Global Social Policy current issue

Introduction to the Special Issue on the Bhopal Chemical Disaster

Mac Sheoin, T. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:55:25 PST

Learning from Bhopal: Bhopal: Reflections on Justice Activism from a Health Professional

Sathyamala, C. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:55:25 PST

Global Industrial Disaster, National State Failure and Local Self-provision of Health Care

Sarangi, S. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:55:25 PST

Wrong Questions. Wrong Answers

Jayaraman, N. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:55:25 PST

Globalizing Disaster, Provincializing Law: Bhopal 25 Years Later

Rsharma, H. R. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:55:25 PST

Bhopal, Corporate Crime and Harms of the Powerful

Walters, R. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:55:25 PST

Corporate Power and Social Policy: The Political Economy of the Transnational Tobacco Companies

Holden, C., Lee, K. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:55:25 PST

Drawing on published tobacco document research and related sources, this article applies Farnsworth and Holden’s conceptual framework for the analysis of corporate power and corporate involvement in social policy (2006) to the transnational tobacco companies (TTCs). An assessment is made of TTCs’ structural power, the impact upon their structural position of tobacco control (TC) policies, and their use of agency power. The analysis suggests that, as a result of the growth of TC policies from the 1950s onwards, TTCs have had to rely on political agency to pursue their interests and attempt to reassert their structural position. The collapse of the Eastern bloc and the liberalization of East Asian economies presented new structural opportunities for TTCs in the 1980s and 1990s, but the development of globally coordinated TC policies facilitated by the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has the potential to constrain these.

Globalizing Environmental Justice: The Geography and Politics of Frame Contextualization and Evolution

Walker, G. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:55:25 PST

The use of the language of environmental justice as a frame for collective action on socio-environmental concerns has now evolved and extended far beyond its original formulation in the USA. This article examines two ways in which the use of the environmental justice frame has globalized. The first involves the international emergence of ideas, meanings and framing processes in new settings around the world. The ‘horizontal’ diffusion of an environmental justice frame is traced, examining processes of transfer, reproduction and contextualization that are taking place within the political and institutional cultures of different countries. The cases of the UK and South Africa are examined in detail. The second involves the ‘vertical’ extension of the environmental justice frame to encompass concerns that do not end at national borders but that involve relations between countries and global scale issues such as trade agreements, transfers of wastes and climate change. The implications of these two shifts, the tensions that have emerged around them and their relevance to the pursuit of progressive global social policy objectives are considered.

The Struggle for Justice in Bhopal: A New/Old Breed of Transnational Social Movement

Zavestoski, S. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:55:25 PST

Most analyses of the Bhopal disaster have focused on the management decisions leading up to the disaster on 3 December 1984. This article examines the evolution of the global movement for justice in Bhopal that arose following the disaster. Recent developments in the study of transnational social movements are employed to identify the contributions that an analysis of the evolution of the struggle for justice in Bhopal can make towards greater understanding of global social movement organizing. Close examination of the ebb and flow of the movement’s global ties offers new explanations for both its persistence and evolution over 25 years.

Waiting for Another Bhopal: Global Policies to Control Toxic Chemical Incidents

Mac Sheoin, T. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:55:25 PST

The Bhopal chemical disaster of 1984 added the issue of chemical plant safety to the variety of health and environmental harms already associated with the globalization of the production and use of toxic chemicals. This article describes the highlights of international and national responses to the Bhopal disaster by intergovernmental organizations, national regulatory authorities and transnational corporations. It suggests that these policy responses have not succeeded in preventing the continued occurrence of toxic chemical incidents that impact on the health, environment and livelihood of those affected. The article argues that attention needs to be paid to toxic chemical production and use in public health debates, nationally and at the global level.

Review Essay: The Bhopal Chemical Disaster: A Literature Review

Mac Sheoin, T. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:55:25 PST

GSP Digest

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:55:25 PST

Acknowledgement of Referees

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:55:25 PST