Territory, power and statecraft: understanding English devolution

In recent decades, the devolution of power to subnational regional authorities has formed a key element of what has been termed the ‘unravelling’ or ‘unbundling’ of the state in many parts of the world. Even in the United Kingdom, with its distinctive global reputation as a power-hoarding majoritarian democracy, the devolution of powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland since 1998 can be located within this broader devolutionary dynamic. In recent years, this process has focused on ‘the English question’ and a reform agenda that claimed to offer a ‘devolution revolution’. This paper offers the first research-led analysis of the scope, scale and implications of these post-2015 reforms to English governance. It utilizes Jim Bulpitt’s statecraft approach to explore the changing nature of centre–periphery relationships within England. The main conclusion has been that a ‘rhetoric–reality gap’ currently exists and a ‘devolution revolution’ has not occurred

Restructuring UK local government employment relations: pay determination and employee participation in tough times

The Conservative-led coalition government has been committed to shrinking the state and this has had a major impact on local government. This article examines the consequences of austerity measures for staff participation and pay determination in UK local government. Local government has been particularly hard hit by austerity measures and this has encouraged employers to change terms and conditions, review forms of staff participation and cut jobs. The implications for the institutional resilience of systems of employment regulation and employee involvement in the sector are considered

The international society for traumatic stress studies new guidelines for the prevention and treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: methodology and development process

Over the last two decades, treatment guidelines have become major aids in the delivery of evidence‐based care and improvement of clinical outcomes. The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) produced the first guidelines for the prevention and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 2000 and published its latest recommendations, along with position papers on complex PTSD (CPTSD), in November 2018. A rigorous methodology was developed and followed; scoping questions were posed, systematic reviews were undertaken, and 361 randomized controlled trials were included according to the a priori agreed inclusion criteria. In total, 208 meta‐analyses were conducted and used to generate 125 recommendations (101 for adults and 24 for children and adolescents) for specific prevention and treatment interventions, using an agreed definition of clinical importance and recommendation setting algorithm. There were eight strong, eight standard, five low effect, 26 emerging evidence, and 78 insufficient evidence to recommend recommendations. The inclusion of separate scoping questions on treatments for complex presentations of PTSD was considered but decided against due to definitional issues and the virtual absence of studies specifically designed to clearly answer possible scoping questions in this area. Narrative reviews were undertaken and position papers prepared (one for adults and one for children and adolescents) to consider the current issues around CPTSD and make recommendations to facilitate further research. This paper describes the methodology and results of the ISTSS Guideline process and considers the interpretation and implementation of the recommendations

Contesting the financialization of urban space: Community organizations and the struggle to preserve affordable rental housing in New York City

As cities have become both site and object of capital accumulation in a neoliberal political economy, the challenges to community practice aimed at creating, preserving, and improving affordable housing and neighborhoods have grown. Financial markets and actors are increasingly central to the workings of capitalism, transforming the meaning and significance of mortgage capital in local communities and redrawing the relationship between housing and urban inequality. This article addresses the integration of housing and financial markets through the case of "predatory equity," a wave of aggressive private equity investment in New York City's affordable rental sector during the mid-2000s real estate boom. I consider the potential for community organizations to develop innovative, effective, and progressive practices to contest the impact of predatory equity on affordable housing. Highlighting how organizations employed discursive and empirical tactics as well as tactics that reworked the sites, spaces, and structures of finance, this research speaks to the political possibility of contemporary community practice

The politics of state capacity in Rwanda: The case of the Ministry of Infrastructure

This paper interrogates the role of bureaucratic “pockets of effectiveness” (PoEs) in the state-building trajectory of Rwanda since the genocide and its attempt to become an African developmental state. The Rwandan case does not seem to clearly follow the patterns of other African countries whereby few effective public organizations exist in an otherwise relatively dysfunctional governance context. Under the Rwandan dominant political settlement, while some organisations clearly over-perform, performance is relatively well distributed in the state apparatus. In addition, performance differentials between “pockets of effectiveness” and the rest of the state might be smaller than observed elsewhere. By taking the cases of a PoE -the Ministry of Finance- and of organisations performing less well such as the Rwandan Revenue Authority and the Ministry of Infrastructure, the paper aims at understanding this phenomenon and reflecting on whether PoEs in Rwanda can play a similar role as in Asian developmental states. The paper also aims at analysing the conditions under which pockets of effectiveness can spread and constitute a feasible basis for broader state building

European development policymaking Globalization and the post Lome world

Includes bibliographic references. Also available via the InternetAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3829. 689222(no 25) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Does the European Union's development policy have any future?

Also available via the InternetSIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3829.689222(no 24) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

The CFA and European monetary union

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3829.689222(14) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Regional or multilateral agreements? An evaluation of southern-Africa trade policy scenarios

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3829.689222(17) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo