Publications

An interview transcript can be a rich source of geographical references whose potential are not always fully realised in their conventional analysis. Geo-referencing techniques can be used to assign a spatial footprint to place names, adding value to these data and allowing the geographic information within them to be exploited when coupled with GIS technology….

Against the backdrop of continuing rights violations in Bangladesh, this article analyses issue-salience and framing in the policy discourse of civil society organizations (CSOs) and state elites on the implementation of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Data from the reports submitted to the second-cycle United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review…

This forum contribution discusses the increasing trend toward academic capitalism and profit-oriented entrepreneurial practices in the fields of education and research. This occurs as universities, in different ways and subject to greater or lesser financial, administrative, and ideological pressures, act less like centers of disinterested education and research and more like economic enterprises that aim…

This article examines religious freedom in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) using critical frame analysis of state and civil society organisations’ (CSOs) policy discourse associated with the United Nations (UN) Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The findings show how indigenous Chinese CSOs’ input to the UPR is limited. Their voice is muted, some merely mirror…

The National Assembly of Wales has powers in 20 devolved policy areas, including education, economic development, health, housing, social services and local government. Given the social democrat character of the first three elected assemblies in Wales, Wales would appear well placed to interrupt the reproduction of socio-economic disparities. However, Wales is a relatively poor part…

Within the UK and further afield, the spatial delineation of the ‘city-region’ has seen a renaissance as the de facto spatial political unit of governance driven by economic development. This spatial realignment has been central to the construction of Northern Powerhouse and has rested alongside other agendas such as devolution, localism and austerity. The chapter…

This paper argues that city-region building debates and relatedly “post-political” literatures are missing critical perspectives on the state, particularly the state’s continued existence as a social relation and an arena for politics, its role in the regulation of uneven development and the conflicts and struggles that arise from this. The paper brings the state centrally…

This study analyses the position of Roma people in the former Yugoslavia using state and civil society discourse on human rights implementation. It reveals that states are failing to give sufficient prioritisation to tackling longstanding discrimination and oppression. Instead of positive the effects predicted by complementarity theory, the findings reveal ‘frame dis-alignment’ between political elites…

The Welsh Government’s Child Poverty Strategy provides a framework for improving the outcomes of low income households in Wales. It aims to reduce poverty, especially persistent poverty amongst some of our poorest people and communities, and also to reduce the likelihood that people will become poor. In 2014-15, the National Survey included a series of…

Patterns of participation in higher education (HE) in the UK, as elsewhere, have been marked by social inequalities for decades. UK Governments have responded with a plethora of policies and agendas aimed at addressing this broad social issue. However, little is known about how higher education institutions (HEIs) interpret and ‘enact’ these policies in relation…