YorkSpace
YorkSpace is York University's Institutional Repository. It supports York University's Senate Policy on Open Access by providing York community members with a place to preserve their research online in an institutional context.
Communities in YorkSpace
Select a community to browse its collections.
- Previously Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES)
- The Global Labour Research Centre (GLRC) engages in the study of work, employment and labour in the context of a constantly changing global economy.
- Lives Outside the Lines: a Symposium in Honour of Marlene Kadar
- Used only for SWORD Deposit by Adminstrator
- Welcome to WILAA, a gathering place for materials related to research projects that explore work-integrated learning and disability-related accessibility and accommodations.
Recent Submissions
Monetary Expansionism, Global Commodity Prices, and Global Inequality
(2025) Kim, Jongchul
An early analysis of the imperialist implications of the surge of global commodity prices was conducted in 2014 by Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler. However, their analysis did not consider how the US monetary and fiscal expansionist policies have contributed to the rise of global commodity prices. This article fills this gap. Arguably, under the current international fiat money system established in the early 1970s, the US has had the opportunity to use artificial money-creation mechanisms to enjoy the wealth produced by people outside the US without cost. This article argues that the US monetary and fiscal expansionist policies, including quantitative easing, are cases where the US takes advantage of such an opportunity and that the free transfer of wealth is a cause of the surge in global commodity prices.
Protection of Refugees in the Non-Signatory States to the 1951 Refugee Convention: Bangladesh Case Study
(Brill/Nijhoff, 2024-12) Haque, Muhammad Ekramul; Siddique, Md. Abu Bakar
The elements of refugee protection, whether in signatory or non-signatory states, indicate a holistic framework to ensure efficient and effective functioning of refugee governance across multiple levels of institutions, sectors, and actors. Protecting the most persecuted refugee communities in the world involves adopting fair, clear, and implementable laws that adhere to the principle of equality and non-discrimination, accountability to the law, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness, and procedural and legal transparency. The best practices in refugee protection integrate critical refugee needs with essential human rights elements, providing a basis for enhanced constitutionalism within diverse geographical settings. This article sheds light on both the institutional and legal structures of Bangladesh, concluding that, among other factors, refugees in non-signatory states to the 1951 Refugee Convention can find hope in the steady and progressive constitutionalism achievable through judicial interpretations to close the protection gap and fulfill respective Customary International Law (CIL) obligations, despite Bangladesh’s non-recognition of Rohingya as “refugees,” since this poses a significant road block to any sort of “steady and progressive constitutionalism” or “judicial interpretations.”
Capital as Power in the 21st Century. A Conversation
(2025) Hudson, Michael; Nitzan, Jonathan; Di Muzio, Tim; Fix, Blair
On December 3, 2024, Michael Hudson met with capital-as-power researchers Jonathan Nitzan, Tim Di Muzio and Blair Fix to discuss the intersections between their two lines of research.
YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBOU4xBg2pA
Tracking the Fortunes of Corporate Psychedelia
(2024) Hager, Sandy Brian
In recent years, new biotech companies have emerged hoping to cash in on a medical psychedelics market expected to be worth billions. This article examines the business models of two of the largest such companies. According to conventional wisdom, for-profit players are best positioned to deliver new cures for mental illness at scale because of their ability to tap capital markets. The analysis presented here challenges this story on two counts. First, it argues that profitability in the pharmaceutical business depends not on rapid scaling per se, but on controlling and restricting access to maintain pricing power. Second, it claims that the unruliness of sychedelics – manifested in the presence of cheap generics, murky intellectual property claims, and high costs of administration – raises serious questions about their commercial viability. The article then assesses the sector’s embrace of Johnson and Johnson’s patented form of esketamine, Spravato, as its prototype for commercialization. Spravato may provide a pathway for profitability, but patients must contend with high prices and a drug that provides only short-term relief and requires indefinite dosing. Rather than disrupt Big Pharma, corporate psychedelia replicates its main features, raising questions about its claims to tackle the mental health crisis.
Earning Through Obsolescence. An Examination of Falling Household Durables Usage Lifespans in the United States 1970–2018
(2025) Dillon, Sean
This study examines the declining usage lifespan of household consumer durables in the United States between 1970 and 2018, situating the phenomenon within a heterodox political economy framework. While mainstream economic narratives attribute the rising rate of consumer durable waste over this time to “overconsumption” driven by consumer materialism, this study challenges that perspective through an empirical analysis of waste generation, consumer spending, depreciation rates, and corporate profitability within the consumer durables sector.
The findings reveal a significant divergence between rising levels of durable goods waste and relatively stable per capita ‘real’ consumer spending, suggesting that falling product longevity is largely not demand-driven. Instead, the data indicates that manufacturers have profitably reduced product durability, as evidenced by increasing rates of geometric depreciation and a rise in total sectoral earnings without proportional increases in earnings margins.
These findings align with the theory of “planned obsolescence,” whereby firms deliberately shorten product lifespans to drive replacement purchases and sustain profit growth. Given that this strategy cannot be adequately explained within conventional neoclassical economic models, the article draws the Veblenian theory of “strategic sabotage” to conceptualize the deliberate underutilization of technological capacity in pursuit of pecuniary gains. The study provides both empirical and theoretical evidence that the decline in consumer durables product longevity observed between 1970 and 2018 is structurally embedded in capitalist production of consumer durables goods.