Competitiveness, partnership — and democracy? Putting the “local” back into London government

The division of the powers and responsibilities of government in London has been a constant source of friction and debate between central and local government. In the wake of the abolition of the Greater London Council, the Conservative government waited for the corporate sector to take the lead. When this failed to materialise, a complicated array of unelected agencies and partnerships were constructed to promote London, deliver services and allocate expenditure. This paper reviews the nature and function of these organisations and examines proposals for regional development agencies and an elected strategic authority for the capital arising from the election of a Labour government in May 1997. While pointing to considerable organisational innovation, for instance in the setting up of the Government Office for London, it is argued that, during 18 years of Conservative government, the emphasis on policy delivery through a variety of discrete partnership agencies deliberately overlooked issues of subsidiarity and local accountability. Thus the debate about the relationship between central and local government in London reflects substantial philosophical differences between the two parties. The Labour government's proposals for a strategic authority and regional development agency will require a substantial reallocation of powers and functions between a number of overlapping and competing agencies and a redefinition of what are legitimately local and central functions.     

Overindebtedness and Overlegalization: Consumer Bankruptcy as a Field for Alternative Dispute Resolution

In the advisory report to the European Commission (Huls et al., 1994), the conclusion was reached that the optimal European solution for overindebtedness of consumers is a combination of legal change and a strengthening of the work of social debt counsellors. It was argued that the two spheres, the legal and the social, should be linked in order to create a constructive coalition.Europe has learned from the USA how to introduce the concept "discharge of debts" into their legislation (Huls, 1992). The USA may learn from Europe how debt counsellors can play a more vital part in tackling the debt problem of consumers. This paper explores the possibilities for expanding the domain of non-legal actors in this field by looking at legal aid discussions in general, and more specifically at the new Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) trend that is developing both in the USA and Europe.In the first section of the paper, the importance of an adequate definition of the problem is stressed. The following section summarizes the model proposed in Huls et al. (1994). It is followed by a plea for professional and independent debt counselling, a prerequisite for dejuridification of the debt problem, and for a coupling of debt problems to legal aid discussions. This leads to the conclusion that a strong case can be made for debt counselling as a form of ADR.     

From spending to understanding: Analyzing customers by their spending behavior

In customer segmentation, a common strategy is to use individual differences as a predictor of future behavior. Recent advances in data management in large financial institutions give an unprecedented and potentially powerful source of data for identifying such differences. We show that spending data can substantially help target the direct marketing of financial products, and constitutes new information, not captured by demographics. In particular, a systematic combination of this independent source and more traditional measures can enhance the predictive power of marketing research and improve the relationship with customers as illustrated in a direct mailing selection method which substantially raises response rates.     

The impact of sustainable energy production on land use in Britain through to 2050

Historically, land use in Britain has been shaped by the environment's capacity to provide energy as well as food, water and shelter. Over the next decades, energy will again become a major driver in land cover change as we seek to capture the necessary energy to replace fossil fuels, reduce environmental damage and substitute for insecure supplies. Britain was one of the first places to exploit fossil fuels extensively, initially coal, and it has the potential to generate considerable amounts of renewable energy from tides, waves, the wind, biomass and sunlight. The UK Government's policy is to develop a suite of technologies that will provide a resilient supply without compromising its economy or its international commitments to environmental protection.This paper examines the three major terrestrial options for renewable energy and assesses each by successively filtering them for feasibility, achievability and practicality incorporating existing developments, designation and public opinion. Technology and opinion are dynamic, so the outputs need to be viewed as indicative of alternative scenarios rather than as fixed forecasts. Implications for changes in the energy supply infrastructure needed to match the new supply chains are highlighted.The demand for energy depends on the demographic profile (population size, age distribution, lifestyle and expectations) and on economic activity. Here total demand is predicted using the UK Energy Research Centre's Energy 2050 model, which uses linear programming to balance economics and environmental capacity by major demand sectors in five-year time steps. The core model often generates challenging results.     

Industrialization, Economic Growth, and International Trade

This paper analyzes the relationship between economic growth, industrialization, and international trade in a two-sector endogenous growth model. With learning-by-doing, the economy grows perpetually along a balanced growth path, with manufacturing's relative price declining continuously. Under trade, its pattern of trade and growth will be affected by external growth. If it remains diversified under trade, its growth can keep in pace with the rest of the world. If the growth rate of the rest of the world is higher than a certain limit, the economy cannot catch up and will eventually produce agriculture only.     

The view from inside the 'simulacrum‘: visitors’ tales from the set of Coronation Street

The social significance of visits to television and film locations has been little studied. This article concentrates on Granada Studios Tour (GST) - home of the external set of Coronation Street - and uses as its main source interviews with visitors to GST, conducted on site and in visitors' homes, to explore the complex significance of this site. Although sites such as GST have tended to be dismissed because of their ‘fictive’ status, a detailed examination of visitors’ experiences - in particular, their reactions to the Street set's status as an actual place of filming - suggests a more interesting picture. Visiting the Street set connects viewers to the ‘world of television’, a connection examined from a number of different perspectives: ‘aura’ (in Walter Benjamin's sense), social memory and symbolic reversals, pilgrimage and ritual place. The analysis of GST and the Street set as ‘ritual places’ draws in particular on the work of the anthropologist Jonathan Smith. It develops from the way the set connects two places and two worlds organized in a symbolic hierarchy: the ‘ordinary world’ of viewers and the ‘media world’. Such worlds are, largely, social constructions, but they are the basis of GST's particular ‘power of place’. The conclusion connects this analysis to Lash and Urry's recent (1994) analysis of the ‘resubjectivization of space’ in contemporary travel and reflexivity.     

The Power(lessness) of Industry Self-regulation to Promote Responsible Labor Standards: Insights from the Chinese Toy Industry

The provision of responsible labor standards along the entire value chain poses considerable challenges for corporations. In particular, management shortcomings and institutional deficits—which are partly related to cultural issues—frequently impede the realization of responsible business practices in emerging and developing countries. It is widely established in theory that industry self-regulation constitutes a particularly promising approach for overcoming these challenges. Nonetheless, it is still an open question as to whether industry initiatives effectively promote responsible standards in practice. This contribution aims to enrich the current discussion about the power of industry self-regulation to ensure responsible labor standards in factories in emerging and developing countries. For this purpose, we analyze the ICTI CARE Process (ICP), the self-regulation initiative of the international toy industry, that aims to promote responsible business practices in Chinese toy factories. The assessment of the ICP shows that corporations’ buying behavior is decisive in order for industry self-regulation to become an appropriate means of improving labor standards. Based on the insights from the study and from theoretical reasoning, we develop a framework for effective industry self-regulation that integrates the perspective of factories.     

User preferences for web site attributes: A study of the Hong Kong Disneyland

The Hong Kong Disneyland will be open in 2005 and the theme park is very likely to have an official web site. In order to determine the nature of a model/ideal official web site that would serve the promotional purpose, this study is conducted with two objectives. First, the study makes an attempt to understand the information types that the target markets, namely local Hong Kong residents, Western visitors and Chinese visitors, would like to have on the future Hong Kong Disney web site. Secondly, this research examines whether e‐ticketing is feasible for the web site. Using a questionnaire and a convenience sampling method, 198 responses were received. Empirical results indicate that the respondents all agreed that the suggested attributes should be listed in the web site. In addition, no significant difference was found among different groups of respondents on homepage information. However, significant differences were found among the interviewees’ views regarding products/services information, and ticketing information. To communicate effectively, the adoption of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is recommended in a value‐chain system for achieving successful e‐commerce.     

An Exploratory Study into the Factors Impeding Ethical Consumption

Although consumers are increasingly engaged with ethical factors when forming opinions about products and making purchase decisions, recent studies have highlighted significant differences between consumers’ intentions to consume ethically, and their actual purchase behaviour. This article contributes to an understanding of this ‘Ethical Purchasing Gap’ through a review of existing literature, and the inductive analysis of focus group discussions. A model is suggested which includes exogenous variables such as moral maturity and age which have been well covered in the literature, together with further impeding factors identified from the focus group discussions. For some consumers, inertia in purchasing behaviour was such that the decision-making process was devoid of ethical considerations. Several consumers manifested their ethical views through post-purchase dissonance and retrospective feelings of guilt. Others displayed a reluctance to consume ethically due to personal constraints, a perceived negative impact on image or quality, or an outright negation of responsibility. Those who expressed a desire to consume ethically often seemed deterred by cynicism, which caused them to question the impact they, as an individual, could achieve. These findings enhance the understanding of ethical consumption decisions and provide a platform for future research in this area.