294 research outputs found
Remodelling the third sector: advancing collaboration or competition in community-based initiatives?
No full textIn the last decade, UK public agencies have increasingly been required to collaborate with non-state providers to deliver welfare services. Third sector organisations are now providers of services from early years to old age, taking a growing role in children and young people's services in socially deprived neighbourhoods. National policy has recognised third sector expertise in working with marginal groups of people. However, changing relationships with the state have drawn community organisations into new, often uncomfortable, organisational arrangements, affecting their work and their roles in relation to service users and community stakeholders.
This article examines recent changes from a third sector perspective, drawing on data from a study of community-based organisations providing children and young people's services in deprived localities. It considers the changing environment of ‘new localism’ affecting these organisations, focusing on recent plans for local area commissioning of services.
The article identifies some progress in supporting community services in deprived areas but illustrates how the continuing emphasis on competitive contracts and centrally driven frameworks undermines collaborative work and community trust. It argues that such mechanisms may serve short-term state interests but devalue the very community-level work, which is increasingly being promoted to address challenging social problems
Book review: Linda Milbourne voluntary sector in transition: hard times or new opportunities?
No full textLinda Milbourne Voluntary Sector in Transition: Hard Times or New Opportunities?, Bristol: Policy Press, 2013. 224 pp. £70 (hbk). ISBN 9781847427236 This book by Linda Milbourne is a theoretically informed and empirically rich study of how recent political and policy developments in England have affected the voluntary sector and how voluntary sector organisations (VSOs) are responding, adapting and in some instances, resisting these developments. Whilst it is primarily based on research conducted during the time of New Labour, Milbourne also examines continuities and changes in the policy landscape that have occurred under the Coalition government since 2010. The author illustrates, in great detail, how the policy landscape is changing and examines the challenges faced by VSOs on a number of fronts including the substantial reduction in funding; growing privatisation of public services and contracting; and the continuing dominance and growth of a culture of managerialism with its emphasis on ‘performance management’. Milbourne draws on extensive field research conducted in England to demonstrate how VSOs are coming under increased pressure to show impact by providing measurable evidence of outcomes and to demonstrate efficiency
The structural invisibility of outsiders: the role of migrant labour in the meat-processing industry
No full textThis article examines the role of migrant workers in meat-processing factories in the UK. Drawing on materials from mixed methods research in a number of case study towns across Wales, we explore the structural and spatial processes that position migrant workers as outsiders. While state policy and immigration controls are often presented as a way of protecting migrant workers from work-based exploitation and ensuring jobs for British workers, our research highlights that the situation ‘on the ground’ is more complex. We argue that ‘self-exploitation’ among the migrant workforce is linked to the strategies of employers and the organisation of work, and that hyper-flexible work patterns have reinforced the spatial and social invisibilities of migrant workers in this sector. While this creates problems for migrant workers, we conclude that it is beneficial to supermarkets looking to supply consumers with the regular supply of cheap food to which they have become accustomed
Growing places: community gardening, ordinary creativities and place-based regeneration in a northern English city
No full textCadmium uptake and partitioning in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivars with different tuber-Cd concentration
No full textPotatoes grown in soil with high Cd concentrations can accumulate high levels of Cd in the tubers. Although there is significant environmental variation involved in the trait of crop uptake of Cd, there are also distinctive cultivar differences. In order to understand this differential Cd accumulation mechanism, two potato cultivars were chosen that accumulate high and low levels of Cd in tubers. The patterns of Cd concentration, Cd content and dry weight accumulation of the two cultivars were examined at different stages of plant growth. The data suggest that differences in total Cd uptake and in Cd partitioning among organs are the mechanisms governing differential Cd-tuber accumulation in the two cultivars. The low tuber-Cd accumulator exhibited lower root-to-shoot and shoot-to-tuber translocation driven by higher root and shoot biomass that retained more Cd in roots and shoots, respectively, reducing its movement to the tubers. Higher remobilization and more efficient tuber loading was observed in the high tuber-Cd accumulator, indicating that remobilization of Cd from leaves to tubers was a major factor, not only in tuber-Cd loading, but also in the establishment of differential tuber-Cd levels. Regardless of cultivar differences, the concentration of Cd in the tuber was very low compared to that in other organs suggesting that, despite its high phloem mobility, Cd tends to be sequestered in the shoots.Molla F. Mengist, Dan Milbourne, Denis Griffin, Mike J. McLaughlin, Joanne Creedon, Peter W. Jones, Sheila Alve
Is Foreign-Owned Capital a Bad Thing to Tax?
No full textThe aging population has raised at least two concerns about tax policy. First, taxes will need to be increased to cover higher public-pension and medical-care expenses when baby boomers have retired. Second, taxes can be cut in the meantime, as the government realizes the "fiscal dividend" that accompanies its debt reduction program (that has been motivated by the aging population development). This paper uses a simple endogenous growth analysis to examine these issues. It is assumed that sales tax increases are infeasible on political grounds. Two conclusions emerge: the income tax rate levied on domestic residents should be cut during the debt-reduction period, and the tax rate on foreigners whose capital is operating in Canada should be increased later on when the bulk of the baby boomers have retired.fiscal policy, endogenous growth, open economy
Sensitivity of low-degree solar p modes to active and ephemeral regions: Frequency shifts back to the Maunder minimum
No full textWe explore the sensitivity of the frequencies of low-degree solar p modes to near-surface magnetic flux on different spatial scales and strengths, specifically to active regions with strong magnetic fields and ephemeral regions with weak magnetic fields. We also use model reconstructions from the literature to calculate average frequency offsets back to the end of the Maunder minimum. We find that the p-mode frequencies are at least 3 times less sensitive (at 95 per cent confidence) to the ephemeral-region field than they are to the active-region field. Frequency shifts between activity cycle minima and maxima are controlled predominantly by the change of active region flux. Frequency shifts at cycle minima (with respect to a magnetically quiet Sun) are determined largely by the ephemeral flux, and are estimated to have been or less over the last few minima. We conclude that at epochs of cycle minimum, frequency shifts due to near-surface magnetic activity are negligible compared to the offsets between observed and model frequencies that arise from inaccurate modelling of the near-surface layers (the so-called surface term). The implication is that this will be the case for other Sun-like stars with similar activity, which has implications for asteroseismic modelling of stars
A guilty conscience makes a rebel, or, Rulers no terrour to the good : prov'd in a sermon preached on the thirtieth of Jamuary 1712/13 : being the solemn day of fasting and humiliation for the execrable murder of Charles the Martyr of blessed memory : at the parish-church of St. Ethelburga : with a preface reflecting on a late pamphlet called The ass and the serpent /
No full textSignatures: A-D⁴ (D4 missing).Advertisement: p. [1] at end.Includes bibliographical references in marginal notes.Title within mourning border.ESTCMode of access: Internet.Clark Library copy: [8], 23 p.; 20 cm
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