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This paper challenges “Big Society (BS) Localism”, seeing it as an example of impoverished localist thinking which neglects social justice considerations. We do this through a critical examination of recent turns in the localist discourse in the UK which emphasise self-reliant communities and envisage a diminished role for the state. We establish a heuristic distinction between positive and negative approaches to localism. We argue that the Coalition Government's BS programme fits with a negative localist frame as it starts from an ideological assumption that the state acts as a barrier to community-level associational activity and that it should play a minimal role. “BS localism” (as we call it) has been influential over the making of social policy, but it also has implications for the achievement of environmental goals. We argue that this latest incarnation of localism is largely ineffective in solving problems requiring collective action because it neglects the important role that inequalities play in inhibiting the development of associational society. Drawing upon preliminary research being undertaken at the community scale, we argue that staking environmental policy success on the ability of local civil society to fill the gap left after state retrenchment runs the risk of no activity at all. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

1. A population model for the tick Ixodes ricinus, the most significant vector of pathogens in Europe, is used to explore the relative impact of changes in climate, host density and acaricide-treated hosts on tick abundance and seasonality. 2. A rise in temperature of the sort witnessed since 1989 speeds up the inter-stadial development of ticks, thereby reducing the cumulative effect of constant daily mortality rates and potentially raising population levels. The predicted earlier onset of tick-questing activity in the spring, due to stage-specific temperature thresholds, could increase contact between ticks and humans during recreational visits to the countryside in spring holidays. These tick population effects vary geographically with background climate. 3. The significant increase in deer abundance across Europe, including the UK, in recent decades is predicted to drive tick population increases, the effect varying with the initial density of hosts. In areas only recently colonized by deer, tick numbers are predicted to rise dramatically (given suitable climatic conditions). Where host densities are already high, however, further increases may reduce numbers of questing ticks; unfed ticks leave the questing population more rapidly, even though the overall tick population (and therefore pathogen transmission potential) increases. 4. Culling high-density deer populations as a control measure could, therefore, initially cause an apparent increase in questing ticks, with the predicted long-term population trajectory depending on the severity of the cull. 5. Conversely, the further addition of large hosts (e.g. sheep) would effectively reduce the number of questing ticks and therefore the risk to humans. If such sheep were treated with acaricide, tick populations are predicted to decrease rapidly, to an extent that depends on the relative abundance of wild (untreated) and treated hosts. Tick control in designated areas may be achieved by using sheep in this way as 'lethal mops', as used to occur in the past when sheep were regularly dipped. 6. Synthesis and applications. Both abiotic and biotic environmental changes witnessed recently could have contributed to apparent increases in tick populations, especially where these environmental factors were limiting in the past. The release of additional hosts treated with long-lasting acaricide is potentially an effective control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a series of five ESRC-funded seminars held between 2006 and 2008 on 'Sustainability as competitive advantage in higher education in the UK'. We sketch the background to sustainability in HE, distinguishing between teaching about and for sustainability and arguing that the move to latter has prompted questions about the sustainability performance of universities themselves. We outline the rationale for the seminar series - an analysis of the degree to which the reluctance of senior managers to embrace sustainability can be overcome by the promise of competitive advantage - and then discuss the lessons we learned from the seminars regarding the successful implementation of sustainability strategies in HEIs. We then analyse what 'establishing competitive advantage' in the HE sector might entail, generically and offer some suggestions as to what a specific instantiation of this might look like, guided by the idea of creating 'sustainable communities'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the change in the reception and adaptation of the ideology of ecologism. It attributes the mainstreaming of the ideology to its promotion by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It highlights the effect of the trend on the thinking about environmental problems and what to do about them. It also explores a feature of early ecologism that played a role in the ideology than either ecocentrism or limits to growth. In addition, the article relates ecologism to liberal democracy.