109 seven handling authority relations power and authority relations pervade development work Development workers are immersed in complex relations of power and authority, two related although too often blurred concepts. Authority is central to the analysis of public institutions and needs to be explored as such, together with an exploration of the underlying structures of power that underpin them. Development workers are centrally involved with the impact of decisions made by those with power and authority, as these decisions impact on the communities
173 PART III Local authority commissioning Introduction Mark Cook The chapters in Part II provide an insight into the impact of austerity on local authority (LA) budgets and LAs’ individual responses to protect the wellbeing of their communities. This response is influenced by socio-geopolitical circumstances such as local opportunities for employment (particularly in the North-East, Chapter 7), the extent of devolution (for example, Devo Max in the North-West, Chapters 5 and 8) and the culture of commissioning. Public services are commissioned and
-new phenomenon. Despite the representation of constant newness that technology discourses use to maintain the legitimacy of the ideology of progress, technologies tend to reflect, reify and reinforce existing social values, inequalities and injustices. So too can the underlying aims of trustification be traced backwards in time, particularly as embodied in the state. The history of representative democracy is a precursor of trustification. This ‘indirect’ form of governance rests on measures of authority. Power slides and aggregates across social assemblages. Narratives of
29 THREE The costs to local authorities Methodology The research study that underscores this account was carried out via a postal survey of county, unitary, metropolitan, London borough and district councils in the UK, including Scotland and Northern Ireland (a total of 464 local authorities). Six central government agencies were also approached for information: the Crown Estate Commissioners, the Duchy of Lancaster, English Nature, Forest Enterprise, the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food, and the Ministry of Defence. Both qualitative and quantitative
PART I Institutional Authority and Counter- Stories
This book provides crucial insight into the fight back against austerity by local authorities through emerging forms of municipal entrepreneurialism in housing delivery.
Capturing this moment within its live context, the authors examine the ways that local authorities are moving towards increased financial independence based on their own activities to implement new forms and means of housebuilding activity. They assess these changes in the context of the long-term relationship between local and central government and argue that contemporary local authority housing initiatives represent a critical turning point, whilst also providing new ways of thinking about meting housing need.
99 5 Local authorities: Powerhouses or scapegoats? Introduction It has been argued that the reforms to governance in England since 2010, and the intensified focus on both city regions and neighbourhoods that have resulted (see Chapters 4 and 6 respectively) have, in turn, led to a loss of focus on the tier of governance in between these two – that of local authorities (Lowndes and Gardner, 2016). At the same time, the massive cuts in public spending consequential on ‘austerity’ are both exacerbating the problems local authorities have to deal with, such
fray, in ways that fundamentally undermine their classroom authority and question the legitimacy of public education itself ( Stitzlein, 2017 ; Sant, 2021 ). In response to this democratic and educational crisis, the National Academy of Education (NAEd) published Educating for Civic Reasoning & Discourse , a multi-authored report investigating current understandings of democracy, citizenship and civics education ( Lee et al, 2021 ). At the heart of this report is the essential civic question: ‘What should we do?’ ( Levine, 2016 ; Dishon and Ben-Porath, 2018
Southwell is a local authority in Northern England. It is largely suburban , part of a wider conurbation , but with older town centres that have suffered a degree of post-industrial decline. The chapter speaks to our themes of privatisation and commercialisation as large parts of the council have been outsourced , including the planning service to Theta. We spent several months following the core team of planners , most of whom were now employed by Theta. It was this arrangement , a public-private hybrid , that attracted us to the case. It threw up a
89 5 Devolution and localism: metropolitan authorities Paul Dennett and Jacquie Russell Introduction Public services, nationally and locally, face an unprecedented set of financial pressures, as well as challenges to quality, performance and persistently poor population health outcomes. In April 2016, Greater Manchester (GM) signed an historic devolution deal with central government. Through this deal, GM became the first, and still only, city region with health and care devolution. Decisions about how to deliver greater, faster improvements to the health
