Seminar 5: Cultures of Competitiveness: Social and Environmental Dimensions
17 th April 2009
Institute for Advanced Studies, Lancaster University, Meeting Room 3
SEMINAR PROGRAMME
8:45-9:00 Tea/Coffee
9:00-9:15 Welcome (Bob Jessop and Ngai-Ling Sum)
Session 1: Competitiveness and Poverty Reduction
(Chair: Susan Robertson, Bristol University)
9:15-10:00 Peter Utting, Deputy Director, UNRISD
The Changing Roles of Business in Poverty Reduction
10:00-10:15 Discussant (Bob Jessop, IAS, Lancaster University)
10:15-10:30 Discussion
10:30-10:45 Tea/Coffee Break
Session 2: Social and Responsible Competitiveness
(Chair Paul Langley, Art and Social Sciences, Northumbria University)
10:45-11:10 Martin Cooke, Deputy Director, Ethical Trading Initiative
(tba)
11:10-11:35 Jeroen Merk, Research Coordinator, Clean Clothes Campaign
‘Spatial fix’ or ‘technical fix’? Some preliminary remarks on the use of lean production techniques as a way to improve working conditions in the garment and athletic footwear industry

11:35-12:00 Ngai-Ling Sum, Politics and International Relations, Lancaster University
‘Beyond Auditing’, Financial Crisis and Competitiveness Challenges:
Remaking of Global Governance Standards l
12:00-12:15 (Discussant: Khalid Nadvi, IPDM, Manchester University, tbc)
12:15-12:30 Discussion
12:30-1:15 Lunch Break
Session 3: Green New Deal
(Chair: Frank Moulaert, GURU, Newcastle University)
1:15-2:00 Gina Dowding, Parliamentary Candidate for Fleetwood and Lancaster,
Green Party
Green New Deal (tbc)
2:00-2:15 Discussant (Andrew Sayer, Sociology, Lancaster University)
2:15-2:30 Discussion
2:30-2:45 Tea/Coffee
Session 4: Environment, Sustainability and Competitiveness
(Chair: Ngai-Ling Sum, IAS, Lancaster University)
2:45-3:10 Andrew Jonas, Geography, Hull University
Changing cultures of urban competitiveness: Towards a new urban politics of carbon control?
3:10-3:35 Emma Foster, Sociology, Birmingham University
Environmental Governmentality: Shaping Consumer Behaviour and
Social Relations

3:35-4:00 Larry Reynolds,
Centre for the Study of Environmental
Change/Sociology, Lancaster University
‘Growing a Better World? A Critique of a Bio-Capitalist Responses to
Global Economic and Ecological Crisis’
4:00-4:15 Discussant (Martin Jones, Geography, Aberystwyth University)
4:15-4:30 Discussion
Final Session
4:30-5:00 General Discussion and Future Research Agenda
(Bob Jessop and Ngai-Ling Sum)
5:30 Bar (County South) and Dinner Arrangements (for those who are staying)
For further details, please contact Ngai-Ling Sum at N.Sum@Lancaster.ac.uk