scholarly journals Testing Times: The Place of the Citizenship Test in the UK Immigration Regime and New Citizens’ Responses to it

Sociology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Byrne
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
The State ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Equal Citizenship ◽  
Successful Integration

Citizenship tests are designed to ensure that new citizens have the knowledge required for successful ‘integration’. This article explores what those who have taken the test thought about its content. It argues that new citizens had high levels of awareness of debates about immigration and anti-immigration sentiment. Considering new citizens’ views of the test, the article shows how many of them are aware of the role of the test in reassuring existing citizens of their fitness to be citizens. However, some new citizens contest this positioning in ‘acts of citizenship’ where they assert claims to citizenship which are not necessarily those constructed by the state and implied in the tests. The article will argue that the tests and the nature of the knowledge required to pass them serve to retain new citizens in a position of less-than-equal citizenship which is at risk of being discursively (if less often legally) revoked.

Austerity, Women and the Role of the State

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicki Dabrowski
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Symbiotic Relationship ◽  
Class Relations ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
Gendered Politics ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
Everyday Experiences ◽  
The Uk

Using interviews with women from diverse backgrounds, the author of this book makes an invaluable contribution to the debates around the gendered politics of austerity in the UK. Exploring the symbiotic relationship between the state's legitimization of austerity and women's everyday experiences, the book reveals how unjust policies are produced, how alternatives are silenced and highlights the different ways in which women are used or blamed. By understanding austerity as more than simply an economic project, the book fills important gaps in existing knowledge on state, gender and class relations in the context of UK austerity. Delivering a timely account of the misconceptions of policies, discourses and representations around austerity in the UK, the book illustrates the complex ways through which austerity is experienced by women in their everyday lives.

scholarly journals Mediating the form and direction of regional sustainable development: The role of the state in renewable energy deployment in selected regions

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-317
Author(s):  
Carla De Laurentis
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
National Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Ability To Act ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Strategic Goals ◽  
The Uk ◽  
National Governments

This paper analyses and critically discusses the role of regions in implementing renewable energy (RE) policies, examining the relationship between state policy and RE deployment. Using evidence from four case study regions, Apulia and Tuscany in Italy and Wales and Scotland in the UK, the paper teases out some differences in terms of regional competencies to implement RE policies across the two countries. The national governments in both Italy and the UK have constructed regulatory and governance relationships to orchestrate and reorder economic, social and ecological challenges and devolve responsibilities at the sub-national level. This has offered an opportunity for the peculiarities of regional setups to be taken into account and regions have contributed towards the promotion of green and sustainable path development via the route of promoting RE deployment. The paper argues that the downscaling and distribution of responsibility in the cases investigated reflect the capacity and willingness of nation states to respond to and mediate the strategic goals and outcomes formulated at national and international levels. Nevertheless, while the regions investigated display differences in their incentives, capacities and capabilities to increase RE deployment, their ability to act is very much influenced by nation states, stressing the important role of the state in mediating the form and direction of RE deployment.

scholarly journals Exploring the role of the state in the depoliticisation of UK transport policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Reardon ◽  
Greg Marsden
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Analysis ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
The State ◽  
Transport Policy ◽  
Full Circle ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Uk

This paper responds to calls for greater empirical investigation of the interrelationships between depoliticisation and repoliticisation processes. It does so by applying the ‘three faces’ (governmental, societal and discursive) organising perspective to a longitudinal analysis of transport policy in the UK. This case is important because acceptance of the current dominant policy solution ‐ infrastructure spending ‐ appears to have come full circle over a 30-year period. The research finds that today’s focus on infrastructure is enabled through intersecting and reinforcing depoliticisation processes, supporting the ‘three faces’ perspective. However, the paper also highlights the need for greater recognition of the state as a meta-governor of depoliticisation and the need for clarity on which aspect of a policy solution or problem (or the connections between them) is being depoliticised and repoliticised to better elucidate politicisation processes.

scholarly journals The state, employment, and regulation: making work not pay

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo Grady
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Employee Relations ◽  
Alternative Analysis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Low Pay

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of specific active labour market policies (ALMP) and increased use of zero hour contracts (ZHCs) in creating an environment in which low-wage jobs flourish. Alongside these, it examines the role of financialization over the last 30 years in fostering the nuturalization of policies that institutionalize low wages and deregulate the economy in favour of big business. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws upon academic literature, official statistics, and analyses via the concept of neoliberalism. Findings This paper demonstrates that via a set of interconnected macro and micro factors low pay is set to remain entrenched in the UK. It has demonstrated that this is not the result of some natural response to labour market demands. Far from it, it has argued that these policy choices are neoliberal in motivation and the outcome of establishing low pay and insecure employment is a significant character of the contemporary labour market is deliberate. Research limitations/implications This paper encourages a re-think of how the authors address this issue of low pay in the UK by highlighting alternative forms of understanding the causes of low pay. Practical implications It presents an alternative analysis of low pay in the UK which allows us to understand and call into question the low-pay economy. In doing so it demonstrates that crucial to this understanding is state regulation. Social implications This paper allows for a more nuanced understanding of the economic conditions of the inequality caused by low pay, and provides an argument as to alternative ways in which this can be addressed. Originality/value The paper examines the relationship between the rise of neoliberalism and finance capital, the subsequent emergence of the neoliberal organization, the associated proliferation of ALMP and ZHCs, and the impact of these on creating a low-wage economy. It makes the argument that the UK’s low-wage economy is the result of regulatory choices influenced by a political preference for financialization, even if such choices are presented as not being so. Thus, the contribution of this paper is that it brings together distinct and important contemporary issues for scholars of employee relations, but connects them to the role of the state and neoliberal regulation.

scholarly journals Poverty as a Political Choice: a Comparative Analysis of Reports of the UN Rapporteur’s Visits to the UK and Spain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Cummins ◽  
Emilio José Gómez-Ciriano
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis paper presents a comparative analysis of two reports by the UN Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, one for Spain and one for the UK. In both countries, austerity policies were introduced following the banking crisis of 2008. The UN Rapporteur reports highlight the damage that was done by welfare retrenchment. In particular, the reports document the impact of austerity on the most vulnerable individuals and communities. The paper uses Somers' (2008) conceptual model of citizenship as the basis for a comparative analysis of two reports. Somers' (2008) model of citizenship is a triadic one which sees the state, market and civil society as competing elements. Each one can serve to regulate and limit the influence or excesses of the other two. Somers argues that neoliberalism has seen the dominance of the market at the expense of the role of the state and the institutions of civil society. Austerity policies saw the market dominating. Having examined the context of the two reports and their conclusions, the paper discussed the implications for individual social workers’ practice and the role of social work as a profession in tackling poverty and marginalisation.

Meanings and dilemmas in community unionism

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 693-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Martínez Lucio ◽  
Robert Perrett
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
The State ◽  
Community Initiatives ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Clear Vision ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Community Unionism ◽  
Minority Ethnic

The article shows that community initiatives take different forms and are the outcome of a broader interplay of factors between workers’ interests, representation, and the strategies of unions and broader coalitions that are mobilized in specific communities. Drawing from three case studies on black and minority ethnic (BME) workers and trade unions in the UK the article looks at how the rhetoric of community unionism has been adopted in an uneven manner by trade unions: the article suggests that: (a) community initiatives are variable, (b) they lack a structure and clear vision, (c) the question of BME engagement is rarely central in many projects, and (d) the ambivalent role of the state is a significant factor in many of these initiatives. This state role is downplayed in much of the literature, thus raising dilemmas in terms of community initiatives.

Marginalised Voices: Resisting the Privatisation of Council Housing in Glasgow

2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerry Mooney ◽  
Lynne Poole
Keyword(s):  
Housing Stock ◽  
The State ◽  
Welfare Provision ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Council Housing

This paper explores the opposition to housing stock transfer in Glasgow in the early 1990s. Taking the position of anti-transfer campaigners, it argues that transfer can be interpreted as a form of ‘privatisation’ involving a profound restructuring in the role of the state in a key heartland area of welfare provision. Using interviews from housing campaigners in Glasgow, the paper argues that the much-heralded rhetoric about housing stock transfer as promoting tenant choice is highly contentious and misleading. The paper includes by highlighting that dispite the move to transfer in Glasgow, there remains a significant campaign against transfer in other parts of the UK.

scholarly journals The Role of the State in the Financialisation of the UK Economy

2015 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 666-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aeron Davis ◽  
Catherine Walsh
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Uk

scholarly journals Releasing Housing Equity in Later Life: Markets, Consumers and the Role of the State

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna Fox O’Mahony ◽  
Louise Overton
Keyword(s):  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Housing Wealth ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Consumer Interests ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Housing Equity

The role of equity release transactions in enabling older owners to draw down on their housing wealth to meet needs and wants in later life is a prominent policy trope in many asset-based welfare systems. Framed by the enactment of the Consumer Credit Legislation Amendment (Enhancement) Act 2012 (Cth) – in which the Federal Government established regulatory jurisdiction over reverse mortgage transactions – and drawing on empirical research into the uses and risks of housing equity withdrawal mechanisms in Australia,1 this article compares the recent Australian experience of equity release with the longer-established UK equity release market. Reaching across the demographic, socio-economic and policy contexts which are widely regarded as setting the scene for increasing use of housing wealth to fund financial needs after retirement, to the nature and development of equity release markets, this article draws on the UK experience to reflect on patterns of supply and demand, on the needs, circumstances and objectives of the equity release consumer population, and on the role of the state, through law and policy, in mediating the transactional interface between consumers and markets to support the matrix of consumer interests, industry growth and related government policy agendas implicated in the equity release market.

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