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Students of European integration have produced an enormous amount of literature on the intergovernmental negotiations that led to the establishment of such organizations as the OEEC, the EEC and EFTA. However, only a few have devoted substantial attention to the international contacts between companies that attempted to undermine the integration process by building private trade barriers that would replace those that governments had agreed to remove. The paper producers began to build such barriers soon after EFTA and the EEC had been set up. Although these attempts were not always successful, the industrialists did manage to create arrangements that were substantially more extensive in their geographical and product scope than those that had existed before. The British government and the EEC were reluctant to challenge these arrangements, and in some cases even actively promoted them. The interwar decades are widely considered to be the ‘golden era’ for international cartels; but for the paper cartels, the ‘golden era’ began in the 1960s, when previous bilateral links were replaced with multilateral ones. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

British mandated Palestine has attracted scholarly attention for its role in the development of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Some aspects of the time period, however, remain somewhat overlooked, and one prominent example is the reversal of the Passfield White Paper in 1931. Following extremely violent anti-Jewish riots in Palestine in 1929, the British Government in Westminster utilized two commissions of enquiry – the Shaw Commission and the Hope-Simpson Commission – to justify a change in policy. Rather than adhere to Britain’s original Zionist commitments, articulated in the Balfour Declaration and official mandate, the government decided to limit Jewish immigration and land purchase in Palestine, articulated in the Passfield White Paper, before reversing the policy months later. Subsequent explanations of this decision have been sparse and focused almost solely on the efficacy of Zionist lobbying. Why the British Government was susceptible to pressure and how this process took place has remained largely unexplored. In order to provide a more thorough analysis of why the Passfield White Paper was reversed, this article reassesses several assumptions within the literature and places the decision within the context of a Labour Government’s need to maintain internal unity, as well as cross-party support, on foreign and particularly India policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Department for International Development's recent White Paper on Development as a case study, this article critically reassesses Escobar's notion of development discourse. Rather than being monolithic and static, as Escobar and others have implied, the writers argue that changes can and do take place within development organizations. Not only does the White Paper clearly signal a new direction in policy; it also results both from changes within DFID - in personnel and in the balance of power between interest groups - and between DFID and civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the historical development of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and "Socialist Worker" newspaper in Great Britain. It states that while the newspaper has failed to realize its goal to reach a mass readership within the working class, it became an influential publication. It adds that its strong attachment to Leninist principles has provided them the flexibility to the changing environment from the early 1960s to the current period of recession and mass unemployment.

This article explores the impact of the 'hostile environment' on racialised migrant women's experiences of pregnancy and childbirth in England, arguing that the 'hostile environment' functions as a technology of 'stratified reproduction.' First coined by Shellee Colen, the concept of stratified reproduction describes the dynamic by which some individuals and groups may be supported in their reproductive activities, while others are disempowered and discouraged. This paper locates the stratified reproduction produced by the 'hostile environment' as intertwined with wider gendered and racialised discourses around British citizenship which have been 'designed to fail' racialised residents of the UK. Drawing on interviews with racialised migrant mothers in the north of England, this paper analyses how the proliferation and intensification of immigration controls interacts with gender, race, class, and other social regimes to differentially allocate the resources necessary for a safe and healthy pregnancy and childbirth, and how this is experienced materially by pregnant migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the beginning of 1947 Kingsley Martin published his vision of the press as it was and as it should be in The Press the Public Wants. Whoever wanted the tiny papers of the late 1940s? No one, it would seem, least of all the newspapers themselves who complained they could not function in the way they should, due to the inadequate supply of newsprint. Newsprint rationing seems to have been even more controversial in the Netherlands than in Britain. This article probes the similarities and differences between the situation of the daily press in Britain and the Netherlands, after World War II with particular reference to the scarcity of newsprint, in order to understand some of the dynamics of media structure. An important explanatory factor in the matter of a response to the newsprint restrictions may have been the degree of commercialization of the press as a whole, and of particular newspapers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that aims to compare the key academic journals in Japan and Great Britain. The articles found in the "Studies on Social Work of Japan" journal in 1997 were compared to the articles in the "British Journal of Social Work." These articles were categorized based on the work of Toyomichi Sato. To analyze those articles, Sato has used 61 items which were arranged and sorted into five groups including study methods, social work process studies, explanation study, social work skills and treatment study, and social work practice model and approach study. Some of the findings revealed that the largest number of articles which comprised of 38.6% in the Japanese journal, was on the explanation study group, while only 8.7% fell on social work skills and treatment study.

Prison library staff play a central role in supporting prisoners with their educational, informational, recreational and cultural needs during incarceration. Their role is unique within the wider library profession, as they require both expertise in library and information management as well as the skills and knowledge required to operate in a prison environment. There has been little research exploring the experiences and perspectives of library staff who manage and deliver prison library services in the United Kingdom (UK). This paper addresses this gap in knowledge and seeks to amplify the voices of those working in an often overlooked profession. Findings are drawn from the first phase of a broader doctoral study which explored prisoner engagement with library services. A mixed-methods approach was taken, combining both a questionnaire and follow-up interviews with prison library staff across the UK. The questionnaire received 31 responses from library staff and 10 respondents participated in a follow-up interview. Findings offer a contemporary overview of the management and delivery of prison library services in the UK and underline common themes and concerns among prison library professionals, namely the implications of dual management, the impact of the unique social context in which they work and the importance of communication and liaison in providing effective library services. The paper concludes with recommendations for combatting the professional isolation felt by those working in this sector and for the promotion of prison library services both within and outside the prison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I discuss the affordances and popularity of the short-video app TikTok from an audience studies point of view. I do so by drawing on findings from ethnographic fieldwork with young adult TikTok users based in the United Kingdom that was conducted in 2020 and 2021. I trace how using the app, specifically scrolling through the TikTok For You Page, the app's algorithmic content feed, became a fixed part of the everyday routines of young adults. I show how TikTok appealed to them as a convenient means of escape and relief that they were unable to find elsewhere during and beyond times of lockdown. Further, I highlight the complex nature of TikTok as an app and the active role that users play in imagining and appropriating the app's affordances as meaningful parts of their everyday social life. Closing the paper, I reflect on future directions of TikTok scholarship by stressing the importance of situated audience studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational political communication today is being reconfigured by digital technologies and global power transition. Authoritarian state actors such as China are increasingly active on global social media platforms such as Twitter to directly advance their preferred frames with foreign publics in Western democracies, most notably in what could be called Chinese Twiplomacy contesting narrative globally over contentious issues. This paper problematises such Twiplomacy from authoritarians to Western democracies as 'networked transnational frame contestation', arguing that the political and cultural distance between the sending and target countries, the networked affordance of social media, and the national prism of the target countries, all contribute importantly to the complexity of such frame contestation. Through a case study on China's Twiplomacy in contesting coronavirus narrative in the UK, this paper further provides empirical evidence on how 'networked transnational frame contestation' works between politically and culturally distant countries. Using a mixed-method approach combining social network analysis and discourse analysis, this study finds that China's emotion-evoking discursive strategy draws traction but the authoritarian nature of the highly centralised networkedness and that of its discursive strategy, together with the strong cultural discordance with British publics, lead to networked recontextualisation of its intended frames in Britain. British publics, heavily relying on British political elites and press for foreign affairs, invoke shared cultural reference to recontextualise Chinese frames into culturally resonant counterframes. This study proposes a paradigm of 'networkedness within cascades' to understand frame contestation between politically and culturally distant countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explaining ideological conflict has always been a classic theme of studies of party organizations. The aim of this paper is to re-examine May's law, based on rational choice theory, which suggests that due to differential incentives sub-leaders are likely to prove the most extreme stratum in parry organizations, while non-leaders are the most moderate, and top leaders are located equidistant between these groups. The study, based on large-scale surveys of politicians, local constituency officers, party members and voters in the 1992 British general election, throws considerable doubt on this proposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes that LGBT+ mainstreaming on reality television programme Strictly Come Dancing creates space for audience demand for radical, authentic representations of same-sex desire and intimacy, both of which challenges normative representations of ballroom dancing. Integrating concepts of normativity and authenticity explored in existing scholarship, I argue against the encountering through a defensive stance, of reality TV's normalization of queer narratives to promote authentic, inclusive representation. Focusing on dance-themed British reality TV programme for family entertainment, I draw on a queer reading of 285 newspaper articles on Strictly Come Dancing's same-sex dance partnerships and 35 interviews with LGBT+ equality dancers in the United Kingdom, to conclude that active engagement with mechanisms of normalization can open up spaces for a reclamation of queer representation in its authenticity. The article makes a contribution to media and cultural studies and queer television scholarship through a troubling of anti-normativity, proposing a working with normativity to achieve queer inclusivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers how distanciation, understood as the active production of different forms of distance as a method of control, is used to manage people racialised and criminalised as migrants within the UK's hostile environment. Analysing different policies introduced under the hostile environment agenda, as well as the more recent New Plan for Immigration, we argue distanciation is a key tactic that shapes these policies and their implementation as well as offers us insight into changing forms of governing migration. Drawing on the analysis of a wide range of policy documents, the paper attends to different forms of distanciation used as a method of control within the UK's wider hostile environment and then presents the results of a case-study of how distanciation is mobilised within the English National Health Service, under the Migrant and Visitor Cost Recovery Programme in particular, which was introduced in 2014 to ensure the NHS receives 'a fair contribution' from people racialised as migrants. Addressing different forms of distanciation such as – spatial, legal and emotional – we argue that the lens of distance can offer insights into how detachment – increasing distance between different agents in immigration law and border enforcement is an intentional design to control empathy, solidarity and resistance. Tracing ways these forms of distanciation are designed into legislative and administrative measures helps us better understand how hostile environment policies work as well as locating agencies and possibilities of resistance within different spaces, agents and subjects of bordering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the dramatic evacuation from Kabul airport in August 2021, the UK government proclaimed its commitment to a 'warm welcome' for Afghans. In this paper we draw on original qualitative research to explore the emerging experiences of evacuees, and other recent arrivals, during their first year in London. Using the narratives of our Afghans participants, as well as insights from key stakeholders, we show how they navigated slow, opaque bureaucratic processes and lack of communication with official agencies. As a result of these lengthy processes, many thousands of evacuees remained in temporary hotel accommodation for protracted periods. Drawing on the concept of 'everyday bordering', we explore the extent to which Afghan resettlement policies are achieving their objectives. We consider how such policies are birthed within a punitive immigration system, which is designed to 'wear down' migrants in the UK, regardless of their reason for migration. Moreover, we argue that the ad hoc response of the Home Office and the Foreign Office has created 'false distinctions' between categories of Afghan refugees, reinforcing notions of 'deserving' versus 'underserving' migrants. This distinction allows the government to present itself as humanitarian, 'rescuing' people from Afghanistan, while simultaneously maintaining its commitment to the 'hostile immigration environment'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research carried out a scientometric analysis of literature on anxiety associated with information-related tasks to determine its periodic growth, language dispersion, publication format, authorship patterns, and geographic origin. Four relevant databases (Web of Science, Scopus, LISTA, and LISA) were searched along with scanning of references of full-text papers to identify 381 related citations. The data set was analyzed using several bibliographic characteristics. The results showed that the volume of literature began to increase from the year 1986 and continued at a steady pace up to 2000. A phenomenal increase in the output was noticed in the 21st century with a per-year average of 16 publications till 2019. The majority of documents were for journal papers from the LIS field. English was the dominant language. More than half of the journal papers were published by only 27 journals. One-fourth of the journals produced a little less than two-thirds of the papers. A little less than half of the literature was the result of collaborative effort. A small core of authors produced more than one-third of the literature. UK and USA appeared as the leading contributors in the journal papers as well as all publications. The results are beneficial to scholars in several disciplines as they provides an interesting insight into the research trends by creating awareness about core authors, core journals, and core areas publishing this literature. These results also encourage researchers to initiate collaborative and inter-disciplinary research. This study makes a worthy contribution to this research area as no such a comprehensive study is available so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the decline of British national newspapers. It says that the main factors affecting the decline are the actions made by the proprietors, unions and the government. It states that unreasonable pricing, market positioning, unreliable image because of strikes, and worsening distribution networks were among contributors to the deteriorating condition of the industry. It offers several actions and recommendations that proprietors should adopt in order to save the industry, which includes cutting of production and operating costs, persuading the unions to accept full automation, and moving some or all of the papers to one or more printing plants in England. It mentions the idea of entering to a joint operating agreements to keep the papers.

The article explores the smaller circulations of papers in Great Britain which are produced by small socialist organizations. It states that the newspapers including "Black Dwarf" and "Red Republican" have emerged as the mouthpiece of militant sections of the working class. It also points out that the success of the journalism in the country happened from 1923 to 1924.

Duverger's law holds that single member district rules produce two-party systems, but third party voting remains an important feature of these institutional contexts. To explain the discrepancy between theory and empirical reality, Gary Cox specified four conditions that are necessary for the theoretical expectations to bear out. Yet, subsequent research has focused mostly on just one of these conditions, namely, that voters have correct information about the competitiveness of their preferred party in the district. The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of all four conditions. Using original survey data from the 2015 United Kingdom general election, the analysis suggests that violations of the information condition matter, but that violations of the short-term instrumental rationality condition can be a significant factor as well. Consequently, future research should pay more attention to this condition when seeking to explain third party voting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the career, scientific achievements, and emigration of the Berlin-born physician, psychoanalyst, and psychosomatic researcher Eric Wittkower. Trained in Berlin and practicing internal medicine, he became persecuted by the Nazi regime and, after fleeing Germany via Switzerland, continued his professional career in the United Kingdom, where he turned to psychosomatic medicine and worked in the service of the British Army during World War II. After two decades of service in the UK, Wittkower joined McGill University in Canada. His increasingly interdisciplinary work contributed to the establishment of the new research field of transcultural psychiatry. Finally the paper provides a detailed history of the beginning of the section of transcultural psychiatry at the Allan Memorial Institute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the papers collected in Man's Impact on the Hydrological Cycle in the United Kingdom Hollis gives us a fascinating view of the concerns and approaches of practising hydrologists in the late 1970s. Hollis, a physical geographer from University College London, spent most of his research career considering the way that humans acted to change their surroundings, looking first at the impact of urbanisation on flooding and later at the management of wetlands. The papers in this book cover a wide range of subjects, from the impact of forestry to the effects of house building on channel morphology and function. Many provide valuable reviews and insights into contemporary thinking on the effect of humans on the UK environment, and the modern reader will discover much of value in the ideas and approaches described in this book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is much evidence that the 'European social model' is under threat, with neoliberalism increasingly dominating policy both at EU and national levels. Within this trend, Britain stands Out as already having a long-established free market tradition - Anglo-American in both industrial relations and corporate governance systems. This article seeks to illustrate how British state allegiance to a 'flexible' labour market has brought new restrictions to accessing statutory employment protection, the chief defence for 'unorganized' workers - those who are neither unionized nor covered by collective agreements and who now comprise the majority of workers in Britain. The New Labour government, committed to voluntarism and flexibility, has used the very instrument it avers to avoid - legal regulation - to limit access to employment tribunals, the final resort for legal enforcement of employment rights. The government has thus constrained its concessions to the European social model, which comprise a range of laws since 1997 enhancing individual employment rights, in its overarching neoliberal policy, by ensuring legal regulation remains difficult to achieve and does not 'burden' business. This article, based on research both on legal developments, and on the social support mechanisms for non-unionized workers, seeks to demonstrate the extreme vulnerability of the unorganized worker in an increasingly free market Britain. How far this portrait has relevance to the rightward drift of Europe depends on the degree to which it can be exported, how far continental European systems are sufficiently institutionally embedded to resist this, and how successfully the European social model is defended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information poverty is widely recognised as having a negative impact upon peoples' health and wellbeing, and socioeconomic prosperity; however, whilst an issue of significant societal concern evidenced across a wide variety of adult groups and socioeconomic contexts, no studies have been previously undertaken with children. This appears a significant oversight given that many children across the globe are considered multi-dimensionally poor. This study thus sought to explore the possibility of information poverty amongst children. One hundred fifty-six children (aged 6–8) from five UK primary schools participated in a series of practical exercises exploring their information behaviours, and 34 parents and teachers were interviewed to provide further insights. Finding's evidence self-protective information behaviours and unmet information needs amongst children aged 6–8; both characteristics of an impoverished information state. Whilst much can be explained in developmental terms (i.e. in relation to child age and emergent literacies), much can also be explained in information poverty terms encompassing issues of both information access and use. Notably, approximately half of our child participants considered themselves to be, in general, unsuccessful information seekers; and contrasts with the views of our adult participants who majority believed that children are, in general, successful information seekers. This paper provides the first evidence of information poverty in young children, and provides further insights into the role of parents in supporting their children's information needs and shaping their developing information behaviours, with parental mediation of child media use appearing particularly problematic. Enduring inequalities in information access are also highlighted. Beyond call for further global research, a public communication campaign to increase awareness of child information poverty and contributory factors is recommended as an immediate priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to handle the trajectory tracking control for a class of three-wheel mobile robot by using a novel adaptive robust control. The mobile robot consists of nonholonomic constraints and uncertainties. The uncertainties include initial condition offset, mass, and moment of inertia of the system, which are time-varying and bounded (unknown). The control force in analytical form is obtained by UK theory, and the adaptive robust control is formulated to handle the uncertainties. For estimating the unknown bounds of uncertainties, the leakage-type adaptive law is designed, which can automatically adjust its own value according to the trajectory tracking errors. Then we verify the uniform boundedness and uniform ultimate boundedness of the proposed control by Lyapunov method. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted to show the trajectory tracking effectiveness of the designed control method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite widespread recognition that housing is a serious social concern, policy responses have tended to be inadequate. After a brief review of the magnitude of the problem, this paper focuses on recent experience in the UK where, during a period of political volatility, housing has been the subject of significant government interventions, which in turn have provoked noteworthy reactions. However, the paper argues that all current mainstream housing policy proposals are limited by their adherence to the failed market model. Instead, a more radical agenda is proposed which draws on the UK's successful record of public housing. The paper summarises some of the key Conservative government housing policies since 2016 - including the influence of the Grenfell fire - and discusses the Labour Party's response. It particularly critiques the policies of London Mayor Sadiq Khan which relegate traditional council housing in favour of more income-targeted provision. A high-profile report by the housing charity Shelter is also considered because of its apparent reluctance to include explicit reference to council housing within its recommendations, at a time when, it is argued, there is renewed interest in non-market housing alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This work explores international research into library and information studies (LIS) education as part of the diversity, equity, inclusion and access (DEIA) agenda and identifies options for LIS education reform in addressing racial inequity in the library profession in the UK. The paper sets out the UK legal, higher education and LIS education contexts, focussing on the role of the professional association, accreditation and the curriculum, and the library and information workforce, and highlights current practices in DEIA in the UK. Using a methodology drawn from bibliometric approaches, a set of academic and professional articles related to DEIA and the LIS curriculum are analysed and nine interpretative repertoires are then identified and discussed. Four core mature repertoires concentrate on the professional association, the university, LIS faculty and the curriculum. These core clusters are surrounded by emerging repertoires which are more recent and more critical. Each repertoire is discussed, referring to key sources and authors to present a picture of trends and complexity in recent (2000–2022) literature on the topic. The aim of this work is to provide a detailed view of existing practice in LIS education relating to DEIA. LIS schools are a vital part of the professional pathway: without a qualification there is no profession, and university students are more-often-than-not drawn from the more privileged and wealthier sectors of society. It is recommended that LIS schools recruit students and faculty who reflect communities and develop the abilities of students to serve the communities they may or may not reflect. These are categorized into clusters, in an attempt to inform LIS education reform in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the legal remedies for age discrimination and dismissal of older workers, identifying the factors that courts and tribunals in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK) consider when calculating compensation for two forms of damages: injury to feelings and future losses. A secondary aim is to determine whether these factors adequately consider the unique workforce participation challenges faced by older workers in both countries. Considering the similarities between Australian and UK age discrimination law and given that the latter jurisdiction has had considerably more successful cases than the former, this study adopts a comparative approach and draws on UK cases to inform the development of Australian age discrimination law. Analysis of all successful Australian and a selection of successful UK age discrimination and dismissal cases spanning from 2017 to 2020 suggests that Australian law might be strengthened by: adopting a scale of awards similar to the guidelines established in Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police [2002] EWCA Civ 1871 (' Vento ') for recognising and awarding injury to feelings; and by more readily awarding future losses, particularly for claimants who plan to work or who are already working past retirement age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These summaries are intended as a guide to current scientific research activity, mainly for lay readers. They contain less technical scientific terminology and jargon than the original articles and provide explanations for that whch is retained. The uneven length of the summaries is not a measure of their relative importance, but is due to a variation in the difficulty of explaining complex technical concepts or lengthy experimental protocols and results. The purpose of a summary is to alert, interest and inform the reader. For comprehensive details of the issues, methods, results and interpretations you are strongly advised to refer to the original article. Remember also that the published results of any single investigation should not be considered as definitive, or be interpreted in isolation, or reported out of context. Progress in the understanding of MS, as in any other field of science requires critical debate and often must await independent confirmation of findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the four daily newspapers which made up the British `quality press' in 1985. Beginning from the fact that the readers of these newspapers are made up largely of people who use some sorts of intellectual skills in their daily lives, the article considers whether these newspapers may have some form of `servicing function' with respect to what Bourdieu calls `cultural capital'. The content of the papers is analysed in detail to determine the nature of the `inscribed reader' supposed by the total material offered. The evidence suggests that the sharpest differentiation is in the advertising copy, but that there are also important differences in editorial material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores another method for assessing quality of published research in Great Britain. Investigation of the selection and refereeing processes used by journal editors; Validity of quality control mechanisms; Use of professional journals for practice-oriented research findings.

The article discusses the cultural consumption focused on middle-class minority papers known as quality press in Great Britain. It mentions concerns over the competence and nature of the British intelligentsia or brain workers which are classified among social groups who are possible readers of the said press. It also notes that such readers are distinguished in terms of the newspapers they read as well as its relation to occupational cultures in the country.

The article examines the issues surrounding White Paper's uncovering of the proposal to reforming the health professionals' Trust, Assurance and Safety regulation in Great Britain. The White Paper expressed that to reform, the importance of perceptions must be rightly emphasized as public needs to perceive that the regulatory system is operating in the interests of patients. It also stresses that the General Medical Council's (GMC) four functions must be integrated in the regulatory framework.

This paper reports the results of a survey undertaken in December 2021 and January 2022 related to public library staff in the United Kingdom and their experiences of COVID-19, exploring the lockdowns that were enabled, the subsequent re-openings, their mental health and their views for the future of the service post-COVID-19. Over 200 responses were received, and the findings indicate a range of views. The importance of the library as a community resource is evident in the comments from staff, and their observations of patrons on library re-openings. Findings also indicate concern for the future of the library service, and fear that new technologies like e-books may be seen as adequate replacements for the traditional library service. Findings also indicate staff face stress and mental health issues in terms of dealing with patrons while the virus remains highly prevalent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to restore the influential role of the Chartist activist, writer and poet, Ernest Jones (1819–1869), on Marx's shift toward a multilinear conception of history in the early 1850s. Living in exile in London, Marx developed a close and long-lasting friendship and intellectual partnership with Jones, and actively contributed to his Chartist weeklies, Notes to the People (1851–1852) and the People's Paper (1852–1858), during which he was directly exposed to, and thus influenced by, Jones' anti-colonialist outlook. Based on circumstantial and cross-textual evidence, this article shows that starting in 1853 Marx appears to have drawn insights from Jones' writings as he was changing his views on the progressiveness of Western colonialism, particularly the British kind in India. Seemingly imbued with the radical intellectual environment in which he gravitated in London, Marx followed his Chartist comrade and converged increasingly toward a similar anti-colonialist position, thus breaking with the Eurocentric, unilinear framework of historical development that characterized The Communist Manifesto (1848). Recovering the impact that Jones had on Marx's intellectual trajectory in the 1850s brings to the fore the contribution of English radical politics in the early development of Marxism, especially as regard to the nexus between anti-colonialism and world revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is litigation in respect of dementia in ex-rugby football players. The allegation is that these ex-players have suffered a traumatic encephalopathy syndrome causing dementia and other neurological problems. The syndrome is alleged to have been caused by repeated concussion during play. It is alleged that governing bodies of rugby should have been aware, and players should have been warned, of this risk. The dilemma, for both claimants and defendants, is that there is no agreed definition of the syndrome nor are there any diagnostic tests that confirm or refute this diagnosis. This paper reviews the literature of traumatic encephalopathy syndrome and when governing bodies were aware of the possibility of rugby concussion causing dementia. The legal principles are discussed and a framework for determining the probability of an ex-rugby player having the syndrome is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade union density increased for three consecutive years in the United Kingdom between 2017 and 2020. This contrasts with a general decline in union membership since 1979. Since union density continued to fall amongst male employees in 2017–2020, the overall increase was entirely attributable to females. This paper explores the factors which explain why there was an increase in overall union density after a period of decline (for males and females) and why union density evolved so differently for males and females. Using decomposition methodologies, we find that the increase in union density in 2017–2020 was not due to a higher propensity to unionise within particular groups or across all employees. Instead, the principal driver of the overall rise in 2017–2020 was an increase in the proportion of employment in certain public sector organisations. The largest contributor to the difference across males and females was increases in the share of employment in more unionised occupations amongst female employees and decreases amongst male employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy documents are a useful source for understanding the privileging of particular ideological and policy preferences (Scrase and Ockwell, 2010) and how the language and imagery may help to construct society’s assumptions, values and beliefs. This article examines how the UK Coalition government’s 2010 Green Paper, 21st Century Welfare, and the White Paper, Universal Credit: Welfare that Works, assist in constructing a discourse about social security that favours a renewal and deepening of neo-liberalization in the context of threats to its hegemony. The documents marginalize the structural aspects of persistent unemployment and poverty by transforming these into individual pathologies of benefit dependency and worklessness. The consequence is that familiar neo-liberal policy measures favouring the intensification of punitive conditionality and economic rationality can be portrayed as new and innovative solutions to address Britain’s supposedly broken society and restore economic competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This letter provides some additional perspectives on the development of British information science. The authors have been personally involved in the discipline since the early 1970s and have had the privilege of knowing many of the pioneers in information science research and exploitation. The opportunity is taken add some personal perspectives to the paper and add further references to the bibliography. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines how the British government has used statistics about COVID-19 for political ends. A distinction is made between precise and round numbers. Historically, using round numbers to estimate the spread of disease gave way in the 19th century to the sort precise, but not necessarily accurate, statistics that are now being used to record COVID-19. However, round numbers have continued to exert rhetorical, 'semi-magical' power by simultaneously conveying both quantity and quality. This is demonstrated in examples from the British government's claims about COVID-19. The paper illustrates how senior members of the UK government use 'good' round numbers to frame their COVID-19 goals and to announce apparent achievements. These round numbers can provide political incentives to manipulate the production of precise number; again examples from the UK government are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in basic income proposals. While this is not an entirely new phenomenon, what is different about the current discourse is the Left's wholehearted embrace of what has traditionally been seen as a conservative social policy in Britain. It is my contention that UBI is potentially a dangerous policy for the Left, in that it risks undermining the – admittedly imperfect – welfare protections already in existence. This paper draws on Marxist political economy in order to demonstrate how the emancipatory potential of UBI has been somewhat overstated by some of its Leftist supporters, while a discussion of the neutrality of the State is important in considering how this 'shape-shifting social policy' is likely to be implemented in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilizes the notion of 'policy disasters' to examine the policy developments that led to the part-privatization and marketization of probation services in England and Wales – Transforming Rehabilitation. Specifically, it examines the 'internal' component of policy disasters, drawing on semi-structured interviews with senior policymakers and other relevant sources. The findings presented demonstrate that the policy dynamics relating to Transforming Rehabilitation specifically, and the departmental budget as an important underlying component, were both distinctly 'unbalanced'. This is argued to be an important explanatory factor in its damagingly swift implementation and operationalization. In closing, the paper reflects on the policy studies notion of 'policy equilibrium' to consider whether the policy landscape relating to probation in England and Wales has reached a 'steady state', or whether the ongoing apparent failings of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms may result in a further round of considerable policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides some information about British organization Study Group and its activities since its formal inception at the 1969 Easter BSA conference. At that time sociology of science was not really firmly established as a distinct sub-area of sociology and most people interested in it were primarily either sociologists of organizations and of education or connected with then growing "science of science" area. Papers presented at recent meetings of the group reflects a wide range of interests. Most papers profounded that a sociology of scientific knowledge is possible and the theoretical and epistemological implications of this view have been extensively discussed. A major means of demarcating this area from others has been the emphasis on theoretical aspects of understanding scientific knowledge. Some papers were concerned with issues in the sociology of knowledge and the philosophy of science, as well as with general questions of sociological theory. Science is perceived more as one part of the cultural system rather than as entity separate from society.

There is a need to improve a) identification and monitoring of people with mental illness on probation and b) understanding of the impact of interventions on mental health outcomes for the probation population. If data were routinely collected using validated screening tools and shared between agencies, this could inform practice and commissioning decisions, and ultimately it could improve health outcomes for people under supervision. The literature was reviewed to identify brief screening tools and outcome measures that have been used in prevalence and outcome studies conducted with adults on probation in Europe. This paper shares findings from the UK-based studies in which 20 brief screening tools and measures were identified. Recommendations are made based on this literature regarding suitable tools for use in probation to routinely identify a need for contact with mental health and/or substance misuse services and to measure change in mental health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the capacity for political agency of the British Romani Civil Rights Movement, assessing its particular connections with the construction and application of laws in the UK and Europe during the late 1960s and the early 1970s. A dual perspective will be adopted in order to trace and bring into dialogue the pressure brought to bear by Romani activism on both the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (MHLG) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in the United Kingdom following the historic Recommendation 563 of the Council of Europe pertaining to the situation of Gypsies and other Travellers. Based on FCO sources, this study highlights the performative power of 'Gypsy diplomacy' while negotiating political spaces in the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how we have improved patient handover by implementing an electronic system for weekend handover. We discuss the process of changing handover methods and the results of an audit comparing our old paper based book versus our new 'e-handover' system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While social policy falls predominantly under national rather than European Union (EU) jurisdiction, there are nonetheless multiple ways in which social policy and social outcomes in EU member states have been affected by EU membership. This paper draws on existing evidence and analysis to review the consequences for UK social policy of the decision to leave the EU. We focus predominantly on the implications of the British government's pledge to 'take back control' of money, borders and laws. Our conclusion is that Brexit is likely to have negative effects on the quality of public services and, for some groups in particular, social rights, and that these effects are likely to be greater the more distant are the future trading and wider relationships between the UK and the EU27. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much attention has been devoted to examining the absolute benefits of home-ownership (e.g. security and autonomy). This paper, by contrast, is concerned with conceptualising and testing the relative benefits of home-ownership; those benefits that depend on an individual’s status in society. Home-ownership has previously been analysed as a social norm, implying that the relative benefits (costs) associated with being an owner (renter) are positively related to relevant others’ home-ownership values. The theoretical contribution of this paper is to additionally conceptualise home-ownership as a positional good, implying that the status of both home-owners and renters is negatively related to relevant others’ home-ownership consumption.The empirical contribution of this paper is to quantitatively test for these relative benefits in terms of subjective wellbeing. We run fixed effects regressions on three waves of the British Household Panel Study. We find that (1) a strengthening of relevant others’ home-ownership values is associated with increases (decreases) in the subjective wellbeing of home-owners (renters), and (2) an increase in relevant others’ home-ownership consumption decreases the life satisfaction of owners but has no effect for renters. Overall our findings suggest that (1) the relative benefits of home-ownership are both statistically significant and of a meaningful magnitude, and (2) home-ownership is likely to be both a social norm and a positional good. Without explicitly recognising these relative benefits, policymakers risk overestimating the contribution of home-ownership to societal wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the politics of diversity planning in one of Europe’s most socially and economically divided and globally oriented cities: London. The analysis draws on Latour’s writings on modes of politicisation to examine the processes and practices that shape contemporary urban governance. It uses the example of diversity planning to examine the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of urban politics. It shows that on the one hand diversity is represented in pragmatic, consensual and celebratory terms. Under prevailing conditions of contemporary global capitalism, the ‘what’ of diversity has been politicised into an agenda for labour market-building and the attraction of ‘talented’ individuals and foreign investment. However, at the same time this celebratory rhetoric represents part of a wider effort to deflect political attention away from the socially and economically divisive impacts of global models of economic growth and physical development. There is little discussion of the ways in which planning frameworks, the ‘how’ of diversity policy, are helping to generate new separations in and beyond the city. Moreover, despite claiming that policy is pragmatic and non-ideological, the paper shows how diversity narratives have become an integral part of broader political projects to orientate the city’s economy towards the needs of a relatively small cluster of powerful economic sectors. The paper concludes with reflections on the recent impacts of the vote for Brexit and the election of an openly Muslim London Mayor. It also assesses the broader relevance of a Latourian framework for the analysis of contemporary urban politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) are documents stating the limitations users must agree to when first accessing information and communications technologies (ICTs) in organisations, such as employers, educational institutions and public libraries. AUPs lay out the parameters of acceptable use expected of someone accessing the ICT services provided, and should state in clear and understandable terms what behaviours will attract sanctions, both legal and in terms of restricting future access. Utilising a range of standard readability tests used to measure how understandable documents are, the paper investigates how readable the AUPs presented to public library patrons in the UK are in practice. Of the 206 AUPs in use across the local government departments who manage public library services 200 were obtained and subjected to a range of readability testing procedures. Four readability tests were used for analysis: the Flesch Reading Ease, the Coleman-Liau Index, the Gunning Fog Index and the SMOG Grade. Results for all four readability tests administered on all AUPs raise significant questions. For the Flesch Reading Ease score only 5.5% of AUPs scored at the standard readability level or higher (60+), and 8% scored at a very high level of difficulty akin to a piece of scientific writing. Similarly, for SMOG, only 7.5% of the 200 AUPs scored at the recommended level of 10. Likewise, very few AUPs scored at levels recommended for a general audience with either the Gunning Fog Index (11.5%) or the Coleman-Liau Index (2%). With such variability in readability, the fitness for purpose of the average AUP as a contract patrons must agree to can be called into question. This paper presents the first ever analysis of the readability of library AUPs in the literature. Recommendations are made as to how public library services may improve this aspect of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]