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Homelessness, Rights and Discretion in Scotland and Ireland

It has long been recognised that due to their substantial discretion, public sector workers play an important role in making welfare policies, not just passively implementing policies designed by governments. Drawing on her recent study which compares Scotland’s rights-based and Ireland’s social partnership approach to homelessness, Beth Watts looks again at enduring debates about the best balance between rules and discretion in the design and delivery of welfare services.


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Professor Colin Jones speaks on Radio 4’s “You and Yours”

There are fears ‘help to buy’ will artificially inflate prices, and that’s at a time when early indications are that in some parts of the country at least, house prices are already on the rise. Colin Jones was a member of the discussion panel on BBC Radio 4 programme which discussed the current housing market context, the government’s “Help to Buy” initiative and the regulation of the private rented sector.


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Why write an academic blog?

I started blogging in 2009, having graduated with a craft design degree and having no idea what to do with it. I knew I liked design, I knew I liked talking and writing about it and I knew I now had some time on my hands, so I started writing I Like Local.


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Anti-poverty strategies and equality policies – distant cousins?

Gina’s research has revealed significantly higher poverty rates for Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and Blacks (including Black Africans, Black Caribbeans and Black Other) than other ethnic groups in both Scotland and England (Netto et al, 2011). In this post, she makes recommendations for anti-poverty strategies in the light of these findings.


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Charity Shops: Does every little really help?

Continuing on from her first piece ‘Charity Shops: Curse or Crux of the High Street?’, Dr. Nicola Livingstone reflects on the retail character of these shops in the twenty-first century. Are charity shops and their drive towards profit maximisation proving effective in achieving increased income for their relative causes, or are they caught-up in the quagmire of competition, constantly changing to remain relevant?


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$ markets the spot

We live in a period where free market dominance is being openly questioned in terms of efficiency and sustainability – among other reasons. No doubt this has a lot to do with the financial crisis’ effect on every economy in the world, which is then retransmitted and multiplied due to globalization. Even the most fortified […]


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