Suchergebnisse

This article presents the results of a survey of the initial impact of compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) under the Local Government Act 1988. After an outline of the provisions of the legislation and the mechanisms for their implementation the outcome of the first round of CCT is described. While most services have been retained in the public sector, a number of authorities have chosen to use private contractors. Differences in the patterns between different types of authority are examined. Finally, the paper considers the prospects for subsequent phases of CCT.

Examines the impact of legislation which forces local councils and specified public bodies to compete with other organizations for the right to deliver a variety of local services; Great Britain.

This article offers a critical re-examination of the concept of world order. Taking our cue from Georg Sørensen's recent article in this journal entitled `What Kind of World Order?' we begin by unpacking the concept of order itself. We distinguish two principal meanings of the term: one analytical and descriptive (order as non-randomness) and one value-laden and normative (order as stability and the absence of violent conflict). In debates about world order, these two meanings are often blurred. Drawing on William Connolly's critique of the descriptive-normative distinction, we suggest that this blurring occurs in part because world order is an `essentially contested concept'. Practices of ordering typically involve the production of specific spatializations, yet questions of space and spatiality are largely absent from discussions of world order. In the second part of the article, therefore, we address this absence through a discussion of geo-politics, focusing on US hegemony and neo-liberalism, military geographies and the spaces of marginalization and resistance. The article concludes with some reflections on the political implications of a spatialized account of world order.

Examines the political units and social networks through which citizenship is fostered, practiced, and contested; Great Britain, chiefly; 4 articles with comments. Topics include excluded groups and women in Europe, groups labeled as sexual dissidents in Great Britain, novel forms of political activity at the local level in Great Britain, and effects of law and order policy on civil society in Great Britain.

Revised and updated, this is a new edition of a core undergraduate resource on Political Geography. Unique in the teaching literature, Political Geography (published originally as Politics, Geography, and 'Political Geography') retains its focus on the social and cultural, while systematically over-viewing the entire discipline. The text explains: Politics, geography, and "political" geography: power, resources, institutions, and the history of political geography State formation: classical views as well as recent work on governance and governmentality Welfare state to workfare state: the restructuring of present state strategies Democracy citizenship, law: different models of democracy from Held to Mouffe; democracy citizenship, law in European and global context Electoral geography Identity and social movements: the relation between identity and political action Nationalism and regionalism: ethnicity, national identity, "otherness" Imperialism and post-colonialism: the theoretical literature from World Systems Theory to post-structuralist accounts Geopolitics: the political, economic, and strategic significance of geography, illustrated with examples from recent world politics