that emerged in France over the last decade may have some interesting contribution to make. Yet whilst the movement has made its way into other European countries, especially Italy and Belgium, its ideas have hardly made an appearance in Anglo-Saxon academic or public debates; indeed, at the time of writing this paper I found only three English-language articles on degrowth (Baykan, 2007; Fotopoulos, 2007; Latouche, 2007) beside a few articles by Latouche published in the English version of Le Monde Diplomatique (Latouche, 2004b, 2006b). No doubt, the ideas that circulate within the degrowth movement in France resonate with critiques of growth made elsewhere in green politics or development politics (see for example,
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