Suchergebnisse

Understanding the complexities of change, generating as clear a picture as possible and providing a common language for discourse about change is vital to balanced and responsible economic growth. Whether from an individual company perspective or from a national or supra national policy development perspective, foresight is an important tool in the increasingly complex decision-making process.Previously published in: Foresight, Volume 6, Number 5, 2004

'Until 1918, in principle, and 1928 in practice, women's political activity in Britain was defined as beyond the frontier of formal citizenship' (Abrams and Hunt, 2000). This article explores the campaign of one such frontier woman, Helen Taylor, to become the first woman MP. Taylor accepted the nomination of Camberwell Radical Club to stand as the Independent Radical Democrat candidate for Camberwell North in the November 1885 election. The radicals of Camberwell were, thereby, directly challenging the 1832 Reform Act which had legally excluded women from full citizenship.This article locates Taylor in the historiography of resistance to elite political culture, by radical clubs, in 1885. Links were made between Taylor's candidature and that of previous non-elite candidates, namely the attempt of Daniel O'Connell, David Salomon and Charles Bradlaugh to breach the frontier of full citizenship for Catholics, Jews and atheists in previous elections. The Liberal Party had become more centralised through the power of local Liberal Associations and committees based on the Birmingham caucus model (Lawrence, 1998; Parry, 1993). This led to some radical clubs challenging the Liberal establishment 'wire pullers' and standing their own candidates, creating triangular contests between the Liberal, Independent/Radical and Conservative candidates (Owen, 2008). This article further explores the anomaly of all three Camberwell North candidates openly supporting Home Rule, in an election where the contentious Irish question has been identified as being avoided by the majority of candidates (Biagini, 2007). In Camberwell North this saw two factions of Irish nationalism endorsing separate candidates.The provenance of Taylor's feminism, socialism and anti-imperialism is also examined, which rescues the campaign from being the actions of a well-connected upper middle-class eccentric. The only previous detailed exploration of Taylor's candidature claimed it was the idiosyncratic whim of a political maverick whose manifesto would need explaining to the electorate (Pugh, 1978). On the contrary, Taylor's candidature and manifesto were located in contemporary socialist, radical and liberal politics and no such explanation would have been necessary. It was very much of its time.

This article introduces a special issue of foresight on "Sector futures in Europe", covering information and communication technology, financial services, health and social services, publishing and media, the automotive sector, textiles and leather. The articles result from the Sector Futures programme, an initiative of the European Monitoring Centre on Change. This introduction provides background on the EMCC and its parent organisation (the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions), and describes the role the Sector Futures project in contributing to European objectives of improving anticipation of change.

Fraser and Oakley have provided a compelling review of the hazards of the current public housing transformation project. I really appreciate their critical read on both the policy framework and its assumptions and how it has been implemented along with some specific guidance. On this last point, I particularly think it is important to consider the gravity of their observation that the "relationship between the state and the academy has been truncated as alternative perspectives offered by urban scholars critical of such initiatives have been largely dismissed or marginalized in policy circles." As such an urban scholar, I agree with the statement. However, I do not think the authors have pushed this point nearly far enough if their goal really is "decoupling housing as a right from one's position in a capitalist society." To do that I argue that we as urban scholars need to not only be critical of policy but also of the policy research that sustains this relationship as well.

AbstractThis special issue is focused on the viability of venture capital, which depends not only on the ability to address information gaps and incentive issues, but also on the opportunity cost of alternative financing sources and on regulatory and institutional constraints, which vary across countries, industries, and over time.

This essay explores ethical conflicts underlying the discourse of the policy debate about transracial adoption, focusing on the adoption of Black children by whites. Three underlying conflicts are analyzed, namely, the values of equality versus community, interracial community versus mukiculturalism, individuality versus racial-ethnic community. The essay concludes with observations on multicultural families.