bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The policy discourses that shaped the ‘transformation’ of Glasgow in the later 20th century: ‘overspill’, ‘redeployment’ and the ‘culture of enterprise’
Authors: Collins Chik , Levitt Ian
Published: September 2020

This chapter draws on extensive research in government archives to show how Glasgow was affected by a highly discriminatory policy agenda developed within Scotland from the early 1960s. From that time, Glasgow’s industrial decline was actively embraced and accelerated by Scottish Office policy makers as part of a regional economic policy agenda seeking ‘development and growth’ in other parts of Scotland. This agenda, which was sustained for decades, is discussed here as an evolving set of policy discourses – of ‘overspill’, ‘redeployment’ and of ‘enterprise and personal responsibility’. The subsequent embrace by Glasgow’s civic leaders of a markedly post-industrial trajectory reflected their attempt to work within, while also pushing against, this deeply entrenched policy paradigm. Appreciating all of this is essential in considering appropriate policy responses for the city’s future. Currently, the evidence is that it is not sufficiently appreciated – either in Glasgow, or by the Scottish Government in Edinburgh.
Escaping the shadow of the upas tree
Authors: Patrick Stuart , Kennedy Gordon , MacLeod David
Published: September 2020

Glasgow experienced several decades of deindustrialization and the collapse of a closely connected manufacturing and heavy engineering “cluster “resulting in massive job losses and the physical scars of industrial dereliction. Since the early 1980s through a series of public / private partnerships the city has focused heavily on building a more diverse economic structure based largely on a range of sectors in the service and knowledge based economies as well as more traditional approaches to inward investment, physical regeneration, skills and business growth. As a result Glasgow has experienced a significant economic recovery with sustained growth in employment since the mid 1990s and a strong rebound from the 2008 crash. The city now has a more diverse sectoral structure with much of the recovery based on the continuing strength of the city centre and the skill base of the population.
Stopped in its tracks? Transport’s contribution to Glasgow’s development
Authors: Docherty Iain
Published: September 2020

Glasgow is a city of multiple transport contradictions. It has some of the lowest levels of car ownership in the UK, but has the most extensive urban motorway network and high car usage and congestion. It has the only underground railway of any age never to have been extended. Governance arrangements for transport have changed frequently, and have failed to deliver the kind of improvements taken for granted in peer cities. Can the city break out of this pattern and deliver the kind of transport it needs in 21 century context dominated by concerns over climate change and social inclusion as well as economic growth?
Revisiting the creative city: culture and regeneration in post-industrial Glasgow
Authors: Pollock Venda Louise
Published: September 2020

Responding to calls for the real, rather than rhetorical, ‘creative city’, this chapter revisits cultural regeneration in Glasgow during the post-industrial period when Glasgow was vaunted as an exemplar of how culture could reorientate the economy and identity of a city. Taking as its point of departure the typology of culture and regeneration put forward by Evans and Shaw in their comprehensive review of the evidence relating to The Contribution of Culture to Regeneration in the UK (2004): culture-led regeneration; cultural regeneration; and, culture and regeneration, it draws on specific examples to complicate these narratives and posit that a reconceptualization of the ‘creative city’ during the post-industrial era is necessary to fully understand the ‘post-creative’ city which, Malcolm Miles (2103) suggests, might arise from new alliances between art work and everyday cultures.
Neo-liberalism as an ideology, an elite project and its impact on austerity
Authors: Malin Nigel
Published: September 2020

This chapter discusses the relevance of neo-liberalism as both an ideology and as a pragmatic approach, defined as a re-making of the state, where the state is not rolled back as such but is re-shaped, re-configured to better serve the demands of capital. Neo-liberalism represents an attempt to replace political judgement with economic evaluation, including, but not exclusively, the evaluations offered by markets. Writers on this subject such as Davies, Gough, Garrett, Peck, Mirowski and Shaxson are referred to where they address globalisation and audit culture, the logic of markets and economic evaluation. It was believed that the economic pressures generated by neo-liberal globalisation would inexorably lead to welfare state entrenchment or its dissolution and replacement by a lean ‘competition’ state. Yet the global rediscovery of poverty and the challenges to territorially-based conceptions of social rights posed by the increasing flow of migrants have put social policy issues on the social agenda.
Professional training programmes: financial cuts and content critique
Authors: Malin Nigel
Published: September 2020

This chapter considers how professional training has, in some instances, become devalued and no longer viewed as a preferred method towards enhancing the quality of public services. The trend has occurred despite a rising demand for trained staff, for instance in children’s services, from family crisis support to child protection. Contrastingly there have been some positive innovations within adult social care, where for example homecare providers have recruited people from outside the domiciliary care sector, believing the priority was to find people with the ‘right values’ who would acquire the skills needed to help older people to live well at home. The chapter demonstrates how de-professionalisation has become shaped through the application of a political economy model of delivering public services - in health, education, social care and criminal justice sectors.
Professional abuse of power: discreditation or a lowering of productivity?
Authors: Malin Nigel
Published: September 2020

This chapter discusses the idea of de-professionalisation in the context of abuse of power or authority, and the effect this may have on undermining the position or status of professions. Included also is a review of some of the evidence used to conceptualise de-professionalisation as an economic signifier, defined by de-skilling, low productivity or output resulting from work activity.
A social investment perspective on lifelong learning: the role of institutional complementarities in the development of human capital and social participation
Authors: Kazepov Yuri , Cefalo Ruggero , Pot Mirjam
Published: September 2020

The chapter investigates the relationship between social investment (SI) and lifelong learning (LLL). First, we present and describe the SI and LLL perspectives, reviewing their foundations and main principles. Even if lifelong learning policies are considered part of a SI strategy, the origin of LLL perspective dates back to the 1960s. These approaches present significant overlaps, but also differences related to the scope and aims of interventions. Moreover, both the critical debates on SI and LLL stress the relevance of ambiguities that can be traced back to the co-existence of a narrower functionalistic understanding and market-led human capital approach (functionalistic view); vis-a-vis a holistic comprehension of inclusion taking into account issues of social participation and human capabilities. Second, we discuss the critical issue of institutional complementarities as preconditions for the effectiveness of SI policies, to be identified in the complex and time-framed interface among labour market, education system, and welfare state. By doing this, we go beyond the mere consideration of LLL policies as an example of social investment policy. We argue for a strategic role of LLL policies as specifically addressing the time dimension by means of coherent interventions over the life course.
Young adults as a target group of lifelong learning policies
Authors: Rambla Xavier , Bouillet Dejana , Petkova Borislava
Published: September 2020

Lifelong learning policies may construct target groups in two different ways. First, sometimes encompassing systems of lifelong learning policies implement programmes for specific social categories in terms of school performance, gender or ethnicity. Second, lifelong learning policies are much more fragmentary in many countries. There, experts and the very young adults may assume that programmes compensating for early school leaving and vocational training schemes ‘are’ lifelong learning. In these circumstances, it is likely that the same specific social categories become the target of these policies by default. This chapter discusses the consequences of constructing these target groups of lifelong learning policies in nine member states of the European Union. The pros and cons of this policy instrument is considered at different geographical scales such as the whole Union, member states and functional regions. In addition, the chapter will explore to what extent the construction of these target groups draws on wider societal classifications of socio-economic background (e.g. previous school performance), gender and ethnicity.
The effectiveness of lifelong learning policies on youth employment: do regional labour markets matter?
Authors: Capsada-Munsech Queralt , Valiente Oscar
Published: September 2020

In a context of high youth unemployment rates, the employability agenda has dominated the design of European lifelong learning (LLL) policies. While the assumption of this agenda is that the causes of youth unemployment are individual and of an educational nature, our study explores to what extent regional labour market situations affect the effectiveness of these LLL policies on vulnerable young adults. Based on interviews with key regional actors and the review of relevant grey literature at the national and regional level, we identify apprenticeships (i.e. work-based training) and employability training courses (i.e. school-based learning) as the main lifelong learning policies used in five European countries to promote youth employment. The comparative analysis shows how differences in education and training provision can be explained by the different configuration of national skill formation regimes. However, the effectiveness of these provision measures on youth employment is largely affected by how the economic context is shaping the demand for skills in these regional labour markets.
Governing the normalisation of young adults through lifelong learning policies
Authors: Rinne Risto , Silvennoinen Heikki , Järvinen Tero , Tikkanen Jenni
Published: September 2020

Policies are based on – explicit and implicit – assumptions of well-functioning institutions, a prosperous economy, a good citizen, and so forth. In short, they have a vision of a desired society with reasonably behaving individuals. Against this background the chapter scrutinizes the taken-for-granted logic behind lifelong learning policy measures targeted at so called ‘vulnerable youth’. The term ‘vulnerable’ itself bears within it connotations that influence policy makers’ and policy actors’ perception of the individuals categorized under the label ‘vulnerable’. The chapter is interested in the ways by which lifelong learning policies with their variety of policy measures, projects, regulations and practices, incentive structures and sanctions, aim to govern (regulate, steer, mould) the ‘vulnerable’ young adults to govern themselves – their reasoning and conduct – according to the desired direction. The aim of this chapter is to make visible the underlying assumptions and tacit implications beneath the ‘normal’ life course, how ‘vulnerability’ is produced in policy texts, and how the normalization of ‘vulnerable’ youth is governed. Besides theoretical analysis the article uses policy documents, descriptions of policy measures and projects, and international, national and regional statistics to make sense of practices of governing the normalisation in empirical contexts.
England: attempting to learn from mistakes in an increasingly ‘risk averse’ professional context
Authors: Masson Judith , Parton Nigel
Published: September 2020

Concerns about professional and system errors and mistakes have dominated policy and practice debates and changes in England ever since the problem of child abuse was (re)discovered over forty years ago. The period has been punctuated by a series of high profile scandals usually where a child has died and where professionals have failed to intervene effectively. A major policy response has been the use of public enquiries and, more recently, ‘serious case reviews’ to investigate what has gone wrong with the aim of learning from the experiences to ensure that such a tragedy could be avoided in the future.
The chapter considers the question of how far the changes introduced have had the effect of increasing learning and developing a system better able to identify and respond appropriately to the need for protection, or have primarily intensified the culture of blame and failure in which professionals are expected to operate. It suggests that while the changes introduced over the last 40 years have perhaps made for a safer system protecting children the system has become more ‘risk averse’ and reactive rather than being able to develop policies and practices which are able to develop longer term preventative strategies.
Errors and mistakes in the Norwegian child protection system
Authors: Skivenes Marit , Tefre Øyvind
Published: September 2020

The aim of this chapter is to examine the Norwegian approach to review and revise errors in the child protection system. Through the last three decades of public discourse, children in Norway have increasingly become identified as independent subjects, and in September 2017, the Norwegian government introduced legislation that gave children the legal right to protection through an amendment of the existing Child Welfare Act of 1992 (Prop. 169 L (2016–2017). Despite being ranked highly in international comparisons, the Norwegian child protection system is harshly criticized. In recent years (2015 and 2016), outrages have been highlighted through both social and traditional media, and internationally. The Norwegian term for child protection – barnevernet has become a synonym for a draconian system that steals children from their parents. The uproar and the critique came from citizens and civil society organizations, various public agencies, private persons and organizations. Auditing and oversight agencies are used to scrutinize the practices, and to follow up on errors and mistakes but there is little research on how this oversight operates, how agencies and local authorities respond to feedback, and how the day-to-day practices on correcting errors and improving practice are attended to in agencies and organizations. Based on policy documents, audit and oversight reports, legislation and key informant interviews, this chapter examines the overarching Norwegian approach to review and revise errors and mistakes through audit and oversight bodies, and discusses the strengths and weaknesses with this approach.
Dysfunctions in French child protection
Authors: Join-Lambert Hélène , Séraphin Gilles
Published: September 2020

The chapter provides an overview of the dysfunctions in the French child protection system which highlights the importance and complexity of the system. It has been built on institutions whose spheres of activity evolve (justice, welfare, healthcare) and on professions that defend their own skills and codes of conduct (social professionals, psychologists, lawyers, doctors etc.). However, it also reflects a series of specific and evolving rules and values: for example, the importance of parents, even where they have been identified as ‘failed’; the rejection of paedophilia; attaching importance to what children say. Cooperation among the different sectors and the coexistence of different standards has given rise to misunderstandings and flaws in the system.
Despite all precautions, children continue to lack protection from their parents and to suffer. However, the attention paid to children, their experiences and their views have continuously increased in France and elsewhere in Europe. This has been accompanied by greater sensitivity to tragedies. It is this increased awareness that leads to better identification of the system’s weaknesses and, on the whole, to improving standards, laws and practices to strengthen protection and consider everyone’s rights.
Exploring Social Work
Authors: Bell Linda
Published: September 2020

This unique study of social work provides a bold and challenging view of the subject from an anthropological perspective. Combining research and personal reflection, the book explores cultural and symbolic representations of social work, evolving identities of social work practitioners and the ways in which they and society now view one another. The book provides a history of social work and asks how we address the taken-for-granted nature of social work. The influences of the state, social policy, and public perceptions (including users of social work services) on social work are explored. It focuses on issues relating to social work education and training in the UK and, comparatively, in a few other countries, and explores views of social workers and social work students about socialisation into the profession. It looks at issues of identity for social workers and explores social work values. The book goes on to explore what social workers say about relationships and partnerships, and how they explain the significance of these concepts to social work, and moves on to consider policies and strategies underpinning social work research and evidence-based or evidence-informed practice. Further investiagtion is given to organisation, symbols and 'cultural representation', before the book concludes by reflecting on why social work and social workers continue to be relevant to society on local, national, and international levels.
‘Losing track of morality’: understanding online forces and dynamics conducive to child sexual exploitation
Authors: Hanson Elly
Published: September 2020

This chapter argues that the ideology of cyberlibertarianism, combined with organisational social processes and the impact of power, have contributed to tech corporations acting in ways that facilitate child sexual exploitation (CSE; both directly and indirectly). Relatedly, cyberlibertarianism has contributed to online spaces and processes being understood and approached as freer from social and moral concerns than others. Thus, the chapter specifically explores how the evolution, design, and control of the Internet and digital technology have been conducive to CSE. Four key (interrelated) online routes to increased CSE are highlighted involving online sex offending psychology, the online porn industry, online ‘escort’ agencies, and the interaction of social media and gaming platforms with adolescent developmental proclivities. Practice and policy implications of this ‘big picture’ perspective of online contributors to CSE are then explored.
The everyday politics of belonging/s
Authors: Luttrell Wendy
Published: September 2020

This chapter examines belongings as markers of belonging. It offers a way of seeing the children's photographs of prized possessions as a means to position themselves as the objects of others' care and as agile navigators of social and cultural differences. The children used their cameras in multiple ways: to traverse home and school cultures; to engage in the politics of belonging, both building and tearing down social divisions, including boundaries between public and private housing; and to manage difficult emotions and anxieties about care and belonging. Whether they were endeavoring to show themselves as the focal point of someone's care and attention, as knowledgeable about forms of social currency, as tied to a homeland and cultural heritage, or as secure in their difference, this work was accomplished through their belongings. It was not about what they had; it was about how cherished items brought them into significant relationship with others, enabling them to forge community around valuable tokens of care and belonging.
School choreographies of care: being seen, safe, and believed
Authors: Luttrell Wendy
Published: September 2020

This chapter explores how the children portrayed the hub of classroom life, the web of adult female caregivers in their “schoolplaces.” Just as they used their cameras to highlight their mothers as loving, caring, and present, and to portray themselves as active participants in their own family choreographies of care, they also used them to render visible the care work taking place in their elementary school. Their images and accounts depicted a school choreography of care that was similarly intentional and relational, and also influenced by gendered and racialized undercurrents. From the children's perspective, schools are “affective enterprises” in which both teaching and learning are deeply intertwined with relational, ethical, and affective dimensions of care and interdependence in ways that challenge an individualized and unidirectional concept of care. Moreover, the children express a critical awareness that learning goes beyond student–teacher relationships. Even when teachers are perceived as “nice” and “caring” and children's educational needs are met, students also recognize that they themselves are playing an active role in this dynamic—they are helping each other to make learning happen.
Pioneers and politics: Open University journeys in Long Kesh during the years of conflict 1972–75
Authors: O’Sullivan Philip , Kent Gabi
Published: September 2020

This chapter uses the voices from an Open University oral history project, Time to Think, to tell the extraordinary story of developing teaching and learning in a prison camp outside Belfast. As the political conflict in Northern Ireland gathered pace in the early 1970s, the newly established Open University was drawn into the collateral consequences in ways that were to prove both unpredictably fruitful and historically providential.
A university without walls
Authors: Weinbren Dan
Published: September 2020

Dan Weinbren provides an authoritative historical account of the development of prisoner education at The Open University. Drawing on internal archives and wider historical contexts, Weinbren presents the complex narratives that shape our understandings of higher education and The OU’s efforts to fulfil its mission statement to be ‘open to people, ideas, methods and places’.
The light to fight the shadows: on education as liberation
Authors: MacPherson Kris
Published: September 2020

Kris McPherson writes of his experience of imprisonment in Scotland, his life in crime and his struggle to leave both behind him. Assembling powerful arguments from his prison life and his studies with The Open University, McPherson provides compelling insights into what criminologists have started to call ‘desistance’. McPherson’s unique synthesis of scholarship and penal experience is an outstanding example of “making good with criminology”. It offers personal tribute and testimony to the influence of Scottish criminologist Fergus McNeill and his colleagues.
Vignette 5 Making my commitment
Authors: Quraishi Razib
Published: September 2020

Excuse me are you a prisoner? This is a hilarious question I am often asked as I walk to and from my prison wing to the education block. I never thought that just by developing my knowledge through studying with The Open University, my outwardly expressive demeanour would suggest to others that I am someone of a professional disposition. I can relate this to an early experience when I was challenged for walking with a limp, implying I held a bad attitude....
From the school of hard knocks to the university of hard locks
Authors: Al-Wazeer Abdulhaq
Published: September 2020

This lyrical and compelling account of a personal transformation by Abdulhaq Al-Wazeer makes connections between his scholarship and his faith. Finding strength and resolve in learning with The Open University propelled Abdulhaq into a commitment to learning Arabic, memorising the Qur’an and the complete transformation of his self-belief and self-understanding. Politics, Philosophy and Economics is the name of his degree, but his rediscovery of his own life in learning is guided by a profound appreciation of the many people who helped him.
Ex-prisoners and the transformative power of higher education
Authors: Honeywell David
Published: September 2020

David Honeywell provides a short account of his PhD research into the Higher Education experiences of people with experience of imprisonment. In addition to charting their pathways, Honeywell is unusually well-equipped to combine them with his own account of transformation. A long sequence of prison sentences is brought to a close by his entry level study with The Open University. So begins a long haul that culminates in the triumph of a PhD, his own imprisonment a distant memory, but never forgotten.
Introduction
Authors: May-Chahal Corinne , Kelly Emma
Published: September 2020

This introductory chapter provides an overview of online child sexual abuse, which is a concern for many parents, practitioners, and policy makers. One dominant fear is that of the stranger approaching children online, lurking in chatrooms masquerading as a child in order to lure victims for abusive ends. Yet child sexual abuse can also begin offline and become online through filming or photography, or it can be virtual, such as in the distribution of child abuse images. Indeed, distinctions between online- and offline-facilitated child sexual abuse are increasingly blurred. This book focuses on online child sexual victimisation. Victims are made both by the acts perpetrated on them (by perpetrators) and by the social context in which these acts take place and the consequences that are felt. The book examines online-facilitated child sexual abuse research through the lens of this social context, which contains multiple definitions of what is childhood, sex, and abuse as it connects to the Internet.
Online child sexual victimisation research
Authors: May-Chahal Corinne , Kelly Emma
Published: September 2020

This chapter outlines what is known about the characteristics, vulnerabilities, and on- and offline behaviour of victims of online-facilitated child sexual abuse and exploitation, considering the analysis carried out through a systematic rapid evidence assessment (REA). Beginning with a summary of research sources, it presents four general conclusions from the research. First, online child sexual victimisation (OCSV) is varied. At least five types of OCSV were identified: grooming by strangers, primarily initiated in social networking or gaming websites; sexual exploitation by strangers in webcam centres and similar; sexual abuse by family members or acquaintances that is photographed or videoed; coercive sexual violence between peers, leading to youth-produced material; and trafficking of child abuse material online. Second, an important finding from the triangulation of the different data sources is the under-reporting, and lack of research, concerning young children who are subject to OCSV. A third finding is that the field encompasses a wide range of behaviours and social phenomena that are often implicit in the research, including the relationship between sexual victimisation and other sources of harm, such as cyberbullying; childhood sexual activity that is not violent; gender regimes and patriarchy; and social divisions and intersectionality. Finally, there is significant variation in the definitions and concepts utilised in the research, which makes direct comparison problematic.
Deepening knowledge of online child sexual victimisation
Authors: May-Chahal Corinne , Kelly Emma
Published: September 2020

This concluding chapter calls for greater clarity and agreement on definitions and measurement practices concerning online child sexual victimisation (OCSV). First, there is a need for agreed definitions of OCSV that distinguish between normative childhood sexuality and sexual violence, both on- and offline. Second, research, policy, and practices must reflect that the child is only one element that requires protection. Taking a cybersecurity asset approach, the chapter emphasises the need for coordinated action to enhance and protect social goods, such as trust in technology, law enforcement resources, and fundamental rights. Finally, it recommends that guardianship responsibility is extended to children themselves and considers some of the technical tools that might assist their participation.
Destruction
Authors: Liu Helena
Published: September 2020

This chapter introduces the concept of organisational violence to examine the consequences of gendered racism. It illuminates the ways organisations become inhospitable spaces for diversity. Specifically, the chapter demonstrates how diversity management has gradually supplanted social justice agendas through a capitalist logic. Despite the modest gains of diversity initiatives, recent backlashes against diversity highlight the significant hostility towards change in white patriarchal organisations and societies. Considering that much of what is written about diversity centres on the figure of a white male leader who extends inclusion to the Other, the chapter interrogates how dominant assumptions and practices of diversity can ultimately harm those who diversity initiatives are said to benefit.
Introduction
Authors: Pieraccini Margherita , Novitz Tonia
Published: September 2020

Sustainability has dominated the policy discourse for at least five decades, with its most popular articulation to be found in the Brundtland report in 1987 (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). Today, Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (UN, 2015...
Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals: ‘Responsive, Inclusive, Participatory and Representative Decision-Making’?
Authors: Novitz Tonia , Pieraccini Margherita
Published: September 2020

This chapter focuses on the contemporary framing of sustainability in the context of the adoption of Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this setting, we consider the potential coherence and tensions between attempts to protect ‘people’ and the ‘planet’ while promoting ‘prosperity’, ‘peace’ and ‘partnership’. We begin by examining the identities and intentions of the policy actors engaged in formulating the SDGs, as revealed preparatory documentation. We then address the scope for debate (and even conflict) regarding the content of the SDGs and their interaction. Finally, we consider the processes created for supervision of SDG implementation at the UN level by the High Level Political Forum (HLPF). SDG 16 would seem to enable inclusive dialogue with diverse participants offering alternative knowledge bases for policy development, while SDG 17 conceives of a global partnership for development. The crucial question is whether the orchestration offered by the HLPF has that participatory potential.
Affirmative Action and Higher Education
Authors: Carter J. Scott , Lippard Cameron D.
Published: September 2020

This chapter discusses the ever-evolving role of race in politics in the history of the US. How the government handled racial and other discrimination has not always been effective. It was not until the 1960s that the US government attempted to make a concrete effort to minimize racial discrimination, which of course effected enrollment at elite US colleges and universities. This chapter then goes onto to discuss the deep ideological divide over affirmative action that exists in the country and provides public opinion data on where whites stand with the subject. This chapter demonstrates that indeed affirmative action is a controversial subject that receives little support from whites.
Case Study 1: The Gratz and Grutter Supreme Court Cases against the University of Michigan
Authors: Carter J. Scott , Lippard Cameron D.
Published: September 2020

The purpose of this chapter is to understand arguments put forth by these social authorities (individuals and groups) in support and opposition to affirmative action within a prominent debate on affirmative action in higher education admissions. We are particularly interested in advocacy groups that have the ability and resources not afforded to most individuals to lobby the Supreme Court. We used the Gratz v. Bollinger et al. and Grutter v. Bollinger et al. U.S. Supreme Court cases as the site of the first case study. We look at how these entities deployed specific arguments and rhetoric within court documents to frame affirmative action to Supreme Court Justices. In particular, while all frames were considered, we look at two discursive frames prominent in the literature and how they were used by supporters and opponents of the policy: color-blind and threat frames. Findings demonstrate that while supporters often used color-blind arguments (and some threat as well), the opponent briefs were saturated with both color-blind frames.
Liberalism, Childhood and Justice
Authors: Fowler Tim
Published: September 2020

The book develops a novel theory of children’s place in liberal theory. It argues that justice requires promoting children’s wellbeing, not merely their fair access to resources. I argue that one important driver of children’s wellbeing is the ethical doctrines held by others in their society, as such a just society requires a culture that is conducive to children’s current and later flourishing. I outline a conception of children’s interests rooted in their ability to develop their talents, and in their current and future relationships with their family and wider community. I then apply this theory to the morality of parenting, and to two important distributive questions, school funding and parental subsidies. I argue that parents have important moral rights over their children, but that these rights are considerably more circumscribed than is often believed. I suggest that children’s deepest interests are furthered by equality of opportunity, and that the importance of parenting implies that states should transfer resources to families.
Renewable Resource Scarcity, Conflicts and Migration
Authors: Ide Tobias
Published: September 2020

Based on an extensive overview of academic debates on renewable resource scarcity, conflict and migration, this chapter examines whether and how scarcity of renewable resources increases the risk of violent conflicts and how this can affect migration flows. The chapter introduces the most important theoretical frameworks that link renewable resource scarcity to conflict and then considers the existing empirical evidence on such linkages. While pathways leading to conflicts are still not well understood and empirical evidence is mixed, the chapter highlights that increased renewable resource scarcity is more likely to lead to low intensity conflicts, which in turn tend to trigger short distance migration. Thus, the role of governance is more effective if it takes place in a variety of institutions and on local and sub-national levels instead of centralized or international governance arrangements. However, the chapter concludes, relationships are complex and context-dependent.
The Individual Level: Sorting Effects
Authors: Krieger Tim , Renner Laura , Schmid Lena
Published: September 2020

This chapter explores what drives the decision of an individual to migrate to a particular place (migrant sorting). The authors do so by studying the mechanisms, empirical evidence, and policy implications of migrant sorting in the context of environmental conflict-induced migration. Predicting the sorting outcome of migration processes is very complex, because many different factors play a role: the type of environmental onset, the type of conflict, the individual propensity to migrate among different groups of society, the selection pattern of migrants, the attractiveness of destinations with respect to various characteristics, as well as national and international migration governance. The authors highlight that this has important implications for governance since host countries can adjust their immigration policies. Such adjustments, in turn, feed back into individual sorting decisions.
What’s the Problem?
Authors: Smale Bob
Published: September 2020

This chapter asks why it is important to understand union identities and starts from the position that unions, as with other organisations, project distinct identities in the public domain. It then asks what is wrong with existing theoretical approaches, recognising that earlier writers either adopt some form of categorisation or more flexible frameworks. It explores the application of organisational identity theories to the understanding of union identities and the significance of niche to trade unions. It explains how niche union identity and niche unionism can be understood through systematic observation and analysis of observable characteristics and identification of the sources of union identity. It recognises the very limited consideration of niche in industrial relations literature and to better understand the concept explores theories drawn from marketing, social identity theories, self-categorization theory and identity theory.
General Union Identity
Authors: Smale Bob
Published: September 2020

This chapter introduces general union identity, drawing a clear distinction between what are termed ‘true general unions’, including Unite and GMB, which are prepared to recruit virtually any worker into membership, and ‘niche general unions’ that project some niche characteristics by organising either horizontally, as in the case of Prospect, which is a ‘horizontal general union’, or vertically as with Unison, which is a ‘vertical general union’. A further distinction is drawn between major general unions, all of which were observed to practice niche unionism through sectionalised structures and minor general unions that tend not to do so. The chapter explores the observable characteristics of general union identity together with the impact of mergers, membership benefits, affiliations and political alignment. The work also considers what are termed ‘new generation unions’ such as IWUGB, some of which project a general union identity.
Industrial/Occupational Union Identity
Authors: Smale Bob
Published: September 2020

This chapter explores industrial and occupational union identities because it was observed that more than half of certified unions draw upon both occupational and industrial sources of identity. ‘Occupational / industrial union identity’ is projected by unions which either represent a single occupation within an industry, as with PFA, or a closely related group of occupations, as exemplified by Equity. ‘Industrial union identity’ is projected by unions organising a broad range of occupations within an industry, as with RMT. ‘Professional union identity’ is recognised as a subcategory of ‘occupational union identity’, with unions including BMA projecting a distinct range of characteristics, including a requirement for professional qualification and concern over professional issues and standards. The chapter explores the observable characteristics of industrial / occupational union identity together with the impact of mergers, membership benefits, affiliations and political alignment. It recognises that some unions project a ‘hybrid union identity’ in having servicing arrangements with other unions. ‘Protest union identity’ is projected by unions that demonstrate an antipathy to political affiliation and industrial action, providing a benign alternative to other unions within competitive sectors, whilst ‘clandestine union identity’ is applied to unions avoiding recognition as trade unions.
The Developing Story of Union Identities
Authors: Smale Bob
Published: September 2020

This chapter explores the developing story of union identities through analysis of four key drivers to identity change, namely, union mergers, union rebranding, new unions and union dissolutions. Several unions were found to have rebranded, adopting new identities and frequently new names. Some have adopted ‘aspirational titles’ giving no indication of who might join. Whilst union amalgamations lead to rebranding, transfers of engagements tend to result in dilution of union identity, as minor merging unions are absorbed into major merging unions. New unions are less likely to adopt aspirational titles, although some were found to be ephemeral. New generation unions were observed to adopt particular approaches to organisation, but not considered to project a new form of identity. A number of union dissolutions were observed, with these unions tending have small and declining memberships and to be unsuccessful in negotiating transfers of engagements. Overall, the chapter recognises that the work inevitably presents a snapshot of a moving picture.
Comparative Analysis of Union Identities
Authors: Smale Bob
Published: September 2020

This chapter presents a limited comparative analysis in order to explore the potential transferability of the multidimensional framework. It considers five countries, namely, China, France, Germany, Japan and US. Whereas a single Chinese union projects a ‘true general union identity’ and operates in parallel with the Communist Party, the multiplicity of competing French unions project identities that can only be understood with the addition of political and religious sources. Although most German unions project industrial identities, for some a religious or professional component is required. The multi-layered structure of Japanese union organisation includes unions that project ‘organisational union identities’ in the corporate sector and ‘industrial union identities’ in the public sector and public services. The majority of US unions project occupational and/or industrial identities, although many also have binational identities, with membership territories incorporating the US and Canada. In contrast the Teamsters and IWW project ‘general union identities’ and a more militant version of ‘protest union identity’. Whilst the chapter concludes that the multidimensional framework is broadly applicable to unions in other countries it identifies that additional sources of identity are needed for comparative analysis.
The Future of Union Identities and Niche Unionism
Authors: Smale Bob
Published: September 2020

This chapter first explores the implications of the work for the understanding of trade union identities and niche unionism. It argues for the multidimensional framework as being superior to a one-dimensional continuum and other theorisations which are variously considered outdated, inappropriate or requiring rigid categorisation. Secondly it discusses critical questions with implications for the future of trade union organisation and the challenge of organising the unorganised. These concern the primacy of general unions, the persistence of niche unions, whether general or niche unions are better placed to organise the unorganised and whether niche identity is a barrier to expanding membership territories. It argues that despite an apparent ‘direction of travel’ from niche in general unions, new niche unions continue to be formed. Whilst general unions could absorb further niche unions and bring greater resources, niche unions might be better placed to organise the unorganised. It recognises that ‘new generation unions’, although not projecting a new form of identity, may prove a significant development in union renewal and revitalisation. Finally, it makes clear that the work is not presented as the last word on trade union identities and niche unionism, but rather a starting point for further debate and discussion.
Beyond Pro-life and Pro-choice
Authors: Amery Fran
Published: September 2020

A common misunderstanding of the Abortion Act 1967 is that it granted women the ‘right’ to access abortion. In reality, there is no such thing; the current provision of abortion in the United Kingdom rests on a system in which doctors, not women, are the arbiters of abortion access. In recent years, calls for the full decriminalisation of abortion have been given a vigour not seen before. For the first time, MPs and medical associations have moved to back decriminalisation, in line with the demands of pro-choice campaigners across the UK. But at the same time, opponents are mobilising to undermine public faith in both the Abortion Act and abortion providers. In doing so, they have tended to set aside the classic ‘right to life’ arguments, instead focusing on issues such as sex-selective abortion and disability rights. This book makes sense of today’s changed landscape of abortion debate by tracing the evolution of political and parliamentary discourse on abortion from the passage of the Abortion Act in the 1960s to the present. It makes the case that to understand contemporary abortion politics, it is necessary to move beyond a conceptualisation of the debate as characterised by ‘pro-choice’ versus ‘pro-life’.
Into the 21st Century
Authors: Amery Fran
Published: September 2020

This chapter explores UK abortion debates in the 21st century. It describes new anti-abortion strategies which emerged in the 2000s and went beyond the familiar attacks on abortion providers. It demonstrates how issues such as foetal viability and calls for changes in pre-abortion counselling provision evolved as a consequence both of past anti-abortion activity and how pro-choice feminist actors have made their arguments. The chapter argues that counselling amendments are proposed because they undermine the association between a ‘right to choose’ and feminist politics and call into question the medical authority on which the Abortion Act 1967 was based.
Introduction
Authors: Guderjan Marius , Mackay Hugh , Stedman Gesa
Published: September 2020

The introduction outlines the origins, scope and significance of Brexit, and focuses on the politics, discourse and ideology of the recent austerity policies. It establishes an interdisciplinary approach to agency, which is regarded as a key to understanding the current cultural, economic, political, and social climate in the UK. For many, the ability to exert agency is constrained by an unequal distribution of opportunities generating a social division between globalisation ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. The connection between austerity and agency is developed by exploring the ideological context of outline policies, notions of ‘responsibilisation’ and the ‘stigmatisation’ of citizens that are involved in welfare provision. Brexit was thus partly the result of people’s feelings of powerlessness and their desire to ‘take back control’ over their own fate. The introduction also provides some prospects of Brexit during times of fast-changing developments and great uncertainty.
Agents and Agency in the Face of Austerity and Brexit Uncertainty: the Case of Legal Aid
Authors: Truxal Steven
Published: September 2020

In austerity Britain, the contested policies that cut legal aid funding and court system financing threaten justice and the rule of law, the very core of the British judicial system, which is admired and respected worldwide. Thus, it is necessary to identify and to analyse critically policies that affect law and justice, the impacts of such policies and resistance to them. This chapter explores changes to legal aid and justice financing as well as reversals, government justifications for changes and the response of the judiciary and lawyers as a basis for its reflective narrative on the state of the judicial system. As a case study of the wider debate on austerity-through-policy in Britain, the chapter reviews recent legal aid reform and so-called ‘discount justice’ in England and Wales. Particular focus is given to the impact, or likely impact, austerity policies have on the availability of legal aid for criminal cases, and the uncertain future of public spending on justice.