A critique on legal analysis of local government and the central-local relationship

This paper will argue that analysis on local government and the central-local relationship is generally confined to context and that a consequence of this approach is that theory, within this area of scholarship, is viewed as being mutually incompatible. Specific examples of this incompatibility can be found in respect of the works of Loughlin, Vincent-Jones and Cooper. It will be argued that by juxtaposing the work of these three writers, it is possible to connect their analyses, beyond the context within which they write, but that such a connection cannot be achieved through the mechanism of theory. The connection can however be achieved through the use of concepts and the resulting analysis is a form of meta-explanation of a particular period of decision making in local government and the central-local relationship

Public law, knowledge and explanation: a critique on the facilitative nature of public law analysis.

The aim of this paper is to examine why public law is able to incorporate political theory but excludes feminist critiques. In order to achieve this goal a form of discourse analysis will be undertaken using epistemological and scientific perceptions of knowledge and explanation. This approach is both unusual and unique but will illustrate some of the exclusionary suppositions which underpin analysis within public law. The paper will conclude that only by adopting an alternative starting point for analysis, such as the use of concepts, will public law be able to incorporate alternative and critical approaches

Public law and the value of conceptual analysis

The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the viability and potential of conceptual analysis as a methodological tool. It is argued that conceptual analysis represents a flexible and open method for connecting public law with analyses that are different, and even incommensurable with its own epistemology. The particular area that this paper seeks to connect public law with is that of feminist critiques. It is a journey that does not occur without some difficulty. Conceptual analysis is unknown within public law and therefore the notion requires defining and explaining. Public law has also been particularly resistant to the inclusion of feminist critiques and therefore the task of identifying suitable concepts is not straightforward. The outcome is, however, not only the identification of a new methodological tool for public lawyers but the capacity to broaden the range of material that can be incorporated within their analyses

In the multiverse what is real?:Luhmann, complexity and ANT

Barbara Mauthe and Thomas E. Webb examine whether it is possible to engage the theories of autopoiesis, complexity, and actor-network theory in dialogue. To do so, the authors challenge each approach and their individual understanding of reality as one that manages to capture the total reality. The authors contend instead that each theory offers only a partial account of the social and that by engaging the theories in dialogue the limitations of the respective approaches of each theory can be identified, creating the possibility for self-reflection in the light of the newly discovered viewpoint

Refugee law, gender and the concept of personhood

This article recognises that the notion of refugee is a politically and legally contested space and does not wish to undermine the theoretical and practical gains that have been made by critical approaches to refugees. Nevertheless, it argues that it is time for a new approach that avoids essentialising female refugees in terms of their gender and culture, and that creates a space for a more complex dialogue between the person seeking refugee status, those representing her, and those making decisions. The argument builds on recent critiques that suggest that existing practices risk appropriating a refugee woman’s experiences in a way that subverts her self-understanding by abstracting her gender and fragmenting her identity in order to define her as a victim of persecution. The concept of personhood is used to encourage decision makers to consider a more complex construction of the realities of refugee women’s myriad experience

Someone to Watch over Me: Making Supported Housing Work

Hostels and other forms of housing where support services are provided as an intrinsic part of the accommodation package have traditionally been developed by the voluntary sector at a distance from conditional state welfare. Supporting People is an innovative and ambitious programme which in effect annexes supported housing and, in return for a commitment to improved provision, promises certainty of income and professional prestige. Supporting People provides an example of contemporary social policy. It attempts to address both the failures of the ‘old’ welfare state and the anxieties of the neo-liberal state. It does this through a distinct ‘third way’ form of regulation which extends new public management practices into a new regulatory arena and places a particular emphasis on ‘joined-up’ thinking, risk management and the ideological pragmatism of ‘what works’. This has particular consequences for the diverse range of both providers and residents who are disciplined through a variety of mechanisms to deliver social progress for the stat