University governance is being reshaped globally by marketisation, regulatory reform and new accountability regimes, yet much of the literature continues to rely on traditional models (collegial, corporate and managerial) that only partially explain contemporary contexts. Taking English higher education as a case study, this article draws on interview-based profiles of current and former governors to theorise governance as a hybrid field rather than a linear extension of existing frameworks. The article argues that governing bodies across marketised sectors increasingly operate as contested mediating spaces: sites where priorities are negotiated discursively, asymmetric power relations can suppress marginalised perspectives, and financialised, compliance-driven logics tend to predominate. Rather than treating this as an inevitable institutional condition, the analysis shows that governing bodies retain meaningful autonomy to reassert communal values and sustain public legitimacy. The theorisation is thus situated within wider debates about the societal mission of universities in the market era, and governance is reconceptualised as a field with substantial civic potential.
The U.S. craft brewing industry is transitioning to a mature, saturated market, characterised by declining growth, accelerated closures, and economic pressures. This study revisits Nilsson et al. (2019, To cluster or not to cluster? Spatial determinants of closures in the American craft brewing industry. Papers in Regional Science) by (re)examining brewery closures in during the volatile 2018-2023 period, to see if the aspatial nature of closures persist during a craft beer contraction. Using logit regression, we assess how firm-level characteristics, neighbourhood demographics, location factors, and acute interventions from the COVID-19 pandemic influenced survivability. Results reveal a shift in survival dynamics, from an aspatial pattern in an expansion market to a spatial pattern with a maturing, saturated market. For saturated markets, spatial costs like high rent now override consumer demand benefits. Operationally, the taproom model offers a significant survival advantage over brewpubs. Spatially, regional market saturation remains a persistent threat, but more breweries per capita and local clustering reduce closure risk. Finally, the study finds closure risk in 2023 escalated to nearly 60 times the 2018 level. These findings highlight how spatial and temporal determinants impact brewery closures and underscore the necessity of strategic business models and location selection in a maturing, competitive landscape.
This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and pandemic crisis on the craft beer sector. Drawing on interviews and case studies from breweries based in Australia, Colombia and France, the study investigates the conduct of craft breweries during the pandemic crisis. While the disruption brought by the crisis negatively affected supply-chain activities in multiple ways, it also generated a range of positive outcomes for analysed breweries, such as strengthened local networks, increased community reliance on local producers, renewed emphasis on environmental practices and a more sustained cultural embeddedness. We conceptualise these changes as instances of emergent degrowth, thus spontaneous, crisis-driven adjustments that prioritise locality, self-sufficiency and qualitative forms of growth over scale expansion. Our findings suggest that such emergent degrowth dynamics contributed to increasing the resilience of the craft brewing sector in the regions investigated, and may offer valuable insights for post-crisis recovery trajectories in other sectors.
Insufficient cross-departmental collaboration within Government is a major barrier to prioritising health in urban development. This article explores practical ways to improve collaboration to achieve healthier urban environments. The findings are drawn from a knowledge exchange workshop attended by 79 key decision makers. Data was analysed using Rapid Qualitative Analysis. Five avenues for change were identified: (1) upscaling existing collaborations, (2) identifying a pilot issue with traction, (3) establishing effective public engagement, (4) creating a stakeholder matrix tool and (5) delivering a consensus building technique. These actions were seen as steps to a more integrated approach to collaboration across government.
This paper is concerned with the relationship between the history of economic thought, economic history and economic policy with a particular focus on interpretations of Adam Smith and his example as an economic historian. Smith was far from the prophet of self-interest described by George Stigler. Ironically, while Stigler's influential characterisation of Smith was partial, his own discussions of interests and capture is far more Smithian. Smith viewed the Wealth of Nations as an aid to government officials, an 'improvability thesis'. The contemporary literature in Applied Economic History (AEH) is discussed as it relates to Smith's example.
UK pubs are social spaces where both drink (traditionally beer but also other alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks) and food (from only snacks in wet-led (drinking) establishments to fine dining and everything in between) are offered and consumed. Pubs face an uncertain future, making understanding contemporary consumer preferences crucial. This research modelled pub consumer choice using foraging theory. A mixed methodology (questionnaires, digital journaling, interviews) was employed. Findings classify consumer motivations into objectives, currencies, constraints, and social/temporal aspects with interactions between these elements highlighted and offering insight on overstaying bias as an underlying mechanism for consumers' reactions to pub closures. Our work provides a comprehensive framework, showing factors like objectives, location, time, and personality influencing consumer's choice, offering insights on how pubs can attract and retain patrons.
This article argues that British regional policy has now largely been demolished. Following Brexit, the then Conservative government failed to renew the long-standing system of Assisted Areas that incentivised investment in less prosperous parts of the country. EU funding to the regions was initially replaced but under Labour the budget has been drastically reduced. Time-limited 'levelling up' funds have also been allowed to expire. The remaining programmes to promote jobs and growth in the regions fail to prioritise the weakest local economies or focus excessively on neighbourhoods.
This study analyses the level of resilience in the United Kingdom's small craft breweries, examining the impact of exogenous and endogenous factors on business longevity and survivorship. Using a unique dataset containing over 1000 breweries in a 28-year span, gathered by the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA), we assess UK breweries' resilience in the presence of several macroeconomic indicators. Exogenous factors are also applied to review the impact of small producers' relief (SPR), estimating regional effects and examining how specific locational factors affect brewery performance. Findings suggest levels of regional and rural disparity in brewery survivorship that are fundamentally shaped around a national north-south divide. Furthermore, SPR increases regional disparities by neglecting regional differences in its design, exacerbating brewery performance differentials and further threatening business longevity.
This paper critically examines the European Union's 'Smart Specialisation' framework for promoting competitiveness. To do so, we draw from the 'East Asian Miracle' state intervention scholarship, mainly Peter Evans's concept of 'embedded autonomy' and Robert Wade's 'followership'/'leadership' dichotomy. We argue that the 'Smart Specialisation' framework is inadequate for the EU to face its competitiveness challenges as it does not comprise the principles of 'embedded autonomy' and relies solely on the 'followership' mode of state action. While this' framework establishes 'embeddedness' by integrating private entrepreneurs' perspectives in the policy process, it lacks the 'autonomy' to properly assess and translate them into policy. This lack of autonomy renders policymaking vulnerable to capture by incumbent interests, reinforcing existing industrial paths rather than fostering structural change. Governments mainly 'follow' and support initiatives proposed by the private sector, as opposed to 'leading' the advancement of new initiatives. We further argue that this 'followership trap' is particularly nefarious given the EU's lack of very large companies and its industrial structure mostly comprised of more traditional activities, which contrasts with the United States, dominated by corporate giants in more dynamic and forward-looking sectors. Finally, we call for a deep reflection on key tenets of European competitiveness policies.
The organisational practices, status and role of policy-focussed ethics advisory committees are significant in relation to scientific advances, societal transformations and crisis situations. Existing research has explored the effectiveness, de/politicisation and deliberative aspects of national ethics bodies, but their role in wider ecosystems of policy advice is neglected. It is sometimes argued that ethics committees have little impact on practices on the ground, but this is empirically untested. Our key concern is to examine the governance cultures and practices of ethics advice and ethics expertise in specific relation to policymaking. Qualitative interviews with 60 ethics advisors and civil servants in Australia, Germany and the UK are analysed to identify critical factors which shape the operative, discursive and adaptive capacity of ethics-policy advisory ecosystems. Based on our findings, we present a novel framework to inform future comparative analysis of national ethics-policy advisory ecosystems. We argue that a focus on governance capacities would help to enhance how governments use ethics committees and ethics expertise within the wider science/technology/policy nexus. We show how social science and humanities scholarship is responding to new demands to navigate the normative and descriptive with regards to its engagement with ethics advice.
Through two case studies of UK civic universities, this article examines the gap between universities' civic engagement rhetoric and the realities of campus development practice. Revealing approaches that were either tokenistic or non-participatory, it argues that such practices can erode trust and undermine civic responsibility, particularly when development sites are not actively treated as visible civic interfaces. The study introduces the Civic Interface model, offering a diagnostic framework for identifying when construction activities affect localities and how institutions can maximise positive impacts through targeted, context-sensitive engagement. The model demonstrates how everyday project decisions can either accumulate or deplete civic capital.
Economics needs to be rethought if it is to address the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on work. In particular, rethinking is needed in the way that economics theorises the value of work. Economics needs to open up to new thinking and become more like a social science as opposed to a technical, abstract and aloof discipline. The prospect of economics accommodating such change remains remote, however, despite its urgency and necessity. This fact only underlines the need to craft different ideas and different visions of the future of work that both challenge and go beyond economics.
Brexit, marked by the UK's 2021 exit from the Single European Market and Customs Union under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, offers a unique case of reversing deep economic integration. The reintroduction of non-tariff barriers disrupted UK-EU trade, particularly in the GVC-sensitive textile and apparel (T&A) sector. Using survey data from 1,008 UK firms, this paper explores firm-level consequences, strategic responses, and value chain adjustments. Findings reveal that Brexit severely affected T&A firms and their upstream and downstream linkages. Physical barriers were the most disruptive, driving firms to adjust suppliers, products, and locations. Consequences varied by firm type, with widespread calls for barrier reduction and stronger government support.
