1,721,190 research outputs found
Leveraging the potential of local government scrutiny: a case study of southampton city council’s scrutiny inquiry into its private rented sector
No full textDrawing on the authors’ experience of being involved as technical experts in Southampton City Council’s interrogation of the private rented sector, the paper considers the potential and the limitations of local government scrutiny inquires as a mechanism for assisting in the achievement of social justice. Scrutiny Inquiries are a relatively new democratic initiative introduced to provide a counterbalance to the greater concentration of powers in the council executive brought about by the Local Government Act 2000. The paper contributes to the literature on local government scrutiny, which is currently driven by public administration scholarship, by developing a holistic socio-legal analysis that seeks to embed a single case study within the wider complex legal, political and social environment. Although Scrutiny Inquiries empower back-bench local councillors and, to a lesser extent, promote community engagement in local government decision making, the paper identifies how austerity localism and reforms to the broader accountability environment have exposed gaps in the system of oversight of local government performance. Nonetheless we found there was political potential in the scrutiny inquiry process because it mobilised landlords and tenants in the city and provided a template for local action on private renting
<i>Property in Contemporary Capitalism</i> By PaddyIreland, Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2024, 310 pp., £19.99
No full textPaddy Ireland’s masterly exploration of the nature of property in contemporary capitalism argues that property is a major– and undertheorized– constituent of capitalism’s current crisis. For Ireland, property is inextricably linked to rising indebtedness, recurring economic crises, increasing inequality, environmental degradation, and the accelerating climate crisis. Urgent and fundamental reform of the property–capitalism nexus is vital, but property theory, stuck in a ‘new essentialism’, misunderstands contemporary property. Ireland observes that most property scholarship works from within an analytical jurisprudential tradition seeking universal truths about the transhistorical and transcultural essence of property. This approach, so remote from empirical realities, is woefully inadequate for telling a different story of property. If a new story is to emerge– and for Ireland it must, because property ownership, and consequentially power, is destructively concentrated in the hands of extremely wealthy individuals and corporations– then that story must be interdisciplinary, historically informed, and sufficiently eclectic to facilitate conceptualizations of property that highlight its contingency and malleability. This review is structured as follows. It begins by sketching out the contents of the book, highlighting the breadth of Ireland’s scholarship. It then responds to the book’s stated goal– to widen the conversation about property– by considering how property’s contemporary significance might be further explored. Theoretically, we ask what a more developed Polanyian perspective might add to Ireland’s analysis. Methodologically, we consider what might be required of an empirical approach to contemporary property problems. Finally, we consider the implications for the teaching of property law
Exploring the law/bodies/space regulatory conundrum
No full textThis chapter explores the possibilities for a historically informed socio-legal engagement with law and the body in the context of the regulation of housing space. Its aim is to reveal what law obscures, the human body as it constitutes and is constituted by the law. The starting point is a moment in what I describe as a liminal legal space, when the interrelationship between law and the body is unexpectedly revealed. It then tracks the processes by which that moment might materialise as a coherent and theoretically informed piece of research, noting choices made, the influences upon those choices and the consequences, as well as the closures and deferrals which are an inevitable part of the research/writing trajectory. At the same time, the chapter seeks to acknowledge some of the practical/pragmatic realities of the writing/research process, not least editorial focus, and resource constraints. The chapter is not a blueprint for research but a tentative and personal reflection on the complexities of interdisciplinary socio-legal work.</p
Living cheek by jowl: intensifications, inequalities and interconnections, a new agenda for housing law research
No full textIn this introduction we argue that the intensification of housing, which is a consequence of continued and accelerated urbanisation, raises contestations which should be at the forefront of social justice/housing law research. We consider urban intensification, introduce the papers and explore their interconnections, and provide some reflections on future research
Alien Registration- Carr, Helen S. (Presque Isle, Aroostook County)
Full text linkhttps://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/20975/thumbnail.jp
Research into the implications of the Renting Homes Act 2016 for refuge accommodation
No full textThe Research into the Implications of the Renting Homes Act (2016) for Refuge Accommodation was commissioned to provide supplementary qualitative evidence to inform the wider evaluation of the Renting Homes Act.At the outset this research sought to understand survivors’ experiences of the Act. As the research progressed, a sample of survivors could not be arranged. In response to this, the researchers conducted a literature review and semi-structured interviews with a small number of key stakeholders designed to examine how the Act has affected the management and provision of refuge accommodation.Stakeholders recognised that the Act sought to provide consistency, security and greater rights to occupiers.As regards consistency, there were issues over differences in legal advice provided about the effects of the Act, and different local authority practices experienced.As regards security and rights, while participants understood the motivations for the Act’s provisions, they expressed different views about their efficacy and workability. Participants views were affected partly by a misunderstanding of the Act and although a limited sample, participants had not experienced a survivor refusing an offer of accommodation due to their increased security and rights under the Act.Contextual challenges were raised by participants. First, there was a lack of move-on accommodation available to them, particularly in some areas, which meant that survivors stayed in refuge accommodation for longer periods. Secondly, there was greater demand for refuge accommodation. Thirdly, some survivors approached refuges with more complex needs than had previously been found. Additionally, one charitable agency said that since 2016, service providers and their staff had adopted and developed more trauma-informed practices and understandings.Although management arrangements are different across the sector, there was a suggestion that some Registered Social Landlords are exercising closer oversight over service providers. This shift may have been in train before the Act, but the Act itself has hastened this closer oversight.As regards the extension of licences, participants felt that the local authorities with which they engage have inconsistent practices as regards process and the degree of oversight. Practices range from an exchange of emails to formal applications. Some authorities automatically accept extensions, whereas others do not approve all applications.Few participants had used the power to exclude an occupier for 48 hours. The power was said to require considerable administrative time, and they would commonly be unable to source alternative accommodation. Further, the limited period was said to be unlikely to achieve anything.The primary contribution of this report has been to add to an under-researched area, detailing findings of research undertaken with key stakeholders and exploring at greater depth their views of the effects of the Renting Homes Act 2016 on the refuge sector
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