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The research presented in this paper supports claims by feminists and queer theorists that there are numerous and diverse sex/gender/desire categories (Bem, 1995). Taken from a broader digital ethnography of digital sex markets in the United Kingdom, the findings are based on ten in-depth interviews with those who identified as men or 'gender flexible' and who buy and/or sell sex within digital markets. The participants featured in this paper used digital sex markets as a space to explore and express non-normative/subversive sexual and gender identities. Yet for many of them, these subversive acts were bounded by the market, so they were able to uphold masculine heterosexual identities outside of sex markets. The relative privacy of digital sex markets empowered them to maintain heterosexist power, reducing the social risks of stigmatisation and ostracisation associated with subversive sexual and gender identities. The thematic analysis revealed the limitations of heteronormative and homonormative labels and assumptions of sex work relations, thus, prompting the need to write this paper. Framing sex markets in narrow binary terms, as either homosexual or heterosexual markets, or research participants as customers or workers do not reflect the fluidity and diversity evident in this small yet revealing sample. The study shows multiple and fluid expressions of sex/gender/desire; and a duality in market roles as workers and/or customers amongst men engaged in digital sex markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

While previous literature has examined time discourses in social work and demonstrated that social work is predicated on linear understandings of time, one area that has received little theoretical and empirical attention in the literature on time and social work is what effects various social work temporalities exert on the lifeworld of social workers and how they shape their working days. This paper draws on semi-structured interviews with British social workers and employs an abductive approach to data analysis. By analysing the participants' experiences of time and work, the article identifies two temporalities that exist in social work practice, paperwork time and compassionate time. Paperwork time is linear, instantaneous and accelerated, requiring social workers to juggle multiple competing demands and needs. Compassionate time is more developmental and cyclical and requires slower engagement. The paper then discusses how social workers negotiated these contradictory temporalities and highlights the potentially negative effects of temporal conflicts on people's health, well-being and on social work practice at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) is a transitory immigration regime rolled out by the Home Office as part of the measures for the UK withdrawing from the EU. More can be said about whether the EUSS can truly be hailed an overall "success", as per official Government messaging, several years after its initial introduction. This paper evaluates this by considering two case studies of vulnerable immigrant women required to apply to the Scheme to successfully remain in the UK after the transition period: those at risk of or facing violence against women and girls (VAWG), and non-EU family members (NEFMs) of EU citizens. Using the theories of intersectionality and vulnerability, the paper outlines how gender and immigration status intersect to make women more vulnerable by virtue of the legal framework of the EUSS and its criteria, arguing that it entrenches intersectional oppression faced uniquely by these women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

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

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

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

Objective: Qualitative research is increasingly valued as part of the evidence for policy and practice, but how it should be appraised is contested. Various appraisal methods, including checklists and other structured approaches, have been proposed but rarely evaluated. We aimed to compare three methods for appraising qualitative research papers that were candidates for inclusion in a systematic review of evidence on support for breast-feeding. Method: A sample of 12 research papers on support for breast-feeding was appraised by six qualitative reviewers using three appraisal methods: unprompted judgement, based on expert opinion; a UK Cabinet Office quality framework; and CASP, a Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool. Papers were assigned, following appraisals, to 1 of 5 categories, which were dichotomized to indicate whether or not papers should be included in a systematic review. Patterns of agreement in categorization of papers were assessed quantitatively using κ statistics, and qualitatively using cross-case analysis. Results: Agreement in categorizing papers across the three methods was slight (κ =0.13; 95% CI 0.06–0.24). Structured approaches did not appear to yield higher agreement than that by unprompted judgement. Qualitative analysis revealed reviewers' dilemmas in deciding between the potential impact of findings and the quality of the research execution or reporting practice. Structured instruments appeared to make reviewers more explicit about the reasons for their judgements. Conclusions: Structured approaches may not produce greater consistency of judgements about whether to include qualitative papers in a systematic review. Future research should address how appraisals of qualitative research should be incorporated in systematic reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-cultural differences in governance and policies for learning disability services are of interest. This article focuses on two UK government policy documents issued in 1971 and 2001. Their context, creation, principles, proposals and proposed implementation are examined, and lessons are drawn for an international audience as to the changing nature of services in the UK. The analysis reveals a move from a detailed and prescriptive policy in 1971, largely defined by professionals and bureaucrats, and aimed primarily at families with a disabled member, to statements of broad principles in 2001, devised in consultation with and aimed at a range of groups, including disabled people themselves. The article acknowledges progress in individual rights and choices for people with learning disabilities, but raises doubts about how significant this is in achieving a qualitative improvement in their lives. Some of these doubts relate to the governance process itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

This paper examines the growth of the UK coworking space (CWS) sector in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing on data from a multi-year study comprising 44 interviews with CWS owners, managers, and other key economic actors. The paper offers a novel contribution by drawing on critical political economy to conceptualise CWS as capitalist enterprises providing fixed capital of an independent kind in competitive markets increasingly shaped by changing urban commercial real estate dynamics which necessitate that CWS adapt their business models to remain economically viable. The paper finds the entry of large corporate actors in the CWS sector is forcing smaller independent CWS to diversify to remain competitive. This pressure inhibits the ability of CWS to adhere to – and offer services matching – the aims of early CWS, namely the cultivation of a community of like-minded individuals who cowork to reduce rental costs and social isolation. These findings are theoretically and empirically significant as they illustrate how rapid sectoral shifts are driven by business decisions with structural causes, rather than being due to the actions of individual users of CWS or the communities they serve. These findings have implications for understanding the future of coworking and provide new insights into how competition shapes and changes the business models and competitive strategies of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the literature on state capacity in financialized political economies by studying the market-based investment setting for the Thames Tideway Tunnel, a £4.2 billion sewer, built underneath central London to prevent raw sewage from spilling into the River Thames. Most analyses conclude that financial statecraft undermines state capacities, as it empowers finance and exposes states to uncontrollable risks. This article moves beyond these accounts by arguing that public policy officials engage with finance instrumentally, taking on risks to solve the governing challenges they face. It demonstrates that state action can build islands of state capacity with financial statecraft in fragmented policy environments. Based on expert interviews and documentary analysis, the article traces how the UK's Ministry of the Environment experimented with a policy instrument and used investment capacities from different levels of government, to implement the Thames Tideway Tunnel through institutional equity investment and share risks in the privatized and financialized environmental sector. The paper concludes that under the current conjuncture, financial statecraft will play an important role in addressing the climate crisis. Therefore, further comparative research is required to explore its normative paradox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This article interrogates the relationship between registration, the professions, and modern crises, using the Medical Register as an illustration. We start by surveying briefly the history of the regulation of health workers in the United Kingdom to contextualise the mechanisms of registers and registration. Under the initial model of registration, one could be in or out of the 'principal list', and various routes enabled health practitioners to obtain full registration and its ensuing privileges. That model still influences ordinary understandings of registration, but the paper identifies other categories of registration emerging in the middle of the 20th century, starting with the international crisis of the Second World War and up until the recent coronavirus pandemic. Drawing on historical and contemporary work, we show that there are multiple ways one can be on the Register, with some more precarious than others. In turn, we debunk the idea of the Register as a document immune from political choices and instead shed light on the details of its intimate engagement with modern forms of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

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

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

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

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

The most significant episode in the assetisation of housing (underpinning its financialisation) is often understood to be the economic restructuring that took place during the 1980s – particularly deregulation of the banking sector and credit liberalisation. Research has reported on the housing 'investor subject' that emerged during this time, as an integral part of the transition towards financialised economies. This article provides new evidence about the housing consumer subject, and its place in this transition, by drilling into UK housing policy history and its discourses around the consumer relationship with housing. Using archive data from the Parliamentary and National Archives alongside interviews with key informers, we illustrate three cases of housing policy development in which the consumer demand for, and relationship with, housing is discursively reconditioned. We conclude that the housing investor subject was pursued in housing policy reform and its discourses well before the 1980s and the economic reforms commonly identified as the causes of financialisation. In addition, these discourses are found to have been reconditioned in order to align with broader macroeconomic policy concerns of the time. The article therefore provides a rare view of assetisation from within the state apparatus, revealing how housing policy and its discourses around consumption became functionally integrated within wider macroeconomic goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

This article undertakes a cross-national comparison of the aerospace sectors in two 'liberal' countries, the UK and Australia, examining how several multinational firms engage with engineering skill institutions: regulation of entry to profession, entry-level and ongoing training. The paper empirically demonstrates and theoretically argues that the social partners and employment protection institutions can in certain contexts play an important role in professional skill development. Institutional legacy matters, shaping multinational responses and providing distinct resources for various actors including unions. Tension between existing skill institutions ('country' or 'sector' effects) and the capacity of multinationals (MNCs) to shape practices are addressed. Both country cases demonstrate how MNCs may be able to shape practices in such a way that they create 'MNC' effects, defined as a combination of large firm/subsidiary, and 'corporate' effects, that affect engineering skill development for other firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

The article presents a meta-ethnographic synthesis study on the reasons of people for participating in clinical trials. It mentions the application of an interpretative translation process for analyzing the link between findings. It also notes that the line of argument of the synthesis conducted in 2005 and 2010 indicated how the health states and medical care status of participants interact with other considerations.

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

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

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

Although the potential importance of care-file information for those formerly in care has long been recognised, little is known about requests for access to such records, whether in terms of scale or how requests are dealt with. The survey reported here by Jim Goddard, Julia Feast and Derek Kirton was carried out to address this gap. It was conducted in two stages during 2004 and 2005. The first stage comprised a postal questionnaire to local authorities in the UK (with 81 responses received) and a small number of voluntary organisations. This was followed by 40 telephone interviews with key local authority and voluntary sector personnel dealing with access to records requests. Areas of interest within the study included: policy and practice in relation to the retention, storage and retrieval of files; the handling of requests, including by whom; the provision of services (eg counselling and intermediary help); and the impact of the Data Protection Act 1998 on the handling of access requests. Two related themes emerged. First, policy, practice and service provision vary enormously between agencies, creating a 'post-code lottery' for post-care adults. Second, such provision is often poor in comparison with that offered to adopted adults, thereby raising the question of whether the current legal and policy framework for access to care records is adequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

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

Background: The Health of the Nation Outcomes Scales for people with Learning Disabilities (HoNOS-LD) is an 18-item measure which provides a structured and standardized approach to rating various clinical and psychosocial outcomes and has been in use nationally since 2002. Aims: To revise and improve the HoNOS-LD's utility in contemporary intellectual disability (ID) services whilst retaining its original objectives and five-point severity ratings. Method: ID clinicians were invited to complete an online survey, rating each item on the existing measure for being fit for purpose, identifying issues and suggesting improvements based on their experience of using the HoNOS-LD in practice. Scales were then assessed and revised sequentially; survey responses were used to inform discussion and revisions to the HoNOS-LD by the Advisory Board. Results: A total of 75 individuals replied. Respondents had used HoNOS-LD for an average of 8.0 years (S.D. 5.28 years) and 88% found the scale to be useful in their practice. On average, respondents used HoNOS-LD ratings to inform care 42.4% of the time (S.D. 33.5%). For each scale there was a significant negative correlation between the percentage of positive/very positive respondent ratings and the number of changes proposed. Common changes included simplifying terms, reducing ambiguity and replacing anachronistic language. Conclusion: The changes outlined in this paper are based on the advisory group's expert consensus. These changes are intended to improve reliability and validity but now need empirical testing as well as review by service users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This paper presents a model to identify why, for some, the expression of liberal attitudes towards the LGBT population may be strategic rather than sincere. We show that the British population displays considerably more tolerant views towards homosexuality compared to the end of the 1980s. However, there is evidence that this has slowed in recent years, especially in areas that have experienced the highest levels of immigration, particularly from countries outside Europe. We explain these changes with reference to two effects that immigration/multiculturalism may have – direct cultural and indirect political effects – the latter manifested in selective liberalisation such that for some members of the in-group adopting a liberal attitude towards a group that was once the salient out-group (in this case the LGBT population) generates greater benefits for the in-group by creating disutility for the currently salient out-group (in this case culturally conservative religious minorities and immigrants). We explore both influences using survey data and find strong evidence for the first effect and suggestive support for the second effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Over 20 years ago a series of papers identified a strikingly dominant economic cluster – the UK's Motorsport Valley (MSV) – which led to MSV becoming an international exemplar of concepts such as agglomeration, clusters and knowledge-driven systems of regional development. Utilising an evolutionary perspective on cluster development, this paper asks 'whatever happened to MSV?'. Drawing on the framework of strategic cluster coupling, four cluster development episodes are conceptualised that each depict the dynamic evolution of the cluster's multi-scalar institutional environment, strategic coupling trajectories and economic development outcomes. Reflecting the emerging synthesis between evolutionary economic geography and geographical political economy, the paper describes an extended case study of cluster development, an evolutionary process of strategic cluster coupling and, ultimately, an example of cluster resilience. Through a focus on strategic cluster coupling, the paper provides further understanding of cluster evolution and path development mechanisms at key moments of cluster reconfiguration – and an empirical update and continuation of the economic story and cluster lifecycle of MSV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

City-regions have become a core unit of analysis for spatial economy, providing an explicit link between bounded administrative units and more networked spaces of production. Too often, however, such analysis is focused on the core of the city-region, applying presumptions of gravity-based agglomeration. This paper examines these networked spaces of production from the city-region periphery, using a firm-based approach as critical determinants of spatial economy via their key interactions. Focused on the Greater Birmingham city-region, UK, the paper explores the integration of city-regional geography with firm-based networked economy. In doing so, it applies a set of networks of practice, focused on firms' factored, transactional, and transitional dependencies. Using these networks of practice, it critically analyses the spaces of production formed through firm-based interactions, and their concomitance with city-regional designations. It makes two key contributions. First, it enhances the call for greater understanding of the relationship between core and periphery in the context of city-regions. Second, it argues that network-based approaches, which form spatial economy around firm interactions over administrative configurations, offer useful insight into understanding firm–place relationships which more conventional place-based approaches cannot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

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

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

The Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings stipulates a 'non-punishment principle' which provides for the possibility of not imposing penalties on victims for crimes they were compelled to commit. This paper investigates the UK's iteration of this principle: the statutory defence provided by section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act. Drawing on extant literature and relevant case law, this paper investigates current understandings of the statutory defence and the insights these provide into broader understandings of criminal exploitation. It demonstrates that while practitioners understand the processes of the legislation surrounding the defence, they are less knowledgeable about the nuances of modern slavery which therefore impacts the use and effectiveness of the defence. This paper challenges the basis upon which criminal law is applied, and its analysis makes an original contribution to recognising how misunderstandings of criminal exploitation can affect fairness in the criminal justice system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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