scholarly journals Exploring the role of the state in the depoliticisation of UK transport policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Reardon ◽  
Greg Marsden
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Analysis ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
The State ◽  
Transport Policy ◽  
Full Circle ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Uk

This paper responds to calls for greater empirical investigation of the interrelationships between depoliticisation and repoliticisation processes. It does so by applying the ‘three faces’ (governmental, societal and discursive) organising perspective to a longitudinal analysis of transport policy in the UK. This case is important because acceptance of the current dominant policy solution ‐ infrastructure spending ‐ appears to have come full circle over a 30-year period. The research finds that today’s focus on infrastructure is enabled through intersecting and reinforcing depoliticisation processes, supporting the ‘three faces’ perspective. However, the paper also highlights the need for greater recognition of the state as a meta-governor of depoliticisation and the need for clarity on which aspect of a policy solution or problem (or the connections between them) is being depoliticised and repoliticised to better elucidate politicisation processes.

Austerity, Women and the Role of the State

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicki Dabrowski
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Symbiotic Relationship ◽  
Class Relations ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
Gendered Politics ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
Everyday Experiences ◽  
The Uk

Using interviews with women from diverse backgrounds, the author of this book makes an invaluable contribution to the debates around the gendered politics of austerity in the UK. Exploring the symbiotic relationship between the state's legitimization of austerity and women's everyday experiences, the book reveals how unjust policies are produced, how alternatives are silenced and highlights the different ways in which women are used or blamed. By understanding austerity as more than simply an economic project, the book fills important gaps in existing knowledge on state, gender and class relations in the context of UK austerity. Delivering a timely account of the misconceptions of policies, discourses and representations around austerity in the UK, the book illustrates the complex ways through which austerity is experienced by women in their everyday lives.

scholarly journals Mediating the form and direction of regional sustainable development: The role of the state in renewable energy deployment in selected regions

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-317
Author(s):  
Carla De Laurentis
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
National Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Ability To Act ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Strategic Goals ◽  
The Uk ◽  
National Governments

This paper analyses and critically discusses the role of regions in implementing renewable energy (RE) policies, examining the relationship between state policy and RE deployment. Using evidence from four case study regions, Apulia and Tuscany in Italy and Wales and Scotland in the UK, the paper teases out some differences in terms of regional competencies to implement RE policies across the two countries. The national governments in both Italy and the UK have constructed regulatory and governance relationships to orchestrate and reorder economic, social and ecological challenges and devolve responsibilities at the sub-national level. This has offered an opportunity for the peculiarities of regional setups to be taken into account and regions have contributed towards the promotion of green and sustainable path development via the route of promoting RE deployment. The paper argues that the downscaling and distribution of responsibility in the cases investigated reflect the capacity and willingness of nation states to respond to and mediate the strategic goals and outcomes formulated at national and international levels. Nevertheless, while the regions investigated display differences in their incentives, capacities and capabilities to increase RE deployment, their ability to act is very much influenced by nation states, stressing the important role of the state in mediating the form and direction of RE deployment.

scholarly journals Poverty as a Political Choice: a Comparative Analysis of Reports of the UN Rapporteur’s Visits to the UK and Spain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Cummins ◽  
Emilio José Gómez-Ciriano
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis paper presents a comparative analysis of two reports by the UN Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, one for Spain and one for the UK. In both countries, austerity policies were introduced following the banking crisis of 2008. The UN Rapporteur reports highlight the damage that was done by welfare retrenchment. In particular, the reports document the impact of austerity on the most vulnerable individuals and communities. The paper uses Somers' (2008) conceptual model of citizenship as the basis for a comparative analysis of two reports. Somers' (2008) model of citizenship is a triadic one which sees the state, market and civil society as competing elements. Each one can serve to regulate and limit the influence or excesses of the other two. Somers argues that neoliberalism has seen the dominance of the market at the expense of the role of the state and the institutions of civil society. Austerity policies saw the market dominating. Having examined the context of the two reports and their conclusions, the paper discussed the implications for individual social workers’ practice and the role of social work as a profession in tackling poverty and marginalisation.

Meanings and dilemmas in community unionism

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 693-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Martínez Lucio ◽  
Robert Perrett
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
The State ◽  
Community Initiatives ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Clear Vision ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Community Unionism ◽  
Minority Ethnic

The article shows that community initiatives take different forms and are the outcome of a broader interplay of factors between workers’ interests, representation, and the strategies of unions and broader coalitions that are mobilized in specific communities. Drawing from three case studies on black and minority ethnic (BME) workers and trade unions in the UK the article looks at how the rhetoric of community unionism has been adopted in an uneven manner by trade unions: the article suggests that: (a) community initiatives are variable, (b) they lack a structure and clear vision, (c) the question of BME engagement is rarely central in many projects, and (d) the ambivalent role of the state is a significant factor in many of these initiatives. This state role is downplayed in much of the literature, thus raising dilemmas in terms of community initiatives.

Marginalised Voices: Resisting the Privatisation of Council Housing in Glasgow

2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerry Mooney ◽  
Lynne Poole
Keyword(s):  
Housing Stock ◽  
The State ◽  
Welfare Provision ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Council Housing

This paper explores the opposition to housing stock transfer in Glasgow in the early 1990s. Taking the position of anti-transfer campaigners, it argues that transfer can be interpreted as a form of ‘privatisation’ involving a profound restructuring in the role of the state in a key heartland area of welfare provision. Using interviews from housing campaigners in Glasgow, the paper argues that the much-heralded rhetoric about housing stock transfer as promoting tenant choice is highly contentious and misleading. The paper includes by highlighting that dispite the move to transfer in Glasgow, there remains a significant campaign against transfer in other parts of the UK.

scholarly journals The Role of the State in the Financialisation of the UK Economy

2015 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 666-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aeron Davis ◽  
Catherine Walsh
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Uk

scholarly journals Releasing Housing Equity in Later Life: Markets, Consumers and the Role of the State

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna Fox O’Mahony ◽  
Louise Overton
Keyword(s):  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Housing Wealth ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Consumer Interests ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Housing Equity

The role of equity release transactions in enabling older owners to draw down on their housing wealth to meet needs and wants in later life is a prominent policy trope in many asset-based welfare systems. Framed by the enactment of the Consumer Credit Legislation Amendment (Enhancement) Act 2012 (Cth) – in which the Federal Government established regulatory jurisdiction over reverse mortgage transactions – and drawing on empirical research into the uses and risks of housing equity withdrawal mechanisms in Australia,1 this article compares the recent Australian experience of equity release with the longer-established UK equity release market. Reaching across the demographic, socio-economic and policy contexts which are widely regarded as setting the scene for increasing use of housing wealth to fund financial needs after retirement, to the nature and development of equity release markets, this article draws on the UK experience to reflect on patterns of supply and demand, on the needs, circumstances and objectives of the equity release consumer population, and on the role of the state, through law and policy, in mediating the transactional interface between consumers and markets to support the matrix of consumer interests, industry growth and related government policy agendas implicated in the equity release market.

scholarly journals Transversal Connections: The Cervantes Quatercentenary in Spain and its Comparison with “Shakespeare Lives”

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (34) ◽  
pp. 91-105
Author(s):  
Keith Gregor
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
The State ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Uk ◽  
General Society

Taking as its cue the 2016 quatercentenaries of the deaths of both Shakespeare and Cervantes, the essay offers some insights into the “transversal connections” between both events as celebrated in Spain and the UK. The questions it raises and attempts to resolve are fourfold: (1) What are the reasons and also the benefits of yoking together two such apparently disparate authors, whose strongest link is, arguably, the fact they both passed away in 1616? (2) What work is being done to restore these writers to life, especially in schools where, for a variety of reasons, literature has lost its core-curricular status, and in general society where the classics seem to have less and less import? (3) What might Shakespeare or Cervantes be said to stand for in their respective cultures, both in terms of the genres they wrote in (it is often forgotten, for instance, that Cervantes was also a poet and a dramatist) and the extra-literary values they are said to transmit? (4) What is the role of the State in the safeguarding and promotion of the nation’s cultural heritage?

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