George Cairns
Biographic Data
| ID | 5773533 |
|---|---|
| NAME | George Cairns |
| GIVEN NAMES | George |
| FAMILY NAME | Cairns |
| SIGNATURE | CAIRNS G |
| AFFILIATIONS | RMIT University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6231-8060 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 63 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 13 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Critical engagement in international business: Creating meaning for a broad constituency
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a personal reflection on the nature of international business (IB) as a field of both academic study and business practice and, specifically, a domain of political action and societal impact. Design/methodology/approach The author summarizes what he consider to be his personal contributions to the field of IB over the 15 years of Critical Perspectives on International Business ’s existence, to under…
Return to Chittagong: Ten years since the “postcard”
Purpose This paper aims to revisit the author’s 2007 “Postcard from Chittagong” to reprise the past decade of activity related to the ship breaking industry of Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on content analysis of global and local source documentation. This includes academic works, research reports from non-governmental organizations and general and specialist media reports. Findings Over the past decade, there have be…
Economic inequality of the badli workers of Bangladesh: Contested entitlements and a ‘perpetually temporary’ life-world
This article discusses the experience of economic inequality of badli workers in the state-owned jute mills of the postcolonial state of Bangladesh, and how this inequality is constituted and perpetuated. Nominally appointed to fill posts during the temporary absence of permanent workers, the reality of badli workers’ employment is very different. They define themselves as ‘a different category of workers’, with limited economic entitlements. We …
The academic activist in an age of ambivalence: Reflections on a decade of CPoIB
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the origins of CPoIB and on events in the IB sphere over the decade since it was conceived. Design/methodology/approach – The approach of the paper is one of personal critical reflection on events and their implications for the full range of involved and affected parties, informed by Aristotelian philosophy. Findings – The author posits the need for a new generation of “academic activists” in s…
Development or dispossession: An interpretation of global integration of public sector jute mills in Bangladesh
Purpose – This paper aims to discuss the discourse of globalisation and its implications in the case of state-owned jute mills (SOJMs) in the post-colonial state of Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach – The authors draw upon a critical debate on the concept of globalisation and critical political economy to revisit the country’s historical, political, social and cultural construction to discuss conditions of its conformity within the global o…
A critical scenario analysis of end-of-life ship disposal: The “bottom of the pyramid” as opportunity and graveyard
Purpose – This paper aims to critically engage with the premise of development at the “bottom of the pyramid” through consideration of the current and potential future status of the workers who dismantle end-of-life ships in the breaking yards of “less developed countries”, here with specific reference to the dynamic situation in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach – The study applies “critical scenario method” (CSM) to explore different poss…
Does the intuitive logics method – and its recent enhancements – produce “effective” scenarios?
Scenario Thinking: Practical Approaches to the Future
Presents new methods in scenario thinking, based on a mix of high-level research and top-level consultancy experience. The authors describe the logical bases of a range of scenario methods and provide
Introduction from the Editors
Introduction from the Editors
Reflections on seven years of critical perspectives on international business: An extended editorial
Purpose The purpose of this extended editorial is to reflect on the journey of critical perspectives on international business over the past seven years and to look forward to future issues and potential concerns of the journal. In addition, the contents of the current issue are introduced. Design/methodology/approach Using the form of a conversation between the journal's co‐editors, the development of the journal and features of its content over…
Fly Away Children
Purpose– This paper seeks to draw out the main themes of the debate on the current financial crisis as published in the special issue of Critical Perspectives on International Business Vol. 5 Nos 1/2 (2009) and place them in the context of subsequent events. It also considers what conclusions can be drawn both for future policy and for the conduct of future academic reserach.Design/methodology/approach – The paper overviews existing literature an…
Introduction from the Editors
Introduction from the Editors
Problematizing international business futures through a ‘critical scenario method’
An economic wonderland: Derivative castles built on sand
Purpose This paper seeks to use the way in which markets in derivatives have developed historically to examine how neo‐classical market‐oriented economic theory has been used as a stalking‐horse to create an illusionary market in the increasingly complex derivatives that have brought about the current global financial crisis and which threaten liberal democracy. Design/methodology/approach The paper analyses the current global financial crisis us…
Wrong assumptions in the financial crisis
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show how some of the assumptions about the current financial crisis are wrong because they misunderstand what takes place in the mortgage market. Design/methodology/approach The paper discusses four wrong assumptions: one related to regulation, one to leveraging, one to subprime lending and one to predatory lending. It briefly discusses some policy implications. Findings The role of the state in the mortgag…
Regulation and subprime turmoil
Purpose The global economy has entered what appears to be a very serious financial crisis for reasons other than force majeure . While the current focus has to be on preventing a repeat of the Great Depression, efforts must also be made to understand why the crisis came about in the first place. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that the regulators should have known what the risks were and that these risks were large and systemic, and…
Financial crisis, activist states and (missed) opportunities
Purpose This article seeks to discuss three key issues raised by the recent financial crisis: the rise of “activist states”; a new focus on the geopolitical effects of finance; and possible future social implications of the rapid response to crisis. Design/methodology/approach The paper provides an analytical overview of three of the implications of the current crisis, and introduces the idea of the “activist state” in financial markets. Findings…
Why moral failures precede financial crises
Purpose This paper aims to explore the linkages between greed and governance failures in both financial institutions and financial markets. Design/methodology/approach The paper described how innovation changed the US financial system through an analysis of recent events, and employs the philosophic concepts of hubris and greed to explain certain developments. Findings The development of the shadow banking system and opaque products was motivated…
Building resilience to international financial crises: Lessons from Brazil
Purpose This paper sets out to argue that, due to a stable set of economic policies over the past decade, today Brazil is much more resilient to international financial crises than in the 1990s. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents preliminary macroeconomic data in a country case study. Findings The paper concludes that the initial impact of the current international financial crisis on Brazil has been much less severe than similar cris…
Personal reflections on attending the Australian Grand Prix
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to prompt critical reflection on the relationship between international business (IB) and climate change by reference to an example at the margins of IB. The author reflects on personal experience of attending the Australian Grand Prix. Being heavily involved, with others, in research into the social, environmental and economic impacts of climate change in Australia and across Asia Pacific he has reason to be …
The crisis: A return to political economy
Purpose This paper aims to examine the current financial crisis, suggesting that most analyses have attributed the crisis to a lack of business ethics, the rise of greed and lax regulation. Prescriptions offered to address this crisis draw accordingly on the need for greater regulation of market behaviour, business practices and boardroom pay. Whilst these reforms are necessary, they fail to recognise that such business practices have their roots…
The Kindleberger‐Aliber‐Minsky paradigm and the global subprime mortgage meltdown
Purpose This paper sets out to analyze the current global financial crisis that originated in the US subprime mortgage market through the lens of the Kindleberger‐Aliber‐Minsky (KAM) paradigm as set forth in Kindleberger and Aliber's Manias, Panics and Crashes , to first examine the bubble's origins in the displacement caused by the internet collapse, the subsequent US recession, and the aggressive lowering of US interest rates. It shows how thes…
New thinking on the financial crisis
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to expand understanding of the current global financial crisis in light of other large‐scale financial crises. Design/methodology/approach The phenomenon of large‐scale financial crisis has not been modeled well by neo‐classical general equilibrium approaches; the paper explores whether evolutionary and complex systems approaches might be more useful. Previous empirical work and current data are coalesced to i…
Economic inequality of the badli workers of Bangladesh: Contested entitlements and a ‘perpetually temporary’ life-world
This article discusses the experience of economic inequality of badli workers in the state-owned jute mills of the postcolonial state of Bangladesh, and how this inequality is constituted and perpetuated. Nominally appointed to fill posts during the temporary absence of permanent workers, the reality of badli workers’ employment is very different. They define themselves as ‘a different category of workers’, with limited economic entitlements. We …
Enhancing foresight between multiple agencies: Issues in the use of scenario thinking to overcome fragmentation
Problematizing international business futures through a ‘critical scenario method’
Scenario planning interventions in organizations: An analysis of the causes of success and failure
Aesthetics, Morality and Power: Design as Espoused Freedom and Implicit Control
This article is intended to contribute to debate on the arguments that are propounded both in support and in condemnation of new forms of workplace aesthetic. I draw upon experience in organizational intervention and on literature from the arenas of physical and social workplace design to support a multi-contextual debate on the new workplace aesthetic and on interpretations that are placed upon it within different contexts of study. While an ess…
Coping with change: The contribution of postdichotomous ontologies
This article seeks to conceptualize interactions surrounding organizational change. Four ideal types of reality(ies) are presented here using the metaphor of language. Actors' representations of experience are presented in order to illustrate these concepts. We argue that types 1 and 2, which are epitomized by dichotomous thought, are unlikely to provide adequate managerial insight in coping with complex change, whereas types 3 and 4, which are t…
Exploring Narratives and Antenarratives of Graffiti Artists: Beyond Dichotomies of Commitment and Detachment
In this article, we propose engagement in critical analysis of social phenomena—here, that of ‘commitment’—through consideration of narratives of and about graffiti artists (‘graffers’). We discuss ways in which graffers are viewed as demonstrating conformance with or rebellion against prevailing social mores. We address representations of them through their own work, as well as in the media and in academic literature. We find that graffers are g…
Un‐entwining monological narratives of change through dramaturgical and narrative analyses
The concept of a single reality view of social situations has been problematized and deconstructed in recent critical literature on organizations. However, much of the managerial literature promotes concepts and models of unity, and hence much managerial intent and action is still bounded by convergent and exclusive thinking, within a unified and unifying structure. In critically engaging with notions of unity and convergence in an organizational…
Coping with change: The contribution of postdichotomous ontologies
This article seeks to conceptualize interactions surrounding organizational change. Four ideal types of reality(ies) are presented here using the metaphor of language. Actors' representations of experience are presented in order to illustrate these concepts. We argue that types 1 and 2, which are epitomized by dichotomous thought, are unlikely to provide adequate managerial insight in coping with complex change, whereas types 3 and 4, which are t…
Aesthetics, Morality and Power: Design as Espoused Freedom and Implicit Control
This article is intended to contribute to debate on the arguments that are propounded both in support and in condemnation of new forms of workplace aesthetic. I draw upon experience in organizational intervention and on literature from the arenas of physical and social workplace design to support a multi-contextual debate on the new workplace aesthetic and on interpretations that are placed upon it within different contexts of study. While an ess…
Un‐entwining monological narratives of change through dramaturgical and narrative analyses
The concept of a single reality view of social situations has been problematized and deconstructed in recent critical literature on organizations. However, much of the managerial literature promotes concepts and models of unity, and hence much managerial intent and action is still bounded by convergent and exclusive thinking, within a unified and unifying structure. In critically engaging with notions of unity and convergence in an organizational…
Introduction from the Editors
Introduction from the Editors
Perspectives on a personal critique of international business
Purpose To contribute to critical discussion of management education and practice in the “global economy”, engaging with fragmentation of subjects in the academic literature and of issues across zones of production and consumption in the global community. In order to highlight key elements, discusses the role and contribution of the transnational corporation (TNC) and of the export processing zone (EPZ), as illustrative examples of international …
Academia, the G8 and other misfortunes: Notes on two journeys
Purpose Aims to discuss the relationship between the recent G8 summit of 2005, held at Gleneagles, Scotland, and events occurring around the same time in the world of academe and in the global media. Design/methodology/approach Draws upon personal experience and interpretation in order to raise issues for critical discussion and reflection, in relation to the impact and effectiveness of resistance movements within academe, activist counter‐moveme…
Introduction from the Editors
Enhancing foresight between multiple agencies: Issues in the use of scenario thinking to overcome fragmentation
A discussion of Fashion Victims: Various responses to the report by War on Want
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a selection of responses to the report Fashion Victims , published by War on Want in December 2006. It offers a range of viewpoints presented by members of the Editorial Advisory Board of CPOIB . These are presented in chronological order of submission. There is some cross‐reference by contributors to the work of others, but no attempt is made to present a unified argument. Design/methodology/approa…
Postcard from Chittagong: Wish you were here
Purpose This paper, first, seeks to bring a discussion of the ship‐breaking industry of Bangladesh and other “less developed economies” (LDEs) into the academic arena, since almost no mention of it can be found in a journal database search. Second, in engaging with the multiple representations of the industry in a range of other media, from government and NGO documents, television and press reports, to photography and books, it seeks to contribut…
Exploring Narratives and Antenarratives of Graffiti Artists: Beyond Dichotomies of Commitment and Detachment
In this article, we propose engagement in critical analysis of social phenomena—here, that of ‘commitment’—through consideration of narratives of and about graffiti artists (‘graffers’). We discuss ways in which graffers are viewed as demonstrating conformance with or rebellion against prevailing social mores. We address representations of them through their own work, as well as in the media and in academic literature. We find that graffers are g…
Introduction from the editors
Introduction from the Editors
Scenario planning interventions in organizations: An analysis of the causes of success and failure
An economic wonderland: Derivative castles built on sand
Purpose This paper seeks to use the way in which markets in derivatives have developed historically to examine how neo‐classical market‐oriented economic theory has been used as a stalking‐horse to create an illusionary market in the increasingly complex derivatives that have brought about the current global financial crisis and which threaten liberal democracy. Design/methodology/approach The paper analyses the current global financial crisis us…
Wrong assumptions in the financial crisis
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show how some of the assumptions about the current financial crisis are wrong because they misunderstand what takes place in the mortgage market. Design/methodology/approach The paper discusses four wrong assumptions: one related to regulation, one to leveraging, one to subprime lending and one to predatory lending. It briefly discusses some policy implications. Findings The role of the state in the mortgag…
Regulation and subprime turmoil
Purpose The global economy has entered what appears to be a very serious financial crisis for reasons other than force majeure . While the current focus has to be on preventing a repeat of the Great Depression, efforts must also be made to understand why the crisis came about in the first place. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that the regulators should have known what the risks were and that these risks were large and systemic, and…
Financial crisis, activist states and (missed) opportunities
Purpose This article seeks to discuss three key issues raised by the recent financial crisis: the rise of “activist states”; a new focus on the geopolitical effects of finance; and possible future social implications of the rapid response to crisis. Design/methodology/approach The paper provides an analytical overview of three of the implications of the current crisis, and introduces the idea of the “activist state” in financial markets. Findings…
Why moral failures precede financial crises
Purpose This paper aims to explore the linkages between greed and governance failures in both financial institutions and financial markets. Design/methodology/approach The paper described how innovation changed the US financial system through an analysis of recent events, and employs the philosophic concepts of hubris and greed to explain certain developments. Findings The development of the shadow banking system and opaque products was motivated…
Building resilience to international financial crises: Lessons from Brazil
Purpose This paper sets out to argue that, due to a stable set of economic policies over the past decade, today Brazil is much more resilient to international financial crises than in the 1990s. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents preliminary macroeconomic data in a country case study. Findings The paper concludes that the initial impact of the current international financial crisis on Brazil has been much less severe than similar cris…
Personal reflections on attending the Australian Grand Prix
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to prompt critical reflection on the relationship between international business (IB) and climate change by reference to an example at the margins of IB. The author reflects on personal experience of attending the Australian Grand Prix. Being heavily involved, with others, in research into the social, environmental and economic impacts of climate change in Australia and across Asia Pacific he has reason to be …
The crisis: A return to political economy
Purpose This paper aims to examine the current financial crisis, suggesting that most analyses have attributed the crisis to a lack of business ethics, the rise of greed and lax regulation. Prescriptions offered to address this crisis draw accordingly on the need for greater regulation of market behaviour, business practices and boardroom pay. Whilst these reforms are necessary, they fail to recognise that such business practices have their roots…
The Kindleberger‐Aliber‐Minsky paradigm and the global subprime mortgage meltdown
Purpose This paper sets out to analyze the current global financial crisis that originated in the US subprime mortgage market through the lens of the Kindleberger‐Aliber‐Minsky (KAM) paradigm as set forth in Kindleberger and Aliber's Manias, Panics and Crashes , to first examine the bubble's origins in the displacement caused by the internet collapse, the subsequent US recession, and the aggressive lowering of US interest rates. It shows how thes…
New thinking on the financial crisis
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to expand understanding of the current global financial crisis in light of other large‐scale financial crises. Design/methodology/approach The phenomenon of large‐scale financial crisis has not been modeled well by neo‐classical general equilibrium approaches; the paper explores whether evolutionary and complex systems approaches might be more useful. Previous empirical work and current data are coalesced to i…
Political science (38 works) · Sociology (33 works) · Economics (22 works) · Originality (20 works) · Engineering (19 works) · Law (19 works) · Law (19 works) · Value (mathematics (18 works) · Social science (16 works) · Engineering ethics (15 works)