Publications

Ageing societies and cohort-based differential turnout present challenges and opportunities in political parties’ pursuit of electoral support. This article explores their response with reference to the issue salience of public policy for older people in the manifestos for Westminster and regional elections in the UK, 1945–2011. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of party programmes reveals: (1)…

This paper draws from a qualitative PhD study in Central Scotland to focus on research participants’ interpretations of my (the researcher’s) body. The research investigated the embodied experiences of health among girls aged 10-14 (P6-S4)1, through discursive spaces of schoolbased physical activity. In three Scottish secondary schools, participant observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted with…

Chapter in a collection of essays that explore the government’s shift away from regionalism to local economic development. The chapters examine issues around governance structures, planning, housing and competition between places as well as specific looks at Wales, Scotland and London. The consensus amongst the expert authors is that without proper resources the new system…

Globalization has a pervasive influence across rural Europe. From the forests of Scandinavia to the orange groves of the Mediterranean, from remote Irish farmsteads to German commuter villages, the economic, social, cultural and political lives of rural localities are being continually refashioned by globalization processes that stretch, intensity, multiply and create new relations, ties and…

Conspiracy narratives and ways of knowing are a highly visible, accessible and increasingly commonplace part of contemporary global life, permeating across spheres of politics, science and popular culture. Catalyzed by rapid developments in networked media and a political climate of enhanced government secrecy following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, thinking conspiratorially about power forms part of…

Using an analytical framework based on European Commission directives and United Nations resolutions calling for a mainstreamed and intersectional approach to age equality, this paper examines the UK’s devolved administrations’ governance practices and territorially specific public policy on older people. The findings reveal mixed progress. Whilst a number of mainstreaming prerequisites have been secured and…

Title translates as ‘Aus dem Schatten treten? Großvaterschaft, Alter und Männlichkeiten’ Recent years have witnessed an increasing recognition of the role of grandparents in contemporary families. However, there has been little if any research which emphasises the roles and relationships of grandfathers. And while the more limited contribution of grandfathers compared to grandmothers remains a…

Recent statistics indicate increases in the number of people presenting and being accepted as homeless by Welsh local authorities and there is major concern that this trend is likely to accelerate given the wider economic context, including the austerity measures. Therefore it is timely that the Welsh Government has commissioned a review of homelessness legislation…

The ethical governance of social research is now well entrenched within the academy in the UK and elsewhere. Whereas, in the not so distant past, ethical research practice was a matter for the researcher to articulate and manage, research ethics are now a matter for institutions to govern. Departmental or University ethics committees or boards…

Rescaling the State provides a theoretically-informed and empirically-rich account of the processes of devolution undertaken in the UK since 1997, focusing in particular on the devolution of economic governance. Using case studies from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, the book examines the purported reasons for, and unintended consequences of, the UK’s asymmetrical devolution settlement….