Local government and the local structure of the state have recently emerged as major areas of political conflict. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the crisis in local - central relations, firmly placing political events in the context of the development of both central political powers and local autonomy. The book focuses on the key period of increasing centralisation since 1976, which has involved progressive central control over local government finance, centralized policies for local service delivery, centrally-steered experiments such as Enterprise Zones and UDCs and all-out attacks on local government autonomy with rate-capping and abolition. But this period also includes the emergence of resistance campaigns and alternative local policies. The authors examine how local - central relations have changed and why they have changed. As well as examining local - central relations as a whole, the book has core studies of local economic policy, housing, civil defence, health, water and transport. Evaluating the debates on local state and local government, the book provides a conceptualization of the nature and role of the local state within the process of uneven development. This work should be of interest to 2nd and 3rd year undergraduates studying local government, post-graduates, researchers and teachers in political science, government, geography, urban sociology and urban studies.

The Local State and Uneven Development: Behind the Local Government Crisis

Politics & Social Sciences

Goodwin, Mark

Duncan, Simon

Politics & Government

St.Martin's Press

Duncan (comparative social policy, U. of Bradford, UK) and Edwards (social policy, South Bank U., UK) analyze how single mothers in England negotiate the relationship between motherhood and paid work in order to determine why British single mothers are less likely to be in paid work than in most other countries, and whether or not the policy of welfare to work is actually the best response. They critique conventional economic accounts of decision-making, and provide an alternative (gendered moral rationality), which they suggest can better account for single mothers' labor market behavior. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Lone Mothers, Paid Work and Gendered Moral Rationalities

Rosalind Edwards

Social Sciences

St. Martin's Press 29 October

Providing a comprehensive analysis of comparative gender difference in the EU, this book addresses a spectrum of gender issues. From employment and households, to culture, sexuality and male violence, the book transcends any 'economy/culture' divide.  This wide coverage is placed within a conceptual view of structured 'gender cultures' which vary spatially and historically. Individual chapters are written around this common theme by an expert board of international contributors, drawn from a variety of intellectual and disciplinary backgrounds, allowing the reader to compare between chapters and read across them.

Gender, Economy and Culture in the European Union (Routledge Research in Gender and Society)

Business & Money

Pfau-Effinger, Birgit

Economics

Routledge

Housing, States, and Localities

Dickens, Peter

Gray, Fred

Routledge& Kegan Paul

The Local State and Uneven Development

Blackwell*publishers

Gender, Economy and Culture in the European Union

This book presents a new approach to understanding contemporary personal life, taking account of how people build their lives through a bricolage of ‘tradition’ and ‘modern’. The authors examine how tradition is used and adapted, invented and re-invented; how meaning can leak from past to present; the ways in which people’s agencies differ as they make decisions; and the process of bricolage in making new arrangements. These themes are illustrated through a variety of case studies, ranging from personal life in the 1950s, young women and marriage, the rise of cohabitation, female name change, living apart together, and creating weddings. Centrally the authors emphasise the re-traditionalisation involved in de-traditionalisation and the connectedness involved in individualised processes of relationship change. Reinventing Couples will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including sociology, social work and social policy.

Reinventing Couples: Tradition, Agency and Bricolage (Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life)

Carter, Julia

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

Providing a comprehensive analysis of comparative gender difference in the EU, this book addresses a spectrum of gender issues from employment and households to culture, and sexuality and male violence, taking in the state, migration and women's movements along the way. This wide coverage is placed within an overall conceptual view of structuring "gender cultures", which vary spatially and historically. Individual chapters are written to a common structure by European experts, drawn from a variety of backgrounds, allowing readers to compare between chapters and to read across them.

Gender, Economy, and Culture in the European Union

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