Publications

The UK has traditionally been viewed as a classic example of a unitary state in which central institutions dominate decision making. The recent Labour Government sought to counter this convention through devolution to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London and administrative decentralization to the English regions. This article examines New Labours efforts to promote sub-national…

The differentiation of rural development in eastern coastal China has been exaggerated by the rapid rural restructuring under globalization, since economic reforms and an open-door policy were initiated in 1978. The problems associated with rural restructuring in China may in part be addressed by drawing on experiences and achievements from other countries, including Britain, which…

This article deals with issues relating to trade union density and the fact that while over the past 30 years, union densities have followed a declining path in all regions, this retreat was not uniform across space. Analysis of the Labour Force Survey reveals that Wales exhibits among the highest levels of union density in…

Education and skill are increasingly used by states around the world as a central organizing principle in the regulation of migration flows. Immigration theorists have often claimed that use of education and skill to determine “who should get in” to a country is non-discriminatory, innocent and legitimate. Using the example of Canadian immigration policy, this…

Paul Peterson’s (1981) City Limits was to become one of several landmark publications in the study of urban politics during the 1980s and 1990s. It pioneered the argument that, amid the unravelling of the 1960s Great Society welfare accord and associated War on Poverty1 and now confronting the deindustrialisation of their maturing economies and the…

British Politics 6(3) pp 379-396 On the basis of extensive new empirical evidence, this article offers an assessment of how post-devolution Wales has determined the strategies employed in attempts to engage with, and influence, EU policy-making processes. The primary focus of the article is on domestic political capacity construction, rather than specifically about the impact…

The paper reviews public discourses and research on the safeguarding of other people’s children by adults at the neighbourhood level. There is much empirical evidence pointing to the existence of thriving informal communities of support and informal childcare for parents across the social classes. There appears to be less empirical evidence related to intervening with…

This report presents findings from Stakeholder Interview data relating to the position of Welsh speakers and Welsh Language provision within the public sector. The main aim of the report is to inform further investigations planned by WISERD researchers on Welsh speakers and the labour market in Wales1. There has been little previous research in this…

This paper focuses on the links between informal care provision and labour market activity at the sub-national level within the UK. Within-country analysis of this issue has been very limited to date despite the wide regional variations in informal care provision that are often present. This issue is important in the context of policy decisions…

This chapter explores the question of how different places react to economic shocks. Increasingly, economic geographers, planners and sociologists have emphasised the importance of ‘place’ in understanding and recommending responses to short-term economic shocks and long-term socio-economic transformation. Consequently, there is a growing consensus within the local and regional economic development literature that ‘one size…