Search

A survey was conducted to establish the extent of fatigue in British fishermen. Problems accessing the target population limited the sample to 81 people, highlighting the difficulty of conducting research in this area. Whilst the results cannot be considered representative of the British fishing population, the fact that 60% (n = 48) believed their personal safety had been at risk because of fatigue at work, 16% (n = 13) had been involved in a fatigue related accident, and 44% (n = 36) said they had worked to the point of exhaustion or collapse suggests a problem that requires further investigation.

Generating systematic knowledge on devolution's impact upon polity-building in Scotland remains a considerable challenge. Convinced that a theory-driven method is essential, this article advocates analysis of change in the Scottish polity through a new approach rooted in institutionalist theory to studying the regulation of sectors of public and collective action. Labelled ‘territorial-institutionalism’, this approach studies actor usages of representations of territory as key political resources for legitimising the institutionalisation of sectors and, thence, of polity-building. In applying territorial institutionalism to two sectors – whisky and fisheries – we identify a plurality of actor evocations of territory which fall into three categories: polity-building, sector-building and identity-building. Moreover, we distinguish three political usages of these evocations in the (re-)institutionalisation of each sector post-devolution: (re-)setting the boundaries of their regulatory instruments; modifying the access of stakeholders to decisional arenas; and legitimising/de-legitimising policy instruments and actor influence during conflict. We conclude first that devolution has facilitated change in both sectors. However, inter-sectoral differences highlight the importance of how actors link different representations of territory. Second, we argue that analysis cannot be limited to Scottish arenas, but must include the engagement of Scottish actors in extra-national arenas in general, and those of the European Union in particular.British Politics (2009) 4, 315–340. doi:10.1057/bp.2009.9 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a reinvestment in political sociology in general, and the concept of territory in particular, as means of renewing analysis of the policy–polity dialectic at the heart of the European Union (EU). Drawing on a sociological theory of decision-making and sectoral regulation, the foundations for a ‘territorial institutionalist’ approach are developed in order to study political usages of territory. Specifically, the process of the ‘political assignment of authority' is examined to analyse three such usages in EU fisheries and wine: justifying frontiers of policy instruments, defining actor eligibility, politicizing/depoliticizing regulatory controversies. Overall, we argue that EU studies must re-engage in epistemological debates over policy–polity linkages in order to produce new and rigorous knowledge about European integration and its legitimization. For, as our findings suggest, these processes are not driven by the certainty of ‘rational’ multi-level governance, but are mediated within sectoral ‘institutional orders’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]