The Social Tenant, the Law and the UK's Politics of Austerity

<p>This paper considers current cuts to social housing provision in the UK made in the name of austerity. It focuses particularly on the &lsquo;bedroom tax&rsquo; &mdash;the cut to housing benefit for working-age social housing tenants whose property is deemed to provide more bedrooms than they need. It begins by explaining the long-standing political project of social housing in the UK. This background is important to explain the emergence of a discursively ghettoized population within social housing. We then turn to the &lsquo;bedroom tax&rsquo; itself. We consider the two quite separate rationales underpinning its introduction. One rationale &mdash;fairness&mdash; is the focus of the politicians; the other &mdash;under-occupation&mdash; provides the focus for policy analysts. Both offer different versions of truth about the social in social housing and both are unconvincing. For us, this is significant because the politics of austerity require the support of public opinion. We then consider some strategies of resistance to the &lsquo;bedroom tax&rsquo; which harness the disruptive potential of fairness before concluding that the bedroom tax requires relatively little unpacking to reveal it as an ideological device which operates to increase inequality whilst deploying a rhetoric of fairness.</p> <hr /><p>Este art&iacute;culo analiza los recortes en las prestaciones de viviendas sociales que se realizan actualmente en el Reino Unido en nombre de la austeridad. Se centra particularmente en el 'impuesto dormitorio' -el recorte en el subsidio de vivienda para inquilinos en edad de trabajar, cuya vivienda se considera que tiene m&aacute;s dormitorios de los que necesitan. Comienza explicando el proyecto pol&iacute;tico de viviendas sociales, de larga tradici&oacute;n en el Reino Unido. Estos antecedentes son importantes para explicar el surgimiento de guetos en las viviendas sociales. A continuaci&oacute;n se centra en el "impuesto dormitorio&rdquo; en s&iacute; mismo. Se analizan los dos diferentes motivos que sustentan su promulgaci&oacute;n. Una es la raz&oacute;n esgrimida por los pol&iacute;ticos -legitimidad-, la otra &ndash;baja ocupaci&oacute;n-, la esgrimen los analistas pol&iacute;ticos. Ambos ofrecen diferentes versiones de la verdad acerca de lo social en materia de vivienda social y ambos son poco convincentes. En nuestra opini&oacute;n, esto es relevante porque las pol&iacute;ticas de austeridad requieren del apoyo de la opini&oacute;n p&uacute;blica. Despu&eacute;s consideramos algunas estrategias de resistencia al "impuesto dormitorio" que aprovechan el potencial disruptivo de equidad, antes de concluir que es relativamente sencillo revelarlo como un instrumento ideol&oacute;gico que opera para aumentar la desigualdad, a la vez que utiliza una ret&oacute;rica de equidad.</p> <p><strong>DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN</strong>: <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=2565733" target="_blank">http://ssrn.com/abstract=2565733 </a></p

A shared journey: insights from the Banksia Younger Onset Dementia Support Group

The study of a pilot program to support people with younger onset dementia in the Frankston area of outer Melbourne has found that the participants valued being involved in initiating and organising activities that they find meaningful and enjoyable, and having the chance to share their experience with others. The report poses some questions for the further development of services

The revelation of Robinson's poetic personality through a study of the Tristram tradition

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1950.The purpose of this study has been to examine the Tristram tradition in order to determine what sources Edwin Arlington Robinson used in writing his poem Tristram and why he felt the need of writing it. Such a study seemed to be justifiable in view of the fact that there seems to be some controversy as to why he, a so-called pessimist, or realist, or modern classicist, should have undertaken a work of such romantic nature

Muslims and the state education system : England c.1965-1997

This thesis considers Muslim-state relations over education in the mid-to-late twentieth century. It examines the period from the mid-1960s – the point when Muslim children first arrived in English schools in significant numbers – until the fall of the Conservative government in 1997. Existing accounts of the history of England’s Muslims generally agree that education was a crucial area of early interaction between Muslims and the state. They also tend to situate the experiences of Muslims in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in the context of Britain’s developing racial diversity, arguing that the religious identity of Muslims was not acknowledged until the end of the 1980s. The consequent responses of the state to Muslim educational needs have been characterised as ad hoc and disorganised, with the possibility of successful relations undermined by the racial and secular focus of multiculturalism, and a disorganised and disinterested Muslim “community”. This thesis challenges key aspects of this narrative. It offers a new chronology and interpretation which take into account the role and significance of the long history of conservative pluralism in the responses of the British state to diversity, arguing that this can help to explain why some Muslim educational needs were being accommodated from the 1960s onwards. It then demonstrates that the dismantling of the educational framework which underpinned the pluralist approach by the Conservative government of the 1980s adversely affected the ability of Muslims to interact with the state. It argues that the shifting education philosophies of the 1980s, developing conceptions of Britain as a country that was both secular and Judaeo-Christian, and the emergence of Islamophobic attitudes exacerbated the difficulties brought about by the attack on the pluralist framework. It concludes that the effect of this was that the possibilities of a fruitful Muslim-state relationship over education decreased rather than increased towards the end of the twentieth century

Total or Partial Knee Arthroplasty Trial - TOPKAT : study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Utopias, Dystopias and the Changing Lawscapes of Social Housing

This paper provides an account of the design and development of the Spa Green Estate in North London. It describes the utopian aspirations for housing the working class of the radical 1930s Finsbury Council and the architect it employed, Berthold Lubetkin. It goes on to examine the  political and popular discrediting of social housing  from the 1970s and the consequent  present day complexity of tenures and regulation on the estate.  The account is placed in the context of the emergence of the claim that home ownership provides the appropriate solution for the housing of the working poor.  It uses concepts of lawscape, utopia and scale to demonstrate how law is implicated in the dismantling of one utopian project and its replacement with another and the difficulties that law has in addressing the inevitable injustices that emerge from this process. Its feminism lies in its acknowledgement of social housing (despite its patriarchal origins) as an important point of access for women to the emancipation of the city and as a critical space for imagining ways to live other than those determined by the market

Academic induction: Perceptions of newly appointed university lecturers in nurse education: An interpretive phenomenological inquiry

Aims: Empirical evidence demonstrates successful expert nurses appointed as nurse lecturers in higher education find themselves as ‘newcomers’ to the role and organisation. New nurse lecturers often find their transition to higher education confusing and challenging. Using the conceptual framework of communities of practice, this study aims to provide original research into what induction means for new nurse lecturers, and gain an in-depth understanding of their perceptions and experiences of their induction into working in a multi-sited university. Method: A qualitative research methodology was employed, using the theoretical approach of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) developed by Smith, Flowers, and Larkin (2009). Eight lecturers, with between one to three years’ experience as nurse lecturers, were recruited from one university in the North West of England. Purposive sampling was utilised and data was obtained through one-toone semi-structured interviews. Verbatim transcripts were analysed following the principles of IPA. Findings: Three super-ordinate themes emerged (partial transition, dual communities of practice, introduction), along with six sub-ordinate themes (expectations of the nurse educator role, career change, contextual influences, location and culture of sites, tick box exercise, and the limited role of the mentor). New nurse lecturers found transition stressful: key aspects included the culture shock and the career change of adopting their new academic identity. Changing identity from a nurse to an educator, working across the boundaries of both practice and academia, was a struggle, particularly in participants with visiting lecturer experience who had mistakenly perceived this would prepare them for the role. Early role preparation was essential to understanding the different cultures and processes within the university. Formal mentoring supported development of self-confidence, but its value was undermined due to the mentors’ workload and lack of understanding of their role, which affected relationship building. Supportive heads of department, and informal mentoring and peer support, were essential in developing new academic identities. Conclusion: This study contributes to practice through the development of an induction framework for new nurse educators. This framework acknowledges the relevance of maintaining a dual community of practice for new nurse educators, in supporting their new identity and their dual continuing professional development. Practical outcomes include: development of an informational resource for new lecturers (including visiting lecturers); development of a community of learning with facilitated workshops and online information resources; development of mentor training and resources for mentors; and mentors being thoughtfully designated by heads of department, with hours attached to their workload for mentoring. A long term online community of practice is needed for new staff to keep in touch and share information. Heads of department need to take ownership of inductions to ensure that their staff feel welcomed and supported in their new environment, with regular evaluation taking place