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Background: Through the extensive use of public media, the government of England was heavily involved in encouraging and instructing people on how to manage their life during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This model of health emergency governance replicates the practice of 'calculative technologies' and 'bio-politics' embedded in population management. Previous research on COVID-19 governance both in the United Kingdom and beyond provides varied revelations on broader 'technologies of government' and bio-politics by numerous governments. However, rarely have any studies explicitly and distinctively highlighted the unique 'calculative technologies' mobilised by governments within their bio-politically designed "technologies of government" to compel the populations to manage their lives under their COVID-19 guidance. The paper therefor examines how the UK government deployed "calculative technologies," as part of its strategies of health governance and governmentality during the first wave of COVID-19 in England. Methods: This study uses document analysis as its data collection method. Its review includes documents, press releases, social media disclosures and health guidance issued by the UK government from March to December, 2020. The data are analysed employing the Foucault's governmentality and bio-political scholarship. Results: The paper's findings reveal the UK government's use of integrated calculative technologies of self-governance in the form of risk calculations and metrices/statistics (eg, death tolls, infection rates), performance management (eg, two metre social distancing, and hand washing for twenty seconds) and discipline and control (eg, fourteen days selfisolation), in addition to a more conventional top-down, managerial decision-making process adopted in the past. By these newly initiated "calculative technologies," the government has "bio-politically" governed the behaviours and lifestyles of vulnerable community members, health workers and general public at a distance, inculcating selfmanagement and individualisation of responsibility. Conclusion: The newly adopted calculative technologies used by the UK government created a multi-faceted discourse of obligations, entitlements and scale of engagement, and facilitated directions about what people should do to protect themselves and others from the spread of the virus. Overall, the overtly and idiosyncratically used calculative technologies resemble a unique 'art of government' and produce a set of 'bio-political' interventions enforcing the populations to manage their own wellbeing and governing them at a distance during COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a critical examination of London's governmental and planning structures and its commitments to creating a sustainable city. Governing a world city like London has always been a difficult process. Legislative commitments to address London's sustainable future have sometimes been undermined by different policy interpretations by different key players over different time periods. This has created a fluid and diverse structure of governance that enables short-term policy shifts but which threatens longer term strategic sustainability policy commitments. These interpretations have occurred against an ongoing and contentious political debate over powers and responsibilities between different scales of the state, and the rights to make key decisions affecting London's future. This has resulted in a policy and governmental structure that is highly dependent on negotiation and compromise and one that employs a variety of policy tools, information and persuasion, financial incentives, and collaboration, to achieve a balanced form of governance. This flexible arrangement enables divergent public attitudes towards sustainability and climate change to be harnessed but may not deliver long term urban sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of key government reports, most notably the Egan Review in 2004, have raised concern regarding the availability of skills to deliver the UK Government's Sustainable Communities strategy. This paper discusses the key issues raised in these reports and the changes in regeneration policy and practice that have led to them. It also outlines the findings from a training needs study of regeneration managers in north and east London. Key skills shortages and training needs are identified and views on current continuing professional development provision and how this can be improved are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summarizes the results of two surveys of the temporal and spatial dynamics of insecticide resistance in the aphid Myzus persicae in England. Methodology; Results; Discussion.