Publications

This chapter explores theoretical insights into the rhetoric of decentralist discourses and the geographical complexities and contradictions of local state remaking on the ground. It argues that by attempting to link economic and social policy in local contexts, the Government’s new localism is profound and needs to be more fully theorised in undertaking geographical political…

Homelessness prevention has become the dominant policy paradigm for homelessness services across the developed world. However, services have emerged in a piecemeal and selective manner, often restricted to particular towns and cities, with no requirement on local authorities to intervene. Wales is the first country where the government has sought to fully reorient services towards…

The purpose of this study was to better understand how teachers in Wales differ from their counterparts in England in regard to their engagement with educational research. In 2010, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) conducted a study of over 4,000 teachers in England. Many of the questions referred to their engagement in forms…

This report presents the findings of a survey on the research activity, experience and needs of staff working in the field of education in Wales. Since democratic devolution in 1999, the Welsh Government has developed an ambitious and distinctive reform agenda, which needs to be underpinned by a strong evidence base and the capacity to…

This paper draws on literature from the sociology of expectations to explore accounts of experts in cancer research and clinical practice. The cancer specialists’ accounts presented in this article are taken from interviews undertaken as part of a project that aimed to develop a research agenda for the next ten to thirty years that will…

The article explores E.M. Forster’s story The Machine Stops (1909) as an example of dystopian literature and its possible associations with the use of technology and with today’s cyber culture. Dystopian societies are often characterized by dehumanization and Forster’s novel raises questions about how we live in time and space; and how we establish relationships with the…

This article responds to Staricco’s critique of cultural political economy (CPE) for being inherently constructivist because of its emphasis on the ontologically foundational role of semiosis (sense- and meaning-making) in social life. Staricco recommends the Amsterdam School of transnational historical materialism as a more immediately productive and insightful approach to developing a regulationist critique of…

Flying Start is a Welsh Government programme which aims to improve the life chances of young children living in some of the most disadvantaged areas in Wales. Families with children up to the age of four are eligible for four entitlements: Free part time, high quality childcare for children aged two to three Enhanced health…

This article begins with a brief review of research on the development of ideas about the knowledge-based economy (analysed here as ‘economic imaginaries’) and their influence on how social forces within and beyond the academy have attempted to reorganize higher education and research in response to real and perceived challenges and crises in the capitalist…

Montée des populismes, abstention récurrente, rejet des structures partisanes, profonde défiance vis-à-vis des élites politiques en général… La crise démocratique qui touche la France (comme d’autres pays comparables) n’est pas chose nouvelle1. Les derniers résultats d’une enquête de l’institut YouGov pour Sciences Po Lyon et Sciences Po Rennes révèlent le caractère multiniveaux de cette crise2….