Publications

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 –…

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the Autumn Statement of 2011 that the public sectorpay freeze would come to an end in 2012/13, with public sector pay awards of 1 per cent planned overthe next 2 years thereafter. Emphasis was also placed on making public sector pay more responsive tolocal labour market conditions. Evidence…

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…

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…

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…

This article draws on investigations of worker response to two factory closures to develop recent discussions around mobilization theory. With many shared characteristics between the factories, both located in the garment manufacturing sector, and with similar workforces and union organization, certain key distinguishing features between the two provide insights into why worker protest became effectively…

The role of emotion in social movement mobilization and political protest has received renewed attention in the past decade. However, few, if any, studies have followed the emotional trajectories of activists through their involvement in protest activity. This paper explores the significance of emotion in rural protests in Britain since 1997. Drawing on first-hand and…

The south Wales’ valleys had been at the centre of the Industrial Revolution in the 1920s and so at the cutting edge of skilled practices developed in the mining and steel industries. Men came to these remote and typologically impressive places, settled, created communities, brought up families and passed down their skills. The last working…

This exploratory study examines issue salience and the discourse on human rights in the principal parties’ manifestos in UK state-wide Elections 1945–2010. Innovative aspects include the application of combined qualitative and quantitative techniques. These are used to test a series of hypotheses. The findings reveal the nature and extent of the party politicisation of human…