Publications

During the mid-to-late 1980s, ‘locality’ was the spatial metaphor to describe and explain the shifting world of regional studies. The paper argues that the resulting ‘localities debate’ threw this baby out with the bathwater and rather than invent new concepts to capture socio-spatial relations in the twenty-first century, the paper urges a ‘return to locality’…

This paper explores the spatial practices of public engagement through the consideration of an audio walk project that took place in Ebbw Vale in the summer of 2010. In the current political climate public engagement is often seen as a universal good, a way of demonstrating the productive dialogues that exist between ‘experts’ and their…

This paper seeks to help reconceptualize the spaces of local and regional economies by developing the idea of the compound economy. It is set in the context of a growing body of work in geography that emphasizes the importance of culture as a factor shaping differentiated local and regional economic development and, correspondingly, as an…

Insufficient research attention has been paid to the way that electoral politics shape public policy on overseas development aid. Accordingly, this study makes an original contribution by examining party politicisation, issue-salience and the policy discourse of international aid in the principal parties’ manifestos in post-war UK state-wide elections. The findings show that over the past…

This paper examines everyday interactions, and particularly the role of traditional ritual and relationships, in the mobilization of rural social movements in Taiwan. In Chinese society, ‘guanxi’ (interpersonal relationships) are involved in everyday social interactions. Studies of collective action, such as social movements, cannot ignore the role that ‘guanxi’ play. This paper argues that collective…

This paper examines the impact of devolution on social welfare for older people and the associated administration of age equality. Analysis of policy discourse, rights and stakeholders’ views reveals divergent practice in the constituent nations of the UK. In normative terms this is shown to present a tension between universal welfare rights and entitlements –…

A relatively large literature base exists on the use of GIS to measure accessibility in transport studies. Often such research efforts have been conducted as part of wider studies of social exclusion to public transport opportunities. This paper aims to explore the use of floating catchment analysis (FCA) techniques to measure access to public transport…

This paper explores the concept of safeguarding children being ‘everybody’s business’ as it is experienced in one neighbourhood in south Wales, UK. Safeguarding is defined here as the protection of children and the enhancement of their well-being. A qualitative case study design engaged residents of all ages, community sector workers and statutory sector workers in…

Despite continued efforts through improved levels of investment in infrastructure and education, Wales continues to trail behind the rest of the UK in terms of productivity performance. In this paper we review recent trends and present firm-level findings that suggest that the Priority Sectors first identified by the Welsh Government’s latest economic plan have little…

In this paper we use the most recently available data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, April 2011, to examine the size of the gender pay gap in Wales. The paper looks at how the gender pay gap varies across industries and occupations in Wales and analyses how the gender pay gap has…