an article by Peter O’Brien and Andy Pike (Newcastle University, UK) published in Urban Studies Volume 56 Issue 7 (May 2019)
Abstract
How urban infrastructure is funded, financed and governed is a central issue for states at the national, city-regional and city scales. Urban infrastructure is being financialised by financial and state actors and transformed into an asset in the international investment landscape.
Local governments are being compelled by national state and financial institutions to be more entrepreneurial in their infrastructure funding and financing and to reorganise their governance arrangements.
This article explains the socially and spatially uneven unfolding and implications of urban infrastructure financialisation and local government attempts to implement more entrepreneurial practices and governance forms.
The empirical focus is the City Deals in the UK: a new form of urban governance and infrastructure investment based upon negotiated central–local government agreements on decentralised powers, responsibilities and resources.
The continued authority of the highly centralised UK national state, its managerialist institutions and conservative/risk-averse administrative culture have constrained urban infrastructure financialisation and entrepreneurial urban governance in the UK City Deals. Situated in their particular spatial, temporal, political-economic and institutional settings, financialisation is understood as a socially and spatially variegated process and urban governance is interpreted as the articulation and mixing of new entrepreneurial and enduring managerialist forms.
Showing posts with label infrastructure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label infrastructure. Show all posts
Tuesday, 14 May 2019
Sunday, 11 February 2018
Thinking Sociologically About Kindness: Puncturing the Blasé in the Ordinary City
an article by Julie Brownlie (University of Edinburgh, UK) and Simon Anderson (Simon Anderson Consulting, UK) published in Sociology Volume 51 Issue 6 (December 2017)
Abstract
This article makes the case for a sociological engagement with kindness. Although virtually ignored by sociologists, we tend to know kindness when we see it and to feel its absence keenly.
We suggest there are at least four features of ‘ordinary’ kindness which render it sociologically relevant:
In doing so, we argue that – as much as Simmel’s blasé outlook – small acts of kindness are part of how we can understand city living and that, despite the cultural trope of randomness, a sociologically adequate account of kindness needs to recognise the ways in which it is socially embedded and differentiated.
Abstract
This article makes the case for a sociological engagement with kindness. Although virtually ignored by sociologists, we tend to know kindness when we see it and to feel its absence keenly.
We suggest there are at least four features of ‘ordinary’ kindness which render it sociologically relevant:
- its infrastructural quality;
- its unobligated character;
- its micro or inter-personal focus and
- its atmospheric potential.
In doing so, we argue that – as much as Simmel’s blasé outlook – small acts of kindness are part of how we can understand city living and that, despite the cultural trope of randomness, a sociologically adequate account of kindness needs to recognise the ways in which it is socially embedded and differentiated.
Monday, 6 March 2017
Research shows “astonishing” scale of UK construction skills shortage, experts say
New research by Arcadis highlights the “astonishing” scale of the skills shortage facing the UK construction industry, which must now become a priority for the government, experts have warned.
a blog post from Out-Law.com by Nick Ogden
The UKs planned exit from the European Union will only exacerbate an issue which has been affecting the industry for some time, according to infrastructure expert Nick Ogden of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com.
The UK will require 400,000 new workers every year until 2021, regardless of post-Brexit immigration issues, every year to meet predicted demand, according to the Arcadis report (11-page / 2.7MB PDF). It will not be possible to fill these roles simply by training more people or through the increased use of technology and automation, at least in the short term.
Construction will be required to recruit from other industries, increase productivity and dramatically reduce waste if it is to overcome a drastic skills shortage, Arcadis said. At the same time, the government must quickly act to secure the rights of EU workers currently employed in UK construction and simplify the visa system, while minimising the effect of impending changes to the taxation of benefits in kind and the IR35 rules on workers and their employers, it said.
“The construction industry faces a significant challenge – the number of workers joining the sector is not keeping up with the demand and currently there is a real danger we won’t have the workers to get projects to be built,” said Ogden.
“Brexit will exacerbate the issue but there has been a problem for some time to get both blue and white collar workers into the industry. There needs to be a big push from the whole sector, supported by government, to attract these much-needed skilled workers, particularly those that may never have considered construction and will look to other industries such as tech and pharmaceuticals,” he said.
“Over the past six months, the government has made a number of announcements focused on improving Britain’s infrastructure and getting more houses built but it has not addressed the skills crisis that has the potential to hinder this. Skills will need to be a priority for the government if it wants to get vital infrastructure projects built and keep the UK open for business,” he said.
Many construction-related occupations have yet to recover from the job losses sustained during the financial crisis, with total employment in the sector as a whole down 15% since 2008, according to Arcadis. This has led to what the report describes as the ’Minted’ workforce, where those in ’Most in Need Trades’ such as carpentry, joinery, plumbing, electrical work and bricklaying could potentially see their earnings double before another generation enters the workforce.
At the same time, the UK government has developed one of the most extensive national infrastructure programmes in Europe, with major projects such as HS2, Crossrail and an ambitious residential development programme likely to draw from the same limited pool of workers. In the event of a lsquo;hard Brexit’ scenario, under which EU workers become subject to the same points-based immigration system applicable to non-EU workers, a further 215,000 workers would need to be found to replace EU nationals leaving the industry, Arcadis said.
“As a firm, we have been discussing this issue with our clients for a number of years,” said infrastructure employment law expert Ed Goodwyn of Pinsent Masons. “With Brexit potentially reducing the number of skilled EEA citizens being able to work in the UK, together with the pipeline of infrastructure projects, the issue is coming into sharp focus.”
“The solution will require a mix of medium and long-term strategies involving not only the backing of those companies within the sector, but also government and educational establishment support,” he said.
The Arcadis report (11-page / 2.7MB PDF)
a blog post from Out-Law.com by Nick Ogden
The UKs planned exit from the European Union will only exacerbate an issue which has been affecting the industry for some time, according to infrastructure expert Nick Ogden of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com.
The UK will require 400,000 new workers every year until 2021, regardless of post-Brexit immigration issues, every year to meet predicted demand, according to the Arcadis report (11-page / 2.7MB PDF). It will not be possible to fill these roles simply by training more people or through the increased use of technology and automation, at least in the short term.
Construction will be required to recruit from other industries, increase productivity and dramatically reduce waste if it is to overcome a drastic skills shortage, Arcadis said. At the same time, the government must quickly act to secure the rights of EU workers currently employed in UK construction and simplify the visa system, while minimising the effect of impending changes to the taxation of benefits in kind and the IR35 rules on workers and their employers, it said.
“The construction industry faces a significant challenge – the number of workers joining the sector is not keeping up with the demand and currently there is a real danger we won’t have the workers to get projects to be built,” said Ogden.
“Brexit will exacerbate the issue but there has been a problem for some time to get both blue and white collar workers into the industry. There needs to be a big push from the whole sector, supported by government, to attract these much-needed skilled workers, particularly those that may never have considered construction and will look to other industries such as tech and pharmaceuticals,” he said.
“Over the past six months, the government has made a number of announcements focused on improving Britain’s infrastructure and getting more houses built but it has not addressed the skills crisis that has the potential to hinder this. Skills will need to be a priority for the government if it wants to get vital infrastructure projects built and keep the UK open for business,” he said.
Many construction-related occupations have yet to recover from the job losses sustained during the financial crisis, with total employment in the sector as a whole down 15% since 2008, according to Arcadis. This has led to what the report describes as the ’Minted’ workforce, where those in ’Most in Need Trades’ such as carpentry, joinery, plumbing, electrical work and bricklaying could potentially see their earnings double before another generation enters the workforce.
At the same time, the UK government has developed one of the most extensive national infrastructure programmes in Europe, with major projects such as HS2, Crossrail and an ambitious residential development programme likely to draw from the same limited pool of workers. In the event of a lsquo;hard Brexit’ scenario, under which EU workers become subject to the same points-based immigration system applicable to non-EU workers, a further 215,000 workers would need to be found to replace EU nationals leaving the industry, Arcadis said.
“As a firm, we have been discussing this issue with our clients for a number of years,” said infrastructure employment law expert Ed Goodwyn of Pinsent Masons. “With Brexit potentially reducing the number of skilled EEA citizens being able to work in the UK, together with the pipeline of infrastructure projects, the issue is coming into sharp focus.”
“The solution will require a mix of medium and long-term strategies involving not only the backing of those companies within the sector, but also government and educational establishment support,” he said.
The Arcadis report (11-page / 2.7MB PDF)
Monday, 16 January 2017
Infrastructure: why it is under provided and badly managed
an article by Dieter Helm (New College, Oxford, UK) and Colin Mayer (Saïd Business School, Oxford, UK)
published in
Oxford Review of Economic Policy Volume 32 Number 3 (2016
Abstract
The paper records the substantial deficiencies that exist in the design and implementation of infrastructure programmes around the world. It points to three sources of failure.
The first is a failure to recognize the systems nature of infrastructure and the implication of this for the appropriate tools of analysis that should be employed in infrastructure assessments.
The second is a preoccupation with income and expenditure flows rather than balance sheets in reporting public- as well as private-sector infrastructure accounts. This has had profound and in many cases perverse implications for the ownership, funding, and operation of infrastructure.
The third is inadequate governance of infrastructure programmes to overcome the significant commitment problems that afflict both private- and public-sector providers of infrastructure.
The paper describes a set of responses that recognize the systems nature of infrastructure, the importance of balance sheets, and the need for commitment mechanisms in the private and public sectors to promote the efficient provision of infrastructure.
JEL classification: H54
Abstract
The paper records the substantial deficiencies that exist in the design and implementation of infrastructure programmes around the world. It points to three sources of failure.
The first is a failure to recognize the systems nature of infrastructure and the implication of this for the appropriate tools of analysis that should be employed in infrastructure assessments.
The second is a preoccupation with income and expenditure flows rather than balance sheets in reporting public- as well as private-sector infrastructure accounts. This has had profound and in many cases perverse implications for the ownership, funding, and operation of infrastructure.
The third is inadequate governance of infrastructure programmes to overcome the significant commitment problems that afflict both private- and public-sector providers of infrastructure.
The paper describes a set of responses that recognize the systems nature of infrastructure, the importance of balance sheets, and the need for commitment mechanisms in the private and public sectors to promote the efficient provision of infrastructure.
JEL classification: H54
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