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This paper draws on agency theory, as extended by the social theory of agency (STA) (Wiseman, Cuevas‐Rodríguez & Gomez‐Mejia, 2012), to examine the association between governance arrangements, reliance on government funding, chief executive officer (CEO) non‐profit experience, and CEO compensation in the UK charity sector. We rely on a hand‐collected data for the largest 240 charities and find that greater trustee board diversity (specifically gender and education diversity) and the existence of a remuneration or nomination committee are positively associated to CEO compensation. The results also show that a reliance on government funding and CEO's non‐profit work experience, together with the presence of a finance/accounting expert on the audit committee are negatively associated to CEO compensation. The existence of an audit committee, internal audit function, use of specialist external auditor and CEO characteristics (gender, ethnicity and managerial experience) are not significant factors. Our findings are largely consistent with the STA's propositions. Specifically, executive compensation levels reflect the CEO's ability to work with a diverse board while a higher reliance on government funding signals the role of the State's pressures in moderating CEO compensation. Finally, in a context characterised by altruism and public benefit, financial rewards are not seen as the dominant 'value metric', resulting in lower compensation for CEOs previously working in the sector. Our findings have policy implications, specifically in relation to the role, composition and effectiveness of governance structures (e.g., trustee boards, audit and remuneration committees) in overseeing the design of executive compensation schemes within the charity sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Supported self‐management can improve clinical and psychosocial outcomes in people with cancer; the considerations required to implement self‐management support (SMS) for people living with a lower‐grade glioma (LGG)—who often have complex support needs—are not known. We aimed to identify and understand these implementation considerations through the lens of normalisation process theory (NPT), from the perspectives of healthcare professionals (HCP) and people with LGG. Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with HCPs who support adults with brain tumours (n = 25; 12 different healthcare professions), and people with LGG who had completed primary treatment (n = 28; male n = 16, mean age 54.6 years, mean time since diagnosis 8.7 years), from across the United Kingdom. Interviews were transcribed and inductive open coding conducted, before deductively mapping to constructs of NPT. We first mapped HCP data, then integrated data from people with LGG to explore alignment in experiences and perspectives. Results: We generated supporting evidence for all four NPT constructs and related subconstructs, namely: 'Coherence', 'Cognitive participation', 'Collective action' and 'Reflexive monitoring'. Data from HCPs and people with LGG clearly demonstrated that effective SMS constitutes a collective activity. Key implementation considerations included: ensuring awareness of, and access to, support; building strong HCP‐support recipient relationships; and careful inclusion of close family and friends. We identified pertinent challenges, such as identifying support needs (influenced by the extent to which those with LGG engage in help‐seeking), resistance to support (e.g., technology literacy), training for HCPs and HCP cooperation. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the collective nature of, and provides insight into the individual roles within, supported self‐management. We outline considerations to operationalise, sustain and appraise the implementation of SMS for people with LGG. Patient or Public Contribution: People with brain tumours, and informal caregivers, were involved in the development of information materials and topic guides to ensure accessibility and pertinence. They also had opportunities to comment on interview findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was concerned with the changing nature of adoptive kinship. The analysis was located in the context of current sociological and anthropological theory and parallels were drawn with other alternative family forms i.e. gay and lesbian families, and families formed by new reproductive technologies. Adoption as a family form has largely been neglected in sociological and anthropological literature, yet the changing nature of adoption, particularly in relation to open adoption and gay and lesbian adoption, means that it has an important contribution to make to new discourses of kinship. Adoption is far more likely to feature in psychological and child welfare literature than that on the family and kinship, yet it is a unique addition to the heterogeneous family landscape with a profound impact on cultural definitions of family and kinship. By considering contemporary adoption practice through a social construction and kinship theory lens, the paper argues that new kinship studies are helpful in conceptualizing adoptive kinship. Adoption also has a valuable and significant contribution to make to contemporary kinship theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between mainstream development policy (and perhaps also development studies) and postcolonial theorists has often been characterized as a dialogue of the deaf. Rather like in the old ‘debates’ between adherents of modernization and neo-Marxist theories, the protagonists are often thought to be talking at or past one another, rather than with each other. This paper reassesses some firmly held views on both sides of the schism. On the one hand, many official development agencies appear to promote business as usual (often quite literally, as a recent War on Want report attests in the case of the UK's DFID using its aid budget to promote profitable opportunities for British corporations). On the other hand, some postcolonial purists rely on surprisingly modernist, totalizing discursive techniques while claiming post-structural credentials, or baulk at the prospects of practical engagement. Discrepancies between theory, discourse, policy and practice are not the preserve of one side. However, the middle ground is firmer and better trodden than most believe. Considerable progress has been made and the paper assesses examples of productive engagement and concludes with suggestions for carrying forward the challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on research investigating the impact of health imperatives around obesity, diet and exercise on the actions of teachers and pupils in schools, this paper offers a reflexive account of the relationships between the 'noise' of obesity discourse in the public domain, policies forged to tackle health issues and the realities of teaching in schools. Our analyses suggest that intersections of bio-policies, body pedagogies and human agents forge assemblages of meaning that frame and regulate but cannot determine either teachers' or young people's lives. Teachers and pupils experience the capriciousness of policies as they flow through specific school contexts and intersect with 'local' institutional cultures, expectations and interests. We suggest that Basil Bernstein's concepts and poststructural social theory prove useful when addressing how the aforementioned processes are emplaced, enacted and embodied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the UK, researchers across the health professions are increasingly being encouraged by policymakers and research commissioners to ‘involve’ service users in research. A recent review shows there is some evidence that involving patients, carers, relatives, social or community groups directly and actively as part of the research process can improve the conduct of research studies and the impact of the findings. Yet, little is known about how involvement is played out within research studies and there is a need for more critical and consistent assessment of what constitutes quality involvement. The overall purpose of this paper is to support learning about quality service user involvement in health care research. The aim is to provide service users and researchers with a structured and consistent way to reflect and report on their experiences. A range of philosophical and social theories of power and empowerment were reviewed and synthesized to create a model of quality involvement. The analysis encompassed both service user factors (what a person feels able to do, whether they feel their potential is being fulfilled and their sense of being valued) alongside research factors (research relationships, ways of doing research, research structures). A model is presented (Quality Involvement Framework), which contributes theoretically informed perspectives about the meaning and assessment of quality service user involvement in research. The model is developed as a practical measure (a Quality Involvement Questionnaire) for researchers and service users to be more reflective about the constraints and possibilities of involvement. The tools presented here could help research teams to examine personal factors and the research contexts that influence the nature and quality of service user involvement in research. They may also help to identify reoccurring issues about quality which could inform future policy, practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, it has been argued that conspiracy beliefs and populist attitudes go hand in hand. Despite their theoretical and empirical similarities, it remains unclear why these constructs are so closely associated. Across three studies, we examined the processes underlying the relationship between belief in conspiracy theories and populist attitudes. Study 1 (Greece, N = 275) and Study 2 (United Kingdom, N = 300) revealed that the relationship between populist attitudes and conspiracy beliefs is mediated by political cynicism and zero‐sum thinking. In Study 3 (USA, N = 300, pre‐registered), we use a vignette of a fictitious country to experimentally show that having a newly elected populist party in power (as compared to a well‐established party) reduced participants' tendency to believe conspiracy theories. Moreover, this was due to increased empowerment, decreased political cynicism and decreased zero‐sum thinking. These findings reveal various complementary mediators of the link between populist attitudes and conspiracy thinking and suggest that electing a populist party in power may reduce conspiracy beliefs among the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self‐reported health (SRH) is one of the most frequently used measures for examining socioeconomic inequalities in health. Studies find that when faced with 'identical objective health', individuals in lower socioeconomic groups consistently report worse SRH than those in higher socioeconomic groups. Such findings are often dismissed as being the result of reporting bias, and existing literature dominated by the biomedical conception of SRH has not investigated the underlying social mechanisms at work. To address this limitation, drawing on the work of Bourdieu we employ a relational thinking between health and social position. By way of multiple correspondence analysis, we construct social space of health determinants for three European countries from different welfare states and map the trajectories of educational groups experiencing similar levels of morbidity and their relation to SRH. Differences in SRH observed among social groups for the same level of morbidity are understood in relation to the position and the relative power of individuals in different educational groups to maintain or improve their social conditions, especially with increasing levels of health loss. Our analysis indicates that reporting differences in SRH among educational groups emerges from objectively healthy individuals and follows differences in accumulation of social advantages and disadvantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on the use of macro social theoretical perspectives to explain micro social issues, using social housing allocations as a case study. In contrast to a number of social theoretical examinations of social housing allocation schemes in recent years, spanning socio-legal studies, we argue that 'cookie-cutter' theories may overlook other positions and counter-factual scenarios. We draw on a sample of local authority allocation schemes to reflect on the growing category of households (commonly termed 'unhouseables' by housing officers) which are excluded from appearing on such schemes because of their former housing deviance or some other disqualification. We offer a set of reflections grounded in our data, which focus on sustainability. Thus, rather than point to particular rationalities or the like, we offer particular housing issues as explanatory factors - including the declining stock and financial 'competitiveness' of social housing management - as well as a rise in punitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advocates of the 'borderless world' thesis suggest that migrant workers can benefit from employment opportunities available everywhere, with workers simply migrating towards these opportunities. However, as global inequalities widen and potential global mobilities develop, states are 'managing' migration. Individual migrant 'agency', its structuration, and the subsequent experiences of migrants and employers, can restrict such mobility. Consequently, there is a need to describe and problematize the new strategies. This article considers these issues with reference to the emerging impact of the migrant cap on non-European Economic Area ( EEA) migrants to the United Kingdom ( UK). It explores the links between immigration and employment rights and the implications for migrant mobility. Policies of 'managed migration' frequently do not take into account issues of geography and intra and inter regional competition for migrants by employers operating in sectors with skill shortages, or differential migrant 'agency' in the form of their skills and attributes. This may impinge on the effectiveness of such approaches and on economic prosperity at a national, regional and local scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anti-‘death tax’ movement is the starting point for contemporary discussions of inheritance taxation. The political rhetoric surrounding calls for its repeal typically is met with analyses of the extent to which inheritance tax avoidance benefits the wealthy, and arguments that inheritance taxation is fair and ‘targeted’. This article suggests that engagement by tax lawyers with sociological theories of economic inheritance has the potential to revive this discourse. A renewed approach to inheritance taxation is of immediate concern to supporters of inheritance taxation in the United Kingdom, who face considerable obstacles posed by the increasing use of United States anti-inheritance tax movement political rhetoric by politicians. Durkheim's consideration of the conjugal family and, more recently, Beckert's sociology of inheritance are submitted as analyses that, amongst others, have particular potential. Such engagement also has the potential to revive the interest of sociologists in inheritance taxation, memorably described by MacNamee and Miller as a ‘sociological lacuna.’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key to the success of public organizations is their ability to identify and build capacity, particularly their distinctive competencies, in order to produce the greatest value for key stakeholders. This article grounds this proposition in the resource-based view of organizations and presents a method for identifying and making use of distinctive competencies in the form of a “livelihood scheme”—a business model appropriate for the public sector—that links distinctive competencies to organizational aspirations and goals. The case of a major public sector training and consultancy unit that is part of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service is used as illustration. A number of conclusions are offered in the form of a set of propositions tied to the resource-based view and related research issues. The results contribute to both public strategic management theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quasi-market transformation (QMT) refers to the process by which the dominant organizational form in a field is replaced, following the introduction of a quasi-market. In this article, analysis of comparative case-study data reveals that, until the early 1990s, a common interpretive scheme, or set of values and norms, under-pinned a set of structures and systems in many UK hospitals. These similarities of form are represented as the directly managed (DM) hospital archetype. When change initiatives challenged this archetype, the outcomes were negotiated and the interpretive scheme. remained largely unscathed. Following the introduction of a quasi-market in 1991, a new trust hospital interpretive scheme has emerged. For the first time, UK hospitals have experienced transformation and now display an alternative set of structures and systems. This article explains how the trust hospital archetype has become legitimized through different tracks of change within individual hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been several calls in recent years for a revival of regional geography, focusing on the individuality of places and their roles as contexts within which social structuration occurs. As yet, little has been written about the ways in which such work can be undertaken, providing a framework for the study of places that both emphasises their individuality and sets them in the context of social theory. Using the example of a particular event, the 1984-85 National Union of Mineworkers' strike in Great Britain, and the individuality of one place during that event, this essay provides an initial framework for defining the nature of a place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]