School of Social Sciences and Law

Politicians in democracies the world over have begun enthusiastically adopting and adapting web-based methods for communicating with voters and constituents. This article examines one method, i.e. blogging, in the context of legislators in Taiwan and South Korea, two of the most switched-on democracies in the world. Comparing these cases to each other and to the western cases that dominate the literature, the article provides empirical findings on the scale of uptake and the place of blogging amongst other media. It asks who is blogging, what are they blogging about and are they promoting interaction with constituents?

Despite the challenging conditions which the financial markets
suffered globally due to the measures taken to cope with the
consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Turkish market
closed numerous project finance transactions in 2020. Energy,
transport, infrastructure and technology (especially fintech)
were the sectors which gained significant attention in terms of
project financing in the Turkish market.

Due to Turkey’s geopolitical position and hungry economy,
energy is still the foremost sector for project finance in Turkey.
Turkey has an aim of liberalising the energy sector and attracting
private sector participation and the establishment of a competitive
market. In recent years, Turkey has substantially increased
the share of renewable energy and continues to do so. Despite
the decline in energy prices this year (especially petroleum
and natural gas), the increasing currency rates caused a strong
current account deficit for Turkey. This has been the driving
force of the new energy projects and investments, especially
for renewable energy, of which hydroelectricity makes up the
biggest chunk. It is nevertheless worth noting that, lately,
there has been increasing investment in other renewable energy
sectors, such as wind and solar.

Within the last few years, there have also been a significant
number of ongoing public-private partnership (PPP) projects
in the energy, highways, ports, healthcare and railway sectors.
The Turkish government promotes independent investment in
these sectors and has also focused heavily on PPP projects in
recent years. These PPPs are mainly centred around the Turkish
energy, airport, road, railway and infrastructure sectors.

In order to facilitate the investments, with the recent amendment
made to the Capital Markets Law No. 6362, an alternative
project financing method (i.e. project finance fund) and a
new type of security (i.e. project-backed security) are also being
introduced, with the purpose of contributing project financing
for investments with long terms and high capital, such as infrastructure,
energy, industry, technology, communications and health projects.
Still, in terms of new investments, we believe that, in 2021,
despite the significant project financing transactions undertaken,
many companies, domestic and foreign investors and large conglomerates are reluctant to make new investments and
are instead seeking to refinance existing ones due to the crisis
suffered in the wake of the pandemic.

This study critically explores education to work transitions among young working class individuals in the city of Glasgow during the period of relative economic decline that followed the 2008 financial crisis. It seeks to understand how those ending their education and entering the labour market at 16/17 years old experience work and how far those experiences may have implications for formal education and the way we shape youth transitions. By focusing on the group most likely to experience sustained unemployment it is hoped a broad understanding of how education constructs expectations of work can be identified.

The following sociological study analyses whether the contemporary definition of work passed on to young people via education serves to reinforce their social position, thereby contributing to their relative failure to combat austerity and unwillingness to consider alternative work forms. By situating the research in the city of Glasgow a proposal for identifying broader trends across the UK and beyond within similar post-industrial working class environments is presented. The thesis specifically considers perceptions of work among final year secondary school pupils in an attempt to highlight not only how the reality of austerity is affecting school leavers’ aspirations but how it alters the way in which they perceive what work is.

The ongoing economic difficulties encountered in Scotland as a result of austerity has seen the country suffer a marked decline in youth employment during and after the financial crisis of 2008 with 26.4% of 16-19 year olds experiencing unemployment in 2010/11, an increase from 17.9% in 2007/8 (Anderson & Dowling, 2012). The reality that arises from the significant fiscal cuts associated with austerity is not only an economic consideration but a fundamental question of identity. The important role employment plays in shaping our identity within a community cannot be understated, or as Hughes (1975:209) puts it ‘there is something irrevocable about a choice of occupation’. Included within the social and economic capital we derive from our occupations are a number of other forms of capital which stem from culture to education (Stevenson, 2003). It is the hypothetical contention of the study that young people in Glasgow since the onset of the 2008 financial crisis are considerably deprived of many essential forms of capital and as such will be further disadvantaged going into an adulthood which is equally insecure.

In seeking to understand what constitutes work for those rapidly approaching the reality of having to find their first full time job arguments will be made to reconsider the theoretical foundations upon which we view youth transitions and reform careers advice post adolescence to further reflect the needs of those least likely to benefit from continued education. On a theoretical level, the research attempts to reconceptualise the ideas of André Gorz (1999) in relation to the new economic climate born out of the global financial crisis and seeks to understand them in terms of youth and young adulthood within Scotland and the wider UK. More generally, the research endeavours to inform policy debates on class, education and social mobility, specifically as a critique of the social consequences of fiscal austerity in communities already suffering from a sustained lack of investment. The analysis of young people’s transitional narratives after one year in the labour market presented herein will in turn inform a comprehensive understanding of how education prepares such individuals for the world of work.

Drawing on 230 detailed survey questionnaires and 30 in depth interviews with working class participants the following sociological study constitutes a unique research project based on a mixed-method design complemented by secondary sources leading to the following conclusions. There was little to suggest in either of the data collection stages that the young people who took part in this study have been exposed to or are cognisant of alternative work forms beyond the classic liberal model of employment and social security. Further, it would seem that young people opting for transitions directly from school to work actively embrace the precarious nature of this process, finding some element of pride in having opted for an ostensibly more difficult path. Many participants were largely hostile to narratives of welfare or social security and when radical alternatives such as Universal Basic Income were discussed there was a common tendency expressed to be dismissive of it. Further, there was a generally high prevalence of socially conservative attitudes regarding place, community, and identity evidenced throughout. Participants who had left education to pursue work immediately after school had by and large struggled in their year in the labour market with most reporting transitions fraught with difficulty and precarity framed by individualisation and alienation. Allied to this was a strong perception that this was a generation that had received a difficult hand in the economy, with accounts of resentment clear presenting evidence that the period of economic austerity from 2008 onwards has had a marked effect on how young people think about work.

לפני 88 שנה התרחש מפגש מכריע בין מי שיהפוך לימים למשפטן הראשי של הרייך השלישי, ובין תיאורטיקן מסתורי שהוביל אותו לאמץ את האידיאולוגיה הנאצית. מאז ניסו חוקרים לגלות את זהותו, אך כעת מתברר שהיא היתה מתחת לאפם כל הזמן הזה. מי היה ג'וזף רדליך, ומה הוביל אותו לעצב את הרעיונות שבסופו של דבר ימיטו אסון על אירופה?

This briefing presents key findings and implications from research into the impact and effectiveness of Northamptonshire's pre-court process and 'caution-plus' scheme. This research was undertaken by Nacro and the Cambridge Institute of Criminology on behalf of the County Management Group of Northamptonshire Youth Offending Team.

This research monograph presents a 'snapshot' of probation practice in the first decade of the 21st Century, based on an empirical study in two probation areas in England and Wales. The book's title reflects Deering's quest to explore the impact of forces identified in macro-and mezzo-level accounts of penal transformation (by Feeley and Simon 1992; Garland 2001; and others) on day-today probation practice, and on the attitudes of probation workers. Deering focuses, in particular, on the impact(s) of managerialism and the 'new punitiveness' in the probation context. Because Deering was denied the opportunity to observe practice directly, the data obtained (mostly from interviews) are appropriately framed as 'reflections' on practice. The findings are presented in four substantive chapters which examine, in turn, values, assessment, enforcement, and supervision. The key finding of this research, which emerges in each of these 'findings' chapters, is a striking degree of homogeneity in the responses of practitioners, despite their varying degrees of practice experience and exposure to different training arrangements (in light of the severing of probation training, in the late 1990s, from social work education). Michael Howard's vision of a 'new breed' of punitive technocrats, it appears, has not been realised: Deering finds that probation continues to attract staff with 'traditional' values and motivations, and with similar orientations to the work that they do. This is, interestingly, a finding which has also been reported by Mawby and Worrall (2011) in their study of probation culture. What is really fascinating in Deering's work, however, is the finding that, despite their similarities, the longer-serving staff and newer recruits did appear to perceive the 'other' as different from themselves. This, arguably, reflects another finding of the research: namely, the lack of space and time in contemporary probation for the sorts of dialogue, reflection and discussion between practitioners that might render their similarities visible (Chapter 7; see also Robinson et al. 2012). As probation supervision has increasingly disappeared behind closed doors and into interview cubicles, and as practitioners have been increasingly tied to PCs and information systems to which they must account, it should, perhaps, come as less of a surprise that members of the practitioner community have become somewhat estranged. This is a valuable contribution to both the literature on probation practice and culture, and the broader body of work which has sought to address gaps between theoretical accounts of penal transformation (and official rhetoric) and accounts of 'actual' practice on the ground. That Deering was denied the opportunity to observe practice directly is a pity, and it leaves both the author and the reader with some questions about the 'fit' between reflections and actions. The book's 'forward looking' conclusion, written just after the 2010 election, predicts with acuity that 'the probation service has more uncertainty and change to contend with' under the coalition government (p.188). What remains to be seen is whether it will continue to be the case, in the longer term, that 'the more things change, the more they stay the same'.