Suchergebnisse

In the discussion on urban governance and the commons, surprisingly little attention is targeted towards the underlying structures of political debate – in media as well as in physical space – where the agendas and speaking orders are predetermined by established power structures. Invitations to panels and seminars, moderation are guided by already evident positions in the discourse and landscape of power, based on institutionalized perceived "expertise" – academic or otherwise – or a position of power, by being a "decision maker". Sometimes a random representative of "the public" or from "vulnerable groups" may be invited to provide "diversity". But the structure is already given and institutionalized, and thus the outcome will rarely be something else than a pure reproduction of the map of institutions and political power (McCann 2001). There are, however, alternative interventions that aim to challenge these structures, providing what might be understood as a commons of ideas and politics, focusing on unsettling formal structures of political debate. One such example is the Conversatory ("konversatoriet", www.konversatoriet.se), an open source art-based research intervention (McNiff 2008) where all particpants are required to leave behind their formal attributes of power and engage in a conversation where ideas and human experiences are at the center. In this presentation, we will discuss and analyze the implications of alternative modes of political discussion and debate, such as the Conversatory, and the possibilities that lies here for a more commons-based exchange of ideas and possibly decision-making.

Abstract
We propose a strategy for assessing how the inflow to the disability insurance program has been governed over time. Using ex-post mortality, we analyze the ex-ante health of individuals entering the program, compared to individuals not entering the program in the same year. Applying this strategy to Sweden, we find large variation in the relative health of new beneficiaries compared to non-beneficiaries over time. Some of the fluctuations correspond well to formal changes to screening stringency. However, we also find large variation in health during periods when no changes to formal eligibility criteria have been pursued.

This paper studies empirically the consequences of retirement on health. We make use of a targeted retirement offer to army employees 55 years of age or older. Before the offer was implemented in the Swedish defense, the normal retirement age was 60 years of age. Estimating the effect of the offer on individuals' health within the age range 56-70, we find support for a reduction in both mortality and in inpatient care as a consequence of the early retirement offer. Increasing the mandatory retirement age may thus not only have positive government income effects but also negative effects on increasing government health care expenditures.

This paper studies empirically the consequences of retirement on health. We make use of a targeted retirement offer to army employees 55 years of age or older. Before the offer was implemented in the Swedish defense, the normal retirement age was 60 years of age. Estimating the effect of the offer on individuals' health within the age range 56-70, we find support for a reduction in both mortality and in inpatient care as a consequence of the early retirement offer. Increasing the mandatory retirement age may thus not only have positive government income effects but also negative effects on increasing government health care expenditures.