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Abstract: In July 2010, the new Coalition Government unveiled its plans to make major changes to the English National Health Service (NHS). This paper, which provides a commentary on the NHS White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, casts doubt upon the extent to which the proposals will bring about the fundamental reform that the Government intends, not least because both the British public and GP commissioners (who are expected to play a central role in transforming the NHS) appear to have a limited appetite for radical market reform. The paper also identifies a number of unintended risks, including the large transitional costs and organisational turbulence resulting from further NHS reorganisation; and the fact that key aspects of the White Paper proposals could result in significant financial instability. Given the real world limitations to translating a rhetoric of localism and democratic legitimacy into reality and a lack of hard evidence about the benefits of market reform, the Government would be well advised to take a more cautious approach to health policy formulation and implementation and to ensure that any further changes to the NHS are based on evidence, piloting and evaluation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Lameness is a significant health and welfare issue in farmed animals. This paper uses a governmentality approach, which focuses on how a problem is made governable, to examine an emerging 'ecology of devices' introduced to intervene in, and attempt to reduce, on-farm incidence of lameness. These devices are associated with advisers who work with farmers on-farm; they enact lameness as a governable entity, are tools to assess the existence of lameness against established norms, and prescribe actions to be taken in response to evidence of lameness. In doing this they subjectify farmers and advisers into seeing and responding to lameness in particular ways. Using concepts of governmentality alongside other perspectives on the power relations and the simplifications and complexities involved in interventions in animal health and farm practice, the paper draws on in-depth research with advisers including vets and other paraprofessionals who work with farmers, and their cows and sheep. It explores how this set of devices introduces particular techniques and practices in lameness management, and produces farmer and adviser subjectivities. It then explores some of the problematics of this mode of governing lameness, including analysis of the limitations and unintended consequences of attempts to simplify lameness management. The paper concludes by arguing that its approach is valuable in analysing ongoing intensification of interventions in farming practices and in understanding the limits of such interventions and the unanticipated divergences from expected conduct. • A governmentality approach to livestock lameness provides valuable insight into recent attempts to reduce its prevalence and severity on farms. • The government of lameness produces farmer and adviser subjectivities linked to new tools and devices aiming to reduce the incidence of lameness. • The government of lameness is limited by complexities linked with attempts to simplify interventions and deviation from expected practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of energy and climate policy is usually seen as an 'expert' domain, relying on technical tools such as economic analysis. However, policy requires the support of politicians and citizens alike, through the democratic process. Many policies, such as reducing carbon emissions from homes and transport, also affect people's lives directly. It is thus necessary to supplement technical analysis with methods that allow an exploration of people's views, values and behaviours. One such method is codesign, whereby groups of citizens work with policy analysts to develop strategies informed by the lived experience of citizens, as well as the specialist knowledge of analysts. There is a history of co-design approaches in public services such as healthcare, but there have been few attempts to co-design public policy measures. This paper reports on a Citizens' Panel, a representative group of people working with specialists to create co-designed policy recommendations for reducing carbon emissions from homes. The process revealed that policy co-design can provide detailed, viable proposals. In this case, panellists emphasised the necessity of leadership and support from government; tailored, consistent information; targeted regulation; and financial incentives. Finally, the wider potential role for policy co-design for energy and climate is addressed. • Co-design processes are widely used but rarely applied to the design of energy and climate policy. • Co-design processes can embed citizen perspectives in policy design. • The paper reports on an experimental panel on home energy decarbonisation. • Co-design can ensure that policies are effective and will gain support of politicians and publics. • Changes to cultures of policymaking are needed to embed such approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising demand for emergency food during the last couple of decades in the UK has led to a great deal of academic interest in food aid provision, and food banking in particular. Efforts have also been made to examine food poverty and responses to it in more critical terms, which has entailed moving beyond a focus on emergency food support to engage with 'more than food aid' approaches. In this paper, I discuss how these latter approaches are beginning to be mobilised by national organisations, local authorities and place-based food partnerships in the UK. An important catalyst for this shift was the Covid-19 pandemic, which provided the crisis conditions that encouraged public and third-sector actors to think about, and act upon, food poverty in different ways. Drawing on an analysis of submissions to a Covid-19 food inquiry, place-based food initiatives implemented during the pandemic period and more recent initiatives instigated by national food support and anti-hunger groups, the paper examines how a diverse range of organisations are becoming more critical of existing (food aid) responses to food poverty and are seeking to develop more supportive local foodscapes based on a 'more than food aid' approach. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this shift for future research on food poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses two differing approaches to the improvement of local bus services, using the analytical lens of formal and informal institutions. Both formal and informal institutions govern the behaviour of authorities and operators, but they do it in different ways and they have advantages and disadvantages. In so doing we seek to understand both how the informal institutional approach (e.g. voluntary partnership working) can be used effectively, but also to assess its limits; and to understand why a formal institutional approach (e.g. franchising), in spite of its strong underlying basis in law, may nonetheless not always function. Through doing so, this paper contributes to the current understanding of how to handle the unintended consequences of a deregulated market through the different (formal and informal) ways available. • Compares two differing approaches to the improvement of local bus services. • Contrasts informal (voluntary partnership) with formal (franchsing) models. • Explores how to handle the unintended consequences of a deregulated market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Common simplifications in transformation discourse can entrench unsustainability. • Acknowledgement of complex dimensionalities and temporalities is crucial. • Clear-cut dimensions of distinction before/after transformation cannot be assumed. • Transformations do not always unfold neatly and cumulatively in a given direction. • Examples from Kenya (cities) and the UK (energy) are discussed. Through interlinked theoretical and empirical analysis, this paper explores some important but neglected questions concerning efforts to achieve sustainability. To what extents do currently dominant forms of academic study and policy visions in this field, satisfactorily address the full political depth and scope of vital complexities in pathways for emerging social transformations? Are there dangers that common simplifications in mainstream ways of thinking about transformation, inadvertently help invisibly to reproduce entrenched patterns of privilege and power that drive focal problems of unsustainability? In particular, does a ' monothetic ' focus on circumscribed sites or sectoral formations with notionally few clear-cut dimensions of distinction before and after, risk missing more multiple and messy ' polythetic ' dimensionalities in which power and privilege can hide? What are the implications of common assumptions that pathways for change proceed ' monotonically ' – neatly and cumulatively in a particular direction, if real world transformations actually unfold according to more plural, undulating and unruly ' non-monotonic ' temporalities? In order to investigate these questions, the paper employs the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries to explore the constituting dimensions of contrasting understandings of 'urban transformations' in Kenya and 'the nuclear renaissance' in the UK. Q method and in-depth interpretive policy analysis are used to test patterns in relationships between imagined transformations and their unfoldings over time. The findings suggest that current mainstream approaches may indeed unduly simplify vital complexities in the ways these political dynamics play out – with potentially important practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous work by the authors has addressed the issue of local bus policy implementation in Britain outside London by studies of local transport documents, survey and interviews of local transport officers working in local authorities. The findings from these studies highlight that some of the key elements to successful implementation could be understood in more depth by taking a case study approach. This paper analyses four case studies of the implementation of specific bus policy measures in four different cities in Great Britain: the Quality Contract Scheme (QCS) in Tyne and Wear, the Fastlink Scheme in Glasgow, a Bus Priority Scheme in Solihull and a Smart Ticketing Scheme in Dundee. The findings in this paper show that policy champions, collaboration and interaction help to build a relationship between the parties involved, ensure limited changes due to bureaucratic power and changes to the policy, and help to overcome opposition, conflict and ambiguities. It is important that those involved in the policy process are provided with relevant training, supervision and support to help overcome the staffing difficulties and to deal with barriers external to the implementing organisation such as economic, social and political conditions. • Greatest influences on implementation are identified. • Greatest challenges faced by local authorities are identified. • Those involved in policy process require relevant training, supervision and support. • Authorities must be certain from the planning stage that resources are available. • Clear strategies and tactics improve policy development and collaboration, stakeholder engagement and decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how power and knowledge are involved in the workings of speech and language therapy and in the work of speech and language therapists (SLTs). The paper draws on Foucault for its conceptual frame, with reference to his exposition of governmentality, biopolitics and pastoral power. Based on interviews with thirty-three SLTs in the UK, the findings show that evidence-based practice (EBP) is ever-present in speech and language therapy, despite its apparent absence; and that its power circulates in a multitude of ways. EBP as a process, and not an outcome, was workable. When competent practice was at risk, however, the SLTs challenged the dominance of EBP by saying it needed to 'get real' but then were troubled when it did. Working the 'wise' - those people involved with the client, including the SLTs themselves - was key to speech and language therapy; as was the making of subjects into biopolitical objects. At its most rewarding, but also most personally challenging, the work of SLTs involves mediating between different ways of being in the world and reimagining life, personhood and citizenship; to capture this complex labour process, the paper introduces the term 'pastoral labour'. • Uses Foucauldian lens to examine how power and knowledge govern the work of SLTs. • Evidence-based practice discriminates against some clients, it needs to 'get real'. • Reflective practice can inhibit the sharing of clinical practice knowledge. • SLTs' work means working the 'wise' i.e. other professionals, family, and themselves. • Pastoral labour - labour mediates knowledges and knowing in the 'making' of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study estimates the effect of education on trust with a RD design. • Education and trust are positively and significantly correlated. • The OLS estimates may suffer from omitted variable bias. • RD estimates imply the effects of education on trust may be small. • We need to interpret the relationship between education and trust with caution. Although many studies document that education and trust are positively correlated, few studies examine whether this correlation represents a causal effect. This paper fills in the gap with data from the British Social Attitudes Survey. Firstly, using the OLS method, this paper finds that education and the three measures of trust—trust in people, trust in politicians, and trust in government—are all positively and significantly correlated. Secondly, to examine whether this correlation represents a causal effect, this paper exploits exogenous variation in educational attainment induced by the compulsory schooling reform in 1972. The regression discontinuity estimates suggest that the effects of education on the three measures of trust are all small and statistically insignificant. The findings imply that the OLS estimates may suffer from omitted variable bias and the effects of education on trust may be small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • This papers explores perceptions of UK 'supply-side' microcredit stakeholders. • Conceptions of alterity are then used as an analytic lens to examine these results. • A new, detailed conceptualisation of microcredit is provided. • Lenders are conceptualised as alternative-oppositional institutions. • Policies are outlined to protect this 'alternative' economic space. Abstract One response to the major societal challenge of financial exclusion in the United Kingdom (UK) is microcredit lending for enterprise. Typically delivered via Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) in the UK, these lending institutions can be conceptualised as 'alternative' economic spaces. Yet the nature of their alterity is unclear as categorisations of alternative-oppositional or alternative-substitute institutions are possible and could also be influenced by complexities in the UK relating to the welfare system and sustainability. Alterity is rarely static, being influenced by policies and regulation, and the nature of institutions' alterity could have consequences for wellbeing, as different values and ideals underpin different conceptions of alterity which affect how these institutions operate. In this paper, the complexities of microcredit for enterprise lending within the UK are explored through in-depth interviews with UK 'supply-side' stakeholders. Conceptions of alterity are then used as an analytic lens to examine these results. Results suggest that these lenders remain in opposition to the mainstream as the needs of low-income individuals are embedded within their operating model. Microcredit lending is conceptualised in terms of responsible lenders offering fair credit to financially-excluded individuals using relationship banking practices. Such a conceptualisation provides a touchstone against which to assess shifts in lenders' alterity and a platform from which to introduce legislative and regulatory changes to protect these 'alternative-oppositional' economic spaces. This paper begins to outline these responses that could help to ensure and grow a more community-engaged and varied local financial infrastructure within the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Recent health policy renders patients increasingly responsible for managing their health via digital technology such as health apps and online patient platforms. This paper discusses underlying tensions between empowerment and self-discipline embodied in discourses of technological self-care. It presents findings from documentary analysis and interviews with key players in the English digital health context including policy makers, health designers and patient organisations. We show how discourses ascribe to patients an enterprising identity, which is inculcated with economic interests and engenders self-discipline. However, this reading does not capture all implications of technological self-care. A governmentality lens also shows that technological self-care opens up the potential for a de-centring of medical knowledge and its subsequent communalization. The paper contributes to Foucauldian healthcare scholarship by showing how technology could engender agential actions that operate at the margins of an enterprising discourse. Highlights • Digital health policy in UK assumes an enterprising & empowered patient identity. • Tensions between empowerment & discipline occur as patients self-care digitally. • Digital health creates space for agential actions that improve communal health. • A health-making agency operates in the margins of governmental self-care discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of ‘fuel poverty’, referring to affordable warmth, underpins established research and policy agendas in the UK and has been extremely influential worldwide. In this context, British researchers, official policymaking bodies and NGOs have put forward the notion of ‘transport poverty’, building on an implicit analogy between (recognised) fuel poverty and (neglected) transport affordability issues. However, the conceptual similarities and differences between ’fuel’ and ’transport’ poverty remain largely unaddressed in the UK. This paper systematically compares and contrasts the two concepts, examining critically the assumption of a simple equivalence between them. We illustrate similarities and differences under four headings: (i) negative consequences of lack of warmth and lack of access; (ii) drivers of fuel and transport poverty; (iii) definition and measurement; (iv) policy interventions. Our review suggests that there are important conceptual and practical differences between transport and domestic energy consumption, with crucial consequences for how affordability problems amongst households are to be conceptualised and addressed. In a context where transport and energy exhibit two parallel policy worlds, the analysis in the paper and these conclusions reinforce how and why these differences matter. As we embark on an ever closer union between our domestic energy and transport energy systems the importance of these contradictions will become increasingly evident and problematic. This work contributes to the long-term debate about how best to manage these issues in a radical energy transition that properly pays attention to issues of equity and affordability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of ‘fuel poverty’, referring to affordable warmth, underpins established research and policy agendas in the UK and has been extremely influential worldwide. In this context, British researchers, official policymaking bodies and NGOs have put forward the notion of ‘transport poverty’, building on an implicit analogy between (recognised) fuel poverty and (neglected) transport affordability issues. However, the conceptual similarities and differences between 'fuel' and 'transport' poverty remain largely unaddressed in the UK. This paper systematically compares and contrasts the two concepts, examining critically the assumption of a simple equivalence between them. We illustrate similarities and differences under four headings: (i) negative consequences of lack of warmth and lack of access; (ii) drivers of fuel and transport poverty; (iii) definition and measurement; (iv) policy interventions. Our review suggests that there are important conceptual and practical differences between transport and domestic energy consumption, with crucial consequences for how affordability problems amongst households are to be conceptualised and addressed. In a context where transport and energy exhibit two parallel policy worlds, the analysis in the paper and these conclusions reinforce how and why these differences matter. As we embark on an ever closer union between our domestic energy and transport energy systems the importance of these contradictions will become increasingly evident and problematic. This work contributes to the long-term debate about how best to manage these issues in a radical energy transition that properly pays attention to issues of equity and affordability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to diagnose Alzheimer's disease (AD) at earlier stages as a means to managing the risks of an ageing population, dominate scientific research and healthcare policy in the UK. It is anticipated that early diagnosis will maximise treatment options and enable patients to 'prepare for their future' in terms of care. Drawing on qualitative data gathered across an out-patient memory service and in-patient hospital in the UK, the purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which the hopeful promissory claims of early diagnosis as it maintains the dominant biomedical model for managing AD, are negotiated by healthcare practitioners. Developing the analytical standpoint of the sociology of expectations, this paper demonstrates that early diagnosis has the potential to ‘close off’ hopeful promissory visions of the future in two ways. Firstly, it (re)produces the fearful anticipations of AD built around expectations concerning the ageing future ‘self’, and secondly it produces uncertainty in terms of the availability of care as material resource. Whilst practitioners account for the uncertainties and anxieties it produces for patients and their families, they also convey a sense of ambivalence concerning early diagnosis. This article captures the internal conflicts and contradictions inherent to practitioners' perspectives regarding the repercussions of early diagnosis and concludes by arguing that it effaces the uncertainties and anxieties that it produces in practice as it restricts the co-existence of narratives for making sense of memory loss beyond ‘loss of self’, and fails to recognise care as a viable alternative for managing AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has recently received increasing attention among UK manufacturing firms, there is a concern as to whether SSCM practices are being implemented because they are profitable or only because of governance coercive pressure. Thus, the aims of this paper are twofold: first, determining the role of governance in the adoption of SSCM practices; second, investigating whether SSCM practices can be both environmentally beneficial and commercially viable. In light of these issues, this paper develops and empirically assesses an integrated model of governance pressures-SSCM practices-performance. Data was collected from 146 UK manufacturing managers, and analysed using the structural equation modelling method. Exogenous driving forces of governance were found to be precursors to the successful implementation of SSCM practices. The empirical results further suggest that while the implementation of sustainable supply chain management has a positive effect on environmental performance, it does not necessarily lead to improved economic performance, as only sustainable procurement was found to have a positive effect on economic performance. This paper contributes to the literature by highlighting the role of governance in SSCM adoption and performance gains in environmental protection while economic performance is partially compromised. The results also provide useful insights for both managers seeking to adopt sustainable practices and policy-makers seeking to further promote sustainable supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pressure from global retailers to reduce food costs has altered downstream agri-food work regimes, with many food producers having adopted more flexible modes of working and employed migrant labour from lower income countries. Since the expansion of the European Union (EU) in 2004, the farming and food sector in the UK has recruited large numbers of migrant workers from central and eastern EU countries. The decision by the UK electorate in 2016 to leave the EU - what has been termed Brexit - has created a 'crisis' in relation to the continued supply of migrant labour. In this paper we explore the role of migrant labour within the UK's agri-food system and the ways that migrant workers have been positioned by different actors within recent discussions of farming, food and Brexit. We do this through an analysis of national survey data on migrant agricultural workers and materials from interviews with more than 70 agri-food organisations in the UK. What emerges from this research is that rather than viewing Brexit as a key moment to critique the state of the UK's agri-food system, including the structural conditions of work, dominant actors have used it more narrowly to construct a 'crisis' of migrant labour supply, arguing for new policy mechanisms to guarantee the future provision of low-cost imported labour. Within these narratives of post-Brexit agri-food futures, the presence of migrant labour has been both normalised and institutionalised by conventional food organisations but the realities of migrant work and the voices of migrants themselves have been conspicuous largely by their absence. • The UK agri-food sector's dependency on migrant workers from central and eastern EU countries has been threatened by Brexit. • Brexit has been used by dominant agri-food actors to construct a 'crisis' of migrant labour supply. • The centrality of migrant labour to food production in the UK has been both normalised and institutionalised by dominant agri-food actors. • The realities of migrant work and migrants' voices have largely been ignored within post-Brexit agri-food discussions. • There is a need to revalue the role of labour (ers) within the UK's agri-food system as well as in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In September 2008, the human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation programme was introduced in the UK for schoolgirls aged between 12 and 18 years of age. The vaccine shows high efficacy in preventing infection against HPV types 16 and 18 responsible for 70% of cervical cancer. However, to be most effective, the vaccine needs to be administered before exposure to the viruses and therefore, ideally, before young people become sexually active. The introduction of any new vaccine, and perhaps particularly one given to young teenage girls to prevent a sexually transmitted cancer-causing virus, has the potential to attract a great deal of media attention. This paper reports on content analysis of 344 articles published between January 2005 and December 2008 in 15 UK newspapers. It includes both manifest and latent analysis to examine newsprint media coverage of the introduction of the HPV vaccination programme and its role in HPV advocacy. We concluded that the newspapers were generally positive towards the new HPV vaccination and that over the 4 years period the newsworthiness of the HPV vaccination programme increased. In 2008 two events dominated coverage, firstly, the introduction of the HPV programme in September 2008 and secondly, in August 2008 the diagnosis on camera of cervical cancer given to Jade Goody, a 27 year old mother of two, who gained fame and notoriety in the UK through her participation in several reality television shows. There are two conclusions from this study. Firstly, the positive media coverage surrounding the introduction of the HPV vaccination programme is to be welcomed as it is likely to contribute towards influencing public perceptions about the acceptability and need for HPV vaccination. Secondly, the focus on prevalence rates of HPV infection among women and on women''s sexual behaviours, in relation to HPV vaccination ‘encouraging’ promiscuity, is an unhelpful aspect of media coverage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development steered by The United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) since 2005 ended in 2014. It looked into the integration principles, values and practices of sustainable development in all aspects of education and learning, with the intention of addressing the global social, economic, cultural and environmental issues in the 21st century. It has become an essential issue in architectural education to create awareness among future generations of architects to be more sensitive towards the environmental impact of architecture on human behavior. This encouraged every school of architecture to incorporate sustainability knowledge into its curriculum and promote ‘sustainable architectural education’, leading to the questions of: what type of structural model of integration approach being applied in promoting architectural sustainable education? The objectives of this paper are to investigate the type of structural models that have been applied in architectural curriculum in selected schools of architecture in both countries and evaluate the level of emphasis in incorporating sustainability knowledge in the curriculum. Therefore, this paper reviewed the approach of integration principles, values and practices of sustainable development at 10 conveniently sampled architecture schools in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA). Data was collected from their respective web sites and their concepts of integration were reviewed and the distribution of credit hours revealed to determine the level of emphasis considered. Findings showed various paths taken by the different institutions in integrating the knowledge of sustainability into their architectural curriculum. This paper concludes with recommendations for further research into gauging the effectiveness of architectural curricula with integrated sustainability knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores cyclists’ experiences of non-injury incidents, arguing that these are important for cycling experience and uptake as well as for injury prevention. It discusses different types of non-injury incident collected in a recent survey of UK cyclists. These are everyday occurrences that in some cases have a substantially negative impact on cycling experiences. This article explores the impact of different incident types on people cycling both immediately and in the future. It analyses what near misses tell us about cyclists’ experience of problems related to road user behaviour and culture, and infrastructural conditions for cycling. The paper explores what cyclists experiencing near misses think might have prevented them. Based on this and on a comparison with common types of injury incidents, summary recommendations are made for policy and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The UK policy and guidance for heatwaves is inadequate. • 'Silo' thinking in heatwave research hinders robust policymaking. • Heatwaves are often framed only as a health sector risk. • More research, across different sectors, is urgently needed. In 2019, a heatwave – an unusual extended period of hot weather – broke the UK's highest recorded temperature of 38.7 °C set in 2003. Of concern is that for summer 2019, this resulted in 892 excess deaths. With the intensity and frequency of UK heatwaves projected to increase, and summer temperatures predicted to be 5 °C hotter by 2070, urgent action is needed to prepare for, and adapt to, the changes now and to come. Yet it remains unclear what actions are needed and by whom. In response, a systematic literature review of UK heatwaves peer-reviewed publications, inclusive of keyword criteria (total papers returned = 183), was conducted to understand what lessons have been learnt and what needs to happen next. Our research shows that heatwaves remain largely an invisible risk in the UK. Communication over what UK residents should do, the support needed to make changes, and their capacity to enact those changes, is often lacking. In turn, there is an inherent bias where research focuses too narrowly on the health and building sectors over other critical sectors, such as agriculture. An increased amount of action and leadership is therefore necessary from the UK government to address this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding workforce pressures within surgery is an inexact science. This paper assembles evidence regarding oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) consultant appointments in the UK and plans for prospective data collection in the future. Information about the number of OMFS specialists joining the UK specialist list was obtained from the General Medical Council and compared to a database of substantive OMFS consultant posts. OMFS consultants were asked to contribute information about their training programmes and consultant appointments (date, interview experience, and sub-specialty interest). This information was collated on Excel© and analysed using WinStat©. Data on OMFS consultant posts advertised in 'NHS Jobs' and the British Medical Journal were collected. The mean (SD) number of specialists joining the specialist list per year is 24.1 (5.2) with a median of 24 and a range of 15 – 36. The number of trainees completing training and numbers joining the OMFS specialist list are in balance at present. The median delay between OMFS specialist listing and appointment as a consultant was 72 days and mean of 169 with the 25th centile of five days, standard deviation of 239 days and maximum of 5.2 years. Of those returning data, 135 (47%) candidates were the sole interviewee and 83 (29%) had one other candidate at their successful interview. The mean application ratio for each post was 1.9 and the median number of candidates was one, mean 1.6 and maximum candidates seven. About half of the posts were filled by trainees from their regional training rotation. Prospective data collection on advertised posts, interviews held, expected retirements/new posts, combined with a route for trainees approaching CCT to highlight their availability may streamline recruitment and allow a more rapid recognition of recruitment problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a case-study of Cornwall in the South-West of England, this paper has three main aims. First, it seeks to listen to the voices of migrant workers and, in doing so, learn more about their experiences of moving to, and working in, the British countryside. Second, it evaluates the impact of Brexit on their lives and, in particular, how it influences their decision to work in the UK or elsewhere. Finally, consideration is given to the significance of citizenship to their lives, both as a formal contract with the EU and as a lived experience. • Listens to the voices and perspectives of migrant workers. • Uses citizenship as a conceptual 'middle ground' to understand the lives of migrant workers. • Draws on interviews with thirty migrant workers. • Considers the impact of Brexit on agricultural labour in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-regional correlations between average IQ and socio-economic development have been reported for many different countries. This paper analyses data on average IQ and a range of socio-economic variables at the local authority level in the UK. Local authorities are administrative bodies in local government; there are over 400 in the UK, and they contain anywhere from tens of thousands to more than a million people. The paper finds that local authority IQ is positively related to indicators of health, socio-economic status and tertiary industrial activity; and is negatively related to indicators of disability, unemployment and single parenthood. A general socio-economic factor is correlated with local authority IQ at r = .56. This correlation increases to r = .65 when correcting for measurement error in the estimates of IQ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid increase in the scale, speed and spread of immigration over the past two decades has led to an increase in complexity of populations termed superdiversity. Concerns have been expressed about impacts of the pressure that superdiversity is said to place upon maternity services. High migrant fertility and infant and maternal mortality rates have long been observed in diverse areas with inadequate antenatal monitoring seen as a major causal factor in migrants' maternity outcomes. Using qualitative data from a study of new migrants' access to maternity services in the UK's West Midlands region, with some of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in Europe, this paper looks at the reasons migrants' access to antenatal care is poor. The paper finds that contrary to earlier studies which pointed to a lack of priority placed on such care by migrants, a combination of structural, legal and institutional barriers prevent migrant women accessing effective antenatal care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Census-based deprivation indices have been widely used in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Canada and UK to measure area-based socio-economic inequalities. This paper examines the indicators used in census-based area deprivation indices using a political ecology approach. We question whether the current indicators of deprivation derived from census data are meaningful for the all age groups and minority groups in the population, with a particular focus on deprivation indicators used in New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom. We comparatively reviewed methodological papers and reports that describe the indicators of deprivation in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Canada and the UK from 1975 to 2014. We consider the relationship between the notion of standards of living and measurements of deprivation and explore how hegemonic cultural constructs are implicit in measures of deprivation that privilege a Eurocentric, ageist and gender normative construction of statistics. We argue for more political ecological analyses to studying the relationship between social inequalities, geographies, health inequities and political economy to transform structures of oppression and inequality. This requires turning the analytical gaze on the wealthy and privileged instead of defaulting into deficit models to account for inequality. Studies of deprivation and inequality would benefit from understanding the processes and operations of power in the (re)production of socio-economic and health inequities to inform holistic strategies for social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, excess salt intake is a significant cause of preventable heart disease and stroke, given the established links between high salt intake, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease. This paper describes and evaluates the voluntary approaches to salt reduction that operate in the United Kingdom and the United States, and proposes a new strategy for improving their performance. Drawing on developments in the theory and practice of public health governance, as well as theoretical ideas from the field of regulatory studies, this paper proposes a responsive regulatory model for managing food reformulation initiatives, including salt reduction programs. This model provides a transparent framework for guiding industry behavior, making full use of industry's willingness to participate in efforts to create healthier products, but using 'legislative scaffolding' to escalate from self-regulation towards co-regulation if industry fails to play its part in achieving national goals and targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses developments in transdisciplinary research in the UK. While we support the thesis that transdisciplinarity is still not mainstream and is rarely supported per se by funders of research, this paper examines the extent to which UK research policy has embraced the concept of transdisciplinarity. Five empirical case studies provide data about the interrelationship between the interdisciplinary and impact or knowledge exchange aspirations of Research Council UK (RCUK) investments. We find evidence that, to an extent, UK research funding policy is achieving some elements of transdisciplinarity in practice, if not in name. Drawing on broader debates about the limitations of knowledge mobilisation and the challenges of conducting interdisciplinary research, we reflect on how the situation has changed since our original 2004 paper. The evidence suggests that the absence of the ‘transdisciplinary’ label is not necessarily impeding the framing of research funding schemes oriented towards societal issues. Nevertheless, several areas where capacity-building is required, including training for early career interdisciplinary researchers; improved research leadership skills; and the capacity to evaluate the quality of transdisciplinary processes and to learn from such evaluations, are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine the failure of the zero carbon homes agenda in the UK and argue that it represents a case of policy dismantling, where a range of policies and programmes have been introduced, revised and then removed by government. We bring together the sustainability transitions literature with the literature on policy dismantling, regime resistance and regime detractors, and suggest that the zero carbon housing agenda in the UK offers useful insights into the politics of sustainability transitions. We identify three phases of policy change, from policy expansion, symbolic dismantling and eventual active policy dismantling. In the conclusions we offer some suggestions on processes of policy dismantling and what this might mean for future sustainability transitions given the significant contributions of buildings to greenhouse gas emissions and the urgent need for rapid low carbon transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, excess salt intake is a significant cause of preventable heart disease and stroke, given the established links between high salt intake, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease. This paper describes and evaluates the voluntary approaches to salt reduction that operate in the United Kingdom and the United States, and proposes a new strategy for improving their performance. Drawing on developments in the theory and practice of public health governance, as well as theoretical ideas theoretical ideas from the field of regulatory studies, this paper proposes a responsive regulatory model for managing food reformulation initiatives, including salt reduction programs. This model provides a transparent framework for guiding industry behavior, making full use of industry's willingness to participate in efforts to create healthier products, but using 'legislative scaffolding' to escalate from self-regulation towards co-regulation if industry fails to play its part in achieving national goals and targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the integration between what used to be a passive element of the energy value chain – the grid – and both upstream and downstream elements. The evolution of communications among the elements has permitted a more robust and adaptable structure that already is being implemented: the Smart Grid. The paper relates the evolution of EU policy concerning both the development and the rolling-out of solutions to exploit the potential of the Smart Grid concept and describes what has been done by the regulators of three countries that share the same goal but seek to attain it via distinct paths. The article starts with a justification of the need for more integrated networks and a definition of the Smart Grid. A second part covers the risks and difficulties of implementation within an established network, introducing the role of the regulator. The third part describes EU policy response and three different approaches by regulators in the UK, Italy and Portugal, showing how in each case policy is influenced by characteristics of their respective national electricity markets in terms of competition dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is ongoing debate regarding the shape of life-course trajectories in mental health. Many argue the relationship is U-shaped, with mental health declining with age to mid-life, then improving. However, I argue that these models are beset by the age–period–cohort (APC) identification problem, whereby age, cohort and year of measurement are exactly collinear and their effects cannot be meaningfully separated. This means an apparent life-course effect could be explained by cohorts. This paper critiques two sets of literature: the substantive literature regarding life-course trajectories in mental health, and the methodological literature that claims erroneously to have ‘solved’ the APC identification problem statistically (e.g. using Yang and Land's Hierarchical APC–HAPC-model). I then use a variant of the HAPC model, making strong but justified assumptions that allow the modelling of life-course trajectories in mental health (measured by the General Health Questionnaire) net of any cohort effects, using data from the British Household Panel Survey, 1991–2008. The model additionally employs a complex multilevel structure that allows the relative importance of spatial (households, local authority districts) and temporal (periods, cohorts) levels to be assessed. Mental health is found to increase throughout the life-course; this slows at mid-life before worsening again into old age, but there is no evidence of a U-shape – I argue that such findings result from confounding with cohort processes (whereby more recent cohorts have generally worse mental health). Other covariates were also evaluated; income, smoking, education, social class, urbanity, ethnicity, gender and marriage were all related to mental health, with the latter two in particular affecting life-course and cohort trajectories. The paper shows the importance of understanding APC in life-course research generally, and mental health research in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the transformation of UK drug treatment policy in the priority that is now being given to recovery. The paper explores the factors that helped shape that transformation and notes that in the main the influences were external to those directly involved in delivering drug treatment (research, politicians, media, think tanks) and that whilst the combined influence of these elements succeeded in reframing policy, it has left the realm of drug treatment service delivery unclear in a number of key areas including: determining how long drug users should remain in treatment; avoiding relapse; relations between professional drug workers and peer supporters; and meeting the diverse needs of drug users including those who are not seeking to become drug free. The paper concludes by considering what kind of initiatives and mechanisms may be needed to ensure a closer alignment between policy and practice within the drug treatment sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Anthropocene research has been critiqued for portraying a generic vision of humanity. • The concept of 'encountering' situates the Anthropocene in everyday, lived experience. • An encountering approach helps to reveal trauma and injustice in the Anthropocene. • Encountering thinking also uncovers conditions for politically active, hopeful futures. The Anthropocene, proposed as a new era in human-nonhuman relations, is potentially both profound and far-reaching. However, it has also been critiqued as a universalising concept detached from the realities of people's day-to-day lives. The aim of this paper is to address this shortcoming by examining the situations of coastal communities on the 'frontline' of global environmental change in North Norfolk in the UK. In this region, sea defences that have protected towns and villages for decades are deteriorating and, consequently, the effects of coastal erosion on human settlements are becoming increasingly evident. Through the conceptual framework of 'encountering', I explore how human-nature relations are being reconfigured as a result and with what consequences for the actors involved. The findings show that coastal communities are becoming more and more aware of nonhuman forces as the unruly sea impinges upon daily life in various, multisensory ways. These effects not only cause people to 'give way' to the encroaching waters through relocation of homes and businesses but also attempt to 'buy time' with an active nature by extending the life of existing defences. The revitalisation of nature in coastal regions is also intersecting with long-held experiences of marginalisation and disempowerment to produce new, 'bottom-up' naturalcultural discourses concerning social justice. Overall, I demonstrate how an approach that emphasises encountering in the global era of the Anthropocene helps reveal rather than conceal the personal traumas and injustices experienced by different groups as well as the emergent conditions for more politically active, hopeful futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work in geography has begun to look at the opportunities for care from siblings, friends and neighbours alongside parents and spouses. This paper examines the daily relationships that middle to older age adults with a learning disability have with remaining kin members, friends, and neighbours, within the context of declining formal day services. Adults with learning disabilities are more likely to have different life course experiences and be living on low incomes and in poor housing than the rest of the population as they have had less opportunity to work and save money through their lives. We draw on two qualitative studies with adults with learning disabilities. Findings suggest that friend and kin networks are anything but certain, as opportunities to meet and socialise shrink, and connections with siblings do not necessarily lend themselves to support. The findings raise the possibility of a space of attenuated care to convey the increasingly limited fronts from which support can be derived. • Study examines informal care gaps in times of austerity. • It focuses on middle to older age adults with learning disabilities. • Findings suggest support from friends, neighbours and siblings is very uncertain. • There are also retreating opportunities and spaces to meet friends and socialise. • Study contributes idea of 'care desert' to geographies of care and disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The expressivist objection to prenatal testing is acknowledged as a significant critique of prenatal testing practices most commonly advanced by disability rights supporters. Such writers argue that prenatal testing and selective termination practices are objectionable as they express disvalue not only of the foetus being tested, but also of disabled people as a whole, by focusing exclusively on the disabling trait. While the objection has been widely critiqued on the basis of its theoretical incoherence, this paper highlights the way in which it, nevertheless, is a significant mediator in decisions around the use of reproductive genetic technologies. By drawing on 41 in-depth qualitative interviews (drawn from a sample of 61) conducted in the UK between 2007 and 2009 with families and individuals living with a genetic disease, Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), this paper highlights the ways in which expressivist objections feature prominently in the reproductive decisions of families living with SMA and the significant emotional burden they represent. While the literature on the expressivist objection has focused on the reproductive decisions of those undergoing prenatal testing for a condition of which they have little (or no) prior knowledge, the context of intimate familial relationships and extensive experience with the tested-for condition fundamentally alters the nature and impact of expressivist objections within families living with an inheritable condition. By focussing on the reproductive decisions of families living with SMA and their strategic management of the expressivist objection, this paper will address the call, made primarily by disability rights supporters, for ‘experientially based’ (as opposed to medical) information about the tested-for disability to be made available to would-be parents considering selective termination. It will be argued that parents' experiential knowledge of the tested-for disability can, in fact, amplify expressivist objections to prenatal testing, and thus paradoxically constrain, rather than facilitate, reproductive decisions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Recent policy initiatives in the UK and internationally have sought to promote knowledge translation between the ‘producers’ and ‘users’ of research. Within this paper we explore how boundary-spanning interventions used within such initiatives can support knowledge translation between diverse groups. Using qualitative data from a 3-year research study conducted from January 2010 to December 2012 of two case-sites drawn from the CLAHRC initiative in the UK, we distinguish two different approaches to supporting knowledge translation; a ‘bridging’ approach that involves designated roles, discrete events and activities to span the boundaries between communities, and a ‘blurring’ approach that de-emphasises the boundaries between groups, enabling a more continuous process of knowledge translation as part of day-to-day work-practices. In this paper, we identify and differentiate these boundary-spanning approaches and describe how they emerged from the context defined by the wider CLAHRC networks. This highlights the need to develop a more contextualised analysis of the boundary-spanning that underpins knowledge translation processes, relating this to the distinctive features of a particular case. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Migrant labour has been particularly significant in the British rural agribusiness sector, where employers often struggle to source labour regardless of economic conditions. While most research on East-Central European migration has focused on the experiences of members of the migrant community, this paper is one of a small number of studies that has gathered evidence from employers and labour recruiters. The paper draws on in-depth interviews undertaken in four case study areas. The analysis focuses on the practices of employers and recruiters that have shaped how migrant labour is sourced and used in the UK labour market, and how labour migration channels have evolved since 2004. The two main conceptual contributions of this paper are a new typology of recruitment/employment practices and a schema illustrating the changing spatial impacts of migration channels in areas of destination. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Parking management is a strategy that has been extensively employed by authorities and organisations world-wide in an attempt to address traffic-related congestion and associated environmental impacts at a variety of sites and scales. At airports, parking control and pricing regimes are used to generate revenue and manage traffic demand. On the supply side, within the last few years a new trend in unregulated off-site, predominately residential, car parking provision around UK airports has emerged and quickly grown in popularity. Through a survey of three UK-based self-styled ‘parking marketplace’ websites and an in-depth analysis of one, this paper provides an empirical examination of the growing phenomenon of off-site residential car parking provision around the UK’s 25 busiest passenger airports and discusses the potential implications of this niche but growing phenomenon. Data is provided on the supply and the demand for these alternative spaces, as well as their physical location, attributes, and pricing regimes. The empirical findings indicate that, while this currently represents a relatively small proportion of overall airport parking supply it is experiencing rapid growth and may become significant in the future. The paper concludes by contending that airport operators and local authorities need to be cognisant of the existence of, and the challenges and opportunities associated with, alternative parking provision in order to be able to better plan for, and respond to the planning, environmental, and consumer implications it may create. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: While there is growing scholarly interest in returned and cyclical migration, and on young adult cultural or adventure seeking migration, there is still a lack of systematic empirical insights into how the experiences of being abroad, and after return, are mediated by exposure to different cultural environments. Addressing this conceptual and empirical gap, the paper analyses the experiences of New Zealand return migrants, or sojourners, who lived and worked in European countries (other than the UK) for more than one year and compares them with the experiences of NZ returnees from the UK. Drawing on 20 ‘non-UK’ and 22 ‘UK’ in-depth interviews, the paper revisits typology of cross-cultural, or intercultural, adjustment (largely ignored in studies of return migration) to assess sojourners’ experiences throughout the migration cycle and serve as a useful tool for identifying and reporting psychological and socio-cultural elements in the returnees stories. The findings of sojourners’ possible identity shifts during intercultural transition are discussed with reference to the four-member paradigm of Cultural Identity Model (CIM) () while addressing argument that overseas adaptation and repatriation experiences are not directly associated. This paper demonstrates the need to understand first that the costs and benefits of circular migration or sojourning are country-specific, and that they do not ‘just happen’ at a particular moment or in one phase but are forged through a veritable rollercoaster of experiences of intercultural adjustment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper is concerned with environmental governance and policy formation in the area of climate change. Specifically, it examines a decision by the UK Government in 2003 to adopt a demanding, long-term CO2 emissions reduction target, following the advice of one of its longest standing environmental advisory bodies, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. It explores the origins of the Commission''s recommendation and the reasons for its relatively rapid uptake in public policy. It argues that in both cases, a complex mix of structural and contingent, cognitive and non-cognitive factors can be identified, operating at different levels of governance. Finally, the paper reflects on what we might learn from this particular case about policy processes and the role of knowledge and expert advice within them. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper focuses on a particular group of food commodities, associated with the wider turn to ‘alternative food networks’, that are described as ‘naturally embedded food products’ (NEFPs). These are commodities (specifically meats and cheeses) that utilise grassland biodiversity as an input into production to positively influence, in various ways, the final qualities of the commodity. Building on the geographical literature on commodity circuits and analysing data derived from NEFP promotional materials and focus groups with urban and rural residents in the UK, the paper interrogates the geographical knowledges that are deployed by producers in the promotion of NEFPs and how these knowledges are accommodated and contested by consumers as they bring their own geographical knowledges to the interpretation of these commodities. The paper undertakes this task in order to problematise the extent to which alternative food networks in general and NEFPs in particular are bringing about a reconnection of producers and consumers and, concomitantly, a defetishisation of food, as is claimed for them by many of their policy and academic proponents. In the process the paper reveals how the food commodities associated with alternative food networks entail the creation of new and rival fetishes paradoxically as a result of efforts to ‘thicken connections’ between the production and consumption of food. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper explores the shifting cultural politics of development as expressed in the changing narratives and discursive transparencies of fair trade marketing tactics in the UK. Pursued through what I call ‘developmental consumption’ and the increasing celebritization of development, it is now through the global media mega-star that the subaltern speaks. After a more general discussion of the implications of the celebritization of development, specific analysis focuses on two parallel processes complicit in the ‘mainstreaming’ of fair trade markets and the desire to develop fair trade as a product of ‘quality’. The first involves improving the taste of fair trade commodities through alterations in their material supply chains while the second involves novel marketing narratives designed to invoke these conventions of quality through highly meaningful discursive and visual means. The later process is conceptualized through the theoretical device of the shifting ‘embodiments’ of fair trade which have moved from small farmers’ livelihoods, to landscapes of ‘quality’, to increasing congeries of celebrities such as Chris Martin from the UK band Coldplay. These shifts encapsulate what is referred to here as fair trade’s Faustian Bargain and its ambiguous results: the creation of increasing economic returns and, thus, more development through the movement of fair trade goods into mainstream retail markets at the same time there is a de-centering of the historical discursive transparency at the core of fair trade’s moral economy. Here, then, the celebritization of fair trade has the potential to create ‘the mirror of consumption’, whereby, our gaze is reflected back upon ourselves in the form of ‘the rich and famous’ Northern celebrity muddling the ethics of care developed by connecting consumers to fair trade farmers and their livelihoods. The paper concludes with a consideration of development and fair trade politics in the context of their growing aestheticization and celebritization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper explores some of the key institutional transformations in livestock breeding associated with the increasing significance of genetic techniques, situating this within an assessment of an emerging agricultural bioeconomy. Focusing on beef cattle and sheep breeding in the United Kingdom, the paper examines how a move towards the involvement of international and corporate interests in livestock breeding is restructuring the network of institutional interests affecting the knowledge and decision making of individual breeders. The paper suggests that the structural transformation of beef cattle and sheep breeding is complicated by the need for negotiation between breeders’ ‘traditional’ knowledge-practices and the ‘geneticised’ techniques being made available to them. We are thus seeing the emergence of new and complex interactions between the major actors which are reconfiguring power relationships in the UK livestock breeding sector. [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]

This paper focuses on a specialty sub-sector of the larger ecotourism market, which fuses the ‘hard’ ecotourist with the volunteer tourist, in which paying members of the general public travel for the purpose of participating in organised conservation work. This industry has an increasing impact on the global distribution of volunteers and resources for conservation, and despite its increasing commercialisation, there has been little examination of this industry. This paper aims to provide a broad insight into the UK conservation tourism industry, examining the scale of the industry and the diversity and practices of the organisations involved. The paper then explores the range and distribution of holidays, the volunteers participating and allocation of fees. As the industry expands further, it will be important for these organisations to keep the quality of their conservation products high and the volunteer's engagement with nature deep and meaningful. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents a detailed account of the supply chain for iron and steel in the UK, using material flow analysis. Due to the lack of a universally agreed methodology of material flow analysis, we include an explanation of the accounting methodology employed in the study. Data for the supply chain has been collected reaching back three decades, enabling analysis of trends in production and consumption of iron and steel over the years. This first part of a series of two papers quantifies the iron and steel flows through the UK economy including the annual amount of iron and steel embodied in all final goods that enter the use phase in the UK. The second part explores the more elusive flows of scrap generation and recycling. In this first paper we show that the UK no longer has the capacity to recycle the scrap it collects and is increasingly relying on foreign economies to do so. We also observe that trade in iron and steel products and ferrous metal containing final goods has increased dramatically over the years, but remained relatively balanced. Today, one-half of UK''s iron and steel production is exported, whereas one-half of the iron and steel entering the UK use phase comes from imported final goods. The efficiency with which the UK iron and steel industry transforms iron ore and scrap into iron and steel products has increased substantially. However, there is no significant downward trend in the absolute level of iron and steel use in the UK. Between 1970 and 1981 the annual amount of steel put to use dropped from 16.4 to 10.7 million metric tonnes but climbed back up to 15 million metric tonnes twice since then. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper is a critical commentary on the measures now being used to evaluate the quality of tourism research in the UK. The paper examines the nature of the UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and its evolution since 1992. A detailed analysis of the 2001 RAE in relation to tourism is reviewed, using the returns made by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This is complemented by a content analysis of the origin of authors who published in Tourism Management and Annals of Tourism Research 1996–2002, to examine the contribution of UK academics to tourism outputs in these journals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract The paper offers new, significant insights into the Church engagement experiences of Chinese international students in the UK. Based on a mixed-method research and focusing on a group of international Chinese students participating in local Christian churches, it explores the motivations (for), dynamics and types of connections students establish and maintain with the church communities, and the implications for stakeholders in facilitating intercultural engagement with the local community. The limited cross-cultural interactions alongside other structural and contextual factors often deprive meaningful engagement between international students and host nationals within the campus. According to the research participants, internationalised university is promising and promoting intercultural experiences but not delivering them. Chinese students of usually non-Christian background gravitate towards Christian churches as alternative places to gain desired intercultural experiences. The findings encourage universities to reflect on the quality of intercultural engagement for international students and draw from the reciprocal and respectful intercultural connections that some students discovered through engaging with Christian churches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Doctors' work and the changing, contested meanings of medical professionalism have long been a focus for sociological research. Much recent attention has focused on those doctors working at the interface between healthcare management and medical practice, with such ‘hybrid’ doctor-managers providing valuable analytical material for exploring changes in how medical professionalism is understood. In the United Kingdom, significant structural changes to medical regulation, most notably the introduction of revalidation in 2012, have created a new hybrid group, Responsible Officers (ROs), responsible for making periodic recommendations about the on-going fitness to practise medicine of all other doctors in their organisation. Using qualitative data collected in a 2015 survey with 374 respondents, 63% of ROs in the UK, this paper analyses the RO role. Our findings show ROs to be a distinct emergent group of hybrid professionals and as such demonstrate restructuring within UK medicine. Occupying a position where multiple agendas converge, ROs' work expands professional regulation into the organisational sphere in new ways, as well as creating new lines of continuous accountability between the wider profession and the General Medical Council as medical regulator. Our exploration of ROs' approaches to their work offers new insights into the on-going development of medical professionalism, pointing to the emergence of a distinctly regulatory hybrid professionalism shaped by co-existing professional, managerial and regulatory logics, in an era of strengthened governance and complex policy change. Highlights • Responsible Officers are a new governance elite group in the UK medical profession. • They work at the nexus of professional, managerial and regulatory spheres. • Differ from other doctor-managers due to accountability for medical performance. • Organisational context shapes experiences of this new role. • Regulatory reform has engendered a new form of hybrid professionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]