Productivism is allegedly dead, long live productivism. Evidence of continued productivist attitudes and decision-making in South-East England

The adjustment of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) initiated in the mid-1980s in response to its high cost and in-built tendency for overproduction set in train a series of measures that have been interpreted as reversing the former emphasis on agricultural production and diverting farmers towards alternative approaches to running their businesses. The policy reform measures have been characterised as contributing to a structural transition from a ‘productivist’ to ‘post-productivist’ era in agriculture, although empirical evidence for such reorientation at the farm level is less than conclusive. This paper reports on results from an analysis of large-scale commercial farmers in an area of relatively intensive arable and mixed livestock farming using documentary and survey sources to seek evidence of this transition over the long-term. Although these farmers have engaged with policy reform measures where these do not conflict with their primary objective, they continue to intensify and specialise their agricultural operations and to concentrate productive farm resources through accumulation and expansion.     

"Not a Cigarette Paper Between Us": Integrated Inspection of Children's Services in England

Children's services in England are undergoing their most radical transformation since 1948 following the passage of the Children Act 2004. A key part of these changes is the legal requirement to have an Integrated Inspection Framework to assess the extent to which the new Children's Services Authorities have succeeded in meeting five key outcomes—being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic well‐being. To this end, up to ten national inspectorates have to coordinate their activities to a hitherto unparalleled extent. This article describes the nature and scale of the new remit and identifies a number of unresolved issues that could impede progress. It is argued that the policy has the hallmarks and accompanying limitations of a top–down exercise in policy formulation and implementation.     

The Secular and the Radical in Irish Associational Culture of Mid-Victorian Glasgow

It will be argued in this article that, in engaging with a diasporic network centred on the Dublin-centred National Brotherhood of St Patrick, a more public and confident Irish Catholic leadership emerged in Glasgow during the 1860s. The self-improving reading room culture that the Brotherhood was at pains to provide for also, however, proved attractive to Irish-Scots workers and gave them important formal associational experience. When the local Catholic hierarchy portrayed this as secret society nationalism in disguise, leading Irish Catholic worthies reacted by publicly associating themselves with more militant nationalists in expressions of an Irishness that was both secular and, at times, radical.     

Centacare in the Northern Territory

Abstract

At the present time, social work in England finds itself at the crossroads. Against a backdrop of economic globalisation, it has been caught up in New Labour's modernising policy discourse that has recast social justice in terms of opportunity, inclusion, and “choice”. More recently, this has been extended by the introduction of a “respect agenda”, a reaction to the loss of community cohesion and the rise in antisocial behaviour. In the present article, two alternative paradigmatic responses are explored reflecting a debate between evidence-based practice (EBP) and critical practice (CP). These may be juxtaposed because they offer different visions of what social work could become in the future while providing two important reference points against which current practice may be judged. Whereas the former has been depicted as a “search for certainty” that largely complements the modernising discourse, CP works with both certainty and uncertainty in the quest for more emancipatory change. In practice, English social workers may manage such contradictions by looking down both roads and incorporating elements of both in their practice: adopting elements of EBP to justify their interventions and become more research minded while embracing aspects of CP to engage with structural issues that lie at the root of injustice.     

Understanding the Planning Challenges of Brownfield Development in Coastal Urban Areas of England

Coastal settlements, whether rooted in port, defence or tourism economies, have experienced considerable economic, social and environmental change over the last 30–40 years, which has often resulted in building obsolescence and vacant land. Brownfield sites, especially on the waterfront, are strategically valuable, but can be constrained by costs of treatment, the fragmentation of available plots, complex landownership and declining property values. This paper addresses the need for a better understanding of the characteristics of brownfield land in English coastal communities and the challenges faced by planning in the regeneration of these sites through an analysis of the National Land Use Database and a survey of Heads of Planning Service. There is a plentiful supply of brownfield sites on the coast, but one-fifth requires remedial treatment and over half is concentrated in the ‘coastal challenges’ cluster. Economic circumstances and frequent policy shifts have impeded the redevelopment of brownfield land on the coast and forced greater pressure onto greenfield sites.     

试析近代早期英国对乞讨的限制

乞讨是人类历史上长期存在的社会现象,在近代早期,英国对乞讨进行了区别对待,分别给以惩罚和救济。此时,英国乞讨限制呈现出三管齐下的基本特征：精英献策、政府立法和城镇执行。英国对乞讨限制的这一特征使它有力地遏制住乞讨这一社会痼疾,从而保证了英国顺利地实现向近代社会的转型。     

论17世纪初英国民众争取司法独立的斗争及其原因

科克严厉批判了君权神授的专制主义思想观念,为17世纪初英国民众争取司法独立奠定了思想基础。斗争主要集中在普通法的主导地位、特权法庭的合法性和国王对司法的干预等问题上,其实质是专制王权和法治两种本质对立因素的你死我活的激烈斗争。中等阶层的壮大和货币经济的发展,是这一时期英国争取司法独立斗争的根本原因。     

英国中世纪“拓殖运动”影响探析

英国“拓殖运动”是指发生在11～13世纪的大规模移民、拓边行为。它不仅是一种社会活动,而且是当时社会生产力发展的一种表现形式。它与城市的兴起构成了这一时期最为瞩目的经济活动,其意义重大,影响深远。“拓殖运动”不仅推动了英国社会经济的繁荣发展和农奴解放运动的进行,也促使封建主对庄园内部的生产关系进行了局部调整,稳定了社会秩序。     

论哈代宿命论产生缘由

哈代的大部分小说都包含着悲观主义宿命论。对他而言,人类总是被一种超自然力所压制着,他把这种力量归结为先定的命运。文章分析了哈代的成长经历及其所生活的维多利亚时代背景,探讨了达尔文进化论和斯宾塞哲学在哈代宿命论形成过程中的作用。     

‘Replacement Care’ for Working Carers? A Longitudinal Study in England, 2013–15

In the context of rising need for long‐term care, reconciling unpaid care and carers’ employment is becoming an important social issue. In England, there is increasing policy emphasis on paid services for the person cared for, sometimes known as ‘replacement care’, to support working carers. Previous research has found an association between ‘replacement care’ and carers’ employment. However, more information is needed on potential causal connections between services and carers’ employment. This mixed methods study draws on new longitudinal data to examine service receipt and carers’ employment in England. Data were collected from carers who were employed in the public sector, using self‐completion questionnaires in 2013 and 2015, and qualitative interviews were conducted with a sub‐sample of respondents to the 2015 questionnaire. We find that, where the person cared for did not receive at least one ‘key service’ (home care, personal assistant, day care, meals, short‐term breaks), the carer was subsequently more likely to leave employment because of caring, suggesting that the absence of services contributed to the carer leaving work. In the interviews, carers identified specific ways in which services helped them to remain in employment. We conclude that, if a policy objective is to reduce the number of carers leaving employment because of caring, there needs to be greater access to publicly‐funded services for disabled and older people who are looked after by unpaid carers.