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Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) has become an established intervention to support patient recovery after a cardiac event, with evidence supporting its effectiveness and cost-effectiveness in improving patient health and reducing future burden on healthcare systems. However, this evidence has focussed on the national value case for CR rather than at the point at which it is commissioned. This analysis uses the UK as a case-study to explore variation in current CR engagement and disassemble the value case from a commissioner perspective. Using data collected by the National Audit of CR (NACR), and an existing model of cost-effectiveness, we present details on the current level of CR uptake by commissioning region (Specialist Clinical Networks) in light of the current UK target of achieving 85% uptake. We then interrogate the value case for achieving the target at a commissioner level, highlighting the expected profile of health benefits and healthcare system costs over the long-term. Importantly we consider where this may differ from the national value case. Each commissioning region has a unique level of CR uptake and sociodemographic profile. Concurrently, the value case for commissioning CR relies on the upfront cost of the service being offset by long-term healthcare savings, and health improvements. The shift in the UK and internationally to more localised commissioning necessitates evidence of cost-effectiveness that better reflects the realities of those decision makers. This paper provides vital additional data to facilitate such commissioners to understand the value case in increasing CR uptake in line with national policy. • Many nations are aiming to increase rates of CR uptake. • Commissioning of services is complex and different from national decision making. • The challenges in reaching targets are different for each region. • It is important to consider equity when commissioning CR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of pledges to reach net-zero emissions has revealed a wide range of understandings of what such a pledge entails. The lack of international standards to define decarbonisation pathways and the many kinds of speculative offsets available for net-zero calculations have generated a multiplication of public commitments not tethered to any specific mechanism of accountability. Many have criticised this state of affairs as a governance vacuum allowing extravagant forms of 'greenwashing,' with corporations and countries asserting ostensibly ambitious goals without adopting verifiable instruments for their delivery. This paper addresses the situation from a slightly different perspective, exploring instead how net-zero pledges create new climate publics and counter-publics. Drawing on three case studies (UK national net-zero policy, the Race to Zero campaign, and the Science Based Targets Initiative), and informed by a pragmatist understanding of 'public' and 'public formation,' we examine how the adoption of a formal but ambiguous target leads to a collective consideration of consequences, thus expanding the range of actors engaged in disputes over alternative climate futures. • Imaginations of net zero futures are unavoidably ambiguous and open to interpretation. • Setting net zero targets and delineating their consequences can enable the formation of new publics and counter publics. • This process hinges on the deployment of specific devices to imagine and deliberate on plausible futures. • The paper develops a pragmatist framework for investigating the formation of publics as a political consequence of net zero publics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments provide policy incentives to increase adoption rates of electric vehicles and achieve sustainability goals. This paper investigates the impact of UK financial purchase incentives on new registrations of electric fleets whilst moderating for change in gross domestic product (GDP). We use a unique dataset of new registrations of electric fleets in the UK for a 20-year period (1999–2019). Our results show that financial purchase incentives positively impact new registrations of electric fleets, and this effect is positively moderated by GDP change. Marginal analysis reveals three categories of adopters that purchase electric fleets at different levels of policy and GDP change: insensitive adopters, standard adopters, and sensitive adopters. Overall, financial incentives may be more effective in fostering the adoption of electric fleets when set to levels that are conditioned on the level of GDP change. In particular, financial purchase incentives are most effective when GDP change and incentives are above their average level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a succession of policy documents related to active travel published by the British government since the implementation of a National Cycle Network (NCN) in 1995. However, as the latest National Travel Survey (NTS) reveals, the number of journeys made by bike in the UK has remained steadfastly around only 2% (Department for Transport [DfT], 2018a). By using documentary analysis of the available official policy documents and statements, the aim of this paper is to make sense of the policies that have been published concerning active travel (AT) in England. This is done from a figurational sociological perspective. Three key themes emerge from the analysis: (1) the rhetorical, advisory level of the vast majority of the policies; (2) the reliance on a wide network of local authorities to implement AT policy; and (3) the focus placed on individuals to change their behaviour. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that despite a large number of policy publications from a range of government departments claiming to promote AT, little has actually changed in this time period in terms of a national agenda. Despite the successive policies, it seems there is little appetite on behalf of recent governments to make widespread infrastructural changes, where instead the focus has largely been on persuading the individual to seek more active modes of travel, increasingly for their own, individual 'health' gains. Highlights •The paper is based on documentary analysis of available official policy documents from UK government on active travel since 1996 • The findings reveal the largely rhetorical, advisory level of the vast majority of the policies, which contributes to a lack of overall success in promoting active travel • The lack of success is compounded further by a reliance on a wide network of local authorities to implement active travel policy, when most local authorities appear more concerned with transport issues related to motorised vehicles • The findings reveal that active travel policy has becoming increasingly focussed on health gains that might be made from increasing the number of trips made by bicycle • The overwhelming focus of the policy documents analysed, however, is on encouraging individuals to change their behaviour, a process regarded as 'healthism', and one most sociologists of health suggest is likely to fail as a result • We conclude by suggesting that if the government is serious about wanting to see a 'step change' in the way in which people travel, particularly over shorter distances, then there is a need to have a more forceful approach to implementing policy within local authorities at the same time as making more substantial infrastructure changes to encourage cycling [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Ecosystem services and processes play key, if overlooked, roles in all policy areas. • Realising the values of ecosystems requires embedding across all societal interests. • Collaborative learning amongst senior players helped identify actionable outcomes. • All sectors of society are key role players in achieving this society-wide transformation. • Exemplar ecosystem-based approaches show the feasibility of societal transformation. Recent high-profile analyses of trajectories and prognoses of ecosystem decline around the world have called for a renewed focus on embedding the values of the natural world across all areas of public policy. This paper reports the results of a UK-based deliberative process involving experts from a wide range of policy domains and across societal sectors: government departments, associated agencies, national and international NGOs, professional institutions, academia and independent experts. A symposium, based on a collaborative learning approach, explored instances in which ecosystem values have successfully been embedded into public policy, identified challenges to their more widespread embedding despite commitments to do so over generational timescales, and took a backcasting approach to develop actionable outcomes required to deliver transformation change across state and civil society. Emergent themes were expressed in social, technological, environmental, economic and political terms. Recommendations for interventions in complex social-ecological systems are cross-sectoral in scope and will necessarily entail multiple agents of change, well beyond governmental leadership, within any given sphere of societal activity and interest. We identify strategic challenges for, and between, a spectrum of societal policy areas, many currently overlooking ecosystem dependencies, impacts and potential benefits. Reflections on the collaborative learning approach are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Responsible incentivisation requires attention to situated stakeholder perspectives. • We develop four policy scenarios and subject them to deliberation in the UK and Sweden. • New incentives and enabling reforms to existing policy instruments are needed. • Mitigation deterrence must be considered in real world (not abstracted) contexts. • Multi-instrument approaches are needed to overcome single instrument deficiencies. Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) plays a central role in scenario pathways that limit global warming in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. Yet deliberate policy efforts to incentivise BECCS—whether through amending existing climate policies or introducing entirely new ones—remain rare. In this paper, we contend that BECCS must be incentivised responsibly, through policy-making processes which account for diverse and geographically varying societal values and interests. More specifically, we make the case for responsible incentivisation by undertaking a comparative analysis of stakeholder attitudes to four idealised policy scenarios for BECCS, including representatives of government, business, nongovernmental and academic communities, in the UK and Sweden. The scenarios were: business as usual; international policy reform; national BECCS policy; and national policy for negative emissions technologies. Based on our findings, we recommend that policymakers 1) recognise the need to develop new incentives and make enabling reforms to existing policy instruments; 2) consider the risk of mitigation deterrence in their real world (and not abstracted) contexts; 3) employ multi-instrument approaches to incentivisation that do not overly rely on carbon pricing or 4) force a choice between technology specific or technology neutral policies; and 5) attend to the diversity of stakeholder and wider public perspectives that will ultimately determine the success—or failure—of their policy designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a policy mix approach to examine the institutional and governance issues arising from the UK's support for innovation in low carbon manufacturing sectors. The paper draws on interviews with managers of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises as well as policy practitioners and industry experts. The analysis of these interviews highlights issues in the multi-scalar design and delivery of these policies, including gaps and tensions in the policy mix, as well as the importance, and relative neglect of, regional institutional entrepreneurship in driving change. We find that coherence and consistency in UK low-carbon innovation policy is lacking, which is creating uncertainty and hampering private sector investment. The loss of regional capacity and anchor institutions challenges local and national actors to leverage instruments and connections but with much depleted resources, lacking a clear mandate, and facing a fragmented intermediary and support landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product-Service Systems (PSSs) constitute a family of service-based business models designed to satisfy our societal needs in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner. To date however PSS application has remained niche due to a variety of critical barriers. This paper explores how ‘demand pull’ national government policies could support PSS activity by addressing these barriers and cultivating market demand. Lessons are drawn from a case study of how regulatory , economic incentive , informative and procurement policies have supported Energy Service Company (ESCo) activity in the UK; a sub-set of the PSS family focused on energy service provision. Subsequently five policy recommendations are presented to support PSS activity: (1) balancing economic incentives and regulatory disincentives; (2) promoting indirect policy support; (3) redesigning existing market structures; (4) promoting locally-led PSS activity; and (5) creating stable policy frameworks. The paper warns however that national government policy cannot easily address all PSS barriers, such as customer preferences, international developments, technological progress and inherent business model weaknesses, pointing to the need for other complementary solutions. Furthermore, other governance actors beside national government could also implement PSS supporting policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on quality adjusted life year (QALY) has been underway for just over 50 years, which seems like a suitable milestone to review its history. The purpose of this study is to provide a historical overview of why the QALY was developed, the key theoretical work undertaken by Torrance, Bush and Fanshel and how two seminal papers shaped its subsequent development. Moving the QALY forward – there are several historical and reflective exercises. The historical interplay between politics, policy and the challenges facing the National Health Service (NHS) in formulating the QALY concept in the UK has been explored in some depth already, whilst the conceptualization and development of the methodological framework is relatively underexplored. We address this gap by viewing the QALY through the lens of the methodological debates, reflecting upon two key papers underpinning the QALY methodology and how these methods have been developed over time. In part the changes in technology e.g. Google Scholar, and the availability of tools to search for early uses of the QALY allow us to better understand the historical context in which the theoretical development of the QALY has taken place. Here we celebrate two seminal papers that shaped early QALY development. The first section provides a history of these papers, summaries their contributions and explores the uptake of these papers over time. The second section reviews the methodological debates that have surrounded the QALY over the last 50 years and looks at how the QALY has moved to address these challenges. The third section presents the voices of diverse commentators representing the field of health economics who have contributed to the subsequent development of the QALY in both theoretical and empirical capacities and captures their thoughts about future research and policy use of QALYS. • Two seminal papers from North America define the QALY we know today. • Systematic searches identified 716 papers citing both these seminal papers. • Co-citation analysis and visualisations highlight a range of methodological topics. • Behavioural theories are shown to inform research into how we get the numbers. • Research is also needed on what the numbers mean and what aspects to incorporate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Hostile Environment and austerity create challenges for migrant civil society. • Women in migrant civil society are active providers of care, not only recipients. • Migrant civil society makes use of the scant resources available to provide care. • These actions are tenacious, continuing despite the effects to their own wellbeing. In this paper, we examine the role of migrant women in civil society in Wales in a triply-hostile environment created by UK government policy since 2010. Drawing on interviews carried out with EU migrants between 2016 and 2017, we outline the active support and care work provided by these women to migrants and others and the way in which they navigated austere and hostile conditions (contrasting the popular construction of migrants passively requiring support and care). Contributing to the literature on resourcefulness, we introduce the notion of tenacity to highlight the exhausting care-full labour of these migrants, who continue despite challenging circumstances and impact on their own wellbeing. We conclude that the care work provided by these women plays an important civil society role in tackling ongoing austerity and hostility but that precarious conditions bring a lack of sustainability which can heighten the socio-spatial inequalities seen across the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have distinct, siloed child protection and welfare systems. • Disability features differently across different child protection and welfare policy regimes. • Our comparative policy content analysis of disability in child protection and welfare policies within Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic demonstrates many similarities between the settings. • When comparing Irish policy on an international liberal welfare playing field, more differences become evident. The isle of Ireland is both socio-politically and geographically divided. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have distinct, siloed child protection and welfare systems owing to political severance in the early 1900 s. Meanwhile disability, as a contested concept with speculative borders and boundaries, features differently across different child protection and welfare policy regimes, in ways that have real effects on everyday practice at a grass-roots level. This paper presents findings of a comparative policy content analysis of disability in child protection and welfare policies within Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. To embed criticality, findings are presented and then contextualized against similar data for child protection and welfare systems within the international liberal welfare regime present in the United States of America. Findings reveal a relatively progressive policy slant across Ireland insofar as international policy standards go. Even so, pervasive international traditions such as associating disability with vulnerability and risk, remain unfortunate and prevalent across the sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Finnish Baby Box provides parents of newborns with a wide range of infant clothing and other basics. • The cardboard box in which the infant can sleep was emphasized by the media and commercial companies outside Finland. • The box preventing SIDS was advanced by private companies and the media. • This was less the case in Wales and Scotland, a result of their being governed by authorities with a "left" orientation. For over 80 years the Finnish state has provided expectant mothers with a cardboard box containing an extensive collection of clothing, bathing products for the baby, nappies, bedding and a small mattress. Numerous jurisdictions have implemented it in some form. We investigated through a critical case study methodology whether its translation into the liberal welfare states of Canada, UK, and USA experienced message distortion (the box as a means of preventing SIDS), commercialization, watering down of content; and separation from the complex of Finnish welfare state policies that support families with children. We find that only Scotland and Wales recognized the decommodification and equity roles played by the baby box. This study identified numerous barriers to building progressive public policy in Canada, UK, and USA: the structures and processes of the liberal welfare state, commercial interests that skew public policymaking and media logic that limits news reporting to the concrete and simple, eschewing complex analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With digitalization and the support of policies, the creative industries have shown rapid growth in the last 20 years. Open forms of collective learning, user engagement and social networks have become popular to generate IPs and values. Meanwhile, government policy can support the sectors through subsidies, regulations, standardization, and protections at regional and national levels. This paper aims to explore the role of government policy in the innovation of creative industries from a macro dynamic perspective. The research method combines a structured literature review, a secondary document review of industry reports and government policy, and thematic content analysis. Through in-depth studies of the UK's and China's animation sectors, the paper identifies key elements of closed innovation, social innovation, and open innovation systems in the market. Comparisons of national government policies since 2000 reveal different approaches for countries where creative sectors are well-established, and for those starting with limited knowledge resources. A dynamic model is developed to address the evolution of macro dynamic innovation systems and the role of policies as interactive mechanisms. Practical implementation and future research areas are also suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper examines government IT outsourcing polices. The paper critiques the concept of ‘the Contract State’, and suggests how more disciplined uses of outsourcing can assist the creation of public value, more broadly conceived. Within the context of international developments, we study the United Kingdom Inland Revenue (IR), Customs and Excise (HMRC) and Department of Social Security (DSS) and their IT outsourcing contracts. The evidence suggests that outsourcing and marketization initiatives have adverse public value impacts, and may need to be rethought. Major IT operations and innovations, for example e-government, National Health Service (NHS) and identity card IT policies in the UK, are managed and generate legacies that do not always make efficient and effective use of the market. Moreover, their objectives, implementation and management over time may truncate their value to the public at large. Applying a revised Public Value policy approach offers a richer perspective to guide central government decisions worldwide about future IT outsourcing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper evaluates the tensions that result from routinely applying SEA to all policies, plans and programmes within Scotland. The European Union SEA Directive, effective in many EU member states from 2004, introduced a requirement for environmental assessment of certain plans and programmes. Scotland, a devolved nation within the EU member state of the United Kingdom, aimed to be a ‘world leader in SEA’ by legislating for SEA to be undertaken of all public sector plans, programmes and strategies, with the word ‘strategies’ being equated with ‘policies’. This paper presents detailed data regarding Scottish SEA activity between 2004 and 2007, including responses to consultations on SEA reports. This empirical research found that, reflecting a general difficulty in determining where and when SEA should be applied, engagement with the SEA process was not as widespread as intended (including the pre-screening and screening stages). Eight tensions evident from Scotland''s application of SEA are identified, and their broader relevance is examined. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In recent years a growing literature on socio-technical transitions towards sustainability has emerged. Scholars have explored ways through which configurations of technologies, infrastructures, social practices, institutions and markets can change to fulfil their functions in a more sustainable way. A multi-level perspective (MLP) has been developed to describe and analyse these complex, long-term processes. It has also been used to help design policy for example in the Netherlands. In this paper the MLP is used in a novel way: as a heuristic to ex ante assess policies to stimulate socio-technical transitions. Instead of using it for policy development, the MLP is used here for an assessment of policy. The analysis focuses on a particular policy initiative intended to stimulate the transition to a low carbon economy in the UK: the Carbon Trust. This paper makes two contributions to the socio-technical transitions literature: Conceptually, the paper demonstrates the usefulness of the socio-technical multi-level perspective to analyse policies and assess their likely impact ex ante against the background of theorising about the patterns of large scale, socio-technical change. Empirically, the paper finds that the activities of the Carbon Trust consist of a variety of well targeted ways to stimulate the development of socio-technical niches as well as to change regime practices directly. Nevertheless, the paper argues that this model also faces difficulties in promoting a transition towards a low carbon economy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aim of this conceptual paper is to explore the contribution of the British public house (pub) to marginalised sections of the community. There is a long tradition that celebrates the pub''s quasi-egalitarian ethos as welcoming people from all walks of life. However, increased financial pressures on the pub sector dictate an evolution in this role, especially towards disadvantaged sections of society. This situation merits further examination by researchers, managers and policy makers. The paper draws on evidence from different traditions of research including management, sociology, history and geography, to develop a conceptual framework highlighting the issues facing these stakeholders in today''s business environment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In October 2009 Skills for Justice published the social research paper ‘Fit for purpose?: Research into the provision of Forensic Science degree programmes in UK Higher Education Institutions.’ The research engaged employers representing 95% of UK Forensic Science providers and 79% of UK universities offering Forensic Science or Crime Scene degree programmes. In addition to this, the research collected the views of 430 students studying these degrees. In 2008 there were approximately 9000 people working in the Forensic Science sector in the UK. The research found that the numbers of students studying Forensic Science or Crime Scene degrees in the UK have more than doubled since 2002–03, from 2191 in to 5664 in 2007–08. Over the same period there were twice as many females as males studying for these degrees. The research concluded that Forensic Science degree programmes offered by UK universities were of a good quality and they provided the student with a positive learning experience but the content was not relevant for Forensic Science employers. This echoed similar research by the former Government Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills on graduates from wider science, technology, engineering and mathematics degree programmes. The research also found that 75% of students studying Forensic Science or Crime Scene degrees expected to have a career in the Forensic Science sector, meaning that ensuring these courses are relevant for employers is a key challenge for universities. This paper reflects on the original research and discusses the implications in light of recent government policy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: There has been resurgence in interest in new nuclear power stations over the last couple of years. The UK Government has taken steps to encourage the private sector to build new stations in the UK, a change in its previous neutral stance toward nuclear power. This paper examines the change in government policy asking what drivers have led to this decision and what barriers were preventing new nuclear power in the past and what barriers are still faced by both government and industry. Three main drivers are discussed: security of energy supply; diminishing energy generation capacity; and climate change. The paper also examines other key factors that play a part in facilitating a shift in government policy, namely economics, public perception and waste management policy. Barriers are identified through examination of public perception, and policy. The changes to the planning system are also discussed. The paper concludes by comparing drivers and barriers for other technologies and contrasting the UK experience with that of other countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper reviews the approach taken by several UK coastal partnerships in developing research strategies and programmes. It reports on the status of these research initiatives and describes how the co-ordination and communication of scientific research have been approached through active partnerships with universities and the wider research community. Results of semi-structured interviews are followed by in-depth case studies of research networks on the Sefton Coast (focusing on coastal morphology) and the Severn Estuary (focusing on coastal change and climate change impacts). The results reveal the constraints and opportunities that exist in bringing together a variety of knowledge holders in the coastal zone. The paper identifies key elements of these initiatives and highlights lessons that can be applied to the development of other research initiatives in order to achieve science supported, ecosystem-based management. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Since the early 1990s, waste minimisation clubs have been important sources of information for industry in the UK on clean technology and sustainable waste management practice. Despite this contribution, concern has grown about the declining number of clubs, their performance and the likelihood that they will continue to play a key role in national policy. This paper examines the evidence available and provides estimates of how the numbers varied in England since the first clubs were formed. The results presented indicate that, after initial expansion, numbers went into decline. The paper then explores, using economic theory, why this pattern should have developed and suggests it to be a function of how clubs were designed and managed. The results of the analysis are used to propose alterations in how future clubs could be designed so that they continue to contribute effectively to the development of sustainable waste management in UK industry. These lessons are of value to policy in both the UK and other countries considering the development of this important tool of waste strategy. The paper concludes with a number of suggestions for future research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Examination of policy debates associated with the UK smart meter rollout, making use of the sociology of expectation literature. • Content analysis of policy documents associated with the smart meter rollout over a 16-year period. • Even though the rollout has been highly contested, smart meter have maintained high policy relevance over time. • Expectations associated with smart meters haven been broadened out and safeguarded through connecting them to change energy policy goals. Socio-technical futures and associated expectations are acknowledged to play a crucial role in generating momentum for many science and technology innovations. Past research has mainly concentrated on studying the role of expectations within the early developments of innovations, formulated by technological developers and scientists, rather than looking at their role within policymaking. More recent work has started to address this gap, investigating the interrelations between expectations, the governance of innovations and policymaking. This paper examines the governance through expectations as formulated in policy documents and associated with the United Kingdom smart meter rollout over a 16-year period – between the policy consultation stage (2000–2008) and its more recent policy design stage (2009–2016). In doing so, it aims to contribute to the literatures on socio-technical futures, the sociology of expectations and smart meters by developing an understanding of how smart meters have been associated with a wider context of changing expectations within policy debates over time, and how policy has articulated, adjusted and attempted to stabilise expectations, whilst dealing with increasing scrutinisations of the rollout. We show that, even though the rollout has been highly contested, smart meters have maintained high policy relevance. This has been possible partly because expectations associated with smart meters have been broadened out and safeguarded by continually connecting them to the changing energy policy goals. Thus, smart meters and their future promises have been actively 'enacted'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Eye cues have been shown to stimulate rapid, reflexive, unconscious processing and in many experimental settings to cue increased prosocial and decreased antisocial behaviour. Eye cues are being widely applied in public policy to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour. Recently, failed replication attempts and two meta-analyses examining the eye cue effect on generosity have raised doubts regarding earlier findings. Much of the wider evidence on eye cues has still not been systematically reviewed, notably that which is most relevant to its practical application: the effect of eye cues on antisocial behaviour. Given the evidence of humans' heightened sensitivity to threat and negative information, we hypothesized that the watching eyes effect would be more consistent in studies examining antisocial behaviour. In our meta-analysis of 15 experiments from 13 research papers we report a reduction in the risk of antisocial behaviour of 35% when eye cues are present. By contrast, systematic reviews have suggested CCTV cameras reduce crime by only 16%. We conclude that there is sufficient evidence of a watching eyes effect on antisocial behaviour to justify their use in the very low-cost and potentially high-impact real-world interventions that are proliferating in public policy, particularly in the UK. Public significance statement Our meta-analysis of 15 experiments involving 2035 participants shows that photographs and/or stylized images of eyes reduced antisocial behaviour by 35%. Our findings support public policy initiatives employing pictures of 'watching eyes' to reduce crime. Furthermore, in an age when we are watched more than at any time in modern history – both online and on the street – our findings highlight an urgent need to fully understand the effect that perceived surveillance, feeling watched, has on our decisions and actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper analyses UK cycling policy in relation to the shift towards a hollowed-out neoliberal state. In the UK, cycling became embedded in public policy only after policy-making had been variously outsourced to private, quasi-private, and voluntary organisations. The paper argues that this broader context has contributed to the ongoing failure to treat cycling as a strategically important mode meriting substantial national transport funding. Secondly, the paper makes links between a growing policy focus on ‘active’ and ‘responsible’ citizenship, and the dispersal of cycling policy away from transport into other areas including public health and the environment. It is argued that while there are benefits to this construct, it has again helped to maintain cycling as perceived as being peripheral to the main business of ‘transport’. Cycling policy has been doubly devolved, away from the state, and away from transport. The implications of this for policy and advocacy are discussed and future directions for both are finally outlined. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper comments on UK government's Open Standards Consultation which opened on 7 February 2012. It questions the UK government's mandating of open standards defined as standards which include patents licensed on a royalty free basis. The paper suggests that instead of promoting a level playing field, the government's policy will actually restrict competition and hinder interoperability. This policy is contrary to EU policy in a number of different fields which have all accepted, despite significant in-depth debate on this issue, that the best way to ensure the most effective competition, innovation and interoperability is to allow both royalty free patents and royalty bearing patents to compete provided the latter are licensed on FRAND terms. Lastly the paper suggests that the public procurement rules are not the place to apply industrial policy, instead a full market analysis should be conducted involving other government departments such as BIS and the IPO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Food poverty is an important contributing factor to health inequalities in industrialised countries; it refers to the inability to acquire or eat an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways (or the uncertainty of being able to do so). Synonymous with household food insecurity, the issue needs to be located within a social justice framework. Recognising the clear interdependence between the right to food and the right to health, this paper explores how international human rights obligations could inform approaches to addressing food poverty and insecurity with specific reference to Ireland and the UK. Little attention has been paid to how countries should meet their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food in developed countries. The paper contributes by examining the social and policy circumstances which inhibit poor households from obtaining sufficient food to eat healthily, along with strategies and interventions from State and civil society actors in the two countries. In practice, problems and potential solutions have largely been directed towards the individual rather than at social determinants, particularly as research on environmental factors such as distance to shops has produced equivocal results. Other key structural aspects such as income sufficiency for food are broadly ignored by the State, and anti-poverty strategies are often implemented without monitoring for effects on food outcomes. Thus scant evidence exists for either Ireland or the UK meeting its rights to food obligations to date, in terms of roles and responsibilities in ensuring access to affordable, available and appropriate food for all. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Service user participation and making choices are frequently advocated, however, they are complex concepts and how they are translated and/or experienced in everyday life can vary amongst different groups of service users. Recognising the importance of participation in current international guidance and UK government policy this paper seeks to explore how research can include a frequently marginalised group of disabled young people, in particular young people with learning disabilities and/or who communicate non-verbally. The paper discusses the use of non-traditional research methods, especially symbol based interviews developed in an ongoing English longitudinal study exploring choices and decision-making processes for young people with life-limiting conditions. The paper then presents some research findings and concludes by discussing their implications. In particular, it demonstrates how the use of symbol based interviews can inform policy makers about how these young people can be included in research and that listening to them can inform our understanding of decision-making processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Environmental tax reform (ETR) is a process of shifting the weight of taxation from socially desirable activities, such as labour and profit-generation, to the use of natural resources and the generation of pollution. The paper calculates the revenues from the UK fuel duty escalator (FDE) (an above-inflation increase in fuel duty implemented from 1993 to 1999), and compares these with the revenues lost from the cuts in income tax in 1995 and 1996, and again in 2001. The paper finds that the lost revenue was roughly the same as the revenue from the FDE. In effect the governments concerned had implemented an ETR without in any way drawing attention to the fact. The FDE was discontinued in 1999 when the oil price rose and, in the face of protests at the level of fuel duty the following year, real revenues from fuel duty subsequently declined. It is at least arguable that, had the fact that FDE had facilitated income tax cuts been established by the government at the time, the FDE and fuel duty generally would have been less unpopular. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The UK National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Clinical Guidelines recommend routine prescription of antidepressants for moderate to severe depression. While many patients accept a prescription, one in three do not complete treatment. We carried out a meta-ethnography of published qualitative papers since 1990 whose focus is patients' experience of antidepressant use for depression, in order to understand barriers and facilitators to concordance and inform a larger qualitative study investigating antidepressant use over time. A systematic search of five databases was carried out, supported by hand searches of key journals, writing to first authors and examining reference lists. After piloting three critical appraisal tools, a modified version of the CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme) checklist was used to appraise potentially relevant and qualitative papers. We carried out a synthesis using techniques of meta-ethnography involving translation and re-interpretation. Sixteen papers were included in the meta-ethnography. The papers fall into two related groups: (1) Papers whose focus is the decision-making relationship and the ways patients manage their use of antidepressants, and (2) Papers whose focus is antidepressants' effect on self-concept, ideas of stigma and its management. We found that patients' experience of antidepressants is characterised by the decision-making process and the meaning-making process, conceptualised here as the ‘medication career’ and ‘moral career’. Our synthesis indicates ways in which general practitioners (GPs) can facilitate concordant relationships with patients regarding antidepressant use. First, GPs can enhance the potential for shared decision-making by reviewing patients' changing preferences for involvement in decision-making regularly throughout the patient's ‘medication career’. Second, if GPs familiarise themselves with the competing demands that patients may experience at each decision-making juncture, they will be better placed to explore their patients' preferences and concerns – i.e. their ‘moral career’ of medication use. This may lead to valuable discussion of what taking antidepressants means for patients' sense of self and how their treatment decisions may be influenced by a felt sense of stigma. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The effectiveness of institutional arrangements and policies for governance has become a key question within the sustainability paradigm, not least in coastal areas which have unique issues and jurisdictions across the land–sea interface. In the UK, approximately 60 non-statutory coastal management initiatives have been established at the local/regional level since the 1990s, based on a variety of programmes and projects. Proposals for a UK Marine Bill have raised questions about the role of non-statutory initiatives in the system of governance. The traditional sectoral approach to management and planning is being modified due to the pressure of increased human activities, but doubts exist about what effective contribution local and regional partnerships can make. The paper reports extensive examples of Integrated Coastal Management initiatives engaging institutions and society to produce outputs which have transformed management, promoting long-term, collaborative, participatory and ecologically sustainable approaches. The paper concludes that there are demonstrable benefits in taking a partnership approach to coastal management at a local level, yet these forms of planning and management are not widely accepted or embedded within the current system of governance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: There is a demonstrable link between parking availability, price and mode choice, and parking policy has been shown to be a powerful demand management tool. Parking however is clearly an area of policy conflict since using it to manage demand may reduce revenue generation, or (be perceived to) damage the local economy. In terms of on-street and off-street parking there are a wide range of users who often have conflicting opinions, which have to be taken into account in its management, invariably leading to parking policies and measures that do not maximise the demand management potential of parking. This paper presents a range of public and business opinion data, from the case study of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, collected as part of the consultation for its parking strategy in 2005–2006. The strategy covers a wider geographical area than simply the city centre, and whilst this paper makes reference to this wider area it primarily deals with the city centre since that is where the majority of the parking strategy issues are to be found. After setting the policy and political context, the paper goes on to present these data. It then shows how the city''s parking policies were changed in response to the consultation. These policy changes are compared with parking policies that would solely manage travel demand, to demonstrate how the political process leads to compromise in the formulation of parking policies and measures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The rejuvenation of public spaces is a key policy concern in the UK. Drawing on a wide literature and on qualitative research located in a multi-ethnic area of East London, this paper explores their relationship to well-being and social relations. It demonstrates that ordinary spaces are a significant resource for both individuals and communities. The beneficial properties of public spaces are not reducible to natural or aesthetic criteria, however. Social interaction in spaces can provide relief from daily routines, sustenance for people''s sense of community, opportunities for sustaining bonding ties or making bridges, and can influence tolerance and raise people''s spirits. They also possess subjective meanings that accumulate over time and can contribute to meeting diverse needs. Different users of public spaces attain a sense of well- being for different reasons: the paper calls for policy approaches in which the social and therapeutic properties of a range of everyday spaces are more widely recognised and nurtured. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The introduction, in the United Kingdom, of the Special Education Needs and Disabilities Act (SENDA) published and approved in 2001, has removed the exemptions given to educational institutions by the Disabilities Discrimination Act (DDA) of 1995. This applies to learning web sites and materials that must now undergo “reasonable adjustments”, in order not to disadvantage students with learning disabilities as well as non-disabled students. This paper discusses how e-learning and the inherent use of online learning activities raises problems for students with dyslexia far beyond accessibility and web design. This paper aims at proposing that the so widely proclaimed advantages of e-learning to bridge distances, different learning paces and cognitive styles, is at the same time producing close to insurmountable barriers to students with cognitive disabilities in general, and dyslexia specifically. It presents the results of a research project aiming at uncovering evidence that students with dyslexia are in fact less likely to thrive in a synchronous e-learning environment. The paper reports on a set of experiments undertaken with students when engaged in online authentic synchronous learning activities. The paper focuses on text-based synchronous activities, since it is the widest and most commonly used synchronous technology, and provides clear evidence that it can marginalise, demotivate and disappoint students with dyslexia with difficulties in reading, spelling, word order and argumentation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The principal motivation for this paper is to examine the policy issues for UK regional airports within the air transport system with particular reference to airport airline relationships. The geography of airline route networks is considered a key factor that determines location of the pressure for infrastructure development. Regional airports policy is considered in this context. The problems of the resultant concentration of air traffic has largely been ignored up until now and so this paper seeks highlight the issues this presents to policy makers. The paper reviews the changing regional airport ownership patterns and examines a range of implications. It then explores the policy implications for the future regulation and development of the air transport system. The authors contend that regulation and the planning system are the only two remaining policy levers for government to guide privately owned airlines, privately owned airports and commercialised airports towards national policy goals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Flood and water management governance may be enhanced through partnership working, intra- and cross-organisational collaborations, and wide stakeholder participation. Nonetheless, barriers associated with ineffective communication, fragmented responsibilities and ‘siloed thinking’ restrict open dialogue and discussion. The Learning and Action Alliance (LAA) framework may help overcome these barriers by enabling effective engagement through social learning, and facilitating targeted actions needed to deliver innovative solutions to environmental problems. By increasing the adaptive capacity of decision-makers and participants, social learning through LAAs may lead to concerted action and sustained processes of behavioural change. In this paper, we evaluate the LAA framework as a catalyst for change that supports collaborative working and facilitates transition to more sustainable flood risk management. We use a case study in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, to demonstrate how the LAA framework brought together disparate City stakeholders to co-produce new knowledge, negotiate innovative actions and, ultimately, work towards implementing a new vision for sustainable urban flood risk management. The shared vision of Newcastle as a ‘Blue-Green City’ that emerged is founded on a strong platform for social learning which increased organisations’ and individuals’ capacities to manage differences in perspectives and behaviours, reframe knowledge, and make collective decisions based on negotiation and conflict resolution. Broad recommendations based on lessons learned from the Newcastle LAA are presented to aid other cities and regions in establishing and running social learning platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: High levels of excess mortality (i.e. that not explained by deprivation) have been observed for Scotland compared with England & Wales, and especially for Glasgow in comparison with similar post-industrial cities such as Liverpool and Manchester. Many potential explanations have been suggested. Based on an assessment of these, the aim was to develop an understanding of the most likely underlying causes. Note that this paper distils a larger research report, with the aim of reaching wider audiences beyond Scotland, as the important lessons learnt are relevant to other populations. Study design: Review and dialectical synthesis of evidence. Methods: Forty hypotheses were examined, including those identified from a systematic review. The relevance of each was assessed by means of Bradford Hill's criteria for causality alongside--for hypotheses deemed causally linked to mortality--comparisons of exposures between Glasgow and Liverpool/Manchester, and between Scotland and the rest of Great Britain. Where gaps in the evidence base were identified, new research was undertaken. Causal chains of relevant hypotheses were created, each tested in terms of its ability to explain the many different aspects of excess mortality. The models were further tested with key informants from public health and other disciplines. Results: In Glasgow's case, the city was made more vulnerable to important socioeconomic (deprivation, deindustrialisation) and political (detrimental economic and social policies) exposures, resulting in worse outcomes. This vulnerability was generated by a series of historical factors, processes and decisions: the lagged effects of historical overcrowding; post-war regional policy including the socially selective relocation of population to outside the city; more detrimental processes of urban change which impacted on living conditions; and differences in local government responses to UK government policy in the 1980s which both impacted in negative terms in Glasgow and also conferred protective effects on comparator cities. Further resulting protective factors were identified (e.g. greater 'social capital' in Liverpool) which placed Glasgow at a further relative disadvantage. Other contributory factors were highlighted, including the inadequate measurement of deprivation. A similar 'explanatory model' resulted for Scotland as a whole. This included: the components of the Glasgow model, given their impact on nationally measured outcomes; inadequate measurement of deprivation; the lagged effects of deprivation (in particular higher levels of overcrowding historically); and additional key vulnerabilities. Conclusions: The work has helped to further understanding of the underlying causes of Glasgow's and Scotland's high levels of excess mortality. The implications for policy include the need to address three issues simultaneously: to protect against key exposures (e.g. poverty) which impact detrimentally across all parts of the UK; to address the existing consequences of Glasgow's and Scotland's vulnerability; and to mitigate against the effects of future vulnerabilities which are likely to emerge from policy responses to contemporary problems which fail sufficiently to consider and to prevent long-term, unintended social consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past models and tools that support in the decision making process based on Asset Management Principles (AMP) are lacking in terms of the effective outcomes and transparency of the process in the highway maintenance. There is also little research on how to align the decision areas when applying AMP and how to improve the inclusive effectiveness. Hence, the paper focuses on examining the challenges and prospects of applying AMP in a highway maintenance agency or department. An exploratory research method was used through an extensive review of literature and an industry survey. The findings from the literature and case study review were used to design a questionnaire and conduct the survey. The survey results revealed that the AMP are only being implemented ineffectively in maintaining highways, and a strong commitment is required to improve the asset management capability for effective use of the asset data. It is highly recommended that the Highway Agency should issue a guideline for implementing asset management policy and also encourage associate departments to achieve asset management maturity level 3 so that ISO55000 certification can be achieved. The study concludes that there is still substantial work needed within the asset management process, particularly in highway maintenance before its effectiveness can be realised and measured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread deployment of renewable energy is accepted as a major contributor to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Many countries have established policies to accelerate the development of renewables. The UK Government gives renewable energy a key focus in its Energy White Paper.11The government White Paper can be found and tracked at: http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/sepn/index.shtml. While accepted as visionary in its ambition, the White Paper has been criticised as too weak in its definition of the actual policy measures required. The Renewable Power Association has published the ‘RPA Renewables Routemap’22The Renewables Routemap can be found at: http://www.r-p-a.org.uk. as its strategy for achieving a sustainable energy future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Spending time in natural (green/blue) environments offers multiple benefits to individuals. • Disparities exist between population groups in frequency of visits to natural environments. • Analysis of the gender gap amongst subgroups highlights further (intersectional) inequalities. • Key population subgroups for green health policies and programmes to target are identified. Spending time outdoors in natural environments is associated with an array of benefits to individuals' health and wellbeing, as well as being implicated in the development of connections to the natural world, attachment to place, and environmental stewardship behaviours. Disparities between population subgroups in relation to frequency of nature contact may, however, shape the extent to which natural environments deliver benefits to marginalised population subgroups. In this paper we examine disparities in contact with nature amongst the adult population of Scotland, UK using cross-sectional data from the Scottish Household Survey (N = 19,441). The analysis proceeds to explore whether the observed 'gender gap' between men and women in nature contact persists across the intersections of population subgroups and geographies. The findings point to inequalities in contact with nature which should be considered in public policy agendas to promote use of natural environments across urban and rural areas. The findings also highlight the value of adopting intersectional perspectives in the consideration of environmental justice issues surrounding access to natural environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As nations develop policies for low-carbon transitions, conflicts with existing policies and planning tools are leading to competing demands for land and other resources. This raises fundamental questions over how multiple demands can best be managed. Taking the UK as an empirical example, this paper critiques current policies and practices to explore the interdependencies at the water-energy-food nexus. It considers how current land uses and related policies affect the UK’s resilience to climate change, setting out an agenda for research and practice relevant to stakeholders in land-use management, policy and modelling. Despite recent progress in recognising such nexus challenges, most UK land-related policies and associated science continue to be compartmentalised by both scale and sector and seldom acknowledge nexus interconnections. On a temporal level, the absence of an over-arching strategy leaves inter-generational trade-offs poorly considered. Given the system lock-in and the lengthy policy-making process, it is essential to develop alternative ways of providing dynamic, flexible, practical and scientifically robust decision support for policy-makers. A range of ecosystem services need to be valued and integrated into a resilient land-use strategy, including the introduction of non-monetary, physical-unit constraints on the use of particular services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK Government was recently criticised for failing to fulfil its obligations under the Habitats Directive in respect of designating protected areas for Harbour Porpoise Phocoena phocoena . At the centre of the discussion lay the stringent nature of the qualifying criteria for site selection. Concurrently, there is a growing support for marine renewable energy technologies; however the planning process is often hampered by inadequate marine data to enable appropriate siting or mitigation against potential ecological impacts. The Bristol Channel region's physical environment is a suitable source for the generation of marine renewable energy, and the world's first tidal lagoon will be sited in Swansea Bay. A 10 year dataset was collected, analysed and compared against the qualifying criteria for a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). Results revealed that a resident population of porpoise existed and density values of 0.58 hp km 2 were comparable with other UK regions. While an insignificant calf adult ratio of 1:13 was recorded, breeding and nursery areas were identified. Analysis highlighted a number of hotspots of porpoise activity, suggesting that these areas are critical habitats, particularly for feeding and foraging. Such information will enable future marine renewable energy developers to select the most appropriate sites. It is argued that existing SAC qualifying criteria prevents recognition of critical habitats for the harbour porpoise and a case is made for an eastward extension of a proposed harbour SAC to include Swansea Bay and the south Gower coast. This paper demonstrates that cetacean data is sparse and even though this study has filled important knowledge gaps, there is still a need for further research. This research would enable both developers and planners to adequately and appropriately consider future marine renewable energy projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to link the economic behaviour and statistical properties of GDP and tourism receipts growth rates through modelling the dependence. To that end, two developed economies such as the United Kingdom (non-tourist oriented) and Spain (tourist-oriented), and an emerging economy such as Croatia (tourist-oriented) are considered as case studies. Therefore, a copula-based GARCH approach is employed to describe the dependence structure between GDP and tourism receipts growth rates. In this respect, any causality and cointegration between tourism and GDP could justify public policies that promote a more efficient public resource allocation in the tourism industry. Additionally, evidence of dependence between growth rates can justify the extent and direction of these policies. Results indicate that there is a significant, asymmetric and positive dependence between tourism and GDP growth rates for the three countries studied, though only for Croatia is it time-varying over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dependence of cities on intensive consumption of energy from fossil fuels is a major cause of climate disruption, and there is increasing interest in the potential for city governments to facilitate a transition to sustainable energy. Little is known, however, about the extent or structures of current urban energy initiatives. Our paper addresses this gap by mapping UK local authority energy plans and project investments and exploring governance processes in three leading cities. It uses socio-technical and urban studies' perspectives on neo-liberal governing and energy systems to interpret findings. This reveals both the gap between local ambitions and capacity to implement plans, and the potential for translation of neo-liberal governing into contrasting commercial and community urban energy enterprises, prefiguring different energy futures. Overall, however, the neo-liberal framework is associated with small scale and uneven initiatives, with limited contribution to a systemic shift to sustainable cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration controls serve a crucial symbolic function of delineating the nation and the people, the boundaries of 'Us' and 'Them' and state legitimacy is, through immigration policy, linked to ideas of nation building and preservation (Honig, 2003). Labor migration policy is not simply an instrumental response to the needs of employers but highly symbolic and politically contested terrain that assumes intense public significance. This is particularly evident in the case of domestic workers, who are embedded in the family, the 'heart of the nation'. This paper explores the ways in which migration policies on domestic work not only produce a subordinated workforce, but reflect and construct ideas about family, work, and Britishness, with a particular focus on two visa types: domestic worker accompanying an employer and au pair visas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind generation increased dramatically in the UK over the last decade, partially contributed by the consumer-funded Renewable Obligation (RO) scheme introduced in 2002 as part of the government policy to support renewable energy. Despite its success in stimulating electricity generation from renewable sources, the RO scheme was closed in 2017 and succeeded by an alternative scheme, raising questions on the policy change. This paper makes the first attempt to evaluate the RO scheme by comparing the reduced spending on electricity and the costs of the scheme, focusing on wind generation. Using daily average hourly data from April 2009 to March 2021, our results from the Prais-Winsten estimation suggest that a marginal increase of 1 GW in hourly wind generation reduced the wholesale electricity price by £1.28/MWh. However, we show that the reduced spending on electricity resulted from the lower price was not enough to offset the costs of the RO scheme attributed to wind farms. Therefore, the RO scheme brought negative gain to consumers through increased wind generation, indicating that its closure was in consumers' best interest. • Wind generation reduced prices in the wholesale electricity market. • Reduced spending on electricity was less than cost of the RO scheme. • Negative gain to consumers in most financial years from 2009–10 to 2020-21. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1845, Friedrich Engels identified how the living and working conditions experienced by English workers sent them prematurely to the grave, arguing that those responsible for these conditions -- ruling authorities and the bourgeoisie -- were committing social murder. The concept remained, for the most part, dormant in academic journals through the 1900s. Since 2000, there has been a revival of the social murder concept with its growth especially evident in the UK over the last decade as a result of the Grenfell Tower Fire and the effects of austerity imposed by successive Conservative governments. The purpose of this paper is to document the reemergence of the concept of social murder in academic journal articles. To do so we conducted a scoping review of content applying the social murder concept since 1900 in relation to health and well-being. We identified two primary concepts of social murder: social murder as resulting from capitalist exploitation and social murder as resulting from bad public policy across the domains of working conditions, living conditions, poverty, housing, race, health inequalities, crime and violence, neoliberalism, gender, food, social assistance, deregulation and austerity. We consider reasons for the reemergence of Engels' social murder concept and the role it can play in resisting the forces responsible for the living and working conditions that kill. • In 1845 Engels saw the health effects of capitalist exploitation as social murder. • The term was rarely applied in academic journals through the 20th century. • The early 1970s saw it being used to explain adverse health outcomes. • Since 2010, an exponential increase has been driven by developments in the UK. • These developments include the Grenfell Tower Fire and imposition of austerity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This monograph investigates the organisation, constitution and delivery of community-based organisations which are normally called community enterprises in the UK. These are organisations which emerge from local communities at the neighbourhood level, work in partnership with the public and private sectors, and provide a range of services to meet social, economic and environmental needs. The main focus of the paper is to explore how these organisations contribute to local regeneration strategies, generate social capital and contribute towards the promotion of civil society in general. The main emphasis is on organisations in England and Wales but comparisons are made with the USA and other countries where relevant literature is available. The key questions to be answered relate to the organisation and management of these bodies; the extent to which they engage with and contribute to local regeneration strategies; and the impact they have particularly in acquiring and managing assets. The diversity of the sector, and the range, scale and level of benefits it can deliver is illustrated through five detailed case studies of community enterprises established at different times, in different geographical locations and with different objectives and funding regimes. But, whilst the UK political economy is moving towards less state intervention and more community self-help, the community development corporations in the USA provide an indication of the future direction community enterprises might take in the UK as part of a broad trend towards civic capacity building. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper, originally contributed as part of the government''s Foresight investigation of Land Use Futures, considers the likely shape of policies affecting UK rural land use up to 2060, based on literature review, analysis of past and current trends and drivers, and discussion with selected policy experts. The postwar, centralised approach to spatial planning and countryside management has come under increasing challenge from domestic and international needs and concerns. European policy influence has increased in respect of agriculture and the natural environment. Zoning of land-use and a restrictive approach to built development have gradually weakened, and land-use drivers have become more multifunctional. Policy has moved away from a ‘top-down’ process designed in Whitehall towards a multi-layered structure within which international agreements and negotiations must be reconciled with regional and local, partnership-based approaches to planning and management, via national frameworks and a complex mix of regulatory and market-based instruments. Climate and energy policy, as well as policies on food and health, will require new and more diverse forms of development. A major challenge for the future could be the extent to which current, multi-layered spatial planning policies can accommodate the scale of change implied by the new mix of drivers from other policy areas. There is the possibility of an increasingly differentiated response across the UK countryside, as well as much more radical change in the system driven from the centre, as pressures increase. While the Government Office for Science commissioned this review, the views are those of the author, are independent of Government, and do not constitute Government policy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Green Belt policies have helped to create chaotic landscapes at the rural–urban interfaces of the United Kingdom''s largest cities. Their prime functions, to control urban sprawl and preserve an encircling green girdle to separate the urban from the open countryside, have created ‘edgelands’ that have been remarkably dynamic despite relatively strong controls on certain types of development. A detailed case study of one part of London''s Metropolitan Green Belt, drawing upon analysis of planning registers, reveals long-term trends in land-use change linked to the development controls operated within the context of the Green Belt and the adjacent built-up area. This paper also outlines the history of the Green Belt policy in the United Kingdom (UK) and discusses recently proposed policy changes that have provoked ongoing debate about this form of control on urban sprawl and its consequences for the land use of Green Belts and the edgelands. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper examines the spatialities and practices of an illustrative sample of UK mumpreneurs, a sub-group of female entrepreneurs who operate at the interface between paid work and motherhood, who are increasing numerically, and who are carving for themselves, a sub-culture of entrepreneurship. They have great policy-importance, not least because the UK government has recognised mothers as a group who need to be encouraged into business ownership. Employing mixed methods with emphasis on qualitative approaches, the research findings suggest that policy makers need to understand better some key aspects of this entrepreneurial activity before their interventions can be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]