Andrew Bowman

An illusion of success: the consequences of British rail privatisation

Highlights • The article challenges narratives of the success of UK rail privatisation using accounting data from Network Rail and private train operating companies.• Large government subsidies channelled through Network Rail have radically changed the appearance of railway finances.• Lower track access charges levied by Network Rail have artificially inflated train operator profits, generating returns for the taxpayer and the illusion of financial self-sufficiency.• This accounting fix has bolstered claims that rail privatisation has been a financial success. Abstract This article accounts for the British experiment with rail privatisation and how it has worked out economically and politically. The focus is not simply on profitability and public subsidy, but on the appearances which accounting arrangements create. The article scrutinises the Network Rail subsidy regime, which enables train operators to achieve fictitious profitability without increased direct state support. This enables supporters of privatisation to claim train operators produce a net gain for the British taxpayer. The claim forms the heart of a trade narrative which is employed by the industry and their political backers to deflect criticism and stymy reform.

Opportunist dealing in the UK pig meat supply chain: Trader mentalities and alternatives

Abstract The scandal surrounding the presence of horsemeat in UK supermarket meat products has focused public attention on the problems of complex, fragmented food supply chains. Through a study of the UKs pig meat supply chain, this paper proposes a new framing of the problem in terms of opportunistic dealing adopted by the supermarkets in vertically disintegrated supply chains, where all actors attempt to pass the risks and costs onto somebody else. This outcome is the result of cultural practices and competences in buyer-led supermarket organizations where strong supermarket chains have the power to capture processor and producer margins. One consequence is that mass-market meat production and processing is close to unviable, as evidenced here by the analysis of the VION Food Group. However, there are mainstream alternatives to the retail-led dysfunctional supply chain. This paper presents an alternative integrated supply chain model using the case of Morrisons, the UKs fourth largest supermarket chain. If fragmented supply chains are not inevitable, the important issue explored in the conclusion is how the inadequacies of government policy, which understands the problem of the sector but is stuck with a competition-based mindset, obstruct the creation of a more sustainable supply chain.

Science and ethics in the post-political era: strategies within the Camp for Climate Action

Despite a peak in activism against climate change in the UK, new environmental direct action networks have not yet received much academic attention. Taking perhaps the most prominent of such networks – the Camp for Climate Action – which held several high-profile protest events between 2006 and 2011 as a case study, and using a theoretical framework that understands society as being distinctly ‘post-political’ in character, we ask questions about the knowledge claims that form the foundations of radical environmental politics. Drawing on published statements and press releases, as well as from our insights as active participants in the Camp, we analyse the strategy of environmental protest where climate change has become its focus. The Camp for Climate Action was a contested political arena. We argue that the Camps strategy was characterised by ‘scientised’, ‘post-political’ politics which operated within an ethical framework that prescribed individual responsibility as the primary basis for action.

Mass production or production by the masses? Tractors, cooperatives, and the politics of rural development in post-independence Zambia

The fall of colonial regimes across Africa was accompanied by the rise in expectations for rapid and inclusive rural economic progress. In Zambia, the cooperative production unit was one of two key initiatives at the centre of the United National Independence Partys ambitious development efforts. The other was the tractor. By following these two interlinked initiatives in the years immediately following independence, this article contributes to the under-explored history of early postcolonial development. It argues that both the power of expert groups and the level of continuity between late colonial and postcolonial development was not always as great as has recently been suggested. Cooperative mechanization policies emerged from a confluence of competing claims over knowledge, power and resources. However, as is demonstrated, they also reflected more fundamental tensions in the development endeavour between the prioritization of economically efficient mass production, and inclusive development for the masses.

Ecology to Technocracy: Scientists, Surveys and Power in the Agricultural Development of Late-Colonial Zambia

This article provides an account of the transformation in agricultural development expertise that took place in late-colonial Zambia. Frustration with the slow pace of agricultural ‘improvement’ in the Native Reserves forced the socially and ecologically aware approach to rural development fostered during the 1930s–1940s, to give way to the technocratic model now associated with the green revolution agriculture and the ‘developmental state’. Through an exploration of these changes, the article seeks to advance ongoing debates concerning the interrelationship between knowledge, intervention, expertise and power in rural development. It focuses on research undertaken by Department of Agriculture (DOA) staff on the Tonga Plateau in Zambias Southern Province during the 1940s and 1950s. Being both a major maize producing area and home to political organisations that challenged colonial and postcolonial rulers, the Tonga Plateau has long been the subject of concentrated scholarly enquiry. In late colonial Zambia, its political and economic importance made it a living laboratory1 for various scientists and technical experts. The article contributes to the rich historiography of agriculture on the Tonga Plateau by examining the knowledge claims behind various forms of state intervention that took place there.

List of exhibits

1 Results of GAP Analysis Level of agreeability to BPL 319 2 Results of GAP Analysis Level of agreeability to Videocon 321 3 Results of GAP Analysis Level of agreeability to Samsung 322 4 Results of GAP Analysis Level of agreeability to Sony 324 5 Results of GAP Analysis Level of agreeability to LG 325 6 Results of GAP Analysis Level of agreeability to Onida 327 7 Results of GAP Analysis Level of agreeability to Godrej 328 8 Results of GAP Analysis Level of agreeability to Philips 330 9 Results of GAP Analysis Level of agreeability to Whirlpool 331 10 Results of GAP Analysis Level of agreeability to Kenstar 333 11 Results of Gap Analysis Level of agreeability to brand extension of BPL 334