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Britain is rarely considered an exemplar of 'state capitalism'. In contrast, we argue that Britain should be treated as the prototype project of state capitalism in the world economic system, the primary contribution of our paper been to outline the parameters of state capitalism in Britain across two historical periods. Turning the conceptual lens of state capitalism towards Britain raises some challenging issues for the wider literature. Recent scholarship has started to consider greater diversity in regimes of state capitalism and moved beyond the typical nation-state geographical imaginary of state capitalism. Similarly, our paper seeks to introduce a new spatiality to state capitalism with deeper sensitivity to multi-scalar relations. State capitalism in Britain has rarely been bound to the geographical limitations of the nation-state; instead, it has been a transnational project, centred variably on empire, Europe, and the global market – with industrial policy tailored to enable the British economy to exploit and/or service these various spaces by 'making markets'. We emphasize the often-financialized nature of this industrial policy intervention arguing it is constitutive of a 'financial state capitalism'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the notion of local urban policy hybridity in Manchester, England. It presents the findings of qualitative research set in the context of the parallel entrepreneurial city and sustainable regeneration debates. The research objective was to examine the extent of Manchester's conversion to the politics of the entrepreneurial city on the assumption that this signals a departure from efforts towards the city's achievement of sustainable regeneration and social equity goals. Manchester was selected because it has been held up as an iconic entrepreneurial city. The continuing entrepreneurial city debate, instigated by David Harvey in the 1980s, runs alongside that of sustainable regeneration in ways that are seen as sometimes complementary but usually contradictory. The software package NVivo 7 was used to assist with data analysis. The methodological approach was based loosely on the grounded theory approach of Strauss and Corbin: the approach of the analysis mainly followed the qualitative interpretive approach of discourse analysis. Key community strategy documents are found to interweave elements of the entrepreneurial and managerial governance discourses and also incorporate conceptual elements that have emerged recently such as a concern with crime, sustainability and community involvement. The paper provides valuable insights into the hybrid nature of Manchester's actually existing local community strategies which feature a robust adherence to the managerial mode of local urban policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significance of the UK's ageing population has been generally acknowledged, however its implications for consumption have been neglected. The consumption patterns of older people are important given that the end of the 20th century witnessed profound changes to the nature of later life, many linked to the emergence of ‘consumer societies’ in the UK and elsewhere. The uneven nature of retirement, as well as the relative affluence of many retired people, has important effects on patterns and experiences of consumption. This paper charts consumption by retired households in two areas; ownership of key consumer goods and key components of household spending. We investigate how these expenditure trends compare with other household types and across pseudo-birth cohorts. We draw data from 9 years of the Family Expenditure Survey taken at 5 year intervals between 1968 and 2004/5. The data demonstrate the growing extent of ownership of key goods in retired households but also show the differences in proportional expenditure between retired households and the employed. We also note differences between pseudo-birth cohorts and conclude that consumption patterns in later life are influenced by the generational habitus of the differing cohorts who entered retirement between the 1960s and the present day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the spatial imprint and social impacts of the emerging geographies of concentrated overseas investment into London’s high-end real estate market, particularly the boroughs of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea. Framed by literatures on the 1% and the super-rich, and based on a mixed methodological approach of qualitative interviews with intermediaries and a quantitative mapping of overseas investors using 2011 census data, the results speak to the pervasive nature of “safe-haven” seeking in London real estate and its attendant transnational provenance set within a laissez-faire regulatory framework. In so doing, it makes an important contribution to the geographies of the super-rich, the class geographies of London, and the broader sense that overseas investors are producing what we call “pied-à-terre” urbanism which builds on a conventional gentrification framework (exclusionary displacement and a more affluent incoming group) but also exceeds it in several ways, leading to an increasingly socially attenuated landscape. This exceeding relates to: a different kind of rent gap, in that it is not speculative but safe-haven seeking, a guaranteed return on investment, and occurs without previous disinvestment; the agents are not traditional gentrifiers; the transnational nature of the process, with no attachment to particular places like in the traditional gentrification model; and a process focused on super-prime areas and completely independent of the existing gentrification process in London. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of the many theories of corporatism the most adequate is that which sees the relationship as a form of interest group intermediation and policy implementation. It has been argued that the Annual Review of Agriculture is one of the best examples of a corporatist institution. This paper examines the Annual Review and demonstrates that, although it has features of corporatism, the relationship between the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Farmers' Union is not corporatist. The paper then examines the policy community approach and by looking at the formation and operation of the Annual Review argues that this is a much better description of the relationship between the ministry and the union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructs a time-series for fatalities in British manufacturing for 1960-85. Examines the relation between the business cycle and industrial injury rate and finds this to be pro-cyclical whether tested against a rate for employees or for total operative hours at risk. Points to the possible contribution of changes in the engagement rate. employment-output ratio, capacity utilisation, vintage of machinery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the Conference of Socialist Economists (CSE), Great Britain's first post-war community of heterodox economists. The members of the community, which was created in 1970, advocate the ideas and engage in social activities. After the CSE was formed, its activities contributed significantly to the building of social network and institutions necessary for maintaining and developing the community of Marxian-heterodox economists. Its activities also contributed for the development of Marxian-heterodox economics. The article also examines and delineates those factors that lead, over the period of 1950 to 1970, to the creation of the CSE.

The author investigates whether judges deciding on unfair dismissal cases are sensitive to economic conditions faced by workers and firms. Using the 1992 survey of Employment Tribunal Applications in Great Britain and controlling for case selection, she finds that both the unemployment and the bankruptcy rates significantly decrease the probability of judges deciding in favor of dismissed employees. A one-point increase in the unemployment rate leads to a seven-point decrease in this probability; this effect, however, is not significant for unemployed workers. These findings are consistent with the idea that judges, while tailoring firing costs to economic circumstances, are somewhat more sensitive to firms' interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Highlights and Abstract This article focuses on the banking crisis in the US and UK., It is essential to understand banker agency and the institutional and structural contexts which shaped such agency., Bankers experienced variegated patters of constraint and opportunity. At one level institutional theories that emphasise institutional constraint cannot easily account for the authority and agency enjoyed by key bankers., On the other hand, bankers were heavily influenced by institutional change in the shape of market 'liberalisation', which produced intense levels of competition and pressures to achieve higher profit returns: an exacting form of market discipline., Bankers and financiers in the US and UK modified institutions and revolutionised the banking industry prior to the 2007-8 crisis. These agents were however heavily constrained and eventually overwhelmed by institutional pressures and wider structural forces that encouraged high-risk leveraged trading and which generated systemic risk. To account for this, institutional theory needs to incorporate a broader canvas of conditioning contexts, particularly the impact of structural or systemic forces on agents and the way in which these are actualised as a form of 'ecosystem power'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the development of allotment gardens in the northern English city of York at the start of the twentieth century. Using archive material and newspaper reports, the role of the allotment gardens within wider issues of urban social reform is explored. Through Giddens’s theory of structuration, the manner in which relationships between citizens and the City Corporation of York developed is investigated. In this manner, the place of allotment gardens as a means of understanding wider urban life in Britain can be reexamined. Although allotment gardens have only partially featured in studies of civic reform, identity and governmentality, their place as a central feature of working-class life in Britain demands that a greater focus of attention be placed on these plots of land. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the relationships between the U.K. government's policy toward education and what is often termed the audit culture. In it, the author argues that audit and evidence-based practice are synergistic arms of policy development that presuppose a neo-positivistic research stance. Most directly through audit, this "regime of truth" is having a damaging effect on educational provision, explored here through the further education sector. The underlying reasons for this damage lie in the ways that audit and evidence-based practice misunderstand and misrepresent learning. Within this approach, the U.K. educational research field must distance itself from developing links with policy and government that are too close. It is this independence from external control that is the foundation of science, rather than positivist-derived methodological objectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the economic impact of hosting World and European Championships in Great Britain including the World Badminton Championship, the World Judo Championship, and the European Junior Boxing Championship from 1997 to 2002. The study focuses on impact attributable to additional expenditure at the major sports events, and the impact per day at each event is calculated. The authors highlight the number of spectators at each event as a key determinant of economic impact, the expenditures of organizations planning the events are noted, and long-term benefits for the host cities beyond economic impacts are discussed. Other topics include problems calculating the economic impact of the Olympic games, sponsorship and advertising, and television broadcasting of major sports events.

A chapter of the book "A New Sociology of Work?" is presented. It discusses a research project that examined the post-strike experiences of a South Wales coal-mining neighborhood in the mid-1980s. The author argues that community work provided a significant occupation for residents. The chapter discusses communal relations in working-class areas, community interaction, and community organization as a factor in economic growth. It also examines the significance of women's relationships to public and private spheres and the possible reconfiguration of communal and class relations.

The authors reassess the recent history of U.K. urban politics. Following the local entrepreneurialism promoted by the Thatcher governments in the 1980s, they trace the gradual emergence of a more inclusive approach to urban policy. This shift, which began with the Major government in the early 1990s, marks a move toward a more community-orientated vision of social regeneration. Through a survey of the evolution of partnership styles and economic development in Leeds and informed by recent cross-national work on regime theory, the authors provide insights into the structural factors that have shaped the formation, composition, and actions of local coalitions in U.K. governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Canon Barnett founded Toynbee, the need for social reform was not universally accepted. Some still endeavored to preach and to practice the most rigid doctrines of the laissez-faire school -- the poor, the sick, the unhealthy, the subnormal, the deficient, were to be left to stew in their own miserable juice until, so the theory went, their own hapless plight provoked them to extricate themselves and become healthy, wealthy and wise. But because there are now State Departments and well organized voluntary bodies to cover the whole ground of social work, they are told that the task of the Settlements is done and their days are over. There is no longer a need for an institution the main function of which is to arouse a lethargic world to a proper sense of the urgency of the social problem, for the world is no longer lethargic. The early Settlements found, herded together in the large industrial population which had practically no capacity for looking after itself. They discovered what was perhaps the most devastating consequence of the Industrial Revolution.