Irrational rationalities and governmentality-effected neglect in immigration practice: Legal migrants’ entitlements to services and benefits in the United Kingdom

Governments’ attempts to manage immigration increasingly restrict immigrants’ eligibility to healthcare, education, and welfare benefits. This article examines the operation of these restrictions in the United Kingdom. It draws on qualitative research with civil servants and NGO expert advisors, and applies sociological theories on bureaucracy as a lens to interpret these data. Conceptually, the paper employs a generative synthesis of Ritzer’s notion of “irrational rationality” and Foucault’s perspective on “governmentality” to explain observed outcomes. Findings show that public service workers struggle with complex and opaque regulations, which grant different entitlements to different categories of migrants. The confusion results in mistakes, arbitrary decisions, and hypercorrection, but also a system-wide indifference to irrational outcomes, supported by human factors in contexts of austerity. I consider this a form of governmentality-effected neglect, where power operates as much through inaction as well as through intention, but which results in exclusions of legal migrants that are harsher in practice than in law.     

Disability and Self-help: A Case Study of the Spinal Injuries Association

This paper provides an 'insider' view and suggests that organised self-help has a role to play in improving the quality of the lives of disabled people. Through a discussion of the work of the Spinal Injuries Associations, it shows the kinds of services that can be provided, controlled and run by disabled people themselves. Finally, it considers the implications of the self-help approach for the work of professionals and suggests that such an approach should be seen as complementary to medical and administrative approaches.     

Psychosemantics of “One-China” Conception: Fourth-Dimensional Resolution of Taiwan–Mainland Political Deadlock

The political conflicts between Taiwan and the Mainland have progressed, for over 50 years, from the historical hot civil war for the exclusive ownership of one China's territorial sovereignty to the contemporary cold rhetoric circularity around the geopolitical symbolism of the one-China principle. In the process, the United States has been intimately entangled in the disputes in terms of 3 alignment stages--from an unambiguous pro-Taiwan before the 1970s, the ambiguous neutrality in the early 1970s, to the contemporary pro-Mainland China. Despite the fact that during the past 3 decades the United States honored the arms sales and the Taiwan Relations Act commitments in Taiwan's favor, and simultaneously conferred the 3 Nos and 3 communiqués in Mainland China's favor, the cross-Strait tensions have persisted without the prospect of a definitive foreseeable resolution. Further, because of the lack of explicit conception of one China, the United States has to constantly resist the opposing persuasions of the 2 sides, and therefore must continue to rely on the ambiguous dual deterrence strategy for maintaining the dynamics balance over the Taiwan Strait. For such endeavors, the Clinton 4 frameworks and the Bush 5 Taiwan policies have proven to be very effective, but mostly to the extent of assuming a passive role in preventing military confrontations.     

World Class Manufacturing: Further Evidence in the Lean Production Debate1

This paper reports the results of a study into the performance and management practices of 18 autocomponents plants, nine of which were located in the UK and nine in Japan. The study compared the performance of these plants and used quantitative measures to test the use of lean production techniques among the high performers. Five plants displayed high performance on measures of both productivity and quality. All of these were located in Japan. Several measures of management practice provided some support for the lean production model, particularly in the area of process discipline and control; measures of human resource management policy and work organization proved less significant. Contextual factors pointed to the conditions necessary to support lean production; higher performing plants had more stable demand and lower absenteeism.     

Success of research-based spin-offs. State-of-the-art and guidelines for further research

The topic of this paper is research-based spin-offs from public organisations. The initial point is a discussion about the economic benefit of such companies. The paper investigates factors influencing the generation, development, and growth of research-based spin-offs built on scientific know-how or research results. An analysis of previous empirical studies allows the identification of three main groups of success factors, concerning the founder, the environment, and the later company itself. Based on Gartner’s framework of new venture creation—used as a structure-building tool and substitute of entrepreneurial theory—we give an overview of entrepreneurial success factors. We also identify inconsistencies and gaps in empirical evidence and guidelines for further research. Particular explanation seems to be necessary for incentives, ideas, and incubation environments, all having an impact on formation and performance of spin-offs.      

Rural Transport Needs

There have been important stimuli to the intensive applied study of rural public passenger transport over the past decade. These include legal obligations placed on the shire counties (of 1974) to co-ordinate provision with regard to need, rural residents'access to services, and the demands from both academic and political quarters for the rigorous assessment of local government services and functions. There are certain methodological "loose connections". Examined here is the concern with objective service quality measures linked to observed consumer behaviour as the source of information. Undue importance has been attached to the study of consumers'adaptation to service loss, at the expense of interest in questions of equity and absolute service levels. The resulting model promises both to assist in ensuring that equity and opportunity costs of subsidies are explicitly considered, and to highlight localities in which detailed household surveys and accessibility measurement excercises can most fruitfully be employed.