NO CHOICE: REFORMING SOCIAL HOUSING IN ENGLAND

This paper considers the current and future prospects for social housing. It looks at the key issues of choice and affordability that dominate housing policy, how this links social housing to the dominant tenure of owner-occupation and how government has sought to control social housing allowing for a managed decline of the sector. The final part of the paper proposes some reforms which will introduce real choice into rented housing and empower low-income households. This, however, will necessitate the end of social housing as a distinct tenure.     

AIRLINE SERVICES AND METROPOLITAN AREAS IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION 1970 - 1990

This paper looks at the ways in which air transport has affected economic growth in metropolitan areas in the Asia-Pacific region. Two primary influences are identified: level of service to a particular airport; and local airline industry activities. The paper examines the former by means of an historical overview of the factors influencing the development of economic 'control centers' in the Pacific Rim. The level of a service at an airport in the region has depended greatly on local economic activity, as well as on geography, aircraft technology, and intergovernmental regulation. Data on non-stop international flights in the Asia-Pacific region for 1970, 1980, and 1990 are used to document the emergence of major hubs such as Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Tokyo. It is argued that as technology advances, services will become even more concentrated in a few places, causing further congestion and strain on infrastructure capacity.     

COMPETITION AND SOCIAL HOUSING IN EUROPE

This article discusses the application of the concept of competition to social housing in Europe. A distinction is made between competition amongst social housing suppliers and between social housing organisations and commercial suppliers of housing. The competitiveness of social housing is examined using evidence mainly from England and the Netherlands.     

STATISTICS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

This survey paper gives an impression of the main ways in which statistics is used in disciplines such as sociology and psychology. After an introductory section 1 the negative image of social science research is discussed in section 2. Section 3 is devoted to the enormous influence of modern computing facilities. Measurement of human behaviour has its specific problems (section 4). The use of linear and log–linear models is the topic of section 5. Latent variables are a basic concept for social and behavioral scientists, both in some linear models (section 6) and in item response theory (section 7). In the next section multidimensional and optimal scaling techniques are mentioned, and a selection of other topics is the content of section 9. Some general remarks on the generalizability claim of statistical methods constitute the final section. Because of space limitations and priority considerations, the author has decided to write a paper about topics and not about individual research contributions. For this reason there is no list of references (it would take several pages) and no painful split of all Dutch authors into those mentioned and those omitted. In general the Dutch research community has made quite a few major contributions to the area discussed in this paper.     

STRATEGY UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND IT IN FINANCIAL SERVICES*

This article subjects the organizational theory literature on corporate strategy to critical scrutiny, arguing that both the ‘rational’and ‘processual’approaches to strategy generate analyses that are ahistorical and theoretically undeveloped. In their place, but focusing specifically on the financial services, we offer an alternative genealogically informed analysis. This indicates how the historical development of strategy discourses and practices are discontinuous and uneven across countries, sectors, companies and specialist spheres. In addition it suggests that corporate strategy has considerable impact on inter-organizational relations and both ‘internal’(i.e. management and employees) and ‘external’(i.e. consumers) members of the organization. the article seeks to illustrate its arguments both at the sectoral level by examining the development of strategic discourse in banks and insurance companies and at the organizational level by providing some case study material on IT strategy in a life insurance company.     

SEARCH AND VACANCY COSTS IN THE TOKYO HOUSING MARKET: ATTEMPT TO MEASURE SOCIAL COSTS OF IMPERFECT INFORMATION

The social cost of imperfect information, in terms of buyers' search costs and sellers' opportunity costs of vacancy, is estimated in the real estate market of resale condominiums in central Tokyo by using a new, comprehensive dataset of resale condominium transactions. The results suggest a substantial social cost. Specifically, if housing information were perfectly available and marketing time were null, sellers would get benefits of 22.59% of imputed net rents of their property. In addition, buyers would save 1,042,000 yen spent on search activities for one transaction, if information were perfect. This is equivalent to 13.2% of buyers' average annual income.     

EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION IN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY: SHOULD UNION-APPOINTED OR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES BE THE MODEL FOR THE UK?

Peter Kidger, Lecturer in Human Resource Management at the new Salford Management School, considers whether the offshore health and safety system, under which employees have the statutory right to elect safety representatives irrespective of union membership, could serve as a model for an elective system applicable in all workplaces. He reviews the conditions necessary for representation to be effective, the arguments for restricting representation to union appointments, and some of the criticisms of the 1977 SRSC Regulations. He concludes that there is a case for having safety representatives in all workplaces, but draws attention to enforcement and implementation problems which an elective system would face.     

A REVIEW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY REPORT,PUNCHING OUR WEIGHT: THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES IN PUBLIC POLICY MAKING1

The report argues that policy‐makers fail to make effective use of the high quality research of UK academics in the humanities and social sciences. Yet greater co‐operation between the government and academia could undermine the independence of the latter by increasing the role of the state in the funding and direction of university research.