Social and community-based organizations are increasingly viewed as wellsprings of valuable social innovations. Government policies, most notably David Cameron’s Big Society initiative, have entrenched the concept of localism across the UK, and the move towards smaller government has placed the onus on communities to creatively tackle their own problems. While antecedent research on social …
Shane (2009) has suggested that encouraging more people to become entrepreneurs is bad public policy because it is existing firms that bring jobs and productivity growth and not new firms. To test this view this article shifts the perspective onto existing firms and away from start-up by examining firm survivability in the regions and countries of the UK and its relationship with employment …
The current austerity in the UK public finances is having knock-on effects for the Scottish Government. Public servants in Scotland talk of the ‘scissors of doom’ – of rising demand for public services and falling revenue expenditure. In response to these pressures the Scottish Government set up the Independent Budget Review in 2010 and Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Servi…
Since the enlargement of the European Union in May 2004, large numbers of migrants from the A8 countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Estonia) have joined the UK labour market. A8 migrants were required to register under the Worker Registration Scheme if they took up employment in the UK for one month or longer. The research presented here analy…
In urban renewal policy, it has become a widespread goal to revitalise neighbourhood economies. The rationale for these measures derives, to a great extent, from the concept of regional economic clusters, and, not surprisingly, one of their key objectives is to activate local interfirm cooperation. This article examines the neighbourhood-related requirements and commitment of small firms. It …
Since 1978, ASA has worked with poor vulnerable people to improve their socioeconomic status through delivering microcredit programmes in Bangladesh. This study aims at examining the Effectiveness of the ASA microcredit programmes. It finds that ASA plays an important role in increasing the socioeconomic status of its beneficiaries and that there is a significant positive effect of the durati…
India is a federal union of 28 states. The states are further subdivided into districts. Andhra Pradesh is one of the largest states in India. This article examines how regional disparities in Andhra Pradesh have developed since its formation in 1956. A large urban centre (Hyderabad) which acts as a hub for economic activities, has attracted factors of production, and has stimulated income an…
This article develops a theoretical framework for understanding the New Zealand development landscape from a Deleuzian poststructuralist perspective. The Deleuzian concept of the ‘plateau’ is metaphorically used to denote levels of understanding that an economic development practitioner needs to know. It also demonstrates how changing government polices and key concepts such as globalizati…