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Focusing on the case of time-lapse imaging (TLI), this paper analyses how medical professionals negotiate the use of new 'add-on' fertility treatments in light of the limited evidence available. The data produced by TLI technologies is meant to help professionals identify the best embryo to be implanted. Embryo selection is essential in IVF practice for increasing pregnancy rates and reducing the negative effects of repeated failures. More than 5 years after the introduction of TLI in IVF labs, however, there has been no conclusive randomised control trial (RCT) evidence to show that the tools do indeed have a significant impact on pregnancy rates. Nonetheless, many public clinics in the UK have adopted such technologies. Consequently, our research asks: How is the use of TLI tools legitimised by professionals, in light of contradictory evidence? Focusing on 25 semi-structured staff interviews, we argue that professionals use several strategies to legitimise the use of TLI in the clinic without, however, challenging the tenets of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and the value it places on RCTs. Rather, professionals emphasise various advantages that TLI offers, including its use as a lab tool, its potential for knowledge production in embryology, and the role it plays in the management of patient expectations and course of treatment. This paper contributes to debates on the role of EBM in modern medicine and fertility care specifically – an area where this inter-relationship has been underexplored. We conclude by suggesting avenues towards a more nuanced understanding of EBM as it relates to IVF treatment and a rapidly changing biotechnology context. • Professional legitimation of time-lapse imaging in light of limited evidence. • Data on professional perspectives on the use of new fertility treatments. • Article connects IVF add-on debate to critiques of evidence-based medicine. • In-depth analysis of time-lapse imaging case in UK clinics. • Randomised control trials still considered gold standard in IVF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We welcome the comments by Harpur and Haddon (2020) on our paper on the typologies of social support and its associations with breastfeeding at two months in a UK sample. We share their concerns around the under-acknowledged costs of breastfeeding, and the need for a truly family-centred approach to breastfeeding support. However, they are mistaken to assume we do not view breastfeeding problems as an important cost of breastfeeding: We explicitly comment on breastfeeding challenges within our paper, and such challenges are theoretically incorporated into the "costs of breastfeeding" following an evolutionary anthropological framework. They are also incorrect in their statement that we recommend breastfeeding promotion messages to wider family members. In fact, we outline in our manuscript that breastfeeding promotional messages can have negative consequences for mothers, and are unlikely to be supportive. What we do suggest is a family-centred approach that recognises that women interact with, and may be supported by, a wide range of individuals (including fathers and grandmothers); and the importance of taking a nuanced approach to support without assuming that all types of support necessarily leads to "more breastfeeding." We hope our response is useful in clarifying the key points of our paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we describe palynological assemblages in the Middle Miocene (Serravallian) Kenslow Member of the Brassington Formation at Bees Nest Pit, near Brassington, Derbyshire, U.K., and infer vegetation types and their palaeoclimate implications. The limited lateral extent of the 1.33 m-thick succession of clay and lignite, and its position surrounding fragments of a large tree trunk, suggests that the succession may have accumulated within a tree throw hole or possibly within a shallow stagnant pond, although aquatic lacustrine palynomorphs have not been identified to confirm this latter hypothesis. The stratigraphical distribution of palynological assemblages, based on 58 samples allows reconstruction of a wetland succession. Two pollen zones were identified using CONISS cluster analysis, and a predominantly warm-temperate and mixed mesophytic forest biome was recognised with Tsuga conifer pollen-types being dominant (<42%) in both pollen zones. Changes in the make-up of this forested wetland were in response to local environmental changes rather than major climatic shifts. Wetland development culminated in the formation of a relatively open shrub and reed-dominated mire which produced the lignite-precursor peat. Applying the Co-existence Approach, Mean Annual Temperature was 15.6–21.7 °C and Mean Annual Precipitation was 703–1682 mm indicating a warm-temperate to subtropical palaeoclimate, and both parameters show no significant change through the section. Findings suggest that, following the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum, the Serravallian climate of the northwestern margin of Europe remained much wetter than Central Europe, where more arid climates have been reconstructed, and this difference may have been due to the influence of the proto-North Atlantic Current. • We present a fossil record using a lignite and clay unit from the Kenslow Member. • We present the first reconstruction of a wetlands in the UK Miocene reconstruction record. • Transition from a Tsuga -dominant mixed mesophytic forest to a wetland occurred. • Palaeoclimate variables varied little and suggested frost-free conditions. • High precipitation reconstructions were caused by the proto-North Atlantic Current. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities have become important drivers in promoting strategies for sustainable development. The primary objective of this article is to analyze the differences between public transportation in Newcastle upon Tyne, the city considered the most sustainable in the United Kingdom, and Florianópolis, a city with great potential for sustainable policies located in southern Brazil. This comparison may provide models, ideas and actions for the development of Florianópolis as a model of sustainability in South America. Therefore, a comparative analysis is provided: to observe changes, build models, and verify similarities and differences, while seeking to discover which behaviors govern political and social phenomena in the area of urban sustainability. This paper provides a comparative description of social and economic indicators: gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, inflation, employment, as well as the historical population evolution of the two cities. This work contrasts the sustainable transport model used by Newcastle and the reality of the transport needs of Florianópolis. This article is the first in a series to analyze the indicators for sustainable cities, focusing mainly on the reality of the South American city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The steel industry is the world's largest industrial source of CO 2 emissions. Recent UK economic policies have led to reduced domestic steel production giving an apparent reduction in national emissions. However, demand for goods made from steel has not reduced. Emissions have thus been transferred not reduced and implementation of UK climate policies may in future expand this ‘carbon leakage.’ This paper explores how future UK demand for goods made from steel might be supplied while satisfying national climate policies, and how this will influence global CO 2 emissions. Current flows and stocks of steel are estimated from existing databases. Evidence from other developed economies suggests that per capita stocks are tending towards a saturation level so future demand is forecast from population growth and the expected rate of replacement of a stable stock. The carbon intensities of five different steel-making routes are used to predict the allowed scale of future domestic steel production within the industrial emissions allowances set in four energy pathways defined by the UK Government. The remaining requirement for steel must be sourced offshore and the associated emissions are predicted, to give an estimate of the global emissions arising from final demand in the UK. The results show that current UK climate strategy may have a limited effect in reducing the CO 2 emissions of the global steel industry, unless the UK shifts towards producing more of its own steel products with domestic secondary steel-making. This option would also increase the security of UK supply and support an expansion of UK manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2021, the United Kingdom (UK) Government considered tripling the UK grid's performance-based incentive scheme's penalty for capacity non-delivery during a shortage. This paper proposes an insurance that a generator may buy to manage its risk exposure to the scheme's penalty. It also shows how to use readily available data to calculate the insurance's per MW premium. These findings suggest that the proposed insurance deserves consideration by generators and insurance sellers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the closure of the UK asylums, ‘the community’ has become short hand for describing a variety of disparate and complex spaces, in which service users manage their experiences of distress. An examination of such spaces here forms the basis of an analysis of the way in which service users move through and within space, to establish agency and dis/order while distressed. Seventeen participants, with various experiences of mental distress took part in a qualitative study, and a further textual analysis was conducted on eight published autobiographies. In the context of the interviews, participants presented drawings of the spaces they occupy during times of crisis, wellbeing and recovery. All texts were analysed using a thematic approach, informed by theories of embodiment and relational space. In this paper, the focus is directed towards two key patterns of movement, in order to explore ways in which participants experiencing various forms of mental health crisis used space in order to maintain and manage feelings of agency. Firstly, incidents where participants described moving towards fluid, outside spaces are explored, with agency being established through seeking, and utilising, greater possibilities for action and engaging others. In addition, the opposite pattern of movement is also explored, using incidents where participants described moving indoors, using the private space of the home to establish order and restore feelings of agency and strength, in contrast to overwhelming experiences in public space. Connections between these patterns of movement and particular forms of distress are discussed. It is argued that community and private spaces are integral to the ways in which selfhood, agency and action is experienced in mental distress, which in turn has implications for policy, treatment and community action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions of community are central to many research settings in the social sciences. Rabinow argued that, in the wake of the Human Genome Project, an increasingly important form of collectivity would be biosociality . Biosociality recognises a central role for biomedical knowledge in constructing genetic identities and producing and reproducing social relationships. Accordingly, it is often imagined as a new form of social solidarity. We draw on observations of parent-led conferences to explore the way in which biosociality is expressed at events organised around a particular genetic syndrome – 22q11 deletion syndrome. The parent-led conferences took place within the United Kingdom between 2007 and 2010 and were observed as part of a multi-sited ethnographic study. By bringing together a geographically dispersed group of people together within the same physical location, conferences offer an ideal platform to empirically examine sociality. Durkheim used the term collective effervescence to describe the collective expression of heightened emotion. We suggest that in the case of the 22q11 deletion syndrome activities discussed in this paper, collective effervescence is a mechanism through which individuals become a collective. We argue that parent-led conferences gather individuals in one location on the basis of common biological factors, but it is the shared emotional experience of being together that consolidates and renews the connection between members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Between late 2010 and mid 2011 there was a significant heroin shortage in the United Kingdom (UK), resulting in a rapid drop in street heroin purity and increase in price. The most well documented event of this kind is the 2000–2001 Australian heroin shortage, with little published research addressing the UK context. In this paper we draw on qualitative data to explore the impact of, and responses to, the 2010/2011 shortage among London-based heroin users. Methods Data collection comprised longitudinal life history and narrative interviews with 37 PWID in 2010–2011. The average age of participants was 40, with a 20-year average duration of injecting. Heroin was the drug of choice for the majority of participants (25), with 12 preferring to inject a crack-cocaine and heroin mix. Recruitment took place through London drug and alcohol services and peer networks. Results The majority of participants continued to source and inject heroin despite reported decline in purity and increased adulteration. Transitions to poly-drug use during the heroin shortage were also common, increasing vulnerability to overdose and other drug related harms. Participants enacted indigenous harm reduction strategies in attempting to manage changes in drug purity and availability, with variable success. Conclusion Epidemiological data gathered during periods of heroin shortage is often drawn on to emphasise the health benefits of reductions in supply. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding the ways in which heroin shortages may increase, as well as reduce, harm. There is a need for enhanced service provision during periods of drug shortage as well as caution in regard to the posited benefits of supply-side drug law enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ways in which inequality generates particular population health outcomes remains a major source of dispute within social epidemiology and medical sociology. Wilkinson and Pickett's The Spirit Level (2009), undoubtedly galvanised thinking across the disciplines, with its emphasis on how income inequality shapes the distribution of health and social problems. In this paper, we argue that their focus on income inequality, whilst important, understates the role of neoliberal discourses and practises in making sense of contemporary inequality and its health-related consequences. Many quantitative studies have demonstrated that more neoliberal countries have poorer health compared to less neoliberal countries, but there are few qualitative studies which explore how neoliberal discourses shape accounts and experiences and what protections and resources might be available to people. This article uses findings from a qualitative psycho-social study employing biographical-narrative interviews with women in Salford (England) to understand experiences of inequality as posited in The Spirit Level . We found evidence for the sorts of damages resulting from inequality as proposed in The Spirit Level . However, in addition to these, the most striking finding was the repeated articulation of a discourse which we have termed “ no legitimate dependency ”. This was something both painful and damaging, where dependency of almost any sort was disavowed and responsibility was assumed by the self or “othered” in various ways. No legitimate dependency , we propose, is a partial (and problematic) internalisation of neoliberal discourses which becomes naturalised and unquestioned at the individual level. We speculate that these sorts of discourses in conjunction with a destruction of protective resources (both material and discursive), lead to an increase in strain and account in part for well-known damages consequent on life in an unequal society. We conclude that integrating understandings of neoliberalism into theorising about inequality enriches sociological perspectives in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Cigarette smoking is a risk factor in a range of serious diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke and type II diabetes. Theory suggests that working long hours will increase smoking propensities among workers. Consequently there is a significant body of evidence on the relationship between working time and smoking. Results, however, are inconsistent and therefore inconclusive. This paper provides new evidence on how working time affects smoking behaviour using nationally representative panel data from Australia (from 2002 to 2011) and the United Kingdom (from 1992 to 2011). We exploit the panel design of the surveys to look at within-person changes in smoking behaviour over time as working time changes. In contrast to most previous studies, this means we control for time invariant aspects of personality and genetic inheritance that may affect both smoking propensities and choice of working hours. We find that working long hours tends to increase the chances that former smokers will relapse, reduce the chances that smokers will quit and increase cigarette consumption among regular smokers, and that these effects tend to become more pronounced for workers who usually work very long hours (50 or more hours a week) compared to those who work moderately long hours (40–49 h a week). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The UK''s second nationwide referendum, held in May 2011, offers rich opportunities for analysing the dynamics of a referendum campaign. The articles gathered together in this symposium address three themes. The first concerns the determinants and dynamics of public opinion during a referendum campaign, the second relates to the potential for interaction between the referendum and simultaneous elections, and the third focuses on coverage of the referendum in the media. Following a brief outline of the background to the referendum, this paper introduces the contribution that each article makes to these themes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Direct assessment of capability to function may be useful in healthcare settings, but poses many challenges. This paper reports a first investigation of the feasibility of individuals self-reporting their capabilities and the meaning of the responses. The study was conducted in 2010, using think-aloud interviews with participants in the UK. The findings of the study suggest that the majority of participants were able to comprehend questions about their capabilities, felt able to judge their own capability wellbeing and provided responses in line with this judgement. In a number of cases, for example in relation to ‘autonomy’, participants highlighted that their capability was potentially greater than their functioning. The findings also show varying interpretations of the capability concept, with some participants finding the capability concept unintuitive in relation to specific aspects of life (in particular, ‘attachment’). The findings suggest that guiding individuals in the process of identifying their capabilities may be important in generating consistent responses to capability questions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Does the association between household characteristics and household CO2 emissions differ for areas such as home energy, transport and indirect emissions? This question is policy relevant because distributional implications of mitigation policies may vary depending on the area of emissions that is targeted if specific types of households are likely to have higher emissions in some areas than in others. So far, this issue has not been examined in depth in the literature on household CO2 emissions. Using a representative UK expenditure survey, this paper compares how household characteristics like income, household size, education, gender, worklessness and rural or urban location differ in their association with all three areas as well as total emissions. We find that these associations vary considerably across emission domains. In particular, whilst all types of emissions rise with income, low income, workless and elderly households are more likely to have high emissions from home energy than from other domains, suggesting that they may be less affected by carbon taxes on transport or total emissions. This demonstrates that fairness implications related to mitigation policies need to be examined for separate emission domains. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: International policies regulating clinical ethics committees'' (CEC) roles are non-existent. Nonetheless, CECs have established themselves in several countries and there exist striking differences in the way these work. This international practice variation stems from the ways CECs developed, within particular legal, political, social and professional contexts. National guidelines and normative documents have been published in many countries regarding CECs. To better understand CECs'' evolution and differences in various countries, we reviewed guidelines, position statements and normative papers which describe and frame the development of CECs in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and France. Systematic content analysis addressed guideline development, CECs'' roles, consultation methods and CEC members'' education requirements. Differing contexts informed the ways in which guidelines were developed. American CECs, established within a strongly litigious context are perceived to play strong decision-making roles, whereas British CECs, encouraged by clinicians, endorse a more supportive model. Canadian guidelines focus on the role of the ethicist, while the French model is interested in a theoretical interdisciplinary approach. This analysis shows important challenges facing the implementation of accountable CECs in different contexts and can help inform future policy development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: MNEs have traditionally employed various combinations of international exchange to deploy their staff expertise to where it is needed. Such ‘portfolios of mobility’ need to be adapted to diverse market and project requirements, the operation of numerous production and market locations, and the training of international staff. This paper builds on a recent cross-sector comparison of these strategies among UK-based MNEs by focusing on one sector, business consultancy. Expert staff deployment to serve international clients is a core function for these firms. Its management, however, also reflects other corporate priorities. These include supporting the internationalisation policies of parent companies; responding to new regional markets and client relations; effective project management; and exploiting modern communications developments. International business consultancies appear to be leading the move towards shorter term, but higher quality international staff mobility, more virtual exchange of expertise, and significant recruitment localisation, often involving mergers and joint ventures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Prior work on political effects of personal asset ownership in the United Kingdom has found a causal link between home and share ownership and conservative political preferences and voting. These estimates appear to confirm the “ownership society” thesis tying privatization and asset ownership to improved prospects for conservative parties. This paper proposes a new identification strategy for testing this causal connection that improves on earlier research designs. I exploit temporal variability in panel data to better specify the definition of home ownership and control for unobserved confounders associated with ownership. Under this design, home ownership is found to have no or very weak effects on voting in the 1997 and 2001 General Elections. Where weakly significant results are found, they suggest a mixed effect on partisan outcomes at the ballot box. Finally, while extending this strategy to financial assets does support the “ownership society” hypothesis, doing so illuminates a very different set of identification problems, which point to underlying flaws in the “ownership society” argument itself. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In an ageing society, like the UK, where long-term illness dominates healthcare, there has been a change in the way that the end-of-life is approached and experienced. Advancing technology, inadequate knowledge and inconsistency in palliative care services have complicated the ability to recognise imminent dying and many people access emergency services at the end-of-life. Drawing on ethnographic research exploring end-of-life care in one large Emergency Department (ED), the authors examine the spaces of dying and death, which are created in a place designed to save life, and not necessarily to provide supportive and palliative care. Despite the high need for attention in an emergency crisis, this study shows that the approach taken to care for someone at the end-of-life, and consequently the space in which they are cared for, often falls short of the expectations of the dying patient and their relatives. It is argued that the dying body is seen as dirty and polluted in the sterile, controlled, clinical environment and is therefore ‘matter out of place’. Attempts are made to conceal or remove the dying patient, the bereaved relatives and the deceased body protecting the natural order of the ED. Consequently, the individual supportive and palliative care needs of the dying are often overlooked. This paper highlights the needs of patients as death nears in the ED and argues that the critical decisions made in the ED have a significant impact on the quality of care experienced by patients, who spend the last few hours of their life there. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The introduction of a marine planning system throughout English territorial waters over the next decade provides an opportunity for stakeholder input to the management of the marine environment. Stakeholder involvement has been identified as an important component of successful development and subsequent implementation of marine planning but it has to be recognised that the views and interest of stakeholders can vary greatly, thus the desire for involvement with the process is unlikely to be uniform. This paper presents the views of stakeholders within the Solent, United Kingdom on their potential involvement with the marine planning process. Interestingly, it highlights a strong variability of views within and across sectors. Assuming the situation in the Solent is typical of groups of stakeholders throughout the country, the lack of uniformity in the potential involvement from different stakeholders may present a challenge in achieving a representative and truly collaborative marine planning process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Household waste recycling rates vary significantly both across and within regions of the UK. This paper attempts to explain the variation by using a new data set of waste recycling rates and policy determinants for all of the UK's 434 local authorities over the period 2006Q2 to 2008Q4. Our results suggest that the method of recycling collection chosen by policy makers is an important factor influencing the recycling rate. We also find an inverse relationship between the frequency of the residual waste collection and the recycling rate. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Questions about migration have appeared in various forms in British censuses since 1841, and questions about ethnicity have been included since 1991. A variety of new questions were included in the 2011 Census that increase the amount of information that is gathered about migrants, both internal and international. This paper reviews these questions, exploring their changing nature and reasons why they might be asked. Some of the new questions – notably one on intention to stay in the UK – may be harmful to the wider goal of producing accurate and useful data. More generally, the range of questions suggests a growth in scope for the census from providing an administrative count of the number of people resident in the country, to a parallel role as an instrument in expressing the power of the state. This may erode civil trust in the statistical agencies and consequently lead to poor response rates. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In 2006 the controversial step was undertaken by the Maltese government to provide incentives for new routes with the intention of attracting low cost carriers to fly to the Islands. This paper examines the impact that low cost airline operations are likely to have on the volume and profile of passengers visiting Malta. The focus is on whether the low cost carriers are merely facilitating existing custom in terms of tourism flows, or whether they are attracting a different kind of visitor. The analysis uses data from a number of air transport and tourism sources and concentrates on the UK; the largest tourist market and where the low cost carriers are likely to have the greatest impact. Initially the effects of low cost carriers to date are examined and then there is an assessment of the longer-term impacts investigating recent developments of other low cost routes from the UK. The evidence shows that traffic to Malta increased significantly in 2007 but these additional travellers do not seem to be more interested in history or culture, nor do they take shorter trips or travel more in off-peak times. This is unlike the situation at a number of other European destinations where the introduction of regular low cost services has provided the flexibility for short break cultural tourism to develop. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objectives: The study described in this paper sought to identify the social, cultural, and political factors that effect African unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors’ (UASM) vulnerability to sexual maltreatment in England. It aimed to illuminate how child protection measures could be strengthened for this highly marginalized group. Methods: A mixed method approach was used. Former UASM from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia who had been sexually maltreated in the UK were interviewed in-depth. Prior to the interviews they all completed a questionnaire which captured their biographical details as well as sensitive but factual information. Results: Of the 53 (N =53) former UASM who participated in the study only 2 were males. Most arrived in the UK aged 15–17. A range of sexual maltreatment, from sexual harassment to rape was reported. Three quarters experienced more than 1 incident. Most initial incidents happened in the first 12 months of their arrival in the UK. Two perpetrators were female carers. Many participants reported being groomed and sexually maltreated by people from their own country. Many described being seriously sexually maltreated, particularly by groups of young males living in the same accommodation or nearby, some reportedly also asylum seekers. Participants that had been warned of the dangers of sexual maltreatment were more likely to both disclose and to seek professional help. Conclusions: Professionals should assume that UASM will suffer sexual maltreatment in their host country if not protected adequately, which they are unlikely to disclose. They are likely to need more protection from outside sources and help to develop their personal resources than many have received in the past. Practice implications: Preventative measures include provision of safer environments, ideally single sex housing; more monitoring and supervision; more opportunities to develop trustworthy relationships and have emotional needs met; greater opportunities to develop language skills/access to interpretation; early information regarding the social system, culture, and sexual maltreatment; and improved professional awareness and competence in dealing with minors from other cultures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The idea of climate has both statistical and social foundations. Both of these dimensions of climate change over time: climate, as defined by meteorological statistics, changes for both natural and anthropogenic reasons; and our expectations of future climate also change, as cultures, societies and knowledge evolves. This paper explores the interactions between these different expressions of climate change by focusing on the idea of ‘normal’ climates defined by statistics. We show how this idea came into being in meteorological circles and then review how this idea of climatic normality gets entangled with cultural and psychological processes. Using data from historical and predicted climates in the UK, we illustrate the significance of choosing different baseline ‘normals’ for retrospective and prospective interpretations of climate change. Since the choice of these statistical ‘normals’ reflects cultural, political and psychological preferences and practices as much as scientific ones, we argue that expectations of the climatic future are influenced by social as well as statistical norms. Seeing climate as co-constructed between the psycho-cultural constraints of society and the physical constraints of the material world offers a different way of thinking about the instabilities of climate and the ways we adapt to them. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the United Kingdom (UK), daily circulation figures for tabloid newspapers are as much as ten times higher than broadsheet sources. Nonetheless, studies of media representations of climate change in the UK to date have focused on broadsheet newspapers. Moreover, readership patterns correlate with socio-economic status; the majority of readers of tabloids are in ‘working class’ demographics. With a growing need to engage wider constituencies in awareness and potential behavioral change, it is important to examine how these influential sources represent climate change for a heretofore understudied segment of citizenry. This paper links political geographies with cultural issues of identity and discourse, through claims and frames on climate change in four daily ‘working class’ tabloid newspapers in UK--The Sun (and News of the World), Daily Mail (and Mail on Sunday), the Daily Express (and Sunday Express), and the Mirror (and Sunday Mirror). Through triangulated Critical Discourse Analysis, investigations of framing and semi-structured interviews, this project examines representations of climate change in these newspapers from 2000 through 2006. Data show that news articles on climate change were predominantly framed through weather events, charismatic megafauna and the movements of political actors and rhetoric, while few stories focused on climate justice and risk. In addition, headlines with tones of fear, misery and doom were most prevalent. These analyses then enable discussions of how these representations may influence ongoing climate science and governance interactions as well as political geographies, and (re)shape the contemporary cultural politics of climate change discourse. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper investigates the various ways in which migrants to the United Kingdom become illegally resident. Drawing on findings from a pilot study of undocumented migrants held in detention centres in the United Kingdom, it explores why respondents had chosen to come to the United Kingdom, how they came, and how they ended up residing illegally. In contrast to common assumptions about ‘illegal immigrants’, the present study reveals the diversity of paths into illegal residence, and stresses the importance of perceived safety, both from ‘persecution’ and more generalised violence, as well as the ease of finding work in a strong economy. The sample included both those who had knowingly come to the United Kingdom to live and work illegally, and those who had become illegal during their stay. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: ‘Modernization’ is a key health policy objective in the UK. It extends across a range of public service delivery and organizational contexts, and also means there are radical changes in perspective on professional behaviour and practice. New information and communications technologies have been seen as one of the key mechanisms by which these changes can be engendered. In particular, massive investment in information technologies promises the rapid distribution and deployment of patient-centred information across internal organizational boundaries. While the National Health Service (NHS) sits on the edge of a £6billion investment in electronic patient records, other technologies find their status as innovative vehicles for professional behaviour change and service delivery in question. In this paper, we consider the ways that telemedicine and telehealthcare systems have been constructed first as a field of technological innovation, and more recently, as management solutions to problems around the distribution of health care. We use NHS responses to chronic illness as a medium for understanding these shifts. In particular, we draw attention to the shifting definitions of ‘innovation’ and to the ways that these shifts define a move away from notions of technological advance towards management control. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Urban morphological concepts are weakly represented in Anglophone city planning. Where local plans in the UK are concerned with historical landscapes, attention is devoted principally to individual buildings, sites and monuments, or small areas of special interest: concepts concerned with the historico-geographical structure of entire cities or sizeable parts of cities are largely ignored. This paper is concerned with one such concept, the fringe belt, focusing on the actions of local planners and others influencing the development of fringe belts after they have become embedded within urban areas. The study of the Edwardian fringe belt of Birmingham, UK, suggests that there has been increased pressure since the 1960s to redevelop fringe-belt plots and use them more intensively, but the fringe belt has retained much of its identity despite its lack of recognition in the local plan. Decision-making about proposals to redevelop fringe-belt plots has frequently been protracted, reflecting the profitability of redevelopment, the large size of many of the plots, the large number of interested parties, and the scope for different interpretations of planning policies. Within the local authority, it has been characterized by changes in policies, and disagreements among those taking and influencing decisions. The piecemeal, poorly co-ordinated pattern of decision making underlines the need for planning to take greater account of the historico-geographical structure of cities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The past three decades have seen major changes in concepts of conservation, particularly the realisation that people living around ‘protected areas’ should play participatory roles in their management. Since 1974, the evolving biosphere reserve concept has foreshadowed these broader changes, most recently through the introduction of a periodic review process included in the 1995 Statutory Framework for the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR). This paper briefly outlines the development of the concept and its implementation, presents the periodic review process, describes its application in the United Kingdom (UK), and concludes with some implications for the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) is an established and evolving technology for providing large-scale, long-term electricity storage that can aid electrical power systems achieve the goal of decarbonisation. CAES facilities often utilise large underground storage caverns to ensure high capacity systems. This results in the need of locations with suitable geological features to develop a CAES plant. This paper examines recent and ongoing large-scale CAES projects and presents candidate methods of storing high pressure air using underground features. An assessment of the overall potential for CAES in India is presented by examining its geological features and locations with the greatest potential for CAES plants are determined. This is combined with an analysis of the renewable electricity generation potential in India to identify candidate areas for renewable generation and CAES integrated systems. Up to 1.05% of Indian land area is deemed suitable for CAES plant development and if fully utilised would be sufficient to meet the energy storage needs of India, however, practically a very small fraction of the total suitable land that could be developed so other competing energy storage technologies should be considered. Conversely, the UK possesses a very good potential for CAES, enough to greatly exceed necessary energy storage, owing to the abundance of salt beds not present in India. For CAES to garner serious consideration in India, aquifer storage based CAES needs to be demonstrated. • A comparative assessment of the Indian and UK potential for CAES. • Methodology for linking CAES suitable regions and renewable electricity generation. • Comprehensive review of all major large-scale CAES projects. • Economic and geographic problems have led to the failure of many CAES projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widening health gap between the best and worst-off in the UK requires innovative solutions that act upon the social, economic and environmental causes of ill-health. Initiatives such as microcredit have been conceptualised as having the potential to act on the social determinants of health. However, pathways that lead to this impact have yet to be empirically explored. People living on low incomes, who are financially-excluded, require access to credit to cope with everyday financial needs. While research shows the connections between debt and health, this link is often focused on over-indebtedness and negative health outcomes. In this paper, we investigate the impact of responsibly-delivered credit on the health and wellbeing of borrowers. In 2016-17, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with fourteen borrowers from two microcredit providers offering personal and business microloans, operating in Glasgow, United Kingdom. Findings are presented, using social determinants of health as an analytic lens, and illustrated in a conceptual model explaining the loan mechanisms and pathways connecting microcredit to health and wellbeing. Microcredit, and the mechanisms through which it is delivered, were perceived by participants as positively impacting on their health and wellbeing. Access to flexible, responsibly-delivered, microloans enabled participants to plan and feel secure when faced with (un)expected financial events, reducing the associated stress, sustaining social relationships and empowering borrowers to take greater control over their lives. For some, receiving microcredit was stressful, as it is still a debt that needs to be repaid. Such stress can also be exacerbated by particular aspects of the lending model; for example, group lending. Our results contribute to growing evidence on the impact of financial inclusion approaches on health and wellbeing, highlighting the potential role of microcredit as a public health initiative and the need to support 'alternative' economic spaces in the UK to serve the financially-excluded. • Responsibly delivered credit can positively impact borrowers' health and wellbeing. • Some aspects of group lending could negatively affect borrowers' wellbeing. • Microcredit has the potential to act as a public health initiative. • There is a need to invest in alternative economic spaces in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel approach to estimating food waste in foodservice operations. • A case study of Chinese cuisine restaurants in Bournemouth, United Kingdom. • A Chinese cuisine restaurant wastes up to 0.138 kg of food per guest. • In total, this translates to almost 15 tonnes of wasted food per business per year. • Wastage is driven by UK market- and Chinese cuisine-specific factors. The foodservice sector generates excessive amounts of food waste. This wastage remains however understudied, especially in the context of specific foodservice sub-sectors catering for a large number of consumers. This holds true for ethnic food restaurants holding a noticeable share of the global out-of-home food consumption market. This paper contributed to knowledge with an exploratory study of food waste and its management in Chinese cuisine restaurants operating in the UK. By applying a novel approach to estimating food waste in foodservice operations, it demonstrated the magnitude, established the drivers and revealed managerial approaches to food waste mitigation. The study showcased the role of contextual, UK market-specific, and cultural, ethnic cuisine-related, factors in food waste generation and its management. Drawing upon perspectives of foodservice operators, the study outlined the key barriers to more effective mitigation of food waste and proposed how these could be at least partially overcome in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United Kingdom, increases in premature mortality among the intersecting populations of people made homeless and people who inject drugs map onto the implementation and solidification of fiscal austerity policies over the past decade, rather than drug market fluctuations and trends as in North America. In this context, it is crucial to explore how poverty, multi-morbidity and care delay interplay in exacerbating vulnerability to mortality among an aging population of people who use illicit drugs. The mixed methods Care & Prevent study generated survey data with 455 PWID and in-depth qualitative interviews with a subsample (n = 36). Participants were recruited though drug treatment services and homeless hostels in London from October 2017–June 2019. This paper focuses on qualitative findings, analysed thematically and contextualised in relation to the broader survey sample. Survey participants report an extensive history of rough sleeping (78%); injecting-related bacterial infections (65%) and related hospitalisation (30%). Qualitative accounts emphasise engagement with the medical system as a 'last resort', with admission to hospital in a critical or a "near death" condition common. For many severe physical pain and debility were normalised, incorporated into the day to day. In a context of everyday violence and marginalisation, avoidance of medical care can have a protective impetus. Translation of cultural safety principles to care for people who inject drugs in hospital settings offers transformative potential to reduce serious health harms among this population. • Without prompt care, injecting-related infections can progress to systemic illness. • People who inject drugs face multiple barriers to health care access. • Participants incorporated severe debility into their day-to-day lives. • In contexts of normalised violence medical care avoidance can be protective. • Cultural safety provides a framework to reduce injecting-related health harms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Explores the business feasibility of childcare provision in hotels. • Voices opinions of key stakeholders, i.e. hotel family guests and managers. • Establishes positive impact of childcare provision in hotels on consumer loyalty. • Reveals the impediments of childcare implementation in hotels. • Highlights measures to encourage the adoption of childcare provision in hotels. In light of continuous growth of family tourism hotels should consider providing childcare to family guests. Very few hotels have however embraced this market opportunity and the determinants of childcare provision in hotels remain poorly understood. This paper contributes to knowledge by exploring the business feasibility of providing childcare in hotels. Semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, i.e. family guests (n = 20) and managers (n = 9), in UK hotels establish the numerous benefits of childcare provision. They also reveal such barriers of implementation as increased operational costs, lack of adequate staffing, children's safety considerations and seasonality of family tourism demand. To enhance feasibility of childcare provision, hotels should collaborate with each other, but also with local nurseries, to resolve the issues of fluctuated demand and staffing. Hotels should further consider extending childcare provision to their own employees and local residents. Policy interventions can facilitate this by offering dedicated financial and training support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Livestock systems in the United Kingdom will be affected by climate change. • A range of on-farm adaptation options are available at low-cost. • Adapting to observed and short-term impacts may overcome barriers. • Long-term changes should be planned for. Agriculture is a vital economic sector, providing food, fibre, and energy to a growing human population. Livestock are an important part of this sector, however the evidence and understanding of how a changing climate may affect livestock production systems, or how they may adapt to the changes, is a neglected area compared to the research into crop production. In this paper, we focus on livestock in the United Kingdom (UK), as an example of a temperate region likely to experience at least moderate changes in climate that will require changes to the way agricultural systems operate. We summarise the projected climate changes in this region, identify the main impacts likely to affect livestock agriculture, and discuss potential adaptation options at the farm level. We also categorise the adaptation options by the types of costs they incur, emphasising that many of these options involve management changes rather than investment and therefore no financial cost. Finally, we discuss the need for longer term planning to prepare for changes that have not yet been observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Upland areas provide UK society with many important functions, goods and services, but have experienced a number of disturbing trends and face an uncertain future. This paper outlines historic, current and future drivers of environmental, economic, socio-cultural and policy change in UK uplands, and assesses how these have affected or are likely to affect ways in which land is used and the provision of ecosystem services. Information is synthesised into scenarios summarising a range of possible futures anticipated for UK uplands to 2060 and beyond. Finally, innovations in science, technology, governance and policy are evaluated that could enable uplands to continue providing key ecosystem services under a range of scenarios. The paper concludes that many upland areas will need to be prepared for significant reductions in grazing and prescribed burning. Conversely, other areas could experience agricultural intensification, for example significant increases in grazing or an expansion of arable or bioenergy crops into upland valleys, due to anticipated increases in global demand for food and energy. These scenarios will take place in the context of climate change. Many may take place together and may interact with each other, with complex and unpredictable implications for the upland environment, economy and society. In this context, a number of advances are needed in science, technology and policy to maintain viable upland communities and the future provision of ecosystem services. These may include funding for ecological and hydrological restoration via carbon offsetting or other means. It may also involve advances in ecosystem service modelling, mapping and valuation, which through stakeholder participation could facilitate more integrated rural planning. New forms of environmental governance need to be explored that can empower those interested in developing upland economies to maintain thriving upland communities, while managing the ecosystem services they provide as efficiently as possible. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper introduces the problems of a market-driven waste management strategy in the UK and the momentum towards developing markets forrecycled materials. It focuses on the demand side barriers and principally the need for market stimulation in the end uses for recyclables. The important role, which small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) have to play in developing existing markets for recyclate, is discussed. SMEs also have the potential to contribute to the radical new approach of identifying and developing a broad range ofnew, more diverse and higher value uses for recyclate. If these enterprises are to be engaged effectively then regional action is essential. The paper then reports on research work focusing on SMEs that hastaken place as a component of the CWMRE (Creating Welsh Markets for REcyclate) market development initiative in Wales. As a foundation for this, a series of semi-structured interviews with SMEs has been conducted with those operating in sectors that are known to have the potential to provide novel applications for secondary materials or to have the potential for material displacement. Some of the barriers and corresponding needs within the case study companies involved are discussed. The implications of these findings for a regional market development programme are considered and in particular how these case studies support the need to engage SMEs in the use of secondary materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper emerges from a growing sense of disquiet over the regularity and often loosely utilised appearance of the concept `rural restructuring' in the literature. The paper examines rural restructuring from two perspectives // as an analytical approach that emphasizes theneed for a holistic view of change processes, and as a statement on the character of change in the countryside. The argument put forward is that restructuring ideas have much to commend them as an approach,even if theoretical improvement will require more diversity in `starting' theoretical perspectives and a stronger willingness to engage with other theoretical stances when the weaknesses of a `starting' perspective are revealed. This will entail approaching questions of rural restructuring from a broader range of perspectives than currently dominant visions, which are grounded in political economy. In exploring restructuring ideas as `facts', the paper focuses on England, as this is a country in which rural restructuring is commonly reported to have occurred or be occurring. The paper argues that this vision of the English countryside is too poorly articulated and that support forthis vision is far from convincing. It cautions that restructuring processes are less widespread than is often implied. Moreover, there are grounds for seeing restructuring processes are reifying the past, not heralding a new social dynamic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years rural geography has become increasingly sensitised to the significance of rurality as a cultural construct. This paper examines the production and reception of mediated representations of rurality: that is, it focuses on senses of the rural conveyed by mass media such as television. The paper discusses claims that images of rurality can be understood as socio-spatialisations. It then focuses onthe rurality of British rural drama programmes, and particularly on three such drama series: Dangerfield, Heartbeat and Peak Practice. Drawing together a textual analysis of these programmes with research on their production and consumption, we explore the rurality produced through these television dramas, paying particular attention to the presence, and absence, of idyllic notions of the countryside. We suggest that while these programmes do enact idyllic constructions of rurality, their rurality is not simply reducible to this. We will also highlight how these programmes may also enact particular social identities, including, but not exclusively, those of class. We argue in particular that the three drama series can be read as conveying, in a range of ways, senses of middle-classness. The overall argument of this paper is hence that the mediated ruralities of British rural drama programmes are enactments of social and spatial imaginaries, the complexity and effect of which are often ignored in their textual reductionto a middle class idyll. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a scenario analysis of material and energy flows through the UK iron and steel sector for the period from 1994 to 2019. Following an earlier paper looking at historical flows through the sector, the authors extrapolate a set of hypothetical scenarios for the future based on varying assumptions about critical parameters. These parameters include: the demand for steel goods, technological improvements within steel production processes, and changes in the ratio of primary (basic oxygen furnace) to secondary (electric arc furnace) steel production. The hypothetical scenarios are then used to forecast a range of possible values for the exergy consumption associated with the UK steel sector for the period between 1994 and 2019. The results indicate that exergy consumption from steel is likely to fallby 15-70% of 1994 levels by 2019. Technological improvement alone does not result in significant reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses two key research questions. First, how effective are fiscal measures in stimulating brownfield land regeneration? Second, what is the most effective fiscal measure: taxes or subsidies? The paper considers the results of a three-year study of land ownership constraints which was funded by the ESRC and completed in 1998. The research considered 20 development sites in each of four UK cities;Nottingham, Stoke, Aberdeen and Dundee. In the course of the study, 140 landowners were interviewed in order to ascertain their strategies, interests and actions in the development process. Detailed contextual interviews were also held with 36 organizations with valuable experience of planning and development at national or local level. The research revealed that brownfield redevelopment is increasingly drivenby the availability of development grants and subsidies. The development prospects of 21 of the 80 research sites hinged on the availability of such development grants or subsidies." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite widespread recognition that human impacts are having a detrimental impact upon the environment and the incorporation of sustainable development into policy at a variety of spatial scales, the actualimplementation of sustainability remains problematic. By contrast with the rather vague and all-encompassing concept of sustainable development, some authors have argued that ecological modernization is a much more rigorous approach which focuses upon reconciling the tensions between economic development and ecological crisis to form a new model of development for capitalist economies. As an approach it is specifically put forward as one which can provide both a theoretical anda practical guide to an appropriate response. In this paper the potential contribution of ecological modernization as both theory and guide to pragmatic action are explored by reference to the development of regional policy and regional development agencies (RDAs) in the English regions. It would appear that although the practical implications of ecological modernization have been partially incorporated into regional policy, these have been progressively watered down in the move from policy formulation to implementation. Ecological modernizationmay have more to offer as a theoretical approach where it allows us to think about these problems of policy implementation. The paper concludes with a critique of ecological modernization as a perspective on the environmental problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the environmental impact of the 1992 reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union within British arable agriculture. It demonstrates how policies that were expected by some to have positive environmental outcomes did not do so. One reason for this failure is to do with the design of the policy instruments and the fact that environmental objectives were not explicit.It is suggested that the environmental arguments remain peripheral to policy making within the European Commission. It is also the case that there were important unexpected impacts of other non-policy factors, especially trends in world market prices for arable products in the period following 1992. A weak policy thesis in which the CAP sits alongside market forces, other policies and the socio-economics of agriculture provides a powerful explanation of land management in agriculture. However, it is also the case that the policy remains strong if measured by its core principles. The paper suggests in conclusion that future policy reforms should recognize the complex and inter-related factors influencing farmer behaviour. This is likely to mean a combination of measures designed to capture the potential for increasing biodiversity in a range of contrasting farm systems and individual farm circumstances. Policy goals should be explicit and the policy mechanisms designed to achieve those goals tightly focused. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies a reading of the wider theoretical understanding of rural restructuring to the reform of agricultural holdings legislation over the last century. In charting the shifting legal basis of agricultural tenancies in England and Wales, from 'black letter' positivism to a more cultural form and system of regulation, the paper theorises that the underlying political imperative has been allied to the changing significance of property ownership and use. Rather than reflecting a long-term desire to maintain the let sector in British agriculture, however, the paper argues that this process has had other aims. In particular, it has been about an annexation of law to legitimise the retention of landowner power while presenting a 'democratisation' of farming, away from its plutocratic associations and towards anew narrative of 'depersonalised' business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the light of the significant role played by corporate interviews in the construction of contemporary economic geographies, this paper suggests that the practices of corporate interviewing in the researchprocess demand critical reflection. These practices are reflected upon in the context of a comparative study of retailer/manufacturer power relations in the UK and USA. In particular, attention is paid to the ways in which corporate interviews actively construct knowledge ofcontrasting own-brand supply relationships in these national economies. To do this, the paper addresses the following issues: (i) the embeddedness of corporate interviews in a transforming economic geography; (ii) the processes of identifying, and gaining access to, own-brand supply networks in the UK and USA; (iii) the use of materials resulting from corporate interviews to produce nuanced understandings of own-brand supply relationships; (iv) the adoption of an appropriate textual strategy for writing such interview-based material into economic geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has highlighted the nature of spatial inequalities in health experience in the UK providing evidence of increasing spatial polarisation. However, these studies have tended to be largely concerned with variations in health in urban settings. Recent economic trends, particularly in the agricultural sector, have focused attentionon the socio-economic status of rural populations. With a number of notable exceptions, relatively few studies have been concerned explicitly with issues of rural health. The aims of this paper are to firstly, review recent research which has begun to challenge the notion that rural populations are necessarily healthier than their urban compatriots and secondly, to identify a number of possible explanations for the trends identified in these studies. Variations are examined in relation to methodological problems, socio-economic trends in rural areas, changing accessibility to primary and secondary health care andlifestyle/behavioural factors. A research agenda is presented whereby these types of factors can be further investigated through an integrated approach to studying health variations within rural areas. Finally, the paper concludes by suggesting that more research is needed to investigate the main determinants of health experience and health status in a range of rural settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the development of the offshore oil and gas industry on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS) and particularly the role played by science and technology in that development. An historical perspective is taken in the first instance to place recent developments in context, before exploring the role of science and technology in the 1990s. Three areas of key importance form the basis of the discussion: the maintenance of production from the traditional provinces, the development of new provinces and the mitigation of environmental impacts. The paper demonstrates the crucial role that scienceand technology plays in each of these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the extent to which recent observations about the declining power of landowners signals the arrival of a post-feudal structure in world agriculture. Using the findings of a desk study oflease arrangements across four continents, the paper shows that, although there are substantial cultural and customary differences in theways in which agricultural leases have developed, three broad systems can be delineated. These are characterised as: the `feudal' system,in which landowners remain dominant; a neo-feudal system which, while underwriting private landowning, attempts to combine commercial agriculture with the maintenance of an open and vibrant lease sector; and a post-feudal system, based on improving the financial and technical efficiency of the farming industry. Using this classification, the paper explores the key determinants of the types of lease system which have emerged. It suggests that the suitability of any given system is a function of the overall policy objectives established for the sector. On this basis the paper rejects western constructs of a linear progression from feudalism to post-feudalism. Rather, it suggests that, as both extreme systems are open to exploitation, long-term stability and flexibility is most likely to occur under a neo-feudal regimein which government assumes a pivotal role in supporting both landowners and tenants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a review of the problems and contradictions inherent in land use policies aimed at delivering urban intensification in England. Urban intensification is seen in land use planning as a way of delivering sustainable development: it optimises the use of previouslydeveloped land, reduces travel demand and revitalises and repopulates cities. However, by drawing on existing research and data some contradictions and complexities within both the content of intensification policies and their means of implementation are revealed. The paper reviews the origins of, and theory behind, compact city policies. It then illustrates how urban intensification policies have been included in planning policy in England, and reflects on the divergence between theory and practice. The aim of the paper, in revealing weaknessesin intensification policies, is not to discredit the compact city idea, but to draw attention to potential policy failures in order to identify issues which need to be addressed by policy-makers, implementers and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since April 1996, Wales has possessed one principal tier of local government: 22 unitary authorities. Below this tier of administration, a second level exists: community and town councils. The statutory duties of these authorities are severely limited but they do perform a valuable advisory and consultative role with the principal authorities, particularly in rural areas. The recent reorganization of Welsh local government has prompted commentators to reconsider whether community councils could be afforded more statutory powers in rural governance. This paper discusses the potential for enhancing their role within one service area, namely the planning process. Planning is a function of local government where changes to responsibilities could be enacted. The paper discusses the findings of two research projects: first, a survey of senior planning officers in Wales towards awarding planning powers to community councils; and secondly, a more detailed examination of the perceptions of community councils in rural mid-Wales towards their powers and duties, their planning links with the principal authorities, and their duties within local communities to generate public involvement in rural policy-making. It argues that allocating planning responsibilities to community and town councils lacks the support of both planning professionals and community council representatives themselves. However, in the dual-push for unitary councils tooperate both strategically and locally, there is further scope for areorientation of rural policy-making and for local planning authorities to provide more extensive consultation opportunities to the councils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]