Third time right? The EC's third action programme for women

Amid the welter of “new initiatives” from Brussels promoting social integration is a programme for women which appears to offer something new. Nothing in the way of new money, nor novel employment projects, rather a distinctly feminist flavour: “equality” is now to be integrated “into general mainstream policy”; grassroot action - organisation at the local and regional level - is required; working life has to be “reconciled” with family responsibilities and, finally, “women's unequal representation in all spheres of decision making” has to be addressed.

How far this rhetoric will translate into enhanced employment prospects for women, especially women in this country, is nevertheless highly problematic.     

Reviews

“REDUNDANT SPACE?” Green, Howard and Foley, Paul, 1986: Redundant Space, A Productive Asset Harper & Row, London, on behalf of the Small Business Research Trust, £14.95.

“SMALL FACTORIES” Perry, M., 1986: Small Factories and Economic Development. Aldershot: Gower, £22.50.

“COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES” Willett, R. 1985: Village Ventures. Rural Communities in Action. Rural Voice/Bedford Square Press, £3.25

Alexander, T. 1986: Value for People, Adult Education and Popular Planning. Popular Planning Project, Clapham-Battersea Adult Education Institute, 116 Battersea Park Road, London, £2.50

Ashby, P. 1986: Trade Unions and the Community, Working for Jobs. Bedford Square Press/N.C.V.O.£2.50

“COMMUNITIES IN BUSINESS” Centre for Employment Initiatives/Community Initiatives Research Trust, 1986: Communities in Business. London: Centre for Employment Initiatives, £6.95 paper.

“LONDON TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY” London Strategic Policy Unit, 1987: Britain's Industrial Renaissance? The Development, Manufacture and Use of Information Technology. London: L.S.P.U.

“EUROPEAN EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVES” Martinos, H., 1986: Employment Creation in Local Labour Markets — Four Case Studies (ILE Notebooks No 5). Paris: OECD, price FF 60.00

“CHALLENGING THE MSC” Benn, C. and Fairley, J. Editors: 1986: Challenging the MSC on jobs, training and education. London Pluto Press, £5.95 Paperback.

“SMALL FIRMS” Scott, M., Lewis, J., Gibb, A., Faulkner, T.; Editors: 1986: Small Firms Growth and Development Gower, £19.50     

Reviews

“Urban unemployment”

Hasluck, C., 1987: Urban Unemployment: Local labour markets and employment initiatives. London, Longman, £6.95 paper.

“Property and industrial development”

Fothergill, S., Monk, S. and Perry, M. 1387: Property and Industrial Development London: Hutchinson, £12.95 paper.

“High-tech”

Breheny, M. J. and McQuaid, R. W. 1987: The Development of High Technology Industries: An International Survey. London: Croom Helm, £35.00.

Monde, C. (ed), 1986: Science Parks -- Their Contribution to Economic Growth. Birmingham: UK Science Parks Association, £15.00 paper.

“American perspectives”

Bergman, Edward M. Editor 1986: Local Economies in Transition: Policy Realities and Development Potentials. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, $40.00 cloth, $16.95, paper.

“Marginal regions”

O'Cearbhaill, D. and Cawley, M. (editors) 1986: New approaches to the development of Marginal Regions, 8th International Seminar on Marginal Regions in association with University College Galway, 3 Vote: no price stated.

“Training without jobs”

Finn, Dan 1987: Training Without Jobs:New Deals and Broken Promises:From Raising the School Leaving Age to the Youth Training Scheme. London: Macmillan £6.95.

“The coopera tive workplace”

Rothschild, J. and Whitt, A. J. 1986: The Cooperative Workplace: potentials and dilemmas of organizational democracy and participation. USA: American Sociological Association Rose Monograph Series, Cambridge University Press. No price stated.

“Opposition to plant closures”

Maunders, A. 1986: A Process of Struggle. Aldershot: Gower £20.00 cloth.

“Property data”

Investment Property Databank, 1987: The IPD Annual Review 1987 London, £45.

“Urban economic development”

Hausner.V. A. (editor) 1987: Critical Issues in Urban Economic Development. Volume II. Oxford: Clarendon Press, £22.50 hardback.     

Reviews

“LOCAL ECONOMIC REGENERATION IN SCOTLAND” Hugh Morison, 1987: The Regeneration of Local Economies. Oxford: Clarendon Press, £19.50 HB.

“'MANAGING' URBAN CHANGE?” Department of the Environment, 1988: Managing Urban Change: A Report on the Management Training Needs of Urban Programme Project Managers. HMSO, £7.20

“WORKER CO-OPERATIVES” Mary Mellor, Janet Hannah and John Stirling, 1988: Worker Co-operatives in Theory and Practice. Open University Press, £25.00 cloth, £8.95 paper.

“COPING WITH RECESSION” Harris, C. C. 1987: Redundancy and Recession in South Wales. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, £29.50 hardback.     

Reviews

“LOCAL EMPLOYMENT PLANS” Norwich City Council, 1987: Taking Norwich into the 1990s. Norwich, free.

Bristol City Council, 1987: Bristol: An Employment Plan. Bristol, £1.00.

Reading Borough Council, 1987: Creating Opportunities: A Programme for Jobs in Reading. Reading, no price stated.

Cleveland County Council, 1987: Unemployment Strategy. Middlesbrough, free.

Sheffield City Council: Employment and Economic Development Department 1987: Sheffield Employment Matters. Issue 1. Sheffield, £10 for 3 issues.

Lancashire Enterprises Ltd, 1987: Annual Report 1986-87. Preston, free.

“ETHNIC MINORITIES AND YOUTH TRAINING” Malcolm Cross and Douglas Smith (editors) 1987: Black Youth Futures: Ethnic Minorities and the Youth Training Scheme, National Youth Bureau. No price stated.

“HOMEWORKING” Allen, S. and Wolkowitz, C., 1987: Homeworking: Myths and Realities. London: Macmillan, £25.00 cloth, £7.95 paper.

“STRATEGY FOR RETAILING” Montgomery, J., 1987: Trade Winds — the changing face of retailing and retail employment in the South East — an alternative strategy. South East Economic Development Strategy, Daneshill House, Danesgate Street, Stevenage, Herts. No price stated.     

Reviews

“THE LONDON EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM” Buck, N., Gordon, I. and Young, K. with Ermisch, J. and Mills, L., 1986: The London Employment Problem. Oxford: Clarendon Press, £7.95.

“CLYDESIDE IN TRANSITION” Lever, W. and Moore, C., 1986: The City in Transition: Policies and Agencies for the Economic Regeneration of Clydeside. Oxford: Clarendon Press, £7.95.

“MANAGING THE LOCAL ECONOMY” Wilmers, Peter and Bourdillon, Bernard, Editors, 1985; Managing the Local Economy: Planning for Employment and Economic Development. Norwich: Geo Books, £15.00 paper.

“SUNBELT CITY?” Boddy, M., Lovering, J. and Bassett, K., 1986: Sunbelt City? A Study of Economic Change in Britain's M4 Growth Corridor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, £7.95 paperback.     

Telecommunications and the local economy: Some emerging policy issues

This paper provides a brief overview of the issues which surround local economic development and telecommunications. The implications of telecommunications for urban and regional development in the present “information-based” era are outlined and the seven basic features of this development are described. Some necessary steps and conceptual approaches to developing specifically local development policies in this new area are then expounded by way of the development of a “framework for the local policy maker”. Finally, several leading attempts at developing locally controlled telecommunications infrastructures in the UK, as agents of economic and social development, are briefly analysed.     

Reviews

“THE POLL TAX” Flannery, Kate, 1987: More than Just a Poll Tax. Centre for Local Economic Strategies, £5.00. MacGregor, Susanne, 1988: The Poll Tax and the Enterprise Culture. Manchester: Centre for Local Economic Strategies, £3.95.

“ECONOMIC THEORY AND THE LOCAL ECONOMY” Smith, D., 1987: The Rise and Fall of Monetarism: The Theory and Politics of an Economic Experiment. Penguin, £3.95.

Holland, S., 1987: The Market Economy: From Micro to Mesoeconomics and The Global Economy: From Meso to Macroeconomics, Weidenfeld, £12.95 each.

Green, F. and Sutcliffe, B., 1987: The Profit System: The Economics of Capitalism. Penguin, £5.95.

“THE SERVICES REVOLUTION?” Rajan, A., 1987: Services: The Second Industrial Revolution? London: Butterworths, £27.50.

“ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMY IN EUROPE” Joyce, F. E. and Schneider, G. (editors), 1988: Environment and Economic Development in the Regions of the European Community. Aldershot: Avebury/Gower, £18.50 hb.

“POLITICS OF PRIVATISATION” Ascher, K., 1987: The Politics of Privatisation: Contracting Out Public Services. London: Macmillan Education Ltd. £30.00 cloth, £8.95 paper.

“RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING POLICY” Davies, T. and Mason, C., 1986: Shutting out the Inner City Worker. University of Bristol, School for Advanced Urban Studies, £4.30.

Chapman, P. G. and Tooze, M. J., 1987: The Youth Training Scheme in the United Kingdom. Avebury: Gower Publishing Company, £22.50.

“JOB GENERATION RESEARCH” Storey, D. J. and Johnson, S., 1987: Job Generation and Labour Market Change. London: Macmillan.     

Reviews

“THE RURAL ECONOMY” M. Healey and B. llbery (Eds), 1985: The Industrialization of the Countryside Norwich: Geo Books, £32.50.

P. Lowe, G. Cox, M. MacEwen, T. O'Riordan, M. Winter, 1986: Countryside Conflicts. The Politics of Farming, Forestry and Conservation.

Aldershot: Gower Publishing Company, £19.50 hardback, £8.95 paper.

E. Stern and J. Turbin, 1986: Youth Employment and Unemployment in Rural England. Report of a One Year Pilot Study in Four Rural Areas for the Development Commission Development Commission/Tavistock Institute of Human Relations.

“GLOBAL RESTRUCTURING, LOCAL RESPONSE?” Philip Cook (Ed), 1986: Global Restructuring, Local Response. London: Economic and Social Research Council £10.00.

“LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT” Cordle, P., 1985: Employment and Industrial Development-Local Authority Initiatives. CIPFA, £5.00. V. Hausner (Ed) 1986: Critical Issues in Urban Economic Development, Volume II. Oxford: Clarendon Press, £22.50

“CRISIS IN THE INDUSTRIAL HEARTLAND” Spencer, K., Taylor, A., Smith, B., Mawson, J., Flynn N. and Batley, R., 1986: Crisis in the Industrial Heartland: A Study of the West Midlands. Oxford University Press, £7.95.

“BLACK POLITICS AND URBAN CRISIS” Brian D. Jacobs, 1986: Black politics and urban crisis in Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press £25.00 Hardback.

“UNEMPLOYMENT AND LABOUR MARKET POLICIES” Hart, P. E. (Ed), 1986: Unemployment and Labour Market Policies Aldershot: Gower, 1950     

Reviews

DEPRIVATION IN THE OUTER CITY.

Barke, M. and Turnbull, G. 1992: Meadowell: The Biography of an “Estate with Problems”. Aldershot: Avebury, £32.00 cloth.

CHANGING BOUNDARIES OF RACE.

Jones, Trevor. 1993: Britain's Ethnic Minorities. PSI,

£15.

ENTERPRISE IN ARCADIA?

Curran, J. and Storey, D. (eds), 1993: Small Firms in Urban and Rural Locations, London and New York: Routledge, £40, hardback.

MAKING CONNECTIONS.

Turok, I. 1993: Loose connections? Foreign investment and local linkages in “Silicon Glen” Strathclyde Papers on Planning, 23. Centre for Planning, University of Strathclyde, 50 Richmond Street, Glasgow, G1 1XN. £4.00, paper.

COWLEY: THE END OF THE LINE?

Hayter, T. and Harvey, D. (eds) 1993: The Factory and the City: the Story of the Cowley Automobile Works in Oxford. London: Mansell, £40, hardback.

UPDATING SECTOR APPROACHES.

Geddes, M. and Benington, J. (eds) 1992: Restructuring the Local Economy. Harlow: Longman, £22.00, paper.

BORN AGAIN LOCAL GOVERNMENT?

Hodge, M. and Thompson, W. 1994: Beyond the Town Hall: Reinventing Local Government. Fabian Pamphlet, £3.90.     

How new is the New Deal? A qualitative study of the New Deal for Young People on minority ethnic groups in Oldham

Despite a clear commitment to equality of opportunity under the New Deal, some have questioned whether the New Deal for Young People has served ethnic minority communities as well as the white population. This research is based primarily on a qualitative longitudinal study of ethnic minority New Deal participants (and non-participants) in Oldham in Greater Manchester, and also on analysis of the New Deal Evaluation Database. We find that objective outcomes, particularly employment, can be problematic, but that there is strong evidence of positive impacts on employability, especially through work experience. In these terms the NDYP clearly represents a departure from the YTS and has had a generally positive reception from participants. However, our research emphasizes the fact that participants are a self-selected section of young unemployed people, and that there are major differences between participants and 'avoiders'. Most notably, non-participants were much more disaffected with the labour market and more negative about the New Deal.     

Prestige project developments: Economic renaissance or economic myth? A case study of Birmingham

This article examines the City of Birmingham's attempt to generate economic activity through the construction of “prestige projects” and the refurbishment of its Central Business District in the 1980s. Birmingham City Council's claims to have generated thousands of jobs and £2 billion of private sector investment from its prestige developments are examined and the distributional impacts of the “claimed” job creation totals are also detailed. The article concludes that the global investment and employment figures claimed have been exaggerated and many of the jobs directly generated have contributed to the growth of the secondary labour market in Birmingham.     

Employment change in the 1990s: Findings from a study in Nottingham

The paper reports from a study of employment change from a sample of members of Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce. The main focus is a comparison of the workers who lost their jobs and of the new recruits during the period January 1990 — September 1991. The study produced clear evidence of. the wide scale nature of workforce adjustment, although redundancy was the most important labour shedding method adopted, other methods were used. Manufacturing and service companies surveyed shed “permanent” jobs as well as part-time “flexible” jobs. Although far more jobs were lost than were created, half the surveyed companies did, in fact, recruit staff.     

Reviews

”THE GEOGRAPHY OF ECONOMIC CHANGE“ Martin and Rowthorn (eds), 1986: The Geography of De-industrialisation. London: Macmillan, £30 cloth, £8.95 paper.

Champion, A. G. et al, 1987: Changing Places. London: Edward Arnold, £7.95 paper.

“WHAT FUTURE FOR THE LOCAL STATE?” Simon Duncan and Mark Goodwin, 1988: The Local State and Uneven Development. Cambridge: Polity Press, £8.95 paperback.

“THE 'SEEDS' APPROACH”

(1) All Change: A study of Bus Transportation Planning, Deregulation and Privatisation in seven towns; Consultant Dr P. A. Stanley; March 1987.

(2) After Chernobyl: A safe energy policy for the South East; Consultant Adrian Atkinson; May 1987.

(3) Troubled Waters: Water services in the South East Region; Consultants Dr J. Rees and Dr M. Synott; May 1987.

(4) Jobs Plan Workshop [W.P.2]; Oxford City Council; May 1987.

(5) Opportunities for energy conservation in Brighton and Harlow council housing stock: G. Matthews, S. Hodgkinson and M. Fergusson.

(6) Defence Electronics Conference [W.P.1]; Stevenage DC; November 1987.

(7) British Rail Services in the Southampton Area (W.P.3]; Consultant Helen Dawson; February 1988.

(8) Right Lines?: A study of British Rail Services in the South East; Consultant Helen Dawson; September 1988.

(9) South-South Divide; SEEDS 1987.

All published by SEEDS, The South East Economic Development Strategy.

“INDUSTRIAL RESTRUCTURING — PROCESSES AND POLITICS” Irene Hardill, 1987: The regional implications of the restructuring in the wool textile industry. Aldershot: Gower, £25.

Bo Strath, 1987: The politics of deindustrialisation. The contraction of the West European shipbuilding industry. London: Croom Helm.     

Reviews

TRANSPORT AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.

Hepworth, M. and Oucatel, K. 1991: Transport in the Information Age: Wheels and Wires. London: Belhaven Press, £39.00 cloth.

THE SOUTH EAST AND EUROPE.

South East Economic Development Strategy, 1991: Continental Shift: The South East and Europe's Single Market. Stevenage: SEEDS,

£35.00.

DEFENCE CONVERSION.

Fife Regional Council and Fife Enterprise, 1991: A Study of the Fife Defence Industry. Glenrothes: Fife Regional Council, no price stated.

URBAN POLICY IN THE UK AND THE USA IN THE

1990S. Hambleton R. 1991: Another Chance for Cities? Issues for Urban Policy in the 1990s. Papers in Planning Research No 126, Department of City and Regional Planning, University of Wales College at Cardiff, PO Box 906, Cardiff CF1 3Y, £6.00 paper.

Nyden, P.W. and Wiewel, W. (eds) 1991: Challenging Uneven Development: An Urban Agenda for the 1990s. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

Clavel P. and Wiewel, W. (eds) 1991: Harold Washington and the Neighbourhoods: Progressive City Government in Chicago 1983-1987. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. $16.00 paper.

THE PARTNERSHIP DEBATE: CONTRACT ARRANGEMENTS BETWEEN THE PUBLIC AND VOLUNTARY SECTORS.

Gutch, R. 1992: Contracting Lessons from the US. London: NCVO

Publications, £5.00 voluntary organisations, £10.00 others.

THE FAST PROGRAMME.

Cooley, M. (ed) 1989: European Competitiveness in the 21st Century (A contribution to the “FAST”

proposal for an R&D programme on “Human work in advanced technological environments"). Commission of the European Communities. No price stated.     

Reviews

“REDUNDANCY AND RECESSION” Danson, M. (editor) 1986: Redundancy and Recession: Restructuring the Regions? Norwich: Geobooks £25.00.

“BUSINESS FINANCE” International Management Centre, Buckingham for the Local Government Training Board 1986: Business Finance for Economic Development Officers. LGTB/Coventry Open Tech Unit. £48.50.

“NEW FIRMS” Johnson, P. 1987: New Firms, An Economic Perspective, London: Allen and Unwin £20.00.     

”Uneven development“

John Allen and Doreen Massey (eds), 1988: The Economy in Question. London: Sage Publications, £8.95 paper.

Doreen Massey and John Allen (eds), 1988: Uneven Re-Development: Cities and Regions in Transition. A Reader. London: Hodder and Stoughton, £7.50 paper.

Kevin Morgan and Andrew Sayer, 1988: Microcircuits of Capital: “Sunrise” Industry and Uneven Development Oxford: Polity Press. £35.00 cloth.     

Training for business start-up in Scotland — the gender dimension

This paper looks at two examples of business start-up training in Scotland which have specifically targeted women, both younger women entering the labour market for the first time and older women who are either unemployed or returning to the labour market after raising a family. We argue that women face a double disadvantage in trying to start up and run their own business. Traditionally women have not been seen as business owners and are under represented in the small business sector. Secondly women perform a dual role in that they are almost always responsible for domestic and family concerns, whether they are economically active or not. We recognise that “gender constraints” exist and discuss the training programmes we have developed which in their style, content and timing set out to meet the special needs of women contemplating self employment.     

Reviews

“URBAN ECONOMIC CHANGE” Victor A. Hausner and members of the ESRC Inner Cities Research Programme, 1987: Urban Economic Change: Five City Studies. Clarendon Press, Oxford, £25.00.

“ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT POLICY” Robinson, F., Wren, C. and Goddard, J., 1987: Economic Development Policies-An Evaluative Study of the Newcastle Metropolitan Region. Oxford: Clarendon Press, £8.95 paper.

'URBAN REGENERATION ISSUES” London Strategic Policy Unit, 1987: Land for Industry: The need for industrial land in London until 1990. London: LSPU, no price stated.

Department of the Environment, 1987: Re-using Redundant Buildings: Case Studies of Good Practice in Urban Regeneration. HMSO £11.95.

Department of the Environment, 1987: Managing Workspaces: Case Studies of Good Practice in Urban Regeneration. HMSO £11.95.

Department of the Environment, 1987: Greening Crty Sites: Case Studies in Good Practice in Urban Re-generation. HMSO £11.95.

“VIEWS FROM THE DISTRICTS” Association of District Councils, 1987: A Blueprint for Urban Areas, Volumes 1 and 2. London: £12.00.

Association of District Councils, 1987: Economic Development Initiatives and Innovations: Best Practice Paper No. 6 (Revised). London: £4.00.     

Building and sustaining inter-firm networks. Lessons from training and enterprise councils

The academic discussion of business co-operation and networks is often undertaken in fairly abstract terms. The objective of this paper is to add some realism through “on-the-ground” examples of inter-firm networks in which Training and Enterprise Councils (TECS) have acted in a facilitating and supportive capacity. This paper considers the practicalities and problems that TECs, often in the shape of “network brokers”, have encountered in facilitating the building and sustaining of local inter-firm networks, primarily among SMEs, in a number of differing scenarios. It was found that the most effective and sustainable networks are initially based on informal relations, such as those developed through voluntary attendance at “learning” workshops and seminars. As trust emerges and bonds are gradually gained these arrangements may evolve into more formal and long-term associations. It is suggested that the initial focus of projects should consist of expanding the “stakeholder webs” of SMEs through learning networks that focus on building the stock of social capital. Furthermore, gaining sufficient reserves of social capital should be considered prior to the planning of any formal “dotted line” commercial or innovation-based relations.