The Scottish development agency: Market consensus, public planning and local enterprise

The absence of a coherent industrial strategy embracing sectoral enterprise development at the level of national government in the UK has meant a shift to regional and local levels as far as concerted intervention is concerned. But whilst there has been considerable interest in the activities of the local authority enterprise boards there has not been the same attention given to the regional development agencies like the SDA. The ideologies of intervention of this agency and GLEB, for example, are in theory very different, yet each confronts a series of opportunities and constraints at the level of economic sectors.     

Coastal tourism and shoreline management

This paper examines the environmental factors and the policy framework that have driven new approaches to shoreline management since the mid-90s, and how they interact with tourism development. The paper argues that resorts in the rejuvenation stage have limited options for coastal defense strategies due to the value of their economic (built) assets, unless redevelopment allows coastal re-alignment, while resorts placed earlier in the cycle can implement more sustainable strategies that work with the “natural” environment. However, environmental quality is not coupled to resort cycle stage. It can be enhanced at any stage, but especially so in the earlier and late (rejuvenation) stages.     

Cooperatives in Italy

Simon Blackley's piece gives some observations on the Italian workers' coperative movement as seen by a British co-operator. It originates from the study tour of Italian coperatives which was arranged for delegates from five London coperatives by ICOM in October 1985, as part of the ICOM Pilot Programme. This brief portrait of the Italian experience raises some important questions about how workers control can be preserved in a large organisation.