Alan Southern

Small firms and information and communication technologies (ICTs): toward a typology of ICTs usage

Despite government support for a number of initiatives to encourage more small firms to adopt information and communication technologies (ICTs) implementation of ICTs has been a slow and very diverse development. This article examines the relationship between small firms and ICTs and highlights a number of typical, but often negated, characteristics that show how small firms use the technology.

Gender, Race, and Class in the Local Welfare State: Moving beyond Regulation Theory in Analysing the Transition from Fordism

In this paper we attempt to provide a conceptual framework which can help inform our analysis and understanding of current transformations taking place within the welfare state. We argue that the French school of regulationist literature, though able to provide a broad frame of reference for analysing contemporary shifts in economy and society, needs to be supplemented by an analysis which focuses on the racialised and gendered character of the welfare state. In the paper the ways in which the ‘universal’ welfare state has operated to exclude minorities and marginalised groups are charted, and we argue that in practice the Fordist mode of social regulation (MSR) operating in Britain generated a hierarchy of oppression. This hierarchy was constituted through the relations of class, race, and gender, and we show how these are currently being redefined as the British state seeks to mediate the crisis tendencies inherent in the Fordist MSR.

Small firms and information and communication technologies: policy issues and some words of caution

An area of increasing attention for policymakers is the potential for growth as small businesses take up new information and communication technologies (ICTs), This interest has added to the broad discussion on small firms which use information technology (IT) and the take-up of IT by small firms, Often it is an implicit assumption that benefits for the business will accrue as new information-processing technologies are adopted and, accordingly, there has been a flurry of concern over the take-up of ICTs by small firms. Much less attention has been paid within small-firms research to the policy mechanisms and programmes which are enabling take-up, and the reasons why small firms should use ICTs. It is not our intention in this paper to question the rights or wrongs of policy of this nature; rather we seek to make three main points. The first is that there is a scattered and piecemeal approach to this area, consistent with many other small-firm policy issues. We indicate the type of ICT programmes taking place, initiated by UK and European governments, and suggest that an important rationale to this rests with the notion of increasing economic competitiveness. A second point is that there is a clear distinction between the aims and ideals of ICT programmes and the perspectives of owner/managers in small firms. We suggest that policy has not been grounded in the experience of the small firm. The third is that there needs to be further work by small-firm researchers to develop a more rigorous conceptual base for small firms and ICTs. This needs to go beyond notions of use and towards thinking about the ways in which small firms do business in an informational economy. We draw on our previous and current work on small firms, local economic policy, and ICTs and the raison d’être for this paper is that there is a place on the policy agenda for further discussion on the way small firms are being encouraged to use ICTs.

The Midweek Match: Premiership Football and the Urban Economy

The financial aspect of Premiership football is currently attracting huge attention. Hardly a week goes by without some new story breaking about the game, whether it is a record transfer, a wage or television deal, or the building of a new stadium. Yet there has been little, if any, investigation into just how the newfound wealth from Premiership football impacts on the locality. In this article, the authors present an initial indication of how the two Premiership clubs situated in Merseyside are linked into the local economy. It is based on a survey of club suppliers an d local businesses located around the two grounds of Everton and Liverpool Football Clubs. It shows Premiership football to be more than a dependent consumer service activity in the local economy with a potential for exploitation in terms of supplier networks, tourism an d image boosting. The authors argue that this is a subject area that requires further research and understanding, an d more serious attention as a feature of local economic policy.

How, where, why and when information technologies are seen as a regeneration policy

Much has been written about the role of information and communications technology (ICTs) as a principled input of the “new economy”. Much has also been written about the demise of older industrial regions and local economies. In a populist narrative about contemporary society it seems that the world of the new entrepreneurial dot.com businesses is in the ascendancy, while the older industries of steel, shipbuilding and general manufacturing reflect some bygone time of mass employment and standardised production. But does the logic of the industrial age necessarily feed into the logic of the new economy? Perhaps, despite the rhetoric of the knowledge driven economy, the informational age and the network society, there is nothing inevitable in such development. However, there is evidence of a concerted effort by local and regional governance agencies to initiate planning and policy for ICTs as a regeneration tool. This is, in fact, an empirical study of how, why and when places pursue strategies for ICTs. The locus of study is the North East region of the UK. This is a region built on the heavy industries of deep coal‐mining, shipbuilding, steel‐making and engineering. In this region manufacturing still makes a greater contribution to regional GDP than the service sector. Yet, here, there are clear examples of attempts to stimulate new types of economic activity based on ICTs. The region, it is argued, must engage with the new knowledge economy if it is to survive the myriad social relations thrown up through the unrelenting processes of globalisation. To do this, so the discussion follows, public and private must come together to enable businesses, large and small, community groups and government to play a full role in the new economy; by becoming more knowledge driven and through raising information processing capabilities. Adopts a critical stance towards the idea of ICTs as a tool for regeneration but shows how efforts to establish the correct enabling mechanisms are in fact grounded in the promise of new technologies held by key local and regional players.

Re‐booting the local economy: Information and communication technologies in local economic strategy

Many local economic strategies today include reference to a communications infrastructure that involves electronic networks alongside that of roads and railways. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), often referred to as the “information superhighway” or informatics, are considered useful to stimulate local economic activity. This paper, based on a North East case study, suggests that the importance of ICTs to local economic strategy lies in the rationale of key local strategy makers, while the use of ICTs for local economic development means that the local governance of ICTs will become a salient feature in future economic development

Research into regeneration: gaps in our knowledge base

Purpose – The purpose of this editorial is to provide an overview to four papers in this issue that deal with regeneration.Design/methodology/approach – This guest editorial summarizes four papers from a regeneration management conference held at the University of Liverpool.Findings – City growth coalitions are, it seems, in abundance, and one should be aware of their unintended outcomes, likewise, such outcomes that occur during partnership processes.Originality/value – Readers gain a quick overview of regeneration which will be of interest to academics and practitioners alike.

The crafting of an (un)enterprising community: Context and the social practice of talk

This article examines a ‘deprived’ UK community to identify how (dis)connections between context and enterprise are produced within accounts of a particular locality. We used a discursive psychological approach to examine how the community depicted itself as a context for enterprise. Our analysis identified three discursive repertoires mobilised by a range of voices in the community which combined to portray an unenterprising community and create a conceptual deadlock for enterprise. We suggest it is too deterministic to assume context is fixed and controls the potential for entrepreneurial development. Instead, we should consider social practices, including talk, that help construct the contexts in which entrepreneurship is expected to occur.

Information and Communication Technologies and their Role in Urban Regeneration

The idea that information and communication technologies (ICT) can provide a means to regenerate deprived urban areas is still a relatively new concept in the United Kingdom. There is in fact little empirical evidence to demonstrate what actually happens when ICT projects are designed with regeneration in mind. A case study of ICT regeneration is examined here, one funded through the Single Regeneration Budget and operational in an urban area in the North East of England. What became apparent during this study is how the changing policy environment meant other types of ICT initiative came on-stream before the project could firmly establish a position within its community. The authors challenge the logic of this form of activity and demonstrate that even when there seems to be a need to support ICT-led development the sustainability of such projects is highly problematic.

Community Land Trusts, affordable housing and community organising in low-income neighbourhoods

Community Land Trusts (CLTs) offer a community-led response to housing problems and can provide affordable housing for low-income residents. Generally the academic work on CLTs remains underdeveloped, particularly in the UK, although some argue that they can be an efficient way in which to manage scarce resources while others have noted that CLTs can provide a focal point for community resistance. In this article we provide evidence on two active CLTs in inner urban areas in major US cities, New York and Boston. In Cooper Square, Lower East Side Manhattan and Dudley Street, south Boston, we see the adoption of different approaches to development suggesting that we should speak of models of CLTs rather than assuming a single operational approach. The cases we present indicate both radical and reformist responses to the state and market provision of housing and neighbourhood sustainability. They also suggest community activism can prove to be significant in securing land and the development of the CLT.