{"title":"Levelling up or down? Addressing regional inequalities in the UK","authors":"Felicia M. Fai, Philip R. Tomlinson","doi":"10.1080/21582041.2023.2282161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2023.2282161","url":null,"abstract":"The UK has the widest regional inequalities among the advanced industrial economies. These regional inequalities are not new, but the persistence of the so-called North-South divide has become more...","PeriodicalId":46484,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Social Science","volume":"54 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139027262","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"EU enlargement in wartime Europe: three dimensions and scenarios","authors":"Tyyne Karjalainen","doi":"10.1080/21582041.2023.2289661","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2023.2289661","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46484,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Social Science","volume":"735 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138982731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Levelling Up UK regions: scale-related challenges of Brexit, investment and land use","authors":"Philip McCann","doi":"10.1080/21582041.2023.2279534","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2023.2279534","url":null,"abstract":"This paper discusses three of the key reasons why productivity growth in the UK is both so weak and also so regionally unbalanced. These reasons are Brexit, low levels of public and private investm...","PeriodicalId":46484,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Social Science","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138546162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Space exploration as a propulsive industry in levelling up","authors":"Leslie Budd, Stefania Paladini","doi":"10.1080/21582041.2023.2280703","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2023.2280703","url":null,"abstract":"In recent decades the importance of space exploration and its associated economy and industry have grown significantly. Beyond its scientific, technological, and engineering advantages space explor...","PeriodicalId":46484,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Social Science","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138531591","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Inequality: the scourge of the twenty-first century","authors":"Syed Mansoob Murshed, Blas Regnault","doi":"10.1080/21582041.2023.2283139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2023.2283139","url":null,"abstract":"Rising inequality is a ubiquitous problem, encompassing every geographical region and nation in the world. Inequality can be contended to have replaced unemployment as our most vital economic issue...","PeriodicalId":46484,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Social Science","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138531595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Levelling up or down? Examining the case of North-East England","authors":"Joyce Liddle, John Shutt, Cameron Forbes","doi":"10.1080/21582041.2023.2281591","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2023.2281591","url":null,"abstract":"This paper contributes to the levelling up (LU) debate by examining the case of the North-East of England, a region with long-standing and deep-seated historical issues of inequality. It will deter...","PeriodicalId":46484,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Social Science","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138531593","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond levelling-up: labour’s response to regional inequalities and the challenge of governance","authors":"John Connolly, Robert Pyper","doi":"10.1080/21582041.2023.2274031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2023.2274031","url":null,"abstract":"The levelling up initiative of the UK Conservative Government has, since 2019, aimed to address the problem of serious economic disparities between and across the regions of the country. In opposition, the Labour Party has reacted to this initiative in phases: firstly via a broad critique, and then through an alternative policy which has come to be framed around a wider set of constitutional and governance reforms. Labour’s response has been problematic due to its vagueness and opacity, the lack of a roadmap or timeline for delivery, a failure to address the need for policy evaluation, the linkage of levelling up to an unwieldy project for constitutional reform, and the lack of a binding strategic narrative. An opportunity remains for Labour to refine and develop its policy in this sphere before the 2024 General Election.","PeriodicalId":46484,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Social Science","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135928164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When is a fund not a fund? Exploring the financial support for levelling up","authors":"Graeme Atherton, Marc Le Chevallier","doi":"10.1080/21582041.2023.2269144","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2023.2269144","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTThis paper will examine the different funding streams associated with the levelling up agenda pursued by the Conservative government elected in the United Kingdom in 2019. It will explore in detail a number of funding streams that this government has associated with levelling up to understand their relationship to the levelling up agenda. The article will also analyse the relationship between the levelling up missions and the funding associated with levelling up. The Levelling Up White Paper released in February 2022 included 12 missions that were intended to provide a ‘targeted, measurable and time-bound objective, or set of objectives, from which a programme of change can then be constructed or catalysed’. The analysis of the funding streams outlined in this paper shows that the relationship with the missions is overall a tangential one. The lack of clarity on what is and is not a levelling up fund, coupled with the loose relationship with the levelling up missions may diminish the impact that the levelling up agenda will have on regional inequality in the UK.KEYWORDS: Levelling uppublic fundingregional inequalitypolicydevolution Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 It has been reported that the UKSPF might not fully cover, however, European Structural Funds (Brien, Citation2022).Additional informationNotes on contributorsGraeme AthertonProfessor Graeme Atherton is head of the Centre for Inequality and Levelling Up. Graeme studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Trinity College Oxford and has been working in the field of education research and management since 1995. After 6 years leading Aimhigher work in London, he founded AccessHE and NEON in the UK. He now leads both the Centre for Levelling Up at the University of West London and NEON. Graeme holds Visiting Professorships at Amity University, London and Sunway University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is a member of the board of the National Union of Students (NUS) and has produced over 200 conference papers, and publications.Marc Le ChevallierMarc Le Chevallier is a research and policy officer at the Centre for Inequality and Levelling Up. Prior to joining CEILUP, Marc completed an undergraduate degree in History and Politics at the University of Exeter and an MSc in Political Theory at the LSE. Previously, he has interned at the Thomas More Institute, finding local ways to regenerate small towns and villages of the ‘France peripherique’. He also worked at the Local Trust, focusing on a campaign to create a new independent endowment – the Community Wealth Fund – to support the most left behind neighbourhoods in England.","PeriodicalId":46484,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Social Science","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135779715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Third places in precarious workers’ lives: a scoping review of associated social experiences and outcomes","authors":"Debbie Laliberte Rudman, Sarah Larkin, Kassandra Fernandes, Gorety Nguyen, Rebecca Aldrich","doi":"10.1080/21582041.2023.2268037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2023.2268037","url":null,"abstract":"The contemporary increase in precarious employment has shaped lives marked by employment, economic, and social instability for many workers. While research has demonstrated deleterious physical and mental implications of precarious work, less attention has been paid to social implications, including heightened risk for social isolation. Using a 5-step scoping review process, this paper investigates what is known about the types and characteristics of physical and virtual ‘third places’ outside of home and work that help maintain social connectedness and ameliorate social isolation in the lives of precarious workers. Descriptive and thematic analysis of 24 interdisciplinary articles revealed that precarious workers navigating conditions marked by spatial exclusion enact collective agency to create and sustain alternative ‘third places’ that align with the conditions of precarious lives. Although places created could be associated with social risks, obligations, and exclusions, they were also mobilised to address diverse social needs, including: a sense of belonging to a collective of ‘similar’ others; temporary respite from the conditions of precarity; assertion of presence and visibility; and exchange of diverse resources and forms of care. These results inform critical reflections on the kinds of spaces that can serve as ‘third places’ within societies marked by growing precarity.","PeriodicalId":46484,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Social Science","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135969168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tackling the UK’s regional economic inequality: binding constraints and avenues for policy intervention","authors":"Anna Stansbury, D. Turner, Ed Balls","doi":"10.1080/21582041.2023.2250745","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2023.2250745","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46484,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Social Science","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46532057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}