I am a political economist and sociologist and I was educated at universities in Britain and the United States. I have worked at the Universities of Birmingham, Hong Kong, Manchester and Bristol and have held Visiting Professorships or Fellowships at universities in Japan, Australia, USA, Poland and The Netherlands. I work on the dynamics and consequences of economic and political transformation with particular reference to East Asia and Europe. Inter alia, I was one of the two co-founders of the global production networks approach to globalisation and economic development. My current research predominantly focuses on China's economic, political and social engagements in Europe and, in that context, I am a co-founder and Vice Chair of the EU-funded China in Europe Research Network (CHERN). I am especially concerned to use my knowledge and research to feed into public policy (broadly conceived) and, among other agencies, I have advised the International Labour Organisation, the UN's Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the Council of Europe and the British Parliament.
As a component of the Globalisation and Poverty Programme, this project has been concerned with s... more As a component of the Globalisation and Poverty Programme, this project has been concerned with state institutional capacities for economic governance and their consequences for poverty reduction. The research was conducted by Jeffrey
The rise of China as an economic and political ‘driver ’ of the global economy is likely to be on... more The rise of China as an economic and political ‘driver ’ of the global economy is likely to be one of the defining moments of world history. Its dynamism and international expansion are on the verge of creating a ‘critical disruption ’ in the global order that has held sway for over 60 years. As such, China is beginning to reshape the world, presaging a new phase of globalization: a ‘global-Asian era’. This new era is likely to be distinct from any of the earlier phases of globalization and China’s global footprint, in terms of its business, economic and political actions and their geopolitical implications, is likely to be markedly different from what has gone before. This paper offers a framework by which we can begin to understand the coming global-Asian era (GAE) and some of its consequences, particularly as the latter are surfacing in the developing world. Having discussed the nature and dynamics of the GAE, the paper turns to sketch a series of vectors (trade, aid and energy s...
This chapter is concerned with the implications for labour forces of the emergence and transforma... more This chapter is concerned with the implications for labour forces of the emergence and transformation of a number of related international divisions of labour in the electronics industry. It describes the locational and technical features of these divisions of labour and outlines their causal dynamics. Throughout, however, the report emphasizes that issues of employment, wages, working conditions, etc. should be seen as only part of our concern. Equally as important as these are the questions of whether investment by multinational enterprises or domestic companies, in addition to the generation of jobs, leads over time to more technology-intensive production processes and products, a proliferation of human capabilities through linkages to domestic suppliers, and thus to the creation of higher value added in the economy. Only in this way can demands for higher skill, higher wage forms of employment be realized and general prosperity, together with low levels of income inequality, beg...
This paper takes issue with arguments emanating from the global social policy literature that neo... more This paper takes issue with arguments emanating from the global social policy literature that neoliberal policy agendas have been largely a consequence of the interplay of international agencies with indigenous reform interests. While relevant, such arguments grasp only part of the story of social policy change. By means of a case study of Hungary between 1990 and 2002, this article emphasises the role played by the bureaucratic reconstitution of the state and changing forms of national economic governance in the explanation of social policy change. We show how the bureaucratic redesign of the Hungarian state generated a ‘finance-driven’ form of economic governance with the state bureaucracy reconfigured around the fiscal control of the Finance Ministry. These changes had significant implications, not simply for social expenditure, but for the intellectual nature and bureaucratic space for social policy-making. Whereas critiques of neoliberal social policy reform tend to focus on th...
This paper examines the relation of particular forms of social and labour market policy to econom... more This paper examines the relation of particular forms of social and labour market policy to economic development. Taking the history of Malaysian industrialization as its empirical case, the paper assesses the unintended consequences of redistribu-tion policy, on the one hand, and ...
ABSTRACT Based on a roundtable discussion, the article surveys the causes and consequences of the... more ABSTRACT Based on a roundtable discussion, the article surveys the causes and consequences of the East Asian economic crisis as it began to take root from the middle of 1997. While retaining the form of a debate, and thus exhibiting some disagreement between the participants, it deals with the macroeconomic and international dimensions of the problem, as well as the domestic and institutional sources of the crisis in each of the relevant societies. It concludes with a commentary on some of the likely long-term effects of the crisis for East Asia and for the global economy more generally.
The rise of China as an economic and political ‘driver’ of the global economy is likely to be one... more The rise of China as an economic and political ‘driver’ of the global economy is likely to be one of the defining moments of world history. Its dynamism and international expansion are on the verge of creating a ‘critical disruption’ in the global order that has held sway for over 60 years. As such, China is beginning to reshape the world, presaging a new phase of globalization: a ‘global-Asian era’. This new era is likely to be distinct from any of the earlier phases of globalization and China’s global footprint, in terms of its business, economic and political actions and their geopolitical implications, is likely to be markedly different from what has gone before. This paper offers a framework by which we can begin to understand the coming global-Asian era (GAE) and some of its consequences, particularly as the latter are surfacing in the developing world. Having discussed the nature and dynamics of the GAE, the paper turns to sketch a series of vectors (trade, aid and energy sec...
The problem with Britain is that it is dominated by a single city: London. In other countries wit... more The problem with Britain is that it is dominated by a single city: London. In other countries with highly developed economies and societies, political, cultural and economic power is dispersed: think, for instance, of Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin; New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington DC; Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver; Milan, Turin and Rome. Indeed, with the principal exceptions of France and Japan, the vast majority of the world’s major developed economies (as well as its ‘rising powers’: China, India and Brazil) have similar spatial dispersals of power. This is so because, unlike Britain, they are federal states.
As a component of the Globalisation and Poverty Programme, this project has been concerned with s... more As a component of the Globalisation and Poverty Programme, this project has been concerned with state institutional capacities for economic governance and their consequences for poverty reduction. The research was conducted by Jeffrey
The rise of China as an economic and political ‘driver ’ of the global economy is likely to be on... more The rise of China as an economic and political ‘driver ’ of the global economy is likely to be one of the defining moments of world history. Its dynamism and international expansion are on the verge of creating a ‘critical disruption ’ in the global order that has held sway for over 60 years. As such, China is beginning to reshape the world, presaging a new phase of globalization: a ‘global-Asian era’. This new era is likely to be distinct from any of the earlier phases of globalization and China’s global footprint, in terms of its business, economic and political actions and their geopolitical implications, is likely to be markedly different from what has gone before. This paper offers a framework by which we can begin to understand the coming global-Asian era (GAE) and some of its consequences, particularly as the latter are surfacing in the developing world. Having discussed the nature and dynamics of the GAE, the paper turns to sketch a series of vectors (trade, aid and energy s...
This chapter is concerned with the implications for labour forces of the emergence and transforma... more This chapter is concerned with the implications for labour forces of the emergence and transformation of a number of related international divisions of labour in the electronics industry. It describes the locational and technical features of these divisions of labour and outlines their causal dynamics. Throughout, however, the report emphasizes that issues of employment, wages, working conditions, etc. should be seen as only part of our concern. Equally as important as these are the questions of whether investment by multinational enterprises or domestic companies, in addition to the generation of jobs, leads over time to more technology-intensive production processes and products, a proliferation of human capabilities through linkages to domestic suppliers, and thus to the creation of higher value added in the economy. Only in this way can demands for higher skill, higher wage forms of employment be realized and general prosperity, together with low levels of income inequality, beg...
This paper takes issue with arguments emanating from the global social policy literature that neo... more This paper takes issue with arguments emanating from the global social policy literature that neoliberal policy agendas have been largely a consequence of the interplay of international agencies with indigenous reform interests. While relevant, such arguments grasp only part of the story of social policy change. By means of a case study of Hungary between 1990 and 2002, this article emphasises the role played by the bureaucratic reconstitution of the state and changing forms of national economic governance in the explanation of social policy change. We show how the bureaucratic redesign of the Hungarian state generated a ‘finance-driven’ form of economic governance with the state bureaucracy reconfigured around the fiscal control of the Finance Ministry. These changes had significant implications, not simply for social expenditure, but for the intellectual nature and bureaucratic space for social policy-making. Whereas critiques of neoliberal social policy reform tend to focus on th...
This paper examines the relation of particular forms of social and labour market policy to econom... more This paper examines the relation of particular forms of social and labour market policy to economic development. Taking the history of Malaysian industrialization as its empirical case, the paper assesses the unintended consequences of redistribu-tion policy, on the one hand, and ...
ABSTRACT Based on a roundtable discussion, the article surveys the causes and consequences of the... more ABSTRACT Based on a roundtable discussion, the article surveys the causes and consequences of the East Asian economic crisis as it began to take root from the middle of 1997. While retaining the form of a debate, and thus exhibiting some disagreement between the participants, it deals with the macroeconomic and international dimensions of the problem, as well as the domestic and institutional sources of the crisis in each of the relevant societies. It concludes with a commentary on some of the likely long-term effects of the crisis for East Asia and for the global economy more generally.
The rise of China as an economic and political ‘driver’ of the global economy is likely to be one... more The rise of China as an economic and political ‘driver’ of the global economy is likely to be one of the defining moments of world history. Its dynamism and international expansion are on the verge of creating a ‘critical disruption’ in the global order that has held sway for over 60 years. As such, China is beginning to reshape the world, presaging a new phase of globalization: a ‘global-Asian era’. This new era is likely to be distinct from any of the earlier phases of globalization and China’s global footprint, in terms of its business, economic and political actions and their geopolitical implications, is likely to be markedly different from what has gone before. This paper offers a framework by which we can begin to understand the coming global-Asian era (GAE) and some of its consequences, particularly as the latter are surfacing in the developing world. Having discussed the nature and dynamics of the GAE, the paper turns to sketch a series of vectors (trade, aid and energy sec...
The problem with Britain is that it is dominated by a single city: London. In other countries wit... more The problem with Britain is that it is dominated by a single city: London. In other countries with highly developed economies and societies, political, cultural and economic power is dispersed: think, for instance, of Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin; New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington DC; Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver; Milan, Turin and Rome. Indeed, with the principal exceptions of France and Japan, the vast majority of the world’s major developed economies (as well as its ‘rising powers’: China, India and Brazil) have similar spatial dispersals of power. This is so because, unlike Britain, they are federal states.
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Papers by Jeffrey Henderson