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This paper offers an examination of the invention and development of James Watt's system for copying documents. This was the first technological innovation in the reproduction of documents in the industrial revolution. It spread rapidly and became used in all parts of the world and by all types of administration. It was replaced eventually by new copying technologies and by new systems of filing. This study examines the technical difficulties faced by Watt (paper standards, the chemistry of the ink, making and distributing the presses). It is based primarily on Watt's correspondence in the Birmingham City Archives, and refers to the proceedings of the Lunar Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides an overview of the special issue of "International Journal of Logistics: Research and Applications" dated December, 2003. Papers presented at the Logistics Research Conference held 2003 in Birmingham, England; Theme of collaboration for innovative supply chain solutions; Preview of articles.

This paper asks how libraries have rhythmed women's education and everyday lives. It draws on women's narratives of library use in a multicultural suburb of Birmingham, UK. It shows that women's use of libraries exists in rhythmic relations with other times and places, both public and private. The narratives reveal the value of the library in offering space for women to claim time for themselves in the Lefebvrian "weak time, the stops, silences, blanks". Routines, cycles and continuity of use over various scales are important in women's engagements with libraries. Memorable too are particular moments. Punctuating the quotidian rhythms of library use, these moments are individual stories of rupture; times of great significance in women's lives. Changes to library provision have, therefore, rhythmic consequences, with reduced opening hours and library closure bringing arrhythmia. Through the library, women are linked to particular histories and they enter into shared rhythms, within both the present and the past. Libraries, this paper argues, offer not only an important public space but also public time.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the key components and influences of positive affect and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on tourist visits at two developing urban destinations, namely Birmingham, United Kingdom and Valencia, Spain. These two data collection sites yielded evidence gathered from 615 and 627 sightseeing bus tourists, respectively. Through the analytic lens of Affective Events Theory (AET), data were examined, and results verify the significant mediating role of affect in two regards: (1) tourists' decision to extend their visits and (2) eWOM of sightseeing bus tour experiences. The moderating role of past sightseeing experiences in these relationships was also supported by the data analysis. This paper further strengthens the role of affect in tourism management scholarship as well as expands AET from the work-setting into the tourism context thus marking a new research trail. Practical implications for tourism destination management organizations (DMOs) are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decision makers are being increasingly called on to confront controversial urban histories to create more inclusive, diverse monumental landscapes. Although many prominent and officially 'authorised' public monuments radiate troublesome heritage, the monumental landscape is also richly complex, and demands an evaluation of the shifting relationship between design intention and public reception, as social, political and local contexts alter the heritage-making process. Based on documentary research, secondary analysis of qualitative interviews and an evaluation of media discourse associated with two examples of monumentality in Birmingham, UK, this paper argues that examining these forces is a necessary and urgent step for actors involved in creating sustainable urban environments. This paper concludes by considering how urban actors might effectively deal with those competing historical and political narratives and generate more contextualised and community-oriented responses to the shaping of the heritage landscape during times of economic uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scout Rally at Birmingham and Imperial Scout Exhibition organised in July of 1913 by the Boy Scouts Association constituted educational propaganda of the British Empire. The term "imperial", which was used in the British press, reflects the ideological meaning of this outsized event which gathered scouts from the United Kingdom and its dominions, and much smaller groups of scouts from Europe, including quite numerous groups from Poland. In the eyes of Poles, British "imperialism" or "patriotism" confronted as an ideal compared to Russian and German rule, and their attitudes were enthusiastically Anglomaniacal. This is the psychological key to understand the attractiveness of performing on the British arena for the representation of the young generation of Poles who were invited. For Polish scouts, the Scout Rally in Birmingham was an opportunity to demonstrate not only their skills but also patriotism as a function of political presence. This is how the Polish press understood these things, and which after the British – what needs to be emphasised – paid the most attention to the events in Birmingham. The most important Polish dailies publishing in Cracow, Warsaw, Poznań, and Lvov (now Lviv) closely followed the course of the rally, which was given the rank of success by a two-sentence depeche from London and a lengthy letter published in the Czas daily paper. The object of interest for the author of the article is the book written by the founder of Polish scouting, Andrzej Małkowski, which constitutes a noteworthy record of observations made by him during the Scout Rally as well as those made by other organisers of the Polish delegation's trip and of letters from journalists who accompanied this delegation and sent their correspondence to the Polish press from Birmingham, London, and Paris. Only one journalist broke out from apologetic opinions about the excellent performance of Polish scouts, who noticed shortcomings in performance and wrote about them. The article introduces the content of these letters and interprets and compares them. The opinion about the triumphant rally in Birmingham rooted firmly in Polish public opinion, constituting an important element of the founding myth of Polish scouting, which in the history of this movement is worth noting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of major events on urban development and change across two city contexts (i.e. Guangzhou and Birmingham). Considering cities as new international actors, a theoretical modal was proposed, and qualitative evidence was gathered to examine the cities' decision to bid for the hosting of the 2010 Asian Games and the 2022 Commonwealth Games respectively, the urban development–related pressures faced, and the ways in which urban development occurred as a result of event production. In response to intercity competition and globalisation, both cities fought for development opportunities and actively sought international and national attention through major events. However, urban governance becomes complicated, in terms of managing city–market–society relations; as such, particularly for Guangzhou, it led the city government to adopt an entrepreneurial approach to urban governance. This study suggests future research interrogating whether major events provide a sustainable means to achieve urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The idea that some local areas are characterized by a low-skills equilibrium trap is prominent in academic and policy debates in the Global North. Factors shaping this position and associated implications for local economic development are only partially understood. This paper provides new evidence examining employers' decision-making around investment and workforce management in the hospitality and retail sectors in the Birmingham city-region of the UK, and their experience of the low-skills low-wage trap. The findings highlight intersecting sectoral and place-based factors in the emergence of, and barriers to escape from, this position. Responses require policy actions at firm, local and national levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There has been recent concern about the destabilizing influence of individuals' everyday encounters with managed atmospheres. This paper draws on autoethnographic data, information relating to the physical fabric, and narratives from stakeholders involved with the design and management of the Eastside area of Birmingham, UK, to demonstrate how urban atmospheres are also shaped by shifting temporal dynamics, the area's historical, cultural and regulatory context, and the prior experiences individuals bring to spaces undergoing regeneration. The paper concludes by suggesting that this analysis has much to offer to designers, educators and stakeholders involved with improving the design and management of place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the recent protests by mainly Muslim parents against the use of LGBTQ+-friendly story books in a primary school in Birmingham, England, the associated court case, and the broader issues it highlights about the contradictory and complex relationships between liberalism, faith, and democracy. I discuss the case itself, tensions around Relationships and Sex Education, and the wider social and political context for the protest, considering both the position of 'Muslims' in the UK's civic and political society, and how dominant discourses within liberalism responds to 'others' in this present temporal moment. I conclude by briefly considering the potential of deliberative democracy and agonism as approaches to address emotive value clashes, and to emphasise the importance of primary schools as places of shared investments, where families and teachers might move towards developing mutual understandings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of health promotion in locality commissioning teams—as pre-cursors of Primary Care Groups—drawing on the experiences of a project in the West Midlands. Wider implications for the workings of the new Primary Care Groups will be drawn. The paper will consider some fundamental differences between health promotion and other public health approaches. Using a model of health promotion practice, it will show how the practice of different stakeholders in locality commissioning can be made sense of by these different and in some cases incommensurable paradigms. Our argument is that being able to model practice so as to make these paradigmatic differences explicit and to acknowledge diversity and inconsistency is a prerequisite for healthy collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the Victorian era, the availability of facilities and prevailing social attitudes were important influences on the swimming landscape. Middle-class concerns about the working classes led to the creation of municipal swimming baths following Acts of Parliament in 1846 and 1878 and these became hubs for the development of local swimming communities incorporating teachers, baths staff and users. Previously, swimming had been dependent on individual entrepreneurs, swimming professors, mostly operating in London, but amateur swimmers assumed control of the sport through their creation of clubs and the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA), which created the Midland Counties ASA. This paper draws on a range of sources, including archives, newspapers, and census records, to illustrate these transitions in the Midlands through a case study of the first 50 years of operation at the Kent Street Baths in Birmingham, which demonstrates the ways in which one local swimming community evolved, expanded and changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years innovation studies have extended key discussions beyond scientific knowledge into more symbolic and cultural forms, and with it brought cultural and creative industries to the centre stage of economic innovation. However, the development of more wide-ranging research approaches has failed to keep pace with the advancements occurring in conceptual debates. In this paper, the author draws on the original arguments of the social innovation discourse to highlight the importance of more socialized approaches to the study of innovation, an approach which highlights the importance of understanding more about social networks, local institutions, local scenes and environments, and relational capital. It is known that in practice, and especially with non-scientific knowledge, new ideas are mediated by social relations, institutions and all manner of other intangibles such as conversations; all of which are acknowledged in some literature but have never been part of the mainstream. In this vein, the paper outlines the contribution that spatial-relational mapping can make to the study of innovation by illuminating the social spaces of innovation in and around Coventry and Birmingham, UK, and by raising new patterns of relationships, which emphasize the existence of sector convergence, underground scenes and path lock-in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Select Committee Report of 1817 states that the New Land Pattern Musket has 'a lock so tallying in all its parts, that any part of one lock may fit another'. This is the earliest claim of interchangeability to have been found for Board of Ordnance firearms. It has focussed the authors' attention on understanding the British efforts in the interchangeable manufacturing of firearms in the early 19th century, and more specifically on the manufacture of the lock of the New Land Pattern Muskets. This has also necessitated and included some work to unravel the story of the development of the New Land Pattern Musket and its variants, and to appreciate the contemporary use of lock jiggers by the East India Company (EIC) and others. Our approach has blended multiple iterations of archival research, object study, analysis of musket lock 'Types', and experimental evaluations of interchangeability. The methods used have allowed a comparison with contemporary American achievements at the Springfield and Harpers Ferry National Armories. This paper reports our results, including those of a close study of 35 New Land Pattern Muskets; the generation of a typology identifying three distinct variants of New Land Pattern Musket locks and a chronology of key aspects of their design, manufacture and supply; a five-lock component exchange experiment with 20 potential interchanges and other supplementary interchange tests; and an experimental evaluation of the use of two surviving EIC lock jiggers (i.e. gauges). These demonstrate that Great Britain had made significant strides in the interchangeable manufacturing of musket locks by 1817, but that these achievements, based upon the use of gauges and other similar tooling, were limited by their use of manual methods, chiefly filing by hand. They also show that Henry Nock, Ezekiel Baker and others contributed to the design of the variants of the musket, the lock and the tooling. The work also indicates that Britain was attempting interchangeable lock manufacturing in more than one geographical location, at the workshops of key suppliers in Birmingham and the Black Country (the metal working district to the West and North West of Birmingham), the London trade and the new Royal Manufactory in Lewisham. This multiple site approach would have been particularly challenging, and it is also important to note that much of this work was carried out in time of war. These British innovations may have influenced others through the transfer of technology by former Ordnance artificers, including at the Imperial Manufactory at Tula in Russia via John Jones, father and son. The experimental comparison with contemporary American achievements shows that the British were realising levels of interchangeability at least equivalent to those at US National Armories, but that whilst the dimensional control sought in Britain may have been less demanding it was being attempted at many more sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on ethnographic research carried out in Birmingham, UK – a city significant for its sizeable Muslim population and its iconic role in the history of minority ethnic settlement in Britain – to consider how associations of place and ethnicity work in different ways to inform ideas about ‘Muslim community’ in twenty-first-century Britain. The paper charts happenings around a local event in an area of majority Asian settlement and how representations of the area as a place of Muslim community were used to implicate it in the ‘war on terror’. The paper goes on to show how this sensibility is disrupted by Muslims themselves through alternative engagements with space and ethnicity. The paper argues that these offer a ground for making Muslim community in ways that actively engage with histories and patterns of ethnic settlement in the city rather than being determined by them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Legacy promises from London 2012 meant that those working in sport in local, non-host areas in Britain were expected to facilitate more sporting opportunities for local citizens. Legacy preparations occurred in the context of many other constraints that stemmed from Government budget cuts and provision of leisure-time sport and other leisure activities. This paper presents new evidence on a significantly under-researched area of leisure studies, namely: the experiences of those delivering leisure-sport opportunities in a non-host city and how they responded to national legacy promises. Using Elias's concept of the double-bind, we explain the 'crisis situation' in which some local sports workers were enmeshed and how their acceptance of 'fantasy-laden beliefs' of expected demonstration effects from mega-events exacerbated their 'crisis'. We also draw upon participants' post-Games reflections to consider how future host nations may wish to leverage greater leisure-sporting legacies from a mega-event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses notions and experiences of authenticity of place in relation to intangible cultural heritage. Drawing on qualitative informant interviews with representatives of traditional and new businesses in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham (UK), it analyses authenticity of place with regard to three key dimensions: the experience of origins, the experience of continuity and the experience of potentiality and actuality. Findings suggest that intangible cultural heritage activates and facilitates experiences of authenticity, often related to people’s individual identity constructs and associated benefits or detriments. Some heritage concepts have evolved from their narrowly defined historic context and inform experiences of authenticity in the present. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contributes to developing understandings of strong commitments to particular forms of work and how they are sustained against bleak, unstable, exploitative and self-exploitative conditions. It approaches this duality between feeling and structure within the temporal and relational qualities of hope as they are experienced by women jewellery designer-makers in Birmingham Jewellery Quarter. The paper locates these hopes in the Craftswoman's Imperative, a symbolic good and material practice that is concerned with upholding objective values of the truth and beauty of artisanship. The paper details how the hopes of these designer-makers become aligned with those of policy-actors for a reinvigoration of British craftsmanship. It then explores how hope is upheld, and challenged, through sensory experiences of engaging with the material world. Finally, the paper explores these designer-makers’ optimistic practices for achieving the value of the Craftswoman's Imperative. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines a key period in the history of Birmingham, a city that was extensively though diffusely bombed during Second World War, but was redeveloped according to Modernist-inspired planning principles in the post-war years. Investigating the 'piecemeal' reconstruction of Birmingham's city centre in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, it is argued that the narrative of redevelopment has been thoroughly captured in official accounts which offer a detached view removed from the realities of everyday life. Although there is acknowledgement that encounters between human subjects and conceived spaces are multifaceted, few studies have examined this empirically within the context of the 'Modern' city. Drawing on a series of oral history interviews with residents to elucidate citizens' experiences of this phase of redevelopment, this paper shows that inhabitants often doubted and opposed (and occasionally praised) the planners' conception of space as they attempted to re-orientate themselves to the rhythms of everyday life in the 'new' city centre. The paper accordingly concludes that the process of modernization provokes an uneasy co-existence between representation and experience and that there is a need for a broader methodological pluralism in studies in an effort to understand the dynamic relationship between people and the physical environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

De Propris L. and Lazzeretti L. Measuring the decline of a Marshallian industrial district: the Birmingham Jewelry Quarter, Regional Studies. This paper presents the findings of a study on the decline of a typical Marshallian industrial district: the Birmingham Jewelry Quarter in the UK. The paper contributes to the current debate on clusters' life cycle by presenting a multidisciplinary methodology that combines historical and economic analyses with demography and organizational ecology models. The paper seeks to explore the patterns of firms' birth and mortality rates, as well as firm density across branches of production activities to measure and understand the decline of the Jewelry Quarter over the last decades. [image omitted] De Propris L. et Lazzeretti L. Mesurer le declin d'un district industriel du type Marshall: le quartier de la bijouterie a Birmingham, Regional Studies. Cet article cherche a presenter les resultats provenant d'une etude au sujet du declin d'un district industriel du type Marshall: a savoir, le quartier de la bijouterie a Birmigham (R-U). L'article contribue au debat actuel sur le cycle de vie des regroupements d'entreprises, en presentant une methodologie pluridisciplinaire qui associe des analyses chronologiques et economiques aux modeles de la demographie et de l'ecologie organisationnelle. On cherche a etudier la structure des taux de naissance et de deces des entreprises, ainsi que la densite du parc d'entreprises a travers des branches d'activites de production afin de mesurer et comprendre le declin du quartier de la bijouterie pendant les decennies recentes. Districts industriels du type Marshall Cycle de vie des regroupements Theorie ecologique De Propris L. und Lazzeretti L. Messung des Niedergangs eines Marshallschen Industriedistrikts: das Juwelierviertel von Birmingham, Regional Studies. In diesem Artikel werden die Ergebnisse einer Studie uber den Niedergang eines typischen Marshallschen Industriedistrikts vorgestellt, namlich des Juwelierviertels von Birmingham (GB). Der Artikel versteht sich als Beitrag zur aktuellen Debatte uber den Lebenszyklus von Clustern; hierfur prasentieren wir eine multidisziplinare Methodologie, in der historische und okonomische Analysen mit demografischen und organisationellen Okologiemodellen kombiniert werden. Wir untersuchen die Muster der Raten von Firmengrundungen und -schliessungen sowie die Firmendichte in verschiedenen Branchen der produzierenden Industrie, um den Niedergang des Juwelierviertels in den letzten Jahrzehnten zu messen und zu verstehen. Marshallsche Industriedistrikte Lebenszyklus von Clustern Okologische Theorie De Propris L. y Lazzeretti L. Medicion del declive de un distrito industrial marshalliano: el Jewelry Quarter de Birmingham, Regional Studies. En este articulo presentamos los resultados de un estudio sobre el declive de un distrito industrial marshalliano tipico: el Jewelry Quarter (barrio de las joyas) en Birmingham (RU). Aqui contribuimos al debate actual sobre el ciclo de vida de las aglomeraciones presentando una metodologia multidisciplinaria que combina los analisis historicos y economicos con los modelos demograficos y la ecologia organizativa. Lo que pretendemos es analizar los patrones de tasas de nacimientos y mortalidad de las empresas, asi como su densidad en todos los sectores de las actividades de produccion para medir y entender el declive del Jewelry Quarter en las ultimas decadas. Distritos industriales marshallianos Ciclo de vida de aglomeracion y teoria ecologica [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the nineteenth century city child rescuers developed 'a taxonomy of space' in which geography determined destiny. The privatised spaces of the middle classes were contrasted with the 'dirt, disease and delinquency' of the slums. Yet at the same time as 'dirt' was viewed as 'destructive' and proof of urban neglect it was also accepted in the form of rural soil to be 'fertile' and central to helping sustain life. This paper explores the emergence of this spatial taxonomy of destiny and its associated vocabulary of descriptors; it documents the visual duality of 'dirt' as a signifier of both 'risk' and of the 'pastoral'; and finally it examines some of the ways in which activists in one city sought in the twentieth century to bridge the divide and bring 'nature' into the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to recent calls for further work on vulnerable people's experiences of official planned attempts to create safe cities that are based on ableist assumptions. Go-along interviews elicited from people with cognitive, physical or motor impairments, together with interviews taken from built environment professionals are used to highlight the diverse ways in which differently disabled individuals encounter official efforts to create safe, secure urban spaces and suppress terrorist threats in one UK city centre (Birmingham). Focusing on individuals' embodied spatio-temporal experiences provide wider lessons for planners and urban stakeholders about the decision-making processes people adopt during urban crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the recent literature concerned with the impacts of factory closure refers to closures occurring in the 1980s and 1990s and affecting heavy industry - coal, steel and shipbuilding. It also tends to focus on employment and labour market impacts assessed through the subsequent experience of workers made redundant following closures. It also tends to assume that these impacts are localized. Because of this much of the discussion of policy implications relates to the workers made redundant and to a very local economy. This paper refers to the closure of the MG Rover factory in Longbridge, Birmingham, UK. This closure was regarded as presenting a crisis for government and the local community. The paper responds to arguments in the research literature and explores the spatial and economic impact of the MG Rover closure in more detail. It complements other research which has focused on the experience of those made redundant in 2005 by referring to the loss of employment over a longer time period and identifying a wider impact spatially and socially. The paper draws upon different sources of evidence and concludes with a discussion of implications for policy and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws together two traditionally distinct discourses that have dominated debates over urban policy responses to economic restructuring, deindustrialisation, major plant closures and the rise of the service and knowledge-based economy over the past 20 years. It investigates the case of Birmingham, where the policy drive of city centre regeneration, flagship development and the re-making of central urban space for new economic activities has been accompanied by much acclaim and 'boosterist' hype. At the same time, the socio-spatial impact of economic restructuring and the resulting policy response has been extremely uneven. The economic difficulties and wider disadvantage experienced by much of the city's population and many of its neighbourhoods, especially those inner city areas with large ethnic minority populations, have endured and even deepened since the early 1990s despite the efforts of numerous area-based regeneration programmes funded by central government. The paper reflects upon this dual narrative by asking the question whose urban renaissance? From this study it clear that the dominance of the 'boosterist' discourse is significantly tempered by the uneven and enduring socio-economic divides within the city and the partial nature of the city's overall recovery, particularly in terms of providing employment for its residents. In this sense, significant policy challenges remain despite the clear achievements of the past 20 years. The paper concludes by considering new spatial policy approaches that could bind together the dual imperatives of creating new economic opportunities, and addressing aspects of acute need among the local population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development initiatives following large-scale industrial closures often seek to regenerate the local economy through investment in technology and knowledge-intensive activities. The resulting changes in the make-up of the local workforce are in turn likely to generate new forms of demand for housing; demand that will not necessarily be met by the residential offer of the neighbourhoods worst affected by the initial closure. This paper explores these processes through a study of the proposals for a science park as a component of the programme to redevelop the Longbridge site in Birmingham in the UK, following the closure of the Rover automotive plant in 2005. The paper examines the capacity of local workers to take up the anticipated high-technology jobs; the likely configuration of an incoming workforce; and the fit between the housing requirements of these new workers and the residential offer of neighbourhoods in the Longbridge area. It concludes that there is likely to be a poor match between the housing and residential characteristics of neighbourhoods most closely associated with the plant closure and the requirements of an incoming high-tech workforce. This in turn raises a policy dilemma. On the one hand there is a necessity to secure economic diversification for the local economy as a whole, whilst on the other is the requirement to address the specific needs of the discrete neighbourhoods most affected by the closure and whose quality of place offer is often furthest from the requirements of the incoming workforce. A number of policy implications are discussed, drawing on the experience of recent housing and regeneration policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the pragmatics of stickers as a genre prominent in communication in urban public space. Although normally small in size, stickers may quantitatively dominate signage in certain areas of cities. Stickers are examined here as localized communicative events that mediatize social practices through a range of complex multimodal and linguistic processes, based on data from the Digbeth area in central Birmingham, UK. An analysis of the distribution of stickers, their agency, audience, and the multimodal practices involved in their creation reveals that they bring together transgressive, artistic and commercial discourses and form a specific layer of urban communication, especially in areas of pedestrian transit within a city. A large number of stickers also initiate communications that can potentially be continued online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite Birmingham’s claim to constitute ‘England’s second city’, it has arguably been overlooked in much recent academic research – perhaps because of a tendency to regard Manchester as the paradigmatic English example of the emerging post‐industrial city‐region. Contributors to CITY have gone some way to redressing this imbalance – with Frank Webster’s paper in vol 5 no 1 and Kevin Ward’s paper in vol 7 no 2 underlining the wider issues raised by the adoption of ‘urban entrepreneurialism’ in Birmingham. This paper, by Libby Porter and Austin Barber, takes forward such concerns through a case study of the ongoing regeneration of an individual district of the city: Birmingham Eastside. Using the stories of two pubs, whose fortunes are permanently re‐shaped by state‐led development initiatives, the paper develops a critical reflection on academic and policy debates relating to gentrification and the restructuring of central districts of large cities. In particular, the authors highlight how current thinking about the regeneration of inner city districts marginalizes the socio‐cultural meaning of place and the human networks that animate city places. They argue that this constrains planning possibilities and imaginations for the area’s future. The paper’s concluding call for urban analysts and planners alike to go beyond the economic when examining the processes and effects of urban change resonates with much work previously published in CITY. In particular, Porter and Barber’s analysis echoes Frank Webster’s assertion in vol 5 no 1 that, whatever else it may have achieved, regeneration in Birmingham appears to have resulted directly in a destruction of community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities now occupy a central role in economic regeneration. Literature on such regeneration has focused on the supply side, neo-liberal leanings of projects, the centrality of cultural production and consumption, and the undemocratic, exclusionary geographies being produced through such regeneration schemes. This paper explores how urban regeneration strategies, premised on promoting cultural production and consumption, are being experienced by one of Birmingham's oldest manufacturing communities—its jewellers in the city's historic Jewellery Quarter. The aim is to investigate how this repackaging of the Jewellery Quarter, moulded by Birmingham's broader urban regeneration strategies, is affecting the material and social networks that constitute jewellery manufacturing. The repackaging of the Jewellery Quarter highlights some of the contrasting, and contradictory, conceptions of economic development competing for space in the West Midlands. The paper argues that the greater stress being given to the aestheticisation of the Quarter may ultimately undermine the economic (and social) bases of the Quarter's jewellery manufacturing networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers new insights into the effects of neo-liberal education policies on some Muslim majority schools in Birmingham. It critically reveals how the implementation of neo-liberal education policies, pursued by both Labour and Conservative Governments, has contributed to the failure of some mechanisms of school leadership and governance. The move away from agreed collective public and civil values to individualistic and private values as the guiding principles of public education has produced confusion in role, function and relationships. This is considered within the context in which secular liberal education aims to allow different minorities to flourish and recreate themselves. The paper outlines how the state has entered more fully into the lives of children and families through limitless government regulations and how OFSTED appears open to political interference by government regularly changing the framework for inspectors to suit the latest priority. Accordingly, the judgements of OFSTED have become contestable especially as the framework becomes the means through which every aspect of school life is to be considered, including ‘extremism’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports the results from a questionnaire which sought the opinions of a representative sample of academic staff at the University of Birmingham to the introduction of more regular and systematic performance appraisal in universities. In particular, whether respondents were of the opinion that further procedures for the appraisal of individuals and departments were necessary and, if so, who should be involved in such appraisals. In addition, the reactions of staff to the suggestions for an Individual Annual Interview—providing a focus for career development—and a Departmental Annual Report—bringing together a detailed analysis of a department's past performance with an academic plan for its immediate future—are explored. Finally, some opinions on the role of heads of departments and external examiners, and some information on the range of methods of performance appraisal currently in use are presented. The data is further analysed on the basis of the respondents' faculty, position and years of service in universities. Respondents were invited to complete the questionnaire on the understanding that the main focus of appraisal was the professional development of individuals and departments, and that the purpose of the survey was to inform and influence policy-making in the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AndresL. and ChapainC. The integration of cultural and creative industries into local and regional development strategies in Birmingham and Marseille: towards an inclusive and collaborative governance?,Regional Studies. This paper explores the nature of the integration mechanisms of cultural and creative industries (CCI) into local and regional strategies and policies in Birmingham (UK) and Marseille (France) over the last thirty years. Using the typology developed by Smith and Warfield in 2008 with regard to CCI local policies and drawing on the collaborative governance model of Ansell and Gash in 2007, the paper compares the private CCI actors involved in local policies based on culture-centric versus econo-centric approaches. It demonstrates that the culture-centric approach is more exclusive than the econo-centric approach, and tends to lead to restrictive governance arrangements. AndresL. and ChapainC.???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????CCI????????????????????Smith ? Warfield? 2008 ??????CCI???????????Ansell ? Gash ?2007 ??????????????????????????????????????CCI??????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????? AndresL. et ChapainC. Intégration des activités culturelles et créatives dans les stratégies locales et régionales de développement urbain à Birmingham et Marseille: vers une gouvernance collaborative et inclusive?,Regional Studies. Cet article s'intéresse à la nature des processus d'intégration des industries culturelles et créatives (ICC) dans les stratégies et politiques locales et régionales à Birmingham (R-U) et à Marseille (France) durant les trente dernières années. Se référant à la typology des politiques locales de développement des ICC proposée par Smith et Warfield en 2007, et reprenant le modèle de gouvernance collaborative développé par Ansell et Gash en 2007, cet article s'intéresse à la manière dont les acteurs privés sont intégrés dans les politiques locales de développement à travers une approche centrée soit sur le volet culturel soit sur le volet économique. L'analyse démontre que l'approche culturelle se révèle plus exclusive que l'approche économique allant de pair avec des processus de gouvernance restrictifs (en matière du nombre d'acteurs privés inclus). Industries culturelles et créatives?Politiques?Gouvernance collaborative et inclusive?Birmingham?Marseille?Angleterre?France AndresL. und ChapainC. Die Integration der Kultur- und Kreativbranche in die lokalen und regionalen Entwicklungsstrategien in Birmingham und Marseille: auf dem Weg zu einer einbeziehenden und kooperativen Regierungsführung?,Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag untersuchen wir die Beschaffenheit der Mechanismen zur Integration der Kultur- und Kreativbranche in die lokalen und regionalen Strategien und Politiken in Birmingham (Großbritannien) und Marseille (Frankreich) während der letzten 30 Jahre. Anhand der von Smith und Warfield 2008 entwickelten Typologie der lokalen Politiken für die Kultur- und Kreativbranche und unter Nutzung des von Ansell und Gash 2007 entwickelten Modells für kooperative Regierungsführung vergleichen wir die an den lokalen Politiken beteiligten privaten Akteure der Kultur- und Kreativbranche unter Einsatz von kulturzentrischen gegenüber ökonozentrischen Ansätzen. Aus den Ergebnissen geht hervor, dass der kulturzentrische Ansatz ausschließender wirkt als der ökonozentrische Ansatz und tendenziell zu restriktiven Regierungsmaßnahmen führt. Kultur- und Kreativbranche?Politiken?Kooperative und einbeziehende Regierungsführung?Birmingham?Marseille?England?Frankreich AndresL. y ChapainC. La integración de las industrias culturales y creativas en estrategias de desarrollo locales y regionales en Birmingham y Marsella: ¿hacia una gobernanza colaboradora para todos?,Regional Studies. En este artículo analizamos la naturaleza de los mecanismos de integración de las industrias culturales y creativas (ICC) en las estrategias y políticas locales y regionales en Birmingham (Reino Unido) y Marsella (Francia) durante los últimos treinta años. Utilizando la tipología desarrollada por Smith y Warfield en 2008 con respecto a las políticas locales de las ICC y basándonos en el modelo cooperativo de gobernanza de Ansell y Gash en 2007, en este artículo comparamos los protagonistas privados de las ICC que participan en políticas locales con ayuda de enfoques culturales frente a enfoques económicos. En el análisis se demuestra que el enfoque cultural es más exclusivo que el enfoque económico y tiende a desembocar en medidas gubernamentales restrictivas. Industrias culturales y creativas?Políticas?Gobernanza colaboradora para todos?Birmingham?Marsella?Inglaterra?Francia [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this paper is to provide a positive case for increasing the role and importance of religious morality within the subject of religious education in British schools. The argument is structured in the following way. First, attention is given to the diminished role accorded to moral education within religious education that followed the transition from confessional to non-confessional, phenomenological religious education and the reasons for this. Secondly, a genealogical/historical account is constructed that identifies the different ways in which the contribution of religious education to moral education has been conceptualised and practised in post-confessional religious education. Thirdly, the notion that morality and religion are discrete domains of human experience, which has provided the intellectual framework for diminishing the moral content and ambitions of religious education, is criticised as controversial philosophically and as contrasting with the way many religious believers construe the relationship between morality and religion. Finally, there is a short exploration of the ways in which the work of Marius Felderhof in Birmingham provides the intellectual resources to reinstate and reassert the importance and the contribution of religious education to moral education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the work on youth cultures and subcultures that emerged from Birmingham's Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (hereafter CCCS) during the 1970s. I engage with a number of recent critiques of the 'youth sub/cultures project', including Thornton's influential work on rave and club cultures and its troubled engagement with class. I argue that the focus of the youth sub/cultures project on mediated cultural practices through which young people constitute themselves and their (gendered, classed and racialised) positions remains of value, especially the emphasis on a 'symptomatic reading' that locates these processes in a 'conjunctural analysis'. I end by exploring the legacy of this project for understanding youth, class and culture in contemporary late modern society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A brief introduction to gun making in Birmingham in the 18th century and the Farmer and Galton gun-making businesses and their military products is presented. The collections of Galton Papers held by Birmingham Archives and Heritage and University College London are used to focus on the Farmer and Galton experience in relation to key matters associated with military gun making: the feast and famine phenomena in the supply of arms for the many wars of the 18th century; and standards of inspection including the use of gauges and proof. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial education has failed to attract the attention of educational historians. The principal institutions that provided such education for over seventy years, the colleges of commerce, were a significant alternative to the universities. This paper is an exploratory study of the history of one such institution, the Birmingham College of Commerce, from the late 1890s to its demise in 1970. The paper discusses the problems of definition that underlie any attempt at discussing commercial education and the colleges of commerce and outlines the main strands of the history of the college. There are five main themes of its history: the professionalisation of clerical and retail workers; expansion of non-academic work; increasing focus on higher level studies; lack of space; developing identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2004 Mitsubishi announced the closure of its Lonsdale plant in South Australia. Almost a year later, MG Rover went into administration, resulting in the immediate closure of its Longbridge plant just outside Birmingham, England. Both closures were expected to have a considerable impact on their regional economies through the loss of employment and associated economic activity. However, governments in Australia and England responded in significantly different ways: in England the focus was on competitive advantage through the modernisation of the auto cluster and the diversification of the regional economy into new, high-technology industries. In Australia, the national and state governments introduced policy responses based on the pursuit of comparative advantage. This paper compares and contrasts the two sets of government responses and examines the capacity of each to deliver long-term benefits to their affected communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the existing debate on the link between the governance of local production systems (i.e. clusters or industrial districts) and the development of localities, this paper analyses the structure of interfirm networking and co-operation, as well as the structure of governance, in the jewellery district in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter (BJQ). The BJQ was an historical urban Marshallian industrial district at the turn of the 20th century; even today, in a small web of streets, there are still a large number of jewellery firms and allied jewellery trades. In fact, the BJQ is still a remarkable example of a localised industry with a pool of highly skilled labour, an extensive external division of labour across specialised firms and a fabric of social relationships. Since World War II, technological shocks and the emergence of tougher competition have damaged the organisation of production of the district, as well as impacting on its ability to be innovative and competitive in domestic and foreign markets. The sustainability of the jewellery district in the BJQ is one of the main targets of local policy-makers and agencies. However, as it is in the process of reinventing itself from a stagnant manufacturing industrial district into an urban creative district, its very existence is threatened by the transformation of parts of the area into a popular place in which to live, eat and drink. In this context, the participation of jewellery firms in the processes of decision-making is of paramount importance to ensure that the interests and needs of all stakeholders are voiced and taken on board. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Sustainability has come to play a dominant discursive role in the UK planning system, particularly relating to urban regeneration. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role that sustainability plays in a major regeneration programme, known as Eastside, currently underway in Birmingham, the UK. That this £6 billion redevelopment is now widely talked about by such key players as Birmingham City Council and the Regional Development Agency, Advantage West Midlands, as having a central sustainability agenda points to the growing importance of the ideal of sustainability in planning and regeneration agendas. In this paper, we investigate in detail how and why sustainability has become part of the planning discourse for Eastside and critically evaluate what impact, if any, this is having on public policy decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reconstruction of British cities following World War II is characterized by a marked gap between the rhetoric and the reality. Visions for ideal cities, in particular those growing out of the modern movement in architecture, were diluted and warped by the 'messy' business of reconstructing actual cities, filled with real people whilst operating within democratic structures. This paper examines elements of this confrontation of the ideal and the real, by looking at the context for changes to the urban fabric within a single housing estate in Birmingham, self-nominated 'second city' of Britain. The overarching theme is of historical continuity and change - the extent to which the urban fabric has been destroyed and remade. As such, the paper examines not only the nominally 'modern' post-war reconstruction, but also how a contemporary, 'post-modern' phase of redevelopment is dealing with the city form created in the 1950s and 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For female street sex workers in Britain, selling sex means managing risks. Violence from male clients, harassment from community protesters and criminalisation through overpolicing are daily hazards on the street. Using qualitative data and extensive field observations of the street market in Birmingham, UK, it is argued in this paper that street sex workers do not passively accept these risks but, instead, manage occupational hazards by manipulating, separating, controlling and resisting urban spaces. Women actively use space to inform their collective and individual working practices to minimise harm and maximise profits. However, the findings conclude that sites of street prostitution are made increasingly dangerous for women through punitive policing policies, conservative heterosexual discourses and a lack of realistic prostitution policy that addresses the central issues relating to commercial sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue the rationale for the assessment criteria currently in use on the Aston University MSc in TESOL/TESP. These assessment criteria were revised in 1998-1999; here I discuss the goals of the revision project and argue that they have been successfully met by the assessment scheme which was developed. The discussion is offered for two main purposes. Firstly, the framework itself may be of interest to other departments who assess similar research reports to the course assignments discussed here. Secondly, and more importantly, the paper offers a position on the kinds of questions that should be asked and the sorts of places to look for answers for any project to (re)define assessment criteria in an academic programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a discussion of how the educational attitudes, perspectives and experiences of young South Asian women in schools and colleges in the city of Birmingham, UK, are affected by domestic religio-cultural norms and values. Taking into consideration social class and the different types of schools they attend, young South Asian women were interviewed and surveyed to ascertain the effects of religion and culture upon education. The empirical findings show that all young South Asian women had supportive parents who actively encouraged them in education, irrespective of religion. For young Muslim women a strong bond between religion and individual was found, but for Hindus and Sikhs it was more tentative. For young working-class South Asian women, Hindus and Sikhs also regarded religion as less significant in their lives, but for Muslims it was again seen as crucial--but certain practices were argued to be more cultural than religious, and thereby problematic. For some young South Asian Muslim women, it leads to further marginalisation in education, given that they also originate from lower social class positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to synthesise two models of innovation processes which seek to explain why some innovations are successful while others fail. The history of the Course Evaluation Scheme at the University of Birmingham provides a case study through which the value of the perspective derived from these models is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article previews the 26th annual conference of the Society for Reproductive & Infant Psychology that will be held from September 13-15, 2006 at Aston University in Birmingham, England. It includes information on the issues that will be addressed at various meetings and the deadline for the submission of individual papers and posters.

The population complexity associated with superdiversity brings a wide range of challenges for social welfare providers. Commentators have outlined concerns about the ability of service providers to meet the welfare needs of ever diversifying populations and point to potential problems in identifying the nature of need in rapidly changing superdiverse neighbourhoods as conventional approaches to consultation based around ethnicity become practically impossible. Using data collected in the West Midlands, which explored maternity service needs from the perspectives of new migrants and maternity professionals, some key barriers to effective welfare delivery in superdiverse areas are explored. The paper outlines the emergence of two challenges important in shaping new migrant access to maternity care in an era of superdiversity – novelty and newness – and proposes further research to examine the extent to which these challenges are faced in other social welfare services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]