First Published in 1990. Socialist countries now account for about a quarter of the world economy, about a third of the world population and about half the world military power. What happens in those countries is therefore par excellence of importance to all of us. This book is an outcome of a Conference on Economic Systems and Reforms in a Changing World, held in Seoul in September 1987. The Conference was significant in several respects. Foremost was the fact that this was probably the first such meeting of scholars from both socialist and non-socialist countries held to discuss socialist economic reforms worldwide.

This book analyses wage hierarchy in market and planning theory in Western and Soviet-type systems.

Debt is often thought of as a mere economic variable governed by a simplistic mechanical logic, ignoring its other facets. Whose debt, and debt of what exactly? This volume analyzes debt as a political and social construct, with a multiplicity of purposes and agents. All of these are vectors of meanings that are highly diverse, and of subtle distinctions; they show that debt is a transverse phenomenon, cutting across spaces that are not merely economic but also domestic, social and political. Each contributor takes a fresh view of the subject, dealing with debt at a different time, in a different society, on a different scale of observation. By adopting a determinedly interdisciplinary approach, the authors reveal in the phenomenon of debt a diversity of social and gendered determinants that amount in some cases to domination, allegiance or slavery, and in others to solidarity and emancipation. Debt is at one and the same time shared, imposed, political and gendered.

Exploring why professional team sport clubs are almost always able to survive despite financial mismanagement, inflated player salaries and persistent deficits, this book provides new evidence on how to explain this phenomenon. It looks at the context in which many clubs operate – the soft budget constraint – and how the clubs in this respect resemble state-owned enterprises in socialist countries or big banks in financial crises.