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Background: Studies in the United States show that school students from some ethnic backgrounds are susceptible to stereotype threat, that this undermines their academic performance, and that a series of virtually zero‐cost self‐affirmation writing exercises can reduce these adverse effects. In England, however, socioeconomic status (SES) is a much stronger predictor of academic success than is ethnic background. Aims: This study investigates whether self‐affirmation writing exercises can help close the SES attainment gap in England by increasing the academic performance of low‐SES (but not higher‐SES) school students. Sample: Our sample consisted of students aged 11–14 in a secondary school in southern England (N = 562); of these, 128 were eligible for free school meals, a proxy for low SES. Methods: Students completed three short writing exercises throughout one academic year: those randomly assigned to an affirmed condition wrote about values that were important to them, and those assigned to a control condition wrote about a neutral topic. Results: On average, the low‐SES students had lower academic performance and reported experiencing more stereotype threat than their higher‐SES peers. The self‐affirmation raised the academic performance of the low‐SES students by 0.38 standard deviations but did not significantly affect the performance of the higher‐SES students, thus reducing the SES performance gap by 62%. The self‐affirmation also reduced the level of stress reported by the low‐SES students. Conclusions: The benefits of this virtually zero‐cost intervention compare favourably with those of other interventions targeting the SES academic attainment gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article responds to the contemporary debates in UK higher education about the need to 'decolonise the curriculum', with particular attention to the implications for the discipline of history. The author positions these important debates as one outcome of a transnational movement led by students of colour whose grievances reach into and beyond the classroom. The first part of the article examines the origins of this movement identifying some important antecedents as well as the broader political and socio‐economic forces that propelled its rise in 2015. There then follows an examination of the movement's multidimensional critique of the university sector, which includes—but is not limited to—the call to 'decolonise the curriculum', before considering potential implications for academic workers labouring in the discipline of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a qualitative study in the UK of women as co‐offenders, their pathways into crime and offending motivations. What was found in the analysis of the women's narratives was that while co‐offending relationships were a central pathway into offending, this often intersected with other circumstances in the women's lives, including drug addiction, socio‐economic circumstances, and 'significant life events'. These findings suggest that those working with this cohort of women must recognise the complexities and contexts of co‐offending to understand, and accurately represent, women's experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In British social mobility discourse, the rhetoric of fair access can obscure wider issues of social justice. While socio‐economic inequalities continue to shape young people's lives, sociological work on class dis‐identification suggests social class is less obviously meaningful as a source of individual and collective identity. This paper considers subjective understandings of the post‐16 education and employment landscape in this context, drawing on qualitative research exploring the aspirations of young men and women as they completed compulsory education in north‐west England, and the hopes their parents had for their future. It shows how unequal access to resources shaped the older generation's expectations for their children, although this was rarely articulated using the explicit language of class. Their children recognized they faced a difficult job market but embraced the idea that success was possible through hard work. Both generations drew moral boundaries and made judgments based on implicit classed discourses about undeserving others, while at the same time disavowing class identities. There was a more explicit recognition of gender inequality among the parents framed with reference to hopes for greater freedom for their daughters. Opportunities and inequalities were thus understood in complex and sometimes contradictory ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous U.K. population‐based studies have found associations amongst early speech and language difficulties, socioeconomic disadvantage and children's word‐reading ability later on. We examine the strength of these associations in a recent U.K. population‐based birth cohort. Analyses were based on 13,680 participants. Linear regression models were fitted to identify factors that were associated with word‐reading score at the age of 7 years. Path analysis models were fitted to examine phonological skills as a mediator of the relationships. We found that male gender, preterm birth, naming vocabulary at age five, concerns about speech and language, maternal education, type of housing tenure, lone parenting, parent attachment and frequency of reading to the child were all independently associated with word reading. For each of these predictors, there was evidence suggesting that a substantial proportion of the effect may be mediated by phonological skills (ranging from 52 to 89%). Despite policy intervention, many of the same risk factors identified in previous studies still predict children's word‐reading ability in the United Kingdom. Results support the phonological model, with phonological skills on the pathway to word reading. What is already known about this topic?: A range of studies has implicated poor socioeconomic background and disadvantaged family circumstances as risks for children's poor word reading. Good early development of language skills is firmly established as a pathway to promoting reading ability. Not all poor readers show deficits in phonological skills, although such deficits correlate highly with reading difficulties. What this paper adds: This is an original analysis of factors in a recent cohort of U.K. children, using stratified sampling to be representative of the U.K. population as a whole. A range of child‐specific, family socioeconomic and family relationship factors were independently associated with word‐reading ability when children were age seven. For each of the predictors, there was evidence suggesting that a substantial proportion of the effect, if causal, may be mediated by phonological skills (ranging from 52 to 89%). Implications for theory, policy or practice: Despite policy intervention, many of the same risk factors identified in older studies still predict children's word‐reading ability in the United Kingdom. Results lend weight to the phonological model, where deficits in phonological skills are on the pathway to word reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past 70 years have seen a dramatic change in the structure of the dairy industry, driven by socio-economic changes and by the dramatic improvements in knowledge of the physicochemical and microbiological state of milk and milk products. Production processes have been revolutionised by improvements to process hygiene and by automation. Energy efficiency will continue to have a major influence on manufacture and distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reforms which increase the stock of education in a society have long been held by policy-makers as key to improving rates of intergenerational social mobility. Yet, despite the intuitive plausibility of this idea, the empirical evidence in support of an effect of educational expansion on social fluidity is both indirect and weak. In this paper we use the raising of the minimum school leaving age from 15 to 16 years in England and Wales in 1972 to estimate the effect of educational participation and qualification attainment on rates of intergenerational social class mobility. Because, in expectation, children born immediately before and after the policy was implemented are statistically exchangeable, the difference in the amount of education they received may be treated as exogenously determined. The exogenous nature of the additional education gain means that differences in rates of social mobility between cohorts affected by the reform can be treated as having been caused by the additional education. The data for the analysis come from the ONS Longitudinal Study, which links individual records from successive decennial censuses between 1971 and 2001. Our findings show that, although the reform resulted in an increase in educational attainment in the population as a whole and a weakening of the association between attainment and class origin, there was no reliably discernible increase in the rate of intergenerational social mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the potential to mobilize in an urban context the key insights of the burgeoning literature on the performativity of economics. It argues that our understanding of contemporary urban political-economic transformation needs to explicitly recognize the active role of economics in making and remaking the urban world, as opposed to merely describing and analysing it in some kind of passive, detached fashion. It develops this argument through the elaboration of a case study of just such world-making in action: the growing use in the United Kingdom, since the early 2000s, of economic models for assessing the viability of affordable housing provision in new residential developments. The world of urban redevelopment that such models attempt to describe formulaically has, the article submits, increasingly come to act according to the model and the assumptions it contains; the model, in this sense, has been progressively actualized in the urban landscape. The article conceptualizes such performative economic models as examples of what Michel Callon calls economics 'in the wild', and it focuses on the work of the leading commercial developer and marketer of such models in the affordable housing planning environment over the last decade - a consulting company called Three Dragons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research on remittances focuses on economic motivations, with little emphasis on the social contexts in which the remittance economy operates. Through an analysis of in-depth interviews with migrant workers in a London hotel and hospital, we examine how migrants' familial and social relationships in both sending and receiving countries inform the decision to send remittances. We suggest that remittances are a mechanism through which migrants are able to fulfil multiple obligations to families and places of origin, while also enhancing their own economic status and future. First, satisfying the cultural expectation of sending remittances helps migrants maintain their social worlds at 'home'. Second, we observed that both positive and negative changes in power and resources influence the decision to send remittances by motivating migrants to invest in their social position in either their home or receiving country. In sum, we argue that the migrants' social experience in the United Kingdom might be just as predictive of remittance behaviour as their economic and social status in the country of origin. We, therefore, call for a need to move beyond the often one-sided concern with development by concentrating on the overlapping social worlds of migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aftermath of the August 2011 riots, politicians and commentators offered a range of explanations for the social unrest and wanton violence. Drawing on survey and focus-group data, this paper investigates those explanations by analysing how socio-economic, normative and political factors shape contemporary attitudes towards law breaking in Britain. The paper finds that both economic deprivation and personal moral values help to explain attitudes toward illegal behaviour, but citizens' mistrust of political leaders and their disengagement from public affairs are also an important factor. The findings suggest that politicians who want to provide moral leadership need to do so through their actions as well as their words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with British politician Shirley Williams is presented. Topics discussed include the connections between the perceived failures of the Labour Party of Britain, Williams' status as a Social Democrat, and her belief that society is moving to a period of plenty to a period of scarcity as of September 2010. How the Labour party dealt with the gap between the poor and the wealthy between the years 1997 and 2010 is reviewed.

This article draws on data from two recently completed Economic and Social Research Council funded projects in order to examine class differences and similarities in choice of school and choice of childcare. The authors argue that there is every reason to believe that in many circumstances, within its particular mechanisms and practices, choice produces specific and pervasive forms of inequity. The processes by which working-class parents in one study chose care settings and schools could be seen as less skilled, less informed, less careful than the decision making of many of the middle-class respondents. However, this is not an argument that the authors advance, noting instead that the practices and meanings of choice are subject to significant social, cultural and economic variations in terms of who gets to choose, who gets their choices, and what, how and why people choose when they are able to. The authors argue that there are alternative sets of priorities in play for the working-class respondents, involving attachments to the communal and the local. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses recent legal and policy initiatives aimed at preventing forced marriage, placing them in the broader context of the exclusionary governance of British Muslim cultural difference. It argues that forced marriage is understood almost entirely as a product of cultural difference. Thus, attempts to prevent forced marriage focus on the control of cultural pressures at the point of marriage. This near-exclusive focus on culture has two consequences for women. First, inadequate attention is paid to the social and economic problems which intersect with and aggravate cultural factors restricting women's marital choice. Second, this problematisation of culture has generated paternalistic legislation with the consequence that young women who wish to follow cultural practice and fully consent to an arranged marriage may be prevented from marrying as they choose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drugs and alcohol misuse in young people is a major public health problem with substantial levels of morbidity and mortality. Social, economic and cultural factors play a major part in the initiation and maintenance of substance misuse in young people. Many young people who misuse drugs have multiple antecedent and co-occurring mental health problems, unrecognized learning difficulties, family difficulties and deeply entrenched social problems. Given the heterogeneity of the patterns of substance misuse in these young people, and the potential for persistence of serious problems into their adult lives, a range of interventions should be developed to address the risk factors across biological, psychological and social domains. Family/systemic interventions provide the best outcomes for young people with substance misuse, though even the most intensive forms of systemic therapies may fall short of producing enduring changes, especially for marginalized young people and communities. Appreciative inquiry (AI) is one of the most significant innovations in action research in the past decade and a method of producing long-lasting changes to the larger social system. AI is an attempt to generate a collective image of a new and better future by exploring the best of what is and has been. We describe an anecdotal experience of using AI in producing long-lasting changes in a group of marginalized young people in South Africa, who were engaged in drug and alcohol misuse and antisocial behaviour. The principles and practice of AI are described in detail, followed by a discussion of the implications of these findings for a UK population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is built upon a dense description and inferences drawn from the diaries and memoirs of travellers who visited the British Isles between 1815 and 1850. The majority came from Mainland Europe and North America and arrived aware of the economic growth and social change underway in Britain. We comment upon and analyze the ways that they reported and the language they used to describe novel features of the British economy. We reflect upon the key issues raised by these travellers on the economic, social and political change that they observed at first hand. Finally, we reflect on the overall contribution that sources from offshore might offer for the plurality of meanings attached to the First Industrial Revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of social mobility in Great Britain as of September 2008, particularly the meaning of the term as understood by politicians and the public. The article also analyzes potential polices that could promote social mobility. It also discusses criticism of measuring economic outcomes by social class, evidence of social mobility in Great Britain, and the impact of globalization on social mobility patterns. The article examines policy initiatives of the British government led by then-prime minister Tony Blair. The article also discusses British education policy and social policy as they relate to social mobility.

The article discusses the role of government regulation and regulators in pursuing social economic goals, particularly economic equality. The article examines the British Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and its predecessors as well as the perceived role of the EHRC, particularly the influence of regulators, public interest arguments, and assisting disadvantaged consumers. The article discusses the role of regulators in attempting to ensure that difficulties and failures in markets are minimized. It also discusses the promotion of social and community cohesion.

Background Disabled young people with complex needs face particular challenges when they reach adulthood and seek to move from school to employment or further education. There are potentially substantial personal and social costs arising from these challenges. Methods We sought evidence from recent UK research, policy and related literatures; undertook exploratory statistical analyses of birth cohort data; and analysed information provided by 30 disabled young people requiring high levels of practical and communication support. Results The personal, family and social costs that result from unsuccessful transition are substantial and wide-ranging. Health service and local authority expenditure are important elements, but do not allow young people to achieve the educational or employment goals to which they aspire, resulting in considerable costs for the state, whether through missing opportunities to contribute to the economy or through dependence on welfare benefits. Conclusions The considerable sums currently spent on disabled children and young people are clearly not enough, or not deployed appropriately, to enable those who reach adulthood to fulfil their ambitions, or to meet government policy intentions for young people to achieve economic well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that, despite globalisation forces, national education and training systems have kept their particularities. Policies of convergence, enhanced by supranational organisations such as the European Commission, have not yet led to a homogenisation of national education and training systems. The latter are still influenced by the political, economic and social framework. Thus, no single model of lifelong learning prevailed in Europe. There were countries close to the demand-led model of ‘voluntary partnership’ (e.g. UK), countries representative of the ‘formalised social partnership’ model (e.g. Sweden) and countries adhering to the ‘statist’ model (e.g. Greece). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Many previous studies have reported that mothers of children with intellectual disabilities (IDs) are more likely to show signs of psychological distress and have lower well-being than mothers of "typically developing" children. Our aim was to estimate the extent to which these differences may be accounted for by between-group differences in socio-economic position. Methods: This study involved secondary analysis of happiness, self-esteem and self-efficacy variables in a nationally representative sample of 6954 British mothers with dependent children under the age of 17 years, 514 of whom were supporting a child with an ID. Results: Mothers of children with IDs reported lower levels of happiness, self-esteem and self-efficacy than mothers of children without IDs. Statistically controlling for differences in socio-economic position, household composition and maternal characteristics fully accounted for the between-group differences in maternal happiness, and accounted for over 50% of the elevated risk for poorer self-esteem and self-efficacy. Conclusions: A socially and statistically significant proportion of the increased risk of poorer well-being among mothers of children with IDs may be attributed to their increased risk of socio-economic disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To explore the feasibility and cost of promoting fruit consumption among primary schoolchildren across Anglesey, a region in North Wales, UK. Design, setting and subjects A postal survey of the head teachers of all 51 primary schools across Anglesey to ascertain their attitudes to promoting fruit consumption and current initiatives in place was conducted. This was followed by a 1-week pilot study in a single primary school to assess parents’ support and willingness to bear or share costs, to determine children's fruit preferences, and to calculate fruit waste. Finally, the cost to local government of providing a piece of fruit to each primary schoolchild daily was calculated. Results A 53% response rate was obtained in the postal survey of primary school head teachers. All respondents expressed an interest in participating in future fruit promotion programmes. Of 27 primary schools, 26 that responded (96.3%) had programmes in place in which 18 had adopted specific food policies. In the pilot study at the single Anglesey primary school, a response rate of 97% from parents who expressed support for fruit promotion in school was obtained. Parents expressed their willingness to pay at least 15 pence per day towards fruit provision at break time for their children if such a service was not provided by local government. If local government was to invest in this initiative, the total cost of providing one piece of fruit per day to all primary school children in Anglesey would be £211 000 per annum (2004 prices; 19 pence per child per day). Conclusion This pilot study shows support by teachers and parents for initiatives to encourage primary schoolchildren to eat more fruit. Waste can be minimized by choosing fruit that children prefer, in this study, grapes, apples and oranges. The decision as to whether local government or parents are asked to pay for fruit provision is political, depending on local socioeconomic circumstances, local government priorities, national education and nutrition policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between socioeconomic status and having living children and parents among 55- to 63-year-old women in the United States and Britain. The goals are to quantif).' the outcomes of slightly different demographic regimes on close kin networks and to assess the potential implications of policies that in both countries increasingly emphasize family responsibility. In the cohorts examined, U.S. respondents are substantially more likely to have living parents and children, but the pattern of socioeconomic effects is similar across countries. Higher socioeconomic status is associated with having fewer children and, less consistently, is associated with a higher probability of having living parents and being childless. However, higher-status women are more likely to have both living parents and children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the role of insurance as an institution which promotes socio-economic resilience in United Kingdom. Relationship between risk and insurance; Basis for natural perils insurance; Assessment of insured risk.

Considers the historic and recent environmental and socio-economic changes as of November 1998 which are influencing the British coast and their implications for sustainable development. Importance of the coast to the United Kingdom economy; Value of a range of services including waste assimilation; Information on the issues surrounding British coast.

The article discusses the major forces that are shaping urban growth and the hierarchy of emerging centers. The first and most obvious force is tertiarization, the shift in advanced economics, most pronounced in terms of output but also now increasingly in terms of value, of production, from manufacturing to services. Although there are significant differences between the major advanced economies, the United States and Great Britain being more highly tertiarized than Germany or Japan it is nevertheless true that in all such countries, more than 60 per cent of the workforce are now engaged in service industries, and in some the proportion is approaching 70 per cent. Tertiarization has several causes. Perhaps the most obvious is that productivity gains have been greater in manufacturing than in the service sector. Some commentators see the beginnings of a similar revolution in services, with activities like banks beginning to rationalize and reduce their workforces, but the entire process has a long way to go, and will probably never equal the gains in manufacturing, simply because many service activities involve an irreducible personal element. INSET: MOST/Management of Social Transformations: A new program...

There is an important need for a wider public recognition of psychological approaches to the design and introduction of the new work systems based on microelectronics. The economic and political climate in the UK has not been very supportive of social science orientations, however, and approaches which have been influenced by psychological theory have been limited in their effects. Contributions made by ergonomics, socio-technical theory and participative systems design are considered, and criticisms that have been made of each are reviewed. In an analysis of how psychological and social science approaches differ from conventional views on how best to manage the introduction of the technologies two alternative models, the 'task and technology approach' and the 'organization and end-user approach', are presented. Stages in the cycle of innovation associated with the introduction of the technologies are identified and alternative assumptions that may guide practices within them are outlined. The need for a wider appreciation of the advantages of the 'organization and end-user approach 'is discussed. It is suggested that psychologists should emphasize the indeterminism of the technologies, develop techniques to assist people to exploit this in particular situations, and cultivate an 'inclusive' orientation to the presentation of their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on articles discussed as part of a meeting on surfaces in geography sponsored by the Quantitative Methods Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers and the Modelling and Advanced Techniques Special Interest Group of the Remote Sensing Society. Advantages of surface representations of socio-economic variables; Themes of the articles.

Discusses the growing importance of the issue of family-friendly employment to the economic and social policy of the Labour government of Great Britain. Goal of family-friendly employment; Questions that must be considered in exploring the factors that trigger shifts in corporate culture.

Take a tour of the ever‐evolving London landscape in the shadow of the Shard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]