International Department for business and politics

This short piece outlines some of the problems with the concept of cultural intelligence conceived of as a tool to grasp both the structural and individual angels of crosscultural encounters in a business context. We sketch some possible research areas, which could lead to a reinterpretation of the interwoven proxies on which the concept is based. Our suggestions are all linked to experience as a central perspective. We see experience as a central component of both the understanding of and the research in how people deal with cultural border passing encounters.

In the last decade, researchers have shown that MNCs need to reverse knowledge transfer to secure their competitiveness in the global market. Lately this has been studied through re/expatriates. This study presents two exemplary cases from a study of 64 interviews conducted in 5 of the largest Danish MNCs. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to understand the role identity work plays in the ability and willingness of expatriates to learn and transfer knowledge. Second, to introduce Life Course Theory as an important methodological contribution with which to capture the entangled relationship between agency and structure within reverse knowledge transfer. Third, to develop and extend the current theoretical and methodological frame that govern the research of knowledge transfer. The present study indicates that institutionally generated organisational frames and work organising practices develop and feed certain power structures and communities, which influence the possibili...

y * This version of the article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the publisher's final version AKA Version of Record.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, civil society has attracted both scholarly and political interest as the 'third sphere' outside the state and the market, strongly amplified by the sectorial conceptualisation of state, market and civil society. In contrast, this article shows that civil society is and has never been a pre-existing location separated from state and market. Its boundaries are constantly produced through practices interweaving political, economic and moral components. This will be studied through an exemplary Danish historical case of the Egmont Foundation 1920-2018. The study shows how different and changing philanthropic practices took part in producing distinction between state, market and civil society by demarcating categories of deserving and underserving needy as part of the 'common good' through changing donation practices and organisational forms. As a consequence, we can trace ongoing re-distributions of power relations in society over time. The study's contribution to develop a post-sectorial concept of civil society is twofold: first, by showing how political, economic and moral components are interlinked through the ongoing stabilisation of the 'common' and the 'good'; second, by showing how these interlinks and transgression constantly redistribute power relations in society and in turn create possibilities and limits for actions both in past, present and future.

Political actors and research perspectives currently identify civil society as a resource that is not fully exploited-an observation that, with some strategic adjustments, could incite a revitalization of several essential issues. From this viewpoint, "bringing civil society back in" to the political agenda could contribute to a revitalization of the welfare state, democracy, equality, and social cohesion. Moreover, civil society could potentially become the space needed for a critique of current developments-on national, European, and global levels. We can, however, recognize that civil society, as a resource that many commentators strongly believe in, is not mobilized and used to the extent people envision. Why is this the case? We suggest that there are two reasons for the lack of engagement. One reason is related to the current political moment. The other reason is related to a particular conceptual and theoretical discourse on civil society. Concerning the first issue, the current political moment has become complex and, more importantly, loaded with paradoxes. Today, we can observe the prominent coexistence of apparently contradictory political ideologies, governance mechanisms, economic developments, and political and cultural clashes on multiple levels: between, first, the local and the national; second, the national and the global; and third, the secular and the religious. These developments have been with us for a while, but we now seem to experience these contradictions and paradoxes as the "normal" and not the "exception." In this landscape, we find more invocations of "globalization," as in a global financial crisis, a global pandemic, global trade and production patterns, and global refugee problems-together with more economic nationalism (in East Asia, the USA, and even the European Union), political-ideological nationalism (Brexit, "America First," Hungary, and Poland), and nationalist reactions against immigrants, to mention a few. Other paradoxes have become more pronounced during the last thirty years: There is a growing interdependence between a bigger and more forceful global market and more influential states. And as we realized that we were living in an increasingly secular society, we discovered that secularization came with a reinforcement of religions. This paradoxical world has spurred new crossroads, conflicts,

Examining the historical and social trajectories involved in the continuous development of civil society, this volume reveals the contextual nature of the process. Through empirical studies focusing primarily on Denmark and cov ering the period from 1849 to the present day, it analyses the manner in which civil society has been practised and transformed over time. Presenting a new theoretical framework informed by a relational and processual perspective, the book sheds new light on familiar questions pertaining to civil society, the production of its boundaries and spaces of action, and the means by which these spaces can become causal factors. A fresh intervention in the study of a concept that has been central in defining ideas of solidarity and the common good, and to which researchers and politicians look for solutions to the great challenges of our time, Civil Society: Between Concepts and Empirical Grounds will appeal to scholars of sociology, politics, history and philosophy with interests in civil society.

Supranational organisations can only confront politico-economic issues that are recognised as important. Typically, issues gain recognition either when they provide an external shock to the system, shaking political actors into action, or when they are framed as important in policy networks concerned with developing the appropriate scientific approach. Ideally political and scientific actors align in creating pressures to recognise the issue as salient and to mobilise organisational responses. Issues differ in their capacity to be driven by both political and scientific pressures, creating crisis management, technocratic, and reform agenda outcomes. Here we explore a further variation, where pressures around an issue are insufficient, creating a policy vacuum. We examine one such policy vacuum in Europe: demographic change. This issue belongs to no particular Directorate-General in the European Commission, but is subject to policy frames from DG EMPL and DG ECFIN. Without sufficient political and scientific pressures, no particular policy position is occupied and advocated despite recognition of the issue's importance. We discuss the role of policy vacuums and the need for their identification in political economy research.

Cybersikkerhedseksperter spiller en vigtig rolle i at identificere digitale risici og at definere hensigtsmæssige løsninger. Denne artikel gør brug af professions- og ekspertsociologien til at belyse konkurrerende epistemiske rationaliteter i konstruktionen af digitale risici. På baggrund af et nyt datasæt omhandlende ekspertprofiler i offentlige og private cybersikkerhedsråd og -udvalg, argumenteres der for, at profilen af cybersikkerhedseksperter har bevæget sig væk fra et rent teknisk fokus og hen imod en procesorientering, som både er bredere i fokus og placeret tættere på beslutningstagere. Den nye ekspertprofil er positioneret i et spændingsfelt imellem tekniske, organisatoriske og økonomiske rationaliteter. I fraværet af en bred politisk debat kan denne udvikling styrke ekspertmagten, som nu er begrænset til få hybride aktører, som formår at bygge bro imellem de forskellige rationaliteter. En sådan udvikling vil være skadelig for demokratiet, men udviklingen imod en procesori...

This paper examines who populates the expert and policy network around demographic change issues in Europe. We examine how competing policy departments in the European Commission DirectoratesGeneral (DGs) deal with the issue of Europe’s changing demography, as well as discuss the role of external experts on demographic change. Our findings suggest that on demographic change issues at the EU level, DG EMPL has taken the lead, while DG ECFIN is the secondary actor. Still, internal European Commission dynamics mean that the lead actor on demographic issues has less autonomy in articulating a funded and clear policy position on how to address them. As a consequence, there is little institutional memory and hardly a depository of activity on demographic change. While outside expertise comes primarily from demographers, and other scholars concerned with demographic change, they are primarily an academic community rather than heavily engaged in European policy formulation. As a consequence...