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The story of devolution in the United Kingdom is a long and chequered one which long predates the establishment of devolved legislatures in Scotland and Wales after referendums in 1997. The devolution programme of Tony Blair’s Labour Government came eighteen years after the failure of the 1974–79 Labour Government’s attempts at establishing Scottish and Welsh devolution. This article explores how after establishing a Royal Commission on the Constitution in his first Government, Wilson would be left to take up the reins of devolution again after the two elections of 1974. It focuses on how Harold Wilson, and then James Callaghan, developed, often with huge reluctance and great caution, devolution proposals that would eventually form the Scotland and Wales Bill (the Labour Government’s first set of legislative proposals for devolution). The bill endured a tortuous fate in parliament and its slow progress eventually ground to a final halt in February 1977. However, despite the bill’s failure, the work that went into developing it and the concessions that were made by the government during its aborted journey through the House of Commons had consequences that were felt during the remainder of the 1974–79 Labour Government’s fraught existence and long after.

‘Active Ageing’ is a dominant discourse in the promotion of active lifestyles for older adults. Its emphasis upon adoption of a positive mind-set and ‘good’ lifestyle choices has resulted in active...

There has been a growing trend of elite athletes being fast-tracked into post-athletic high-performance coaching roles in association football and rugby union in England and Wales. This has been facilitated by an increase in bespoke and condensed formal coach education courses that are designed to accelerate current and/or former elite athletes in attaining their coaching accreditation. Hitherto, however, the individual lived experiences of former athletes on this career trajectory during their transition to coaching remains under-investigated. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to analyse how elite male association football and rugby union athletes based in England and Wales (re)created, re-negotiated or transformed their identities when negotiating a fast-tracked career pathway into a post-athletic high-performance coaching role. Fifteen male rugby union (n = 10) and association football (n = 5) athletes were interviewed on two separate occasions over twelve months. Interviews coincided with the start and end dates of the level three coach education course which they were concurrently enrolled on. Interviews focused upon how they (re)created their professional identities upon negotiating the career transition into a post-athletic high-performance coaching role. Data were critically theorised against sociological concepts associated with the theoretical frameworks of Bourdieu, Goffman and Foucault. Results identified how the development of a coaching identity was articulated through the need to define a ‘coaching philosophy’. Upholding a coach identity in an ‘honest’ disposition so athlete to coach respect could be best attained was expressed by all participants and contrasted with Goffman’s concepts of front and backstage impression management. Self-reflexive practices of Foucault’s askesis were engaged to varying levels to create a coach identity. In three cases this resulted in participants' contestation of their respective club’s identity/culture and losing employment as a coach. Finally, recommendations on how coach education structures can further support these coaches in their career transitions are made.

Despite a developing literature on various facets of sporting embodiment, there is currently a research lacuna with regard to in-depth analyses of actually ‘doing’ sporting activities within specific physical cultures. In this article, we address that gap by drawing on a developing theoretical literature in sociological phenomenology to investigate a particular physical–cultural domain. Here, we present and analyse data from an ethnographic study of competitive swimmers undertaken in the UK. Responding to calls to explore the domain of ‘body pedagogics’, we investigate the embodied work involved in the skilled practice of ‘doing’ and learning how to ‘do’ competitive swimming. This embodied work plays a key part in the swimmers’ ability to inhabit the competitive swimming lifeworld. In the analysis, we highlight how the acquisition and ‘habituation’ of these body techniques and skilled behaviours are not achieved simply through the repetitive rehearsal of coherent movements over time. These processes are complex, demanding practical experimentation, discovery and the ability to adapt constantly to changes in the environment and the swimmer’s own corporeality.

Qualitative social scientific research in sport, exercise and other contemporary forms of physical movement has made considerable strides in recent years, such that it is not an unreasonable claim ...

The question of whether devolved assemblies should be established for Scotland and Wales dominated considerable parliamentary time in the 1970s and became a key pillar of the Labour Government’s legislative agenda after the two 1974 General Elections. The main building blocks of the Government’s devolution proposals for Scotland and Wales were in place from 1975 with the publication of the White Paper, Our Changing Democracy. The White Paper outlined proposals for a primary law-making Assembly for Scotland and a Scottish Executive, operating under a ‘conferred powers model of devolution’. For Wales, the Assembly was to be a body corporate (with no split between Executive and Assembly) exercising only executive functions and able only to pass secondary legislation. With some important modifications (including crucially the requirement for a referendum, which was then further amended to require a Yes tally equating to 40% of the electorates in both nations), these proposals were eventually incorporated into law as the Scotland and Wales Acts 1978. While the political debates surrounding devolution in this period are well known, less attention has been paid to the practical plans undertaken by the Civil Service for devolution to become a reality. As this article demonstrates considerable time was spent drawing up, from an early stage, detailed preparations for devolution, particularly in Scotland. In Wales, planning was more tentative, yet nonetheless was taken seriously by Welsh Office. These plans never materialised in the way envisaged, with neither Welsh nor Scottish devolution able to pass the referendum thresholds put in place. However, as this article also demonstrates, both the Scotland and Wales Acts had a constitutional legacy when devolution became reality under New Labour in the late 1990s.

Recent years have seen a burgeoning in phenomenological research on sport, physical cultures and exercise. As editors and reviewers, however, we frequently and consistently see social science articles that claim to be ‘phenomenological’ or to use phenomenology, but the reasons for such claims are not always evident. Indeed, on closer reading, many such claims can often turn out to be highly problematic. At this point, we should clarify that our ‘terrain de sport’ constitutes what has been termed ‘empirical phenomenology’ (Martinkova & Parry, 2011) and more specifically from our own ‘home’ discipline, a phenomenologically inspired form of sociology. This latter tradition was developed in North America by Alfred Schutz (1972). By this, we do not mean philosophical phenomenology in all its rich and varied strands, the modern form of which was inspired by Edmund Husserl’s (1913/2002) descriptive and/or transcendental phenomenology. The term itself is derived from the Greek phainomenon, from the root phos, meaning ‘light’, thus referring to something that is placed in the light, made apparent or shown. Phenomenology is therefore the study of phenomena, things as they present themselves to, and are perceived in consciousness. Importantly, it is not just another form of qualitative research; a point which we discuss later.

The legislative consent convention forms one of a number of conventions that underpin the UK’s uncodified constitution and has been an important facet of the UK’s territorial governance post‐devolution. It provides that the UK government will not normally seek to legislate on devolved matters, and the devolution settlements, without the consent of the respective devolved legislatures. Commonly referred to as the ‘Sewel Convention’, the convention’s roots are often traced to the commitments made by Lord Sewel during the passage of the Scotland Act 1998. This article demonstrates, however, that the convention has a far deeper history that long predated Lord Sewel’s comments and goes back to the dawn of devolution in the United Kingdom, namely, the Northern Ireland Parliament that existed between 1921 and 1972. The article charts the development of the legislative consent convention from its roots in the failure of the UK government to challenge directly the Northern Ireland government over local government franchise reform in 1921, to its continued survival, even when Stormont collapsed in 1972, and argues that the convention survived owing to its role as a device of convenience and pragmatism for politicians in Westminster.

Interparliamentary relations do not attract much in the way of public or even academic attention. However, they are an aspect of parliamentary life in which there has been a series of experiments by select committees in the House of Commons. While one of the more prominent examples of such experimentation was the international grand committee on Big Data, Privacy and Democracy spearheaded by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, this article will look at another example of select committee‐led interparliamentary relations, namely the ‘joint inquiry’ conducted by the House of Commons Defence Committee and the Assemblée nationale’s Standing Committee on National Defence into Future Cruise and Anti‐Ship Missiles in 2018.\ud \ud This article, written by an official involved in the inquiry, offers the first reflections on the experience of this joint inquiry, demonstrates how the model undertaken for the inquiry differed from the approaches taken by other select committees involved in interparliamentary working, and explores whether it might offer a blueprint for future joint inquiries.

Studies of governance rarely examine how specific institutional configurations are designed to target specific ‘problem’ groups, including older adults via ‘active ageing’ policies. In Denmark, active ageing policy has been contoured by the Structural Reform of 2007, which drove changes in institutional landscapes at both national and local levels. Rather than representing a ‘hollowing out’ of control from the centre, the Danish Structural Reform comprised a decentralised re-territorialisation of welfare provision, giving the state additional fiscal powers whilst placing additional responsibility for welfare delivery at the municipal level. The introduction of ‘Activity Centres’ for older citizens in Copenhagen is an exemplar of this change. Here, the provision of sport and exercise to older citizens was driven by neoliberal consumer logic and demand for self-determination. Yet local services are delivered with communitarian goals and methods which directly incorporate service end-users in governance and decision-making processes. Older citizens are thus empowered to define meaningfulness in activities, but only as an active member of a community. Participants are conceptualised simultaneously as both consumer and voluntary promoter/supporter of active lifestyles within that community. ‘Open access’ to activity programmes is sought, but participation requires membership. Free choice is emphasized, yet activity programmes are designed according to group consensus and available resources. Claims to cater for the entire older population sit alongside a lower age limit of 65 years and the stated aim of ensuring citizens remain free of reliance upon municipal services. Activity Centres therefore represent an autonomization of responsibility for health maintenance among older citizens, whilst concurrently reflecting new techniques of arms-length state governance of their behaviour.

Since 1997, the United Kingdom’s territorial constitution has undergone an immense process of change and has resulted in the establishment of separate legislatures and governments for the peoples of Scotland, Wales and, when Stormont is operational, Northern Ireland. These changes have spawned a whole series of relationships between the institutions of the devolved UK, at executive, legislature and civil service levels. However, while intergovernmental relations has been the subject of repeated debate, there has been little attempt to document and examine the way in which the UK’s four legislatures interact with one another, post-devolution. To the extent that these interactions, otherwise known as inter-parliamentary relations (IPR), have been the subject of scrutiny, it has been largely to bemoan their modest state and/or to suggest that stronger, albeit occasionally rather unelaborated, mechanisms be established. This article seeks to correct this deficit and provide a first step towards a clearer understanding of IPR in the UK, post-devolution. The article breaks the different levels of IPR down into three main strands: (1) parliament-parliament, (2) committee-committee and (3) official-official, and suggests that the main interactions that take place at each of these levels. Following this audit, the article concludes by highlighting the role that shared policy competence (a field that is set to grow with the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union) has played in driving IPR in the UK, post-devolution, and suggests some steps that may be taken to enhance IPR in the future.

For as long as devolution has been debated in the UK, there has been fierce discussion as to the representation of the would‐be affected areas at Westminster. That this has been the case is a consequence of Westminster's dual remit as both a state‐wide and a sub‐state legislature. While this dual remit was relatively straightforward when applied to all nations of the UK, it does, however, raise serious questions about the equality of MPs at Westminster in the face of asymmetric devolution that would carve out parliament's remit in some, but not all, parts of the UK. These questions bedevilled Gladstone's Irish Home Rule Bills in the late 19th century and have been a recurrent feature of debate following New Labour's devolution programme in the late 1990s, culminating in the adoption of a system of ‘English Votes for English Laws’ by the house of commons in October 2015. This article looks at this issue through the lens of the ill‐fated Scotland and Wales Bill introduced by the Callaghan government in 1976. It explores the roots of the bill and how, and why, the idea of referring the question of territorial representation, post‐devolution, to a Speaker's conference, came to secure the initial support of cabinet as the best answer to this problem, and why the government swiftly changed its mind. Parliamentary statecraft considerations served to push a Speaker's conference onto the institutional agenda, before ultimately dooming it to failure.

Currently, there is scant research that investigates in-depth retired servicemen’s perceptions and experiences of ageing and being physically active, particularly in relation to retirement experiences. In this article, we employ a novel theoretical combination of figurational sociology and symbolic interactionism to explore a topical life history of 20 retired servicemen’s experiences in relation to physical activity (PA), the ageing body and constructions of identity in later life. Participants were aged 60+ and members of the Royal British Legion in a city in the English Midlands. Three semi-structured focus-group interviews and follow-up conversations were completed, together with informal observations. Key findings revealed that although participants recognised the need for regular PA, their perceptions routinely centred upon the ‘felt’ limitations of the ageing body, often in stark contrast to their former ‘disciplined’, active, military bodies. Corporeal challenges and limitations discouraged some from taking part in PA altogether. Despite their perceived bodily limitations, however, many ex-service personnel still endeavoured to stay physically active. Findings highlight the salience of the temporal aspects of older adults’ lived experiences of exercise and PA, for past experiences of PA and exercise were identified as strongly shaping current-day motivations, attitudes and behaviours.

There is increased concern with the development of resistance to insecticidal proteins currently expressed in crop plants, especially against high-resistance-risk pests such as fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, a maize pest that already has developed resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins such as Cry1F. Lepidopteran-specific proteins that bind new insect receptors will be critical in managing current Cry1F-resistant FAW and delaying future resistance development. Results from resistant insect assays, disabled insecticidal protein (DIP) bioassays, and cell-based assays using insect cells expressing individual receptors demonstrate that target receptors of the Cry1Da_7 and Cry1B.868 proteins are different from each other and from those of commercially available Bt proteins such as Cry1F, Cry1A.105, Cry2Ab, and Vip3A. Therefore, pyramiding these two new proteins in maize will provide durable control of this economically important pest in production agriculture., Two new modified Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins, Cry1Da_7 and Cry1B.868, with activity against fall armyworms (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith), were evaluated for their potential to bind new insect receptors compared to proteins currently deployed as plant-incorporated protectants (PIPs) in row crops. Results from resistant insect bioassays, disabled insecticidal protein (DIP) bioassays, and cell-based assays using insect cells expressing individual receptors demonstrate that receptor utilizations of the newly modified Cry1Da_7 and Cry1B.868 proteins are distinct from each other and from those of commercially available Bt proteins such as Cry1F, Cry1A.105, Cry2Ab, and Vip3A. Accordingly, these two proteins target different insect proteins in FAW midgut cells and when pyramided together should provide durability in the field against this economically important pest. IMPORTANCE There is increased concern with the development of resistance to insecticidal proteins currently expressed in crop plants, especially against high-resistance-risk pests such as fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, a maize pest that already has developed resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins such as Cry1F. Lepidopteran-specific proteins that bind new insect receptors will be critical in managing current Cry1F-resistant FAW and delaying future resistance development. Results from resistant insect assays, disabled insecticidal protein (DIP) bioassays, and cell-based assays using insect cells expressing individual receptors demonstrate that target receptors of the Cry1Da_7 and Cry1B.868 proteins are different from each other and from those of commercially available Bt proteins such as Cry1F, Cry1A.105, Cry2Ab, and Vip3A. Therefore, pyramiding these two new proteins in maize will provide durable control of this economically important pest in production agriculture.

This thesis offers the first detailed assessment of an event that has hitherto been consigned to the margins of the literature on devolution and territorial reform in the United Kingdom, the Conference on Devolution, 1919-1920. Sitting between October 1919 and April 1920, the Conference on Devolution was arguably one of the two moments in the UK’s constitutional history when the territorial constitution was approached in a holistic fashion by policy makers and political elites (the other occasion being the Royal Commission on the Constitution, 1969-1973). The primary aim of this thesis is to provide the first detailed analysis of the Conference on Devolution, to develop a fuller understanding of why it was established, what it debated and why it failed. Secondary to that objective, this thesis will also assess what relevance the Conference has for students of territorial governance in the UK today, at a time when the UK’s constitution is in flux. In pursuit of these objectives, the thesis utilises the ideas and insights on territorial governance of James Bulpitt and James Mitchell, alongside an extensive catalogue of archival evidence, including the previously unstudied (in the context of the Conference on Devolution) personal papers of the Conference’s Secretary, Gilbert Campion. Using this methodology and archival sources, the thesis offers a considerable revision to previous understandings of the Conference on Devolution. It demonstrates that the Conference’s fatal disagreement on how the devolved legislatures should be composed, was not, as has been previously portrayed, just a disagreement at the latter stages of the Conference’s work, but was instead a cleavage that undercut the entirety of the Conference on Devolution. Finally, the thesis highlights the clear resonance between the issues deliberated by the Conference and many of today’s territorial governance debates.

County Sports Partnerships (CSPs) epitomise the growing reliance upon building networks and partnerships sports delivery. This study investigated how social networks were created and contested in a CSP-led programme entitled the ‘Workplace Challenge’ (WPC). The WPC used a web-platform to encourage workplace-based teams to engage in physical activity by self-recording their activity over an eight-week period. Points were awarded for activity completed and a peer-challenge facility was promoted via online league tables, prizes and the opportunity to ‘challenge’ other users. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of seventeen participants recruited from one public and one private sector workplace and from a sample of participants registered as individuals. Two programme planners employed by the CSP also took part. A figurational framework was utilised to investigate participants’ negotiation of networks of embodied and virtual relationships within the programme. Findings suggest the messages promoted in the WPC were disseminated and transformed according to the organizational structure of these networks. Embodied social relationships within workplaces reinforced peer support in professional I-we identities, whereas virtual networks sometimes highlighted participants’ isolation. Moreover, emphasis upon competition within and between teams caused some to question their performance. Often, competition motivated engagement. For less active participants, constant comparison could prove discouraging, particularly if participants felt they had let their colleagues down. Planners of similar programmes must be cognizant of the uneven manner of programme dissemination. Contextual differences at the point of delivery including existing organizational structures and power hierarchies have an impact upon participants’ perceptions of a programme.

The subjective, lived elements of old age in physical activity promotion are central in defining how older people ascribe meaning to experiences of being active. Many such meanings are developed throughout the life course. From a longitudinal perspective, although continuity theory can be helpful in understanding older people’s sense of self and personal change, its focus on the individual can underplay the substantive influence of socio-cultural factors on the way age and ageing are understood. Using a figurational sociological framework, we illustrate how older peoples’ sense of self can be interdependent with how others define them and how they define others. We offer recommendations about how this shift in perspective can empower older people to be active agents within the figurations of physical activity promotion.

Swimming and aquatic activity are fields in which gendered, embodied identities are brought to the fore, and the co-presence of other bodies can have a significant impact upon lived experiences. To date, however, there has been little research on sport and physical cultures that investigates how meanings associated with space impact upon women’s embodied experiences of participating in swimming, specifically in the presence of their young children. Using semi-structured interviews and non-participant observations, this qualitative study employed a Foucauldian-feminist framework to explore self-perceptions and embodied experiences of aquatic activity amongst 20 women, who were swimming with children aged under four. Results highlight that through ‘felt’ maternal responsibilities, the co-presence of babies’ and children’s bodies shifted women’s intentionality away from the self towards their child. Mothers’ embodied experiences were grounded in perceptions of space-specific ‘maternal instincts’ and focused upon disciplining their children’s bodies in the lived-space of the swimming pool. Key findings cohere around mothers’ felt concerns about hygiene, water temperature and safety, and elements of intercorporeality and ‘somatic empathy’.

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. At the beginning of the 2013/2014 season in England and Wales, 90 head coaches of the 92 men's national professional football league clubs and 20 of the 22 men's professional rugby union clubs had tenure as a professional elite player in their respective sports. Moreover, Rynne [(2014). ‘Fast track’ and ‘traditional path’ coaches: Affordances, agency and social capital. Sport, Education and Society, 19, 299–313] has claimed that many former elite athletes are ‘fast-tracked’ through formal accreditation structures into these high-performance coaching roles. The reasons why former elite athletes dominate head coaching roles in professional sports clubs and why a ‘fast-track’ pathway from elite athlete to high-performance coach is supported remain unclear. Thereby the present study sought to address this issue by investigating the basis for ‘fast-tracked’ head coaching appointments. Eight male directors of men's professional football and rugby union clubs in England were interviewed to examine how particular coaching skills and sources of knowledge were valorised. Drawing upon Bourdieu's conceptual framework, the results suggested that head coaching appointments were often based upon the perceived ability of head coaches gaining player ‘respect’. Experiences gained during earlier athletic careers were assumed to provide head coaches with the ability to develop practical sense and an elite sporting habitus commensurate with the requirements of the field of elite sports coaching. This included leadership and practical coaching skills to develop technical and tactical astuteness, from which, ‘respect’ could be quickly gained and maintained. The development of coaching skills was rarely associated with only formal coaching qualifications. The ‘fast-tracking’ of former athletes for high-performance coaching roles was promoted by directors to ensure the perpetuation of specific playing and coaching philosophies. Consequently, this may exclude groups from coaching roles in elite men's sport. The paper concludes by outlining how these findings might imply a disjuncture between the skills promoted during formal coaching qualifications and the expectations club directors have of elite coaches in these sports.

In the wake of the repeated electoral losses suffered by the Scottish and Welsh Liberal Democrats in 2011 and 2012, it is perhaps unsurprising that recent analysis has focused on the ‘toxic impact of the federal party's coalition with the Conservative party’ on the devolved state parties electoral fortunes. Certainly this significant electoral collapse, alongside the hostility to both parties recorded in the 2011 Scottish and Welsh electoral surveys, could be said to lend credence to such a research focus. However, this article argues that the real potency of the Westminster coalition has resulted from it exacerbating and exposing weaknesses that have long blighted the Liberal Democrats in Scotland and Wales. Indeed, by adopting an approach that places the Scottish and Welsh Liberal Democrats' current woes within a historical context, this article will contend that such frailties highlight structural weaknesses at the very heart of the Liberal Democrats federally.

In the decades since the Conference on Devolution's proceedings concluded in stalemate in April 1920, the Conference has been consigned to the margins of political and constitutional history. However, within this limited literature, one interpretation of the Conference's proceedings has been universally held: that the subject of the powers the devolved legislatures should enjoy was a rare source of consensus. This article challenges this orthodoxy, using archival evidence from the Conference to demonstrate that while a consensus on powers may have existed on paper, such agreement certainly did not exist in practice.

Amid the fallout from the Scottish independence referendum, a UK constitutional convention has been proposed as a mechanism to take stock not only of the referendum, but also of the past fifteen years of devolution. However, despite longstanding conceptions of British constitutional development, a constitutional convention would not herald a brave new world for the UK's constitution. As the article highlights, in the past hundred years there have been two attempts to treat the territorial constitution in the round: the Speaker's Conference on Devolution, 1919–1920 and the Royal Commission on the Constitution, 1969–1973. This article examines both of these forums, arguing that they provide clear warnings for a future UK constitutional convention, in particular the threat of internal division that any such forum risks facing. A danger that this article highlights is heightened by the associated difficulty of reaching agreement across the UK's ‘state of unions’.

Of the main UK political parties, the Liberal Democrats have been unique in their commitment to federalism. This federalism stretches to the Liberal Democrats’ organisational structure and constitution and to their vision for the structure of the United Kingdom as a whole. A decade after devolution, and with proposals for further reform of the constitution, one might imagine that these federal beliefs would see the party placed at the vanguard of these constitutional debates. Looking in more detail at the party’s organisational and ideational federalism, however – and with particular emphasis on the party’s organisational and ideational English Questions – produces a very different picture, leaving the party on many fronts vulnerable to charges of being federalist in name only.

There is a dearth of research on how the physically active body is experienced during rehabilitation from serious illness. The present study investigated older adults’ embodied experiences and changing perceptions of self in one cardiac rehabilitation (CR) scheme in the East of England. Fourteen interviews were completed with participants in a CR scheme. A figurational approach was utilised which emphasised the need for participants to delineate their own logic of experience from the perspective of their active body during CR. Data were thematically analysed and individual experiences were situated in wider power relationships within and beyond the exercise class. Recurring themes emerged including participants’ perceptions of lost control during illness, the centrality of embodied sensations during rehabilitation and the interdependence of their embodied experiences with those of other bodies through overt and covert monitoring of physiological, emotional and psychological responses to rehabilitation. Du...

This article investigates the embodied experiences of a group of professional sports labour migrants whose experiences have largely been ignored by sociological literature: southern hemisphere rugby players playing professional rugby league in the United Kingdom. The migrant pathway from Australasia to the UK is well established. Moreover, rugby league is a sport in which debate concerning the merits of employing labour migrants from Australasia is prevalent and ongoing. The study used interview and questionnaire data to investigate the embodied experiences facing this group of migrant professionals. Migrant experiences prior to migrating were contoured by access to resources and by the formal and informal relationships developed through professional and personal careers. The embodied and complex nature of contractual negotiations is highlighted. The centrality of embodied migrant identity and habitus is noted in relation to acculturation strategies adopted over time and space, both prior to and during a foreign sojourn, in terms of established and outsider groups. The paper also highlights how subgroups within a more general group of labour migrants can emerge. Furthermore, the complex influence of personal and professional relationships was found to be both enabling and constraining. These differences between subgroups are considered in light of previous work on acculturation strategies and the existential nature of migration. Future research requirements in the sports labour migration field are suggested.

Older adults' participation in Physical Activity (PA) in the United Kingdom remains low. Moreover, although the subjective and narrative elements of aging are increasingly studied, promotion of healthy behaviours such as aquatic PA still frequently reduces older adults to passive recipients who rely on health professionals for their wellbeing. Using a figurational perspective, the relationship between participants' perceptions of the aging body and participation in aquatic activity was investigated. Interviews were completed with 22 adults aged over 50 years (7 men, 15 women). Participants highlighted a number of perceptual barriers that were contoured by wider social representations of older adults. Perceptions focussed upon the perceived limitations of the aging body. The need for regular participation in PA was recognised. However the potential for angst when wearing a bathing costume in the presence of 'others' was expressed, particularly amongst those considering themselves overweight. Participants objectified their bodies and compared them with those of other participants. The difficulties of managing physical (e.g. injury and illness) and environmental risk were described. At the same time, participants experienced the development of new webs of interdependence. These webs were both enabling and constraining. Some participants felt empowered. However, the exclusivity of many aquatic activity sessions re-emphasised the status of older adults as outsiders in the wider figuration of physical activity.

The Conference on Devolution, which sat between October 1919 and April 1920, has been largely relegated to footnote status, a curiosity attracting only minimal attention in the academic literature. In the admittedly sparse literature on the conference, the Judiciary sub-committee has attracted scant attention and yet it is one of the most fascinating chapters in the conference's brief existence. Using previously unexplored evidence, this article demonstrates that the Judiciary sub-committee's deliberations not only highlight the ambiguities surrounding the place of Wales in the Union, but that they were also subject to a lobbying effort from central government unparalleled in the conference's activities.

Young people using powered wheelchairs have limited access to engaging leisure activities. We address this issue through a two-stage project; 1) the participatory development of a set of wheelchair-controlled, movement-based games (with 9 participants at a school that provides education for young people who have special needs) and 2) three case studies (4 participants) exploring player perspectives on a set of three wheelchair-controlled casual games. Our results show that movement-based playful experiences are engaging for young people using powered wheelchairs. However, the participatory design process and case studies also reveal challenges for game accessibility regarding the integration of movement in games, diversity of abilities among young people using powered wheelchairs, and the representation of disability in games. In our paper, we explore how to address those challenges in the development of accessible, empowering movement-based games, which is crucial to the wider participation of young people using powered wheelchairs in play.

The Governing body for aquatic activity in the UK (the ASA) has initiated a number of health initiatives during the past two years. These initiatives are in response to modern health problems, including rising levels of obesity. Regular aquatic activity offers significant potential to reduce the prevalence of obesity, as it is affordable and widely available. ‘Swim for Health’ is a multi-agency partnership in two local authority districts in the North of England. It aims to decrease health inequalities in four key groups; pre-school children and their families, people in full time employment, people with a range of health needs, including obesity, and people aged over 50 years. The principal aim of this study was to evaluate the success of the ‘Swim for Health’ initiative in achieving its stated aims. Methods were based upon a programme theory evaluation model. Attendance figures were analysed by session and by local authority. 82 Semi-structured interviews were completed with organisers, participants and non-participants. 269 Questionnaires were completed to augment interview data. ‘Swim for Health’ has increased aquatic participation in specific groups. Participants belonged to the intended groups, suggesting target populations utilised services as intended. Participants were largely female. Self-reported physical activity levels were higher in participants than non-participants. Perceptions of risk and of participants’ bodies were key barriers to participation. ‘Swim for Health’ is meeting many of its aims, including increasing participation and offering a range of aquatic services. However, a number of weaknesses remain, particularly a failure to engage with male participants.

For decades, the United States has seen an increasing number of immigrants, which has led to a significant increase in cultural diversity in the United States. This phenomenological study examines the contextual history of professional non-native English-speaking women in the United States to form a basis of comparison with native English speakers. It attempts to compare their lived communicative experiences with those of non-native English speakers in the workplace. In this study, 16 professional, native English-speaking women currently working in the US were interviewed. Participants in this study were asked to describe professional and intercultural experiences through interactions with non-native English-speaking coworkers, any expectations of the interactions or violations of those expectations, and any miscommunications that may have occurred. Many native English speakers positively reflected upon these intercultural interactions and shared examples of their vocal adjustments and challenges of verbal and intercultural communication. To overcome these challenges, professional native English speakers described trying to slow speech or asking confirming questions such as “Do you understand?” to mitigate verbal conflicts and miscommunication. Based on the trends within the responses, however, there is a potential for unintentional and often offensive consequences to occur. Several coping mechanisms were found to be considered rude or off-putting by non-native speakers, while the intent of a more direct message was often misinterpreted by native English speakers. In addition, it seems that native English speakers often may have good intentions in their actions but do not have the skillset to better facilitate communication with non-native English speakers.