Publications

This chapter examines how a new political regionalism pattern characterised by devolution and self-determination claims expressed and embodied via geo-democratic practices such as the ‘right to decide’ is emerging in three small, stateless and city-regional nations in Europe: Scotland, Catalonia and the Basque Country. Three main arguments are presented as the source of such diverse…

Neoliberalization is a variegated series of processes with a core policy set that comprises: liberalization, deregulation, privatization, recommodification, internationalization, reductions in direct taxation, and decriminalization of predatory economic activities. Compared to the era of Atlantic Fordism and Spatial Keynesianism, neoliberalization promotes uneven development in the name of competitiveness and pursues policies that largely neglect its…

Skilled jobs benefit workers and the economy alike. This report examines the evolution of job skills, the changing importance of post-graduate qualifications and gender gaps in job skills over the last 20 years in Britain. Skills trends are contrasted with faltering technical and organisational change.

Almost a decade after the financial crisis began, productivity growth has failed to recover to its pre-recession level. This report examines productivity growth from the workers’ perspective.

In January 2018, the Welsh Government appointed OB3 Research, in conjunction with the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) of Cardiff University, to undertake a scoping study for an overseas study pilot. The Welsh Government is committed to running a pilot scheme to explore the practicalities of extending the new…

Employees’ views about fairness at work are of central policy concern for their implications for personal well-being and for the desire to raise worker motivation to achieve higher productivity. This report examines beliefs about fairness among British workers and some of the factors that were important in affecting these beliefs.

This article applies an assemblage reading to the contemporary global woollen industry to demonstrate how assemblage thinking has value as a methodology for generating insights into the local impact of global economic restructuring; bridging concerns with the relationality of rural places and translocal production networks. Putting assemblage into research practice, we trace the interactions and…

A “flagship” policy outlined in the current Welsh Government’s 2016 Programme for Government aims to provide 30 hours of free early education and childcare per week to the working parents of three‐ and four‐year‐olds. However, in common with many other countries, there is currently a lack of detail regarding existing levels of childcare provision that can act as…