The Social Impact of Accounting Processes on Benefit Claimants in the UK

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution of small-scale, rural festivals to the social sustainability of their host communities. Small-scale, community originated festivals proliferate the rural landscape throughout the UK and yet despite this, festival research has focussed predominantly on large, urban events and on their economic impact (Wood, 2009; Gibson and Connell, 2011). This paper seeks to address the perceived research gap by examining these events through a lens of social sustainability. Design/methodology/approach The research uses a case study approach focussed on four festivals in Northumberland, UK. Individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with festival organisers, key figures and visitors. Following a constructivist grounded theory method four principle indicators were identified to determine festival contribution to community social sustainability. These indicators are: contribution to community pride and localness, enhancement of knowledge and understanding, contribution to the continuity of local culture and enablement of networks of connectivity. Findings The findings demonstrate the networks of connections which festivals enable between the culture, heritage and people (individuals and groups) of a place. By focussing on four indicators the paper shows the social impact of connections through the festival processes and content. The paper argues that small-scale festivals in rural locations can contribute to social sustainability if they demonstrate a balance of both consistency and innovation and accessibility and openness within the locale. Originality/value This paper addresses the gap in social impact research into rural festivals and presents an original approach to identify festival impact on community social sustainability.

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‘Get off your arse’

Journal of Language and Politics ◽

10.1075/jlp.18064.hen ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 526-540

Author(s):

Barbara Henderson

Keyword(s):

Critical Discourse Analysis ◽

Speech Acts ◽

Social Impact ◽

Careful Consideration ◽

Left Wing ◽

The Social ◽

Musical Discourse ◽

History Of ◽

The Uk

Abstract Although the UK has a centuries-old history of subversive singing, since the election of a Conservative-led government in 2010 and imposition of austerity-based economic and social policies, the number of choirs with a political philosophy and mission has grown. The website CampaignChoirs lists around thirty political choirs committed to a left-wing, green or anarchist agenda, which is reflected in the music and related actions. This paper takes as its case study the Leeds-based Commoners Choir and considers how its musical decisions enable it to communicate protest politics. Using critical discourse analysis, this study adds to the dialogue on musical discourse by focusing on the speech acts contained within the lyrics; the social impact of the Commoners’ performances; and the use of dialect to root the works within a distinctly northern culture. It concludes that careful consideration of discourse can demonstrate a more measurable authenticity in an artistic act of protest.

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The social impact of counter terrorist finance policies in the UK

Crime Law and Social Change ◽

10.1007/s10611-006-9029-1 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 44 (4-5) ◽

pp. 441-464 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Peter Sproat

Keyword(s):

Social Impact ◽

The Social ◽

The Uk ◽

Terrorist Finance

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Address to the World Bank Sociological Group

Social Development in the World Bank ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-57426-0_3 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 41-46

Author(s):

Huw Evans

Keyword(s):

Social Context ◽

World Bank ◽

Executive Director ◽

Social Impact ◽

Bank Lending ◽

The World Bank ◽

The Social ◽

The World ◽

The Uk ◽

The Imf

AbstractI feel myself to be an outsider amongst you: I am a macroeconomist by background, having worked in the UK Treasury for many years. Yet I have become convinced in my time at the World Bank of the importance of understanding the social context of the Bank’s work, and the social impact of Bank lending, especially because of the UK ODA’s experience in this field. As an Executive Director at the IMF too, I have gained important insights into how that institution uses its Board more effectively, with more cooperation, and much greater partnership between the Board and management.

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THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF DICTIONARIES IN THE UK

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1111/j.1749-6632.1973.tb49473.x ◽

1973 ◽

Vol 211 (1 Lexicography) ◽

pp. 76-88 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Randolph Quirk

Keyword(s):

Social Impact ◽

The Social ◽

The Uk

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Outcomes-based contracts in the UK public sector

Marketisation and Privatisation in Criminal Justice ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447345701.003.0003 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 31-46

Author(s):

Chris Fox ◽

Kevin Albertson

Keyword(s):

Public Sector ◽

Service Provider ◽

Social Impact ◽

Social Innovation ◽

Innovation Process ◽

Working Capital ◽

Incentive Structures ◽

The Social ◽

Social Impact Bonds ◽

The Uk

A major innovation in public sector commissioning in recent years is the recourse of the state to so called ‘Outcomes-based Contracts’ particularly Payment by Results (PbR) in the UK. A PbR contract contains three elements, a commissioner, a service provider and an outcomes metric. The outcomes metrics is designed, in theory, to align the incentive structures of the commissioner and the service delivery agency so as to achieve efficient results. Thus, PbR is theorised to allow public commissioners to pay a provider of services on the basis of specified outcomes achieved rather than the inputs or outputs delivered. A related innovation is that of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs). SIBs are distinguished from PbR contracts in that they supposedly allow financiers to contribute to the social innovation process by providing working capital. The return on the SIB is calculated using PbR methodology. Compared to a PbR contract, the SIB contract seeks to align the incentive structures, not only of commissioners and providers, but also financiers through an appropriate metrics-based payments scheme. PbR and SIBs have been referred to as key tools for delivering change. In this chapter we set out the theoretical and practical challenges arising from the development and application of PbR and SIBs and consider the evidence of their efficacy or otherwise.

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Feeding young people to the social investment machine: The financialisation of public services

Critical Social Policy ◽

10.1177/0261018319854890 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 40 (3) ◽

pp. 450-470 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tania De St Croix ◽

Ian Mcgimpsey ◽

John Owens

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Social Impact ◽

Public Services ◽

High Volume ◽

Social Investment ◽

Impact Measurement ◽

The Social ◽

Green Book ◽

The Uk ◽

Citizen Service

Public services operate increasingly through financialising policy technologies in which governments and other funders ‘invest’ in programmes and interventions that can measure and monetise their social impact. This article investigates this shift towards social investment, focusing on the UK government’s flagship youth programme the National Citizen Service and UK government Treasury guidance, particularly the ‘Green Book’ (HM Treasury, 2018). We argue that policy on social value operates in conjunction with new approaches to impact measurement creating a ‘social investment machine’. The machine operates through innovations in policy alongside ‘evaluation entrepreneurship’ at a programme level to reposition young people as the subjects of investment with imagined futures as economically productive citizens, while their data becomes the currency of investment. This shift towards financialisation in policy also promotes ‘high volume’ services, which in contrast to universal welfare services obscure the structural inequalities that shape young people’s lives.

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The social construction of executive remuneration in the UK

Journal of Organizational Effectiveness People and Performance ◽

10.1108/joepp-01-2017-0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 76-88 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stephen J. Perkins

Keyword(s):

Corporate Governance ◽

Social Construction ◽

Social Impact ◽

Corporate Board ◽

Social Construction Of Reality ◽

Quarter Century ◽

Content Type ◽

Executive Remuneration ◽

The Social ◽

The Uk

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reflect theoretically on a quarter-century of attempts to codify “best practice” standards related to oversight of and reporting on executive remuneration. Issues around the regulation of UK executive remuneration are analysed focussing on decision making by elite actors, informed by corporate governance codification artefacts and theoretical considerations inspired by notions of the social construction of reality. Design/methodology/approach Using documentary materials to trace evolution of executive remuneration regulation in the UK, consideration is given to the social antecedents of processes governing corporate board remuneration committee practices. The paper reconstructs the social construction of the UK Corporate Governance Code and draws on relevant theoretically inclined literature to help make sense of processes involved. Findings Shaping the problems, to be addressed as “legitimate problems”, is core to efforts intended to create “persuasive narratives” around how UK executive remuneration should be regulated. Research limitations/implications The paper sketches an agenda for subsequent empirical “field” investigation to assess the social antecedents of UK executive remuneration outcomes. Practical implications Offering an alternative way of thinking about executive reward and on-going controversy as to how it may be legitimately regulated, informed by contextual considerations. Originality/value A novel look at executive remuneration from a social construction of reality perspective. Adding value to public debate on organisational effectiveness at a time of warnings from luminaries such as the Bank of England governor about the adverse social impact of “stateless companies” and calls for action against unfairness in income distribution.

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The Ownership of Assets by Place-Based Community Organisations: Political Rationales, Geographies of Social Impact and Future Research Agendas

Social Policy and Society ◽

10.1017/s1474746413000481 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 521-533 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Tom Moore ◽

Kim McKee

Keyword(s):

Social Impact ◽

Future Research ◽

Community Assets ◽

Community Organisations ◽

Policy Environments ◽

The Social ◽

Physical Assets ◽

Nuanced Understanding ◽

The Uk ◽

Social Geographies

This article calls for a more nuanced understanding of the links between the motivations, trajectories and policy environments of community asset organisations and the geographies of their social impact. While potential for the ownership of physical assets by place-based community organisations can be found in new localism powers in all four jurisdictions of the UK, there may be differences in policy articulation and implementation that enable or limit the social benefits community asset organisations are thought to deliver. Furthermore, community assets are premised on their intrinsic tie and value to place, with social cohesion, communal mobilisation and identification of mutual interest thought to be at their heart. This article reviews research in this field set in relation to recent policy developments, and identifies an important need to better understand how the personal and social geographies of impact are delivered in, and influenced by, different spatial contexts and political frameworks.

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On the transformation of children at-risk into an investment proposition: A study of Social Impact Bonds as an anti-market device

The Sociological Review ◽

10.1177/0038026117744415 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 66 (3) ◽

pp. 492-510 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Daniel Neyland

Keyword(s):

At Risk ◽

Science And Technology Studies ◽

Social Impact ◽

Third Sector ◽

Children At Risk ◽

The Social ◽

Social Impact Bonds ◽

Intractable Problems ◽

Uk Government ◽

The Uk

Following the financial crisis of 2008, the UK government accelerated a number of market-based interventions into public problems. Experimenting with new forms of intervention provided a moment to effectively problematize the public sector as a whole and its budgets, opening up for discussion the basis for making an intervention, and the methods and costs involved. Questions were posed of the apparently irreducible costs associated with supposedly intractable problems of government (such as homelessness, vulnerable children or crime). In particular, crisis and austerity became a means to give new momentum to a series of experimental ways to shape the social investment market that had been under discussion in various forms since at least 2000. Social Impact Bonds form one particular type of intervention. They involve drawing together investors with delivery agencies, the third sector and national and local government, coordinated by a commissioner. In the recent move by the UK government to set up and use Social Impact Bonds, much has been made of the opportunity they represent to introduce competition, efficiency, efficacy, private sector thinking and investment to a range of different social problems. As the first results of these experiments are now emerging, this article reports on a study conducted into a market-based intervention that experiments with the transformation of ‘children at-risk’ into an investment proposition through a Social Impact Bond. The article suggests that the Social Impact Bond can be usefully explored by drawing on Science and Technology Studies (STS) treatments of markets as collective, heterogeneous assemblages. However, in contrast to scholars who focus on market devices, the article argues that the Social Impact Bond in practice operates as something akin to an anti-market device. The article begins with an introduction to Social Impact Bonds. It then explores the means through which market-based competition and an investment proposition were anticipated, but did not emerge through the composition and enactment of the Bond. It concludes with an assessment of the anti-market device and the future of Social Impact Bonds.

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