Julien Mercille
Biographic Data
| ID | 307180 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Julien Mercille |
| GIVEN NAMES | Julien |
| FAMILY NAME | Mercille |
| SIGNATURE | MERCILLE J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College Dublin |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8292-0462 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 160 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
What are the policy options for regulating private equity involvement in health care? A review of policies implemented or considered in seven high-income countries
Over the past two decades, private equity investment in health care has increased substantially. Proponents argue that private equity can optimize and improve health services, while critics warn that the business model of these firms is not aligned with the social values of care delivery and has harmful consequences for health systems and patients. It remains unclear to what extent - and how - subnational, national and supranational governments h…
Private equity investment in long-term care
BACKGROUND: Private equity (PE) firms are key actors in the financialisation of health care systems. Yet, research rarely focuses directly on these firms and related private for-profit actors involved in financialisation. Moreover, existing work mostly concerns the United States, while several key health care sectors remain under-researched. OBJECTIVE: This study examines the factors driving PE investment in long-term care (LTC) and the strategie…
The role of private equity funds in healthcare
What do private providers of home care want? An analytical framework
Private for-profit home care providers are key participants in European long-term care regimes.Yet, their policy preferences toward market making and market development remain under-researched.We present an analytical framework that identifies and explains those preferences.It outlines three key types of policies that shape home care markets: regulatory, financial and labour policies.We illustrate private providers' views on those policies by ref…
European long‐term care marketisation
The study of European long‐term care (LTC) marketisation is dominated by institutional and ideational perspectives. In contrast, political economic theoretical frameworks have received little attention. This is paradoxical, because marketisation is an inherently political economic phenomenon. The financialisation of LTC systems, the growth of private for‐profit providers and the rise in cross‐national investments are proceeding apace, yet, they h…
Institutional Business Power
The marketisation of European home care has given rise to significant private for-profit providers growth. However, little research has focused directly on commercial companies to examine the mechanisms through which they emerge, grow and shape long-term care policy - this is this paper's task. Drawing on the literature on business power, the recent concept of 'institutional business power' is introduced, defined as the power flowing from the ent…
Home care workers' views of employment conditions
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare home care workers' views of their employment conditions by provider type – private for-profit vs public and non-profit – using the case study of Ireland. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was distributed to care workers ( n = 350) employed by private for-profit, public and non-profit home care providers in Ireland. Returned questionnaires were analysed statistically in R using chi-squared…
Home care professionals’ views on working conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic
This article examines home care professionals’ views on working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, it identifies similarities and differences between private, public and non-profit providers. The article seeks to shed light on the impacts of marketisation/privatisation on working conditions during the pandemic. Statistical tests on 350 questionnaires received from care workers in Ireland demonstrate the difficult working cond…
The growth of private home care providers in Europe
Private for‐profit home care providers have grown unevenly in Europe and through varied processes. Yet, more research focusing directly on private providers is needed to identify and explain European patterns in their growth and in their modes of operation. This paper examines the case of Ireland, where private providers have grown significantly in recent years and transformed the national landscape of domiciliary care. First, it is shown that th…
Interventions in critical health geopolitics
Market, Non-Market and Anti-Market Processes in Neoliberalism
Research on neoliberalism tends to conceive of it as fundamentally about 'free markets'. But this confuses theoretical with actually existing neoliberalism. This article presents a meta-narrative of neoliberalism since the 1970s that conceptualises it as a political economic project seeking to enhance corporate and elite power through market, non-market and anti-market policies ( vectors of power). These policies have been propelled globally by t…
Media Coverage of Alcohol Issues
There is a growing literature on news media representations of alcohol-related issues. However, current scholarship has neglected critical political economic frameworks to interpret media coverage of alcohol. This paper presents such a framework that conceives of news organisations as corporations that share the values and interests of political and economic elites. The media are thus expected to present viewpoints that are more aligned with the …
Neoliberalism and health care
The usefulness of neoliberalism as a theoretical concept in health research has been debated. This paper argues that when the concept of neoliberalism is used precisely and concretely, it provides an important and valid framework to analyse how health systems have been transformed over the last several decades. This claim is illustrated through the case of the Irish nursing home sector, which, over the last 20 years, has been turned upside down: …
What is privatization? A political economy framework
This paper presents a political economic framework for understanding privatization. Its claims are illustrated empirically through examples from contemporary Europe. Theoretically, it starts with the concept of accumulation by dispossession, which refers to the conversion of non-capitalist spaces and practices into the capitalist sphere. This conversion occurs through privatization, liberalization, and marketization. The paper focuses on privatiz…
The Neoliberalization of Irish Higher Education under Austerity
This paper discusses the transformations that have taken place in Irish higher education under neoliberalism and, in particular, during the period of austerity since 2008. We adopt a critical political economic framework conceptualizing Ireland as a prototypical neoliberal state and maintain that the period of economic crisis since 2008 has witnessed a deepening of neoliberalism. We argue that restructuring in the education sector has been shaped…
Conceptualising European Privatisation Processes After the Great Recession
A wave of privatisation is unfolding in Europe in the wake of the financial crisis, but it has yet to receive serious scholarly attention. This paper examines the case of Ireland, where an austerity strategy and European Union International Monetary Fund bailout conditionality have given impetus to the transfer of public assets to the private sector. Theoretically, the paper explains the roots of the phenomenon with reference to a reformulated co…
Neoliberalism and the alcohol industry in Ireland
This paper sheds light on the development of the Irish alcohol industry and its regulation since the 1980s by situating it within the politico-economic context of neoliberalism at the national, European and global scales. First, a conceptualisation of neoliberalism is presented and the alcohol industry is related to it. Second, the connections between neoliberalism, the drinks industry and alcohol legislation are explained and illustrated at the …
Beyond Swat
Beyond Swat: history, society and economy along the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier." Central Asian Survey, 33(1), pp. 123–124
The Media-Entertainment Industry and the "War on Drugs" in Mexico
Since 2006, Mexico has militarized its "war on drugs," backed by the United States. Examination of this drug war from a critical political economic angle suggests that the neoliberal reforms implemented in Mexico over the past several decades have increased the size of the drug industry and that drug war rhetoric facilitates the containment of popular opposition to neoliberal policies. U.S. popular culture has contributed to legitimizing the drug…
The Role of the Media in Sustaining Ireland's Housing Bubble
This paper examines Irish mainstream media coverage of the housing bubble that burst in 2007 and plunged Ireland into economic and financial crisis. It is shown that news organisations largely sustained the bubble until the property market collapsed. As such, news stories reflected the views and interests of the Irish corporate and governmental sectors, which had adopted neoliberal policies during the ‘Celtic Tiger’ years (1990s to 2007). A polit…
European Media Coverage of Argentina’s Debt Default and Recovery
In 2001 Argentina defaulted on its debts and then devalued its currency by abandoning the peso–dollar peg. The economy rebounded and has grown relatively strongly since then. This paper uses a critical political economy approach to first show that the Argentinian strategy finds support in the literature examining the effects of sovereign debt default, currency devaluation and fiscal consolidation on economic growth. Argentina is thus relevant to …
Violent Narco-Cartels or US Hegemony? The political economy of the ‘war on drugs’ in Mexico
Mainstream analysis and commentary on drug trafficking and related violence in Mexico focuses overwhelmingly on the narco-cartels as sources of the problem and presents the US as a well intentioned player helping to conduct a ‘war on drugs’ out of concern for addiction, crime and violence. This article offers an alternative interpretation, grounded in critical political economy, showing that in addition to fuelling the narcotics industry in Mexic…
The radical geopolitics of US foreign policy
Practicing Radical Geopolitics
The theory of “radical geopolitics” is directly concerned with identifying the roots of U.S. foreign policy from a critical political economic perspective, seeking to determine the relative importance of political factors and economic forces in shaping foreign policy. It builds on Harvey's (2003) conceptualization of two logics of power and deploys a “geopolitical logic” and a “geoeconomic logic” to interpret political events. The former logic ar…
The radical geopolitics of US foreign policy
Media effects on image
The Role of the Media in Sustaining Ireland's Housing Bubble
This paper examines Irish mainstream media coverage of the housing bubble that burst in 2007 and plunged Ireland into economic and financial crisis. It is shown that news organisations largely sustained the bubble until the property market collapsed. As such, news stories reflected the views and interests of the Irish corporate and governmental sectors, which had adopted neoliberal policies during the ‘Celtic Tiger’ years (1990s to 2007). A polit…
The radical geopolitics of US foreign policy
Violent Narco-Cartels or US Hegemony? The political economy of the ‘war on drugs’ in Mexico
Mainstream analysis and commentary on drug trafficking and related violence in Mexico focuses overwhelmingly on the narco-cartels as sources of the problem and presents the US as a well intentioned player helping to conduct a ‘war on drugs’ out of concern for addiction, crime and violence. This article offers an alternative interpretation, grounded in critical political economy, showing that in addition to fuelling the narcotics industry in Mexic…
The Neoliberalization of Irish Higher Education under Austerity
This paper discusses the transformations that have taken place in Irish higher education under neoliberalism and, in particular, during the period of austerity since 2008. We adopt a critical political economic framework conceptualizing Ireland as a prototypical neoliberal state and maintain that the period of economic crisis since 2008 has witnessed a deepening of neoliberalism. We argue that restructuring in the education sector has been shaped…
What is privatization? A political economy framework
This paper presents a political economic framework for understanding privatization. Its claims are illustrated empirically through examples from contemporary Europe. Theoretically, it starts with the concept of accumulation by dispossession, which refers to the conversion of non-capitalist spaces and practices into the capitalist sphere. This conversion occurs through privatization, liberalization, and marketization. The paper focuses on privatiz…
The radical geopolitics of US foreign policy
Institutional Business Power
The marketisation of European home care has given rise to significant private for-profit providers growth. However, little research has focused directly on commercial companies to examine the mechanisms through which they emerge, grow and shape long-term care policy - this is this paper's task. Drawing on the literature on business power, the recent concept of 'institutional business power' is introduced, defined as the power flowing from the ent…
The growth of private home care providers in Europe
Private for‐profit home care providers have grown unevenly in Europe and through varied processes. Yet, more research focusing directly on private providers is needed to identify and explain European patterns in their growth and in their modes of operation. This paper examines the case of Ireland, where private providers have grown significantly in recent years and transformed the national landscape of domiciliary care. First, it is shown that th…
Interventions in critical health geopolitics
Conceptualising European Privatisation Processes After the Great Recession
A wave of privatisation is unfolding in Europe in the wake of the financial crisis, but it has yet to receive serious scholarly attention. This paper examines the case of Ireland, where an austerity strategy and European Union International Monetary Fund bailout conditionality have given impetus to the transfer of public assets to the private sector. Theoretically, the paper explains the roots of the phenomenon with reference to a reformulated co…
Neoliberalism and the alcohol industry in Ireland
This paper sheds light on the development of the Irish alcohol industry and its regulation since the 1980s by situating it within the politico-economic context of neoliberalism at the national, European and global scales. First, a conceptualisation of neoliberalism is presented and the alcohol industry is related to it. Second, the connections between neoliberalism, the drinks industry and alcohol legislation are explained and illustrated at the …
Practicing Radical Geopolitics
The theory of “radical geopolitics” is directly concerned with identifying the roots of U.S. foreign policy from a critical political economic perspective, seeking to determine the relative importance of political factors and economic forces in shaping foreign policy. It builds on Harvey's (2003) conceptualization of two logics of power and deploys a “geopolitical logic” and a “geoeconomic logic” to interpret political events. The former logic ar…
European long‐term care marketisation
The study of European long‐term care (LTC) marketisation is dominated by institutional and ideational perspectives. In contrast, political economic theoretical frameworks have received little attention. This is paradoxical, because marketisation is an inherently political economic phenomenon. The financialisation of LTC systems, the growth of private for‐profit providers and the rise in cross‐national investments are proceeding apace, yet, they h…
Home care professionals’ views on working conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic
This article examines home care professionals’ views on working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, it identifies similarities and differences between private, public and non-profit providers. The article seeks to shed light on the impacts of marketisation/privatisation on working conditions during the pandemic. Statistical tests on 350 questionnaires received from care workers in Ireland demonstrate the difficult working cond…
Home care workers' views of employment conditions
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare home care workers' views of their employment conditions by provider type – private for-profit vs public and non-profit – using the case study of Ireland. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was distributed to care workers ( n = 350) employed by private for-profit, public and non-profit home care providers in Ireland. Returned questionnaires were analysed statistically in R using chi-squared…
Market, Non-Market and Anti-Market Processes in Neoliberalism
Research on neoliberalism tends to conceive of it as fundamentally about 'free markets'. But this confuses theoretical with actually existing neoliberalism. This article presents a meta-narrative of neoliberalism since the 1970s that conceptualises it as a political economic project seeking to enhance corporate and elite power through market, non-market and anti-market policies ( vectors of power). These policies have been propelled globally by t…
The Media-Entertainment Industry and the "War on Drugs" in Mexico
Since 2006, Mexico has militarized its "war on drugs," backed by the United States. Examination of this drug war from a critical political economic angle suggests that the neoliberal reforms implemented in Mexico over the past several decades have increased the size of the drug industry and that drug war rhetoric facilitates the containment of popular opposition to neoliberal policies. U.S. popular culture has contributed to legitimizing the drug…
European Media Coverage of Argentina’s Debt Default and Recovery
In 2001 Argentina defaulted on its debts and then devalued its currency by abandoning the peso–dollar peg. The economy rebounded and has grown relatively strongly since then. This paper uses a critical political economy approach to first show that the Argentinian strategy finds support in the literature examining the effects of sovereign debt default, currency devaluation and fiscal consolidation on economic growth. Argentina is thus relevant to …
Pirates and Emperors, Old and New
Media effects on image
The radical geopolitics of US foreign policy
Critical Geopolitics and the 1950s Bomber Gap
In this paper, I outline three main issues that divide classical and critical geopolitics and offer a critique of the latter. The three issues are (1) criticism, (2) the relative importance of discourses vs. materiality/political economy, and (3) the status of knowledge claims (universal or partial). Through this discussion I present my own view, whose central claim is that versions of critical geopolitics relying to a great extent on discursive …
Mind the Gap
US politics seems to be chronically afflicted with high levels of military spending justified by security “crises”, the current upsurge under the Bush administration being only the latest episode in a long series. This paper addresses the question, “Why are the levels of US military spending so high?” to which it provides a “radical” geographical answer. Although in the conclusion I offer thoughts on how my points apply to the current situation, …
The radical geopolitics of US foreign policy
Practicing Radical Geopolitics
The theory of “radical geopolitics” is directly concerned with identifying the roots of U.S. foreign policy from a critical political economic perspective, seeking to determine the relative importance of political factors and economic forces in shaping foreign policy. It builds on Harvey's (2003) conceptualization of two logics of power and deploys a “geopolitical logic” and a “geoeconomic logic” to interpret political events. The former logic ar…
Violent Narco-Cartels or US Hegemony? The political economy of the ‘war on drugs’ in Mexico
Mainstream analysis and commentary on drug trafficking and related violence in Mexico focuses overwhelmingly on the narco-cartels as sources of the problem and presents the US as a well intentioned player helping to conduct a ‘war on drugs’ out of concern for addiction, crime and violence. This article offers an alternative interpretation, grounded in critical political economy, showing that in addition to fuelling the narcotics industry in Mexic…
The Role of the Media in Sustaining Ireland's Housing Bubble
This paper examines Irish mainstream media coverage of the housing bubble that burst in 2007 and plunged Ireland into economic and financial crisis. It is shown that news organisations largely sustained the bubble until the property market collapsed. As such, news stories reflected the views and interests of the Irish corporate and governmental sectors, which had adopted neoliberal policies during the ‘Celtic Tiger’ years (1990s to 2007). A polit…
European Media Coverage of Argentina’s Debt Default and Recovery
In 2001 Argentina defaulted on its debts and then devalued its currency by abandoning the peso–dollar peg. The economy rebounded and has grown relatively strongly since then. This paper uses a critical political economy approach to first show that the Argentinian strategy finds support in the literature examining the effects of sovereign debt default, currency devaluation and fiscal consolidation on economic growth. Argentina is thus relevant to …
Beyond Swat
Beyond Swat: history, society and economy along the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier." Central Asian Survey, 33(1), pp. 123–124
The Media-Entertainment Industry and the "War on Drugs" in Mexico
Since 2006, Mexico has militarized its "war on drugs," backed by the United States. Examination of this drug war from a critical political economic angle suggests that the neoliberal reforms implemented in Mexico over the past several decades have increased the size of the drug industry and that drug war rhetoric facilitates the containment of popular opposition to neoliberal policies. U.S. popular culture has contributed to legitimizing the drug…
Neoliberalism and the alcohol industry in Ireland
This paper sheds light on the development of the Irish alcohol industry and its regulation since the 1980s by situating it within the politico-economic context of neoliberalism at the national, European and global scales. First, a conceptualisation of neoliberalism is presented and the alcohol industry is related to it. Second, the connections between neoliberalism, the drinks industry and alcohol legislation are explained and illustrated at the …
Conceptualising European Privatisation Processes After the Great Recession
A wave of privatisation is unfolding in Europe in the wake of the financial crisis, but it has yet to receive serious scholarly attention. This paper examines the case of Ireland, where an austerity strategy and European Union International Monetary Fund bailout conditionality have given impetus to the transfer of public assets to the private sector. Theoretically, the paper explains the roots of the phenomenon with reference to a reformulated co…
Media Coverage of Alcohol Issues
There is a growing literature on news media representations of alcohol-related issues. However, current scholarship has neglected critical political economic frameworks to interpret media coverage of alcohol. This paper presents such a framework that conceives of news organisations as corporations that share the values and interests of political and economic elites. The media are thus expected to present viewpoints that are more aligned with the …
Neoliberalism and health care
The usefulness of neoliberalism as a theoretical concept in health research has been debated. This paper argues that when the concept of neoliberalism is used precisely and concretely, it provides an important and valid framework to analyse how health systems have been transformed over the last several decades. This claim is illustrated through the case of the Irish nursing home sector, which, over the last 20 years, has been turned upside down: …
What is privatization? A political economy framework
This paper presents a political economic framework for understanding privatization. Its claims are illustrated empirically through examples from contemporary Europe. Theoretically, it starts with the concept of accumulation by dispossession, which refers to the conversion of non-capitalist spaces and practices into the capitalist sphere. This conversion occurs through privatization, liberalization, and marketization. The paper focuses on privatiz…
The Neoliberalization of Irish Higher Education under Austerity
This paper discusses the transformations that have taken place in Irish higher education under neoliberalism and, in particular, during the period of austerity since 2008. We adopt a critical political economic framework conceptualizing Ireland as a prototypical neoliberal state and maintain that the period of economic crisis since 2008 has witnessed a deepening of neoliberalism. We argue that restructuring in the education sector has been shaped…
Market, Non-Market and Anti-Market Processes in Neoliberalism
Research on neoliberalism tends to conceive of it as fundamentally about 'free markets'. But this confuses theoretical with actually existing neoliberalism. This article presents a meta-narrative of neoliberalism since the 1970s that conceptualises it as a political economic project seeking to enhance corporate and elite power through market, non-market and anti-market policies ( vectors of power). These policies have been propelled globally by t…
The growth of private home care providers in Europe
Private for‐profit home care providers have grown unevenly in Europe and through varied processes. Yet, more research focusing directly on private providers is needed to identify and explain European patterns in their growth and in their modes of operation. This paper examines the case of Ireland, where private providers have grown significantly in recent years and transformed the national landscape of domiciliary care. First, it is shown that th…
Interventions in critical health geopolitics
Home care professionals’ views on working conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic
This article examines home care professionals’ views on working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, it identifies similarities and differences between private, public and non-profit providers. The article seeks to shed light on the impacts of marketisation/privatisation on working conditions during the pandemic. Statistical tests on 350 questionnaires received from care workers in Ireland demonstrate the difficult working cond…
Home care workers' views of employment conditions
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare home care workers' views of their employment conditions by provider type – private for-profit vs public and non-profit – using the case study of Ireland. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was distributed to care workers ( n = 350) employed by private for-profit, public and non-profit home care providers in Ireland. Returned questionnaires were analysed statistically in R using chi-squared…
What do private providers of home care want? An analytical framework
Private for-profit home care providers are key participants in European long-term care regimes.Yet, their policy preferences toward market making and market development remain under-researched.We present an analytical framework that identifies and explains those preferences.It outlines three key types of policies that shape home care markets: regulatory, financial and labour policies.We illustrate private providers' views on those policies by ref…
European long‐term care marketisation
The study of European long‐term care (LTC) marketisation is dominated by institutional and ideational perspectives. In contrast, political economic theoretical frameworks have received little attention. This is paradoxical, because marketisation is an inherently political economic phenomenon. The financialisation of LTC systems, the growth of private for‐profit providers and the rise in cross‐national investments are proceeding apace, yet, they h…
Political science (25 works) · Economics (21 works) · Politics (17 works) · Law (13 works) · Political economy (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism (11 works) · Business (10 works) · Economy (8 works) · Geopolitics (7 works)