Department of Politics, People & Place

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  • ItemEmbargo
    Crisis Management in English Local Government: The Limits of Resilience
    (2024-02-22) Arrieta, Tania; Davies, Jonathan S.
    Research on local government in the UK during the era of austerity has shown that the decisions taken by local councils to cope with financial stresses were often narrated through the discourse of ‘resilience’, referencing their capacity to innovate and transform services, while protecting service provision in core areas. This emphasis on ‘resilience’ focused on the deployment of strategies to overcome funding challenges. However, this earlier research did not question the longer-term risks, trade-offs and negative social implications associated with such decisions, and how, even in circumstances where these practices provided some ‘breathing space’, in the longer-term they risked adding even more strain to the system as a whole. This article fills an important research gap by considering four resilience strategies of two local authorities in England: Leicester and Nottingham. These four strategies are: savings, reserves, collaboration and investment. Applying a meso-level perspective and exploring resilience through the lens of crisis management, it asks in what ways and for whom resilience generates positive, zero and negative-sum outcomes. This research enhances our understanding of the resilience concept by reflecting on its limitations and the risks it poses for local government. It also reveals that, while the concept of ‘resilience’ has been much criticised for normalising crises and generally operating as part of a de-politicising vocabulary, research is lacking on how the practices of resilience produce positive, zero or negative-sum outcomes.
  • ItemEmbargo
    A Multi Objective Perspective to Satellite Design and Reliability Optimization
    (Elsevier, 2024-01-22) Tetik, Taha; Das, Gulesin Sena; Birgoren, Burak
    Development of a communication satellite project is highly complicated and expensive which costs a few hun dred million dollars depending on the mission in space. Once a satellite is launched into orbit, it has to operate in harsh environmental conditions including radiation, solar activity, meteorites, and extreme weather patterns. Since there is no possibility of physical maintenance intervention in space, reliability is a critical attribute for all space and satellite projects. Therefore, the redundancy philosophy and reliability measures are taken into ac count in the design phase of a satellite to prevent the loss of functionality in case of a failure in orbit. This study aims to optimize the payload design of a communication satellite by considering the system’s reliability, power consumption and cost simultaneously. Since these objectives are conflicting in their nature, a multi-objective optimization approach is proposed. We offer a systematic approach to the satellite design by determining the best redundancy strategy considering contradictory objectives and onboard constraints in the multibillion-dollar satellite industry. The proposed approach promotes trade-offs and sensitivity analyses between cost, power consumption and system reliability in the early design phase of satellites using Compromise Programming. By using different sets of weights for the objectives in our model, it is possible to address different types of satellites depending on their mission and priorities. Because of the NP-Hard characteristics of the reliability optimization problem and the nonlinear equation in the proposed model, the Simulated Annealing algorithm is utilized to solve the problem. As a case analysis, the implementation is carried out on the design of a communication satellite system with active hot-standby and warm-standby onboard redundancy schemes. Results reveal that huge savings in million dollars can be attained as a result of approximately 5% reduction in reliability.
  • ItemMetadata only
    Accountability in the environmental crisis: From microsocial practices to moral orders
    (Wiley, 2023-11-05) Lidskog, Rolf; Standring, Adam
    The global environmental crisis is the result of a complex web of causation and distributed agency, where not even the most powerful individual actors can be considered responsible nor remedy the situation alone. This has prompted multiple calls across societies for transformative social change. What role can accountability play in this context? Starting in the theoretical traditions of microsociology and pragmatic sociology, this article elaborates the role of accountability in social interactions. To provide an account that justifies an action or inaction is here understood as a process of social ordering, where accounts are assessed as acceptable only after they have been tested against higher normative principles. Microsocial practices are, in this way, linked to macrosocial order. The following section turns to the global environmental crisis, showing that the crisis raises normative as well as epistemic challenges. The complexity of the socio‐environmental situation makes it hard to know what should be done and opens normative orders and epistemic claims to contestation. This situation provides increased opportunities for strategic maneuvering to justify actions as well as opportunities to question social practices and social order. The article concludes by discussing the role of accountability in climate change. Accountability can serve as a mechanism to attach issues to the current environmental crisis and re‐embed decisions and practice in an environmental moral order. As part of a broader palette of instruments, rules and norms, accountability has an important function to play in transforming society towards sustainability.
  • ItemMetadata only
    Utilizing China's capacity in everything the West did not provide to Iran ( Part 1 )
    (Iran Diplomacy, 2020-08-24) Nasirpourosgoei, Seyed Navid
    Seyd Navid Nasirpourosgoei, in a note on Iranian diplomacy, writes: As one of the world's most significant holders of gas, oil, and mineral resources, Iran (which the United States and Western countries do not have control over as rivals to China) can serve as a reliable supplier for China's future energy needs. In return, China, possessing cutting-edge global technologies and advanced industries, can meet Iran's requirements for the development of industrial, commercial, military, and political infrastructures in the future—something Western governments have never provided to Iran, both before and after the 1979 Revolution.
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    The early emergence of ombuds systems in Japanese science universities
    (Oxford University Press, 2024-01-04) Brummer, Matthew; Bamkin, Sam
    Ombuds systems in higher education institutes have become increasingly commonplace in North America and Europe, yet there remains a dearth of studies that examine dispute resolution systems in Asia. This article examines the case of Japan, a veritable technology powerhouse that adopted its first organizational ombuds offices in 2019 and 2021 at two leading science universities: Okinawa Institute of Technology and Kyushu Institute of Technology. We assess why these were established, how the change came about, and with what remit the offices are entrusted. We find that policy transfer from abroad occurred in both cases, yet with considerably different degrees of obligation and volitional lesson-drawing, and to considerably different ends. Additionally, policy entrepreneurs played key roles in agenda setting and institutionalization. Nearly all interviewees in this study raised the issue of gender harassment as an enduring challenge for which new conflict resolution mechanisms are needed. The two newly introduced ombuds offices therefore represent one possible model for leveling inequalities in the science landscape.
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    When Abusive Supervision Increases Workplace Deviance: The Moderating Role of Psychological Safety and Organizational Identification
    (The Lahore Journal of Business, 2023-09-30) Arshad, Mamoona
    This study offers new insights into the moderators between abusive supervision and workplace deviance. Building on the conservation-of-resources theory, the study introduces coping resources as moderators between abusive supervision and the two dimensions of workplace deviance, that is, interpersonal and organizational deviance. The study identifies psychological safety, an intrapsychic state, as a moderator between abusive supervision and interpersonal deviance. Similarly, the research tests organizational identification as a moderator between abusive supervision and organizational deviance. The study tests the hypotheses by collecting two sources of data as well as cross-sectional data from various Pakistani organizations. The two-source data from 122 supervisors-subordinate dyads provide support for the results. The study found that low psychological safety strengthens the positive link between abusive supervision and interpersonal deviance. Besides, a low level of identification with an organization strengthens the positive association between abusive supervision and organizational deviance. Thus, the study extends the literature by highlighting the importance of several personal and coping resources for employees at work.
  • ItemMetadata only
    Doing curriculum reform: what allows expert practitioners to mediate policy enactment in Japan?
    (World Education Research Association, 2023-11-22) Bamkin, Sam
    This presentation considers the role of professional (educational/pedagogic) knowledge in the enactment of policy during neoliberal times. Education policymaking in Japan, like elsewhere, is changing. Over the past twenty years, the central government has displaced the Ministry of Education as the driver of education policy, including most recently in curriculum policy. However, in Japanese curriculum reform, professional knowledge continues to inform how policy is understood and enacted on the ground, alongside the imperative for performative enactment. My recent research, based on two years’ fieldwork in and around eight schools, questionnaire survey data, textbook databases and elite interviews, shows that expert practitioners can leverage this knowledge to mediate how curriculum policy is enacted in compulsory education. This presentation re-examines these findings from a comparative perspective to consider the particular structural mechanisms in the policymaking process and education system of Japan that facilitate the operation of professional knowledge in policy enactment, and how they are changing. It further comments on the extent to which the Japanese data questions the universality of well-established theory of ‘policy work’ (e.g. Stephen Ball and colleagues, 2012) grounded in data collected in the Anglo-American contexts.
  • ItemEmbargo
    Small Airport Adoption of Environmental Practices – A Managerial Perspective
    (Henry Stewart, 2023) Harley, Grace; Timmis, Andrew; Budd, Lucy
  • ItemEmbargo
    Decarbonising airports: An examination of UK Airports’ Net Zero Targets
    (Taylor and Francis, 2024) Budd, Lucy; Kambari, Mehdi; Ison, Stephen
  • ItemOpen Access
    An Exploratory Study of Mobility Hub Implementation
    (Elsevier, 2023-08-03) Arnold, Tom; Frost, Matthew; Timmis, Andrew; Dale, Simon; Ison, Stephen
    Mobility Hubs (MH) have been developed, as multimodal interchanges focussed on public transport, active travel modes, and shared mobility, with the aim of encouraging more sustainable forms of travel. There is emergent evidence of MH development and implementation across an increasing number of international cities often with different interpretations of the concept. The aim of this paper is to analyse the decision-making factors behind MH implementation. 11 semi-structured interviews were conducted with transport professionals involved with MH implementation in the United States, mainland Europe and the United Kingdom. The interviews revealed common elements in the decision-making process categorised under four headings, namely: Purpose, Process, Place and Performance referred to as the 4 Ps. These are used as explanatory factors to understand the variety of MH implementation globally. Furthermore, they have utility as a decision-making guide for prospective cities considering MH implementation. This enables exploration of how MHs develop and are implemented responding to the specific aims, opportunities, challenges, and contexts of a move from private transport to more active and shared modes of mobility.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Mobility Hubs: Review and Future Research Direction
    (Sage, 2022-07-30) Arnold, Tom; Frost, Matthew; Timmis, Andrew; Dale, Simon; Ison, Stephen
    Globally, cities face a range of transport-related environmental, social, and economic challenges, not least congestion, air pollution, and promotion of sustainable modes of public transport. Mobility hubs (MHs) have been identified as a mechanism to aid the move toward a sustainable transport network and are at various stages of implementation in cities throughout the world. The growing prevalence of MH schemes highlights the requirement for a holistic overview of MH networks to ascertain their characteristics and inform policy direction. Consequently, this study presents a review of current MH deployment and literature, with the aim of examining this global phenomenon and identifying a future research agenda. The study combines a comprehensive review of web searches with gray literature and a limited number of articles from academic journals. Twenty locations, at different stages of development and implementation, were identified as examples to be reviewed and analyzed, thereby providing a context for the review. Subsequently, four themes have emerged: objectives of MHs, format, location, and operational factors. Key findings include the importance of stakeholder engagement in design and location choices, the significance of branding, and connection with existing travel infrastructure including public transport and active travel. Additionally, the provision of amenities is common to MH schemes because it promotes usage and integration into the local landscape. From this detailed review of the state of MHs, a future research agenda has been identified, including further defining MHs, understanding the origin and applicability of MH objectives, considering day-to-day operations, policy transfer implications, and further evaluations of single and network MHs.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Public utility or private asset? The evolution of UK airport ownership
    (Elsevier, 2020-12-15) Budd, Lucy; Ison, Stephen
    The ownership of commercial airports is of strategic national, commercial and political importance. Airport ownership directly influences the planning, development, policy and management activities that are undertaken at the site and the extent to which central government can influence them. Historically, local Government ownership and operation of UK municipal airports permitted the implementation of long-term development plans and ensured, as far as possible, that local airports met the needs of the communities they served. The privatisation of UK airports following the 1986 Airports Act resulted in the model of UK airport ownership quickly changing from one of publically-owned utility to privately-owned commercial asset. In light of current debates surrounding the future viability of UK regional airports following the COVID-19 pandemic and unprecedented falls in passenger numbers, the aim of this paper is to examine the evolution of UK airport ownership between 1986 and 2020. The findings of the empirical research reveal that since 2012 the trend of full private sector ownership of airports has changed with local authorities increasingly re-investing in municipal facilities in partnership with private consortia. The implications of these changing ownership dynamics, both for airports but also the communities and regions they serve, in the post-COVID era, are discussed.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Beyond the consolations of professionalism: resisting alienation at the neoliberal university
    (LW Books, 2023-10-13) Davies, Jonathan S.; Standring, Adam
    The British university system is in a deep crisis, born of a two-pronged assault. The crisis is born firstly from decades of neoliberal marketisation and the rise of a remote and authoritarian executive elite presiding over a downwardly mobile and culturally deprivileged academic profession. We call this process neoliberal managerialism. It is born secondly from the ideological and political assault on universities, currently led by the Tories, reflecting the resurgence of anti-intellectualism since the millennium. The paper argues that although these currents embody ostensibly conflicting values, they combine and reinforce each other. We illustrate this argument by discussing lacunae in the decolonisation of British universities, notably the colonial ideologies and practices inscribed in neoliberal university governance and management. The final section reflects on how to resist and overcome the crises engulfing UK higher education. Framed by reflections on the positionalities of the authors, it argues that no consolations can be found in old-style academic professionalism, which historically was no less regressive than neoliberal managerialism and often complicit in its rollout. We conclude that academics could instead embrace the ineluctable dynamics of de-professionalisation and work towards an authentic and solidaristic public intellectuality.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Gramscian Considerations on the Contentious Politics of Austere Neoliberalism: Critical Junctures after the Global Economic Crisis
    (Taylor and Francis, 2023-10-12) Davies, Jonathan S.
    In dialogue with Della Porta’s work on protests as critical junctures and drawing on the comparative analysis of four case studies in Europe (Barcelona and Dublin) and North America (Baltimore and Montréal), the paper develops a neo-Gramscian perspective on the impact and legacies of urban resistance to austere neoliberalism after the Global Economic Crisis (GEC) of 2008–9. Framed by the postulated ‘interregnum’ in the hegemony of neoliberalism, it argues that the conjunctural politics of the period are defined by a continuing conflict between passive revolutionary subsumption and generative anti-systemic politics, which plays out in acute form in the international urban arena. The paper accordingly contributes to the journal’s work on the relationship between protests and social structures, situating urban movements in multi-scalar socioeconomic, political and cultural contexts and developing reflections on the conjunctural significance of anti-systemic struggles.
  • ItemEmbargo
    Publish or perish: ensuring our journals don’t fail us
    (Taylor and Francis, 2023-08-14) Preece, Chloe; Cappellini, Benedetta; Larsen, Gretchen; Bhogal-Nair, Anoop; Bradshaw, Alan; Chatzidakis, Andreas; Goulding, Christina; Isobel Keeling, Debbie; Lindridge, Andrew; Maclaren, Pauline; Marshall, Greg W.; Elizabeth Parsons
    This omnibus paper brings together a number of esteemed editors and associate editors in order to share a variety of perspectives on academic publishing within the marketing discipline. Together, they provide glimpses into current thinking on some of the most pressing and current debates which we are struggling with, for example: impact, originality, bias, alienation, and the need for communities of thought. Polyvocally, this omnibus reflects on the many failures of our discipline and provides some routes forward in reframing our field’s epistemic assumptions.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Urban governance in the age of austerity: Crises of neoliberal hegemony in comparative perspective
    (Sage, 2023-07-07) Davies, Jonathan S.
    Drawing from neo-Gramscian theory, the paper explores how urban austerity governance mediates crises of neoliberal hegemony. Focusing on the decade after the Global Economic Crisis of 2008–2009, it compares four European cities disclosing five intersecting characteristics of urban political economy that contributed to sustaining and disrupting austere neoliberalism. Austere neoliberalism was sustained through three characteristics: economic rationalism, state revanchism and weak counter-hegemony, but undermined by both weakening hegemony and the combustibility and generativity of urban struggles. Hence, although state revanchism is a prominent feature of urban politics, and novel counter-hegemonic forms are elusive, struggles for equality and solidarity remain contagious, tenacious and vibrant. Urban governance is a crucial arena for studying the interregnum, signposting multiple ways in which neoliberalism survives, mutates and dies.
  • ItemOpen Access
    The 2022 Italian general election: a political shock or the new normal?
    (Firenze University Press, 2021-06-09) Giovannini, Arianna; Valbruzzi, Marco; Vampa, Davide
    This introduction to the special issue places the 2022 Italian general election within the recent electoral history of Italy and the broader European context. Following the same multidimensional structure adopted for this collection of articles, here we address general questions regarding the significance of the last election, its dynamics, and implications. Firstly, to what extent did it represent a change compared to previous Italian elections? Secondly, can Italy still be regarded as an anomaly in the European context? Have the 2022 results widened or narrowed the political gap between the country and its neighbours? By providing a longitudinal and cross-sectional overview, our aim is to suggest some interpretative keys, which, in conjunction with the rich data presented and discussed by the authors of each article, may enable readers to draw general lessons about recent developments in Italian and European politics. Our overall argument is that, while clearly significant in its political implications – producing the most ideologically right-wing government in republican history led by the first female prime minister –, the 2022 general election did not represent a radical change from previous Italian elections. Instead, it marked a further step in the emergence of a ‘new political normal’ characterised by volatility, fragmentation, mainstreaming of populist ideas and actors, polarisation and the reframing of socio-economic and socio-cultural cleavages. Additionally, while Italy can be regarded as the most advanced manifestation of these transformations, we observe similar shifts in most Western European countries, indicating that their seemingly unshakable stability is now in question.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Workplace Conflict and Job-related Wellbeing Among Local Government Servants: The Role of Job Resources
    (Sage, 2022-06-26) Glilekpe, Eunice Esimebia; Anlesinya, Alex; Nyanyofio, Gerald Joseph Nii Tetteh; Sampson, Kudjo Adeti; Malcalm, Ebenezer
    Drawing on the job demands–resources model, this study examined the effect of workplace conflict as a work demand on job-related well-being (proxy by job satisfaction) while assessing the direct and buffering roles of job resources (employee development and supervisor support). The study employed a survey data from 130 employees of a major local government institution in Accra, Ghana, and the data were analysed using multiple regression and Hayes’ PROCESS macro moderation technique. The findings revealed that while workplace conflict has a significant negative effect on employee job-related well-being, employee development and supervisor support have significant positive effects but their interactions with workplace conflict show insignificant effects on employee job-related well-being. Our study provides new empirical evidence to extend the workplace conflict and employee well-being literature generally, and within the local government setting in particular. Furthermore, it contributes to the job demands–resources model by validating the dual pathways (job resources and job demands) of improving well-being while suggesting that a mismatch between the level of job demands and job resources may render their interactive effects ineffective.