Housing supply and brownfield regeneration in a post-Barker review world: A comparison of policy and practice in England and Scotland

The findings of the Barker review, which examined the reasons for the undersupply of UK housing, have important implications for the devolved constituents of the UK, including Scotland. This paper traces the emergence of the brownfield regeneration policy agenda across the UK and examines how the Barker review connects with this brownfield policy focus. The paper compares housing and brownfield policies and practices in England and Scotland, places them in an international context and elicits wider lessons for devolved governance in relation to housing policy, in terms of `centrist—local' tensions. Estimates based on published data suggest that Barker's emphasis on increased housing supply cannot easily be reconciled with the current emphasis on brownfield development and is likely to require a return to greenfield development in both countries

Longitudinal parental perception of COVID-19 vaccines for children in a multi-site, cohort study

Pediatric COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake is not well understood. Among parents of a prospective cohort of children aged 6 months-17 years, we assessed COVID-19 vaccine knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP), and uptake over 15 months. The PROTECT study collected sociodemographic characteristics of children at enrollment and COVID-19 vaccination data and parental KAPs quarterly. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were used to test the effect of KAPs on vaccine uptake; McNemar's test for paired samples was used to evaluate KAP change over time. A total of 2,837 children were enrolled, with more than half (61 %) vaccinated by October 2022. Positive parental beliefs about vaccine safety and effectiveness strongly predicted vaccine uptake among children aged 5-11 years (aOR 13.1, 95 % CI 8.5-20.4 and aOR 6.4, 95 % CI 4.3-9.6, respectively) and children aged 12+ years (aOR 7.0, 95 % CI 3.8-13.0 and aOR 8.9, 95 % CI 4.4-18.0). Compared to enrollment, at follow-up parents (of vaccinated and unvaccinated children) reported higher self-assessed vaccine knowledge, but more negative beliefs towards vaccine safety, effectiveness, and trust in government. Parents unlikely to vaccinate their children at enrollment reported more positive beliefs on vaccine knowledge, safety, and effectiveness at follow-up. The PROTECT cohort allows for an examination of factors driving vaccine uptake and how beliefs about COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines change over time. Findings of the current analysis suggest that these beliefs change over time and policies aiming to increase vaccine uptake should focus on vaccine safety and effectiveness

News, transparency and the effectiveness of reporting from inside Arab dictatorships

Contradictions in Egyptian media laws, whereby draconian emergency censorship powers coexist with apparently lively media output, seriously affect the content of foreign press reporting from Cairo. Taking account of theories about the way news production norms in free societies marginalize insights into the political structures of societies that are not free, this article examines treatment of struggles that took place in Egypt in 2008 over the licensing of news media and journalists. It finds that, because these struggles involved legal processes not marked by obvious crisis, the full extent of repression they reflected was rarely conveyed in foreign news reports

Youth and peacebuilding

The practice of building peace is slowly becoming more inclusive. Youth have proven to be integral to this development as their contributions through formal and informal networks have challenged how we understand substantive participation and representation within this space. However, young people’s visibility and inclusion within the peacebuilding discourse has been hard fought and slow to evolve as narrow social constructions of youth continue to determine how they engage with other actors, particularly at the institutional level. Youth often are characterized as potential threats or passive recipients of peacebuilding. However, youth are active peacebuilders, who negotiate systems of insecurity and risk to work for peace in their communities, countries, and on the international stage. This chapter examines the evolution of youth’s inclusion in peacebuilding discourse and practice. It considers the theories, norms, intersections and classifications that have informed understandings and engagements with youth, in both scholarship and practice. It then turns to examine the factors that enable and constrain youth’s participation: gendered challenges, the securitization of youth, and the vexed question of youth’s participation and inclusion in peacebuilding. This chapter highlights the evolving role of youth advocacy in continued efforts to ensure that their engagement with the peacebuilding discourse is substantive and meaningful

Fostering sustainability in infrastructure development schemes

This article was published in the journal Proceedings of the ICE: Engineering Sustainability [© Institution of Civil Engineers].In recent years much emphasis has been placed upon meeting the environmental and socioeconomic aims of sustainable development. This is being driven by government policy and industry initiatives, with the main emphasis placed on the building sector, where it is perceived that most benefits can be gained. Although financial incentives and drivers are perhaps more readily quantifiable in this market, the potential to mitigate the negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts associated with the development of infrastructure such as roads, drainage and utilities at a neighbourhood scale may be no less significant, if more difficult to measure. Despite this, relatively little attention has been paid to the sustainable design of infrastructure. In addition, change to the UK planning system has been identified as a key mechanism to deliver sustainability policy, but there appears to be a poor connection between planning policy and infrastructure implementation practices. Sustainable construction, planning policy and the notion of the engineer's role in sustainable infrastructure are explored in this paper, which concludes by presenting four areas where improved dialogue between stakeholders and enhancement of the engineer's role at an early stage could improve sustainability in infrastructure development projects