Devolution and Economic Governance in the UK: Uneven Geographies, Uneven Capacities?

Recent academic debates have suggested that the capacity of any given territory to embed increasingly global processes of economic development partly rests on sub-national social, cultural and institutional forms and supports. In this context, devolution has the potential to alter the institutional architecture of the UK state and this paper interrogates the various ways in which the devolved bodies in the four territories--England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales--have begun to remake their institutional architectures of economic development. The paper also draws out some initial implications of these changes for the emerging uneven geographies and uneven capacities of economic development with the UK, post-devolution. The paper concludes by linking these observations to academic debates on the 'new regionalism'.     

From Territorial Cohesion to Regional Spatial Justice: The Well-Being of Future Generations Act in Wales

The European Union's flagship Cohesion Policy faces evidence of dubious economic effectiveness and growing political and philosophical critiques of the very ideals of furthering European integration. This article examines ambitions for territorial cohesion as they have been operationalized through regional development in Wales. We argue that a potential alternative to the failed realization of territorial cohesion lies in the principles of spatial justice. While territorial cohesion has typically emphasized the redistribution of funds to ‘lagging’ regions, spatial justice, as we define it, is premised upon enabling regions to assert their own capacity to act and pursue positive visions of regional futures, consider the implications of space and scale for the achievement of justice, and define well-being, development and the ‘good life’ in ways that reflect regional priorities. We examine three ways in which recent political discourses and policy mechanisms in Wales resonate with these ideals. We focus on attempts to envision a progressive Welsh future, develop alternative spaces and scales of governance, and redefine and pluralize understandings of progress and well-being. The article concludes by reflecting on the practical and conceptual implications of rescaling spatial justice to regional contexts.     

Accounting for geographical variance in the union satisfaction gap

Evidence of spatial variance in the relationship between trade union membership and job satisfaction is limited. Using three nationally representative data sets, we examine lower levels of satisfaction among union members and considers how this relationship varies geographically across the nations and regions of Great Britain. The analysis demonstrates that the union satisfaction gap can largely be accounted for by relative characteristics of union members and the jobs that they hold. However, there is evidence of geographical variance. The union satisfaction gap is generally found to be highest within Scotland and North of England. Despite high levels of union membership, evidence of a union satisfaction gap in Wales is relatively weak. These differences relate to differences in the perceptions of industrial relations among employees across these areas, which appear to be related to geographical variance in worker heterogeneity.     

Leadership,task and relationship: Orpheus,Prometheus and Janus

The idea that the major division in leadership or management styles is a preference for either task or relationship orientation has long prevailed in the literature. This article proposes an alternative orientation for leaders; that, while in pursuit of achieving the task, the leader is focused either on the needs of superordinates or subordinates, or both. A large‐scale evaluation of leadership in the Royal Air Force from the perspective of followers suggests that although there is some surface support for the task/relationship dichotomy, the more important division is threefold: between people who only look upwards to satisfy the demands of their superordinates (Orpheans), those that tend to focus downwards at the demands of their subordinates (Prometheans) and those that try to look both ways (Janusians). The latter appear to have the greatest chance of sustained success at the more senior levels of the organisation.     

Minimising the harm to biodiversity of producing more food globally

Should farming and conservation policies aim broadly to separate land for nature and land for production (land sparing) or integrate production and conservation on the same land (wildlife-friendly farming)? Most studies that try to address this question suffer from flaws in sampling design, inappropriate metrics, and/or failure to measure biodiversity baselines. We discuss how these failings can be addressed, and what existing information tells us about the key debates on this topic. The evidence available suggests that trade-offs between biodiversity and yield are prevalent. While there are some wildlife-friendly farming systems that support high species richness, a large proportion of wild species cannot survive in even the most benign farming systems. To conserve those species, protection of wild lands will remain essential. Sustainable intensification could help to facilitate sparing of such lands, provided that as much attention is given to protecting habitats as to raising yields. We discuss the general circumstances under which yield increases can facilitate land sparing, recognising that policies and social safeguards will need to be context-specific. In some situations, bringing degraded lands into production could help reduce pressure on wild lands, but much more information is needed on the biodiversity implications of using degraded lands. We conclude that restricting human requirements for land globally will be important in limiting the impacts on biodiversity of increasing food production. To achieve this, society will need to integrate explicit conservation objectives into local, regional and international policies affecting the food system.     

How Does Workplace Monitoring Affect the Gender Wage Differential? Analysis of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings and the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey — A Research Note

This paper outlines the development of a new data source that combines workplace information from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) with employee data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). Illustrative analysis of the gender wage differential demonstrates how the inclusion of additional workplace characteristics collected from WERS can be utilized to understand better‐observed patterns in earnings within ASHE. Analysis reveals that monitoring gender equality at the workplace is not associated with a reduction in the gender wage gap. Matching WERS/ASHE provides the opportunity to investigate a wider range of workplace phenomena than would be possible based only upon the WERS Survey of Employees.     

The Motor Industry in an Enlarged EU

The motor industry in the ‘First Fifteen’ EU makes an enormous contribution to its economic prosperity. This is manifest in the scale of employment, output, investment, international trade and technological change. The enlargement of the EU will see the full integration of the auto sector in the accession countries with the activities in the West to reinforce its already massive scale. The nature of optimum size and the importance of economies of scale creates a bias to bigness in vehicle manufacture. Hence, the auto industry in the accession countries consists largely of the local operations of transnational companies. As car demand is income elastic the level of sales in the accession countries is relatively small but as the economies expand the potential is enormous. This, together with non‐scaler advantages such as low wage rates, has attracted considerable investment by vehicle firms in the last fifteen years into the accession countries. Various tariff reduction agreements have meant that integration of the East Central European motor industry with Western operations has pre‐dated the current formal enlargement of the EU. The countries that have done particularly well in attracting automotive investment have been Poland, the Czech Republic and, particularly, Slovakia. The recent history of the auto sector in the accession countries has not been without its problems. The collapse of the command economies saw disruption in the market and the decline of the local indigenous car makers. Subsequently this was more than offset by new inward investment. There has been no revival of the local commercial vehicle industry and further restructuring can be expected. The long‐term survival of the auto component sector in the accession countries will depend on how the sector responds to the competitive challenges of free trade and enlargement. However, there are signs that significant high value‐added activities such as vehicle design and development, will be sustainable in East Central Europe. The motor industry in the accession countries will face its own challenges, not least the tendency of the industry to anticipate formal integration. This time it will mean expansion into Eastern Europe. Hence, whilst the location of vehicle plants in the accession countries challenges the traditional centres of manufacture in the West, including ‘the periphery’, in turn they must be alert to even newer competition elsewhere.     

Measuring the Competitive Threat from China for other Southern Exporters

In recent years there has been a growing literature which analyses the threat which Chinese exports pose to the exports of other developing countries. This paper provides a critique of the standard measures of export similarity which have been used to estimate the threat from China in these studies. Two alternative indices, the Static and the Dynamic Index of Competitive Threat, are developed and estimated for 18 developing countries and compared with estimates for the standard measures. It is shown that the latter tend to underestimate the extent to which countries are threatened by China. They also distort both the rankings of countries according to the extent to which they face competition from China and the direction of change in the competitive threat over time.