Passion and Precarity: How Creative Industries Leverage Motivation

James Davies discusses his latest paper co-authored with Jon Morris and Gazi Islam.  The paper examines the working lives of freelance television workers and the attraction of ‘meaningful work’ to increasingly precarious work conditions. View the paper – Morris, Islam and Davies (2024) The search for meaningful work under neo-bureaucracy: Work precarity in freelance TV. … Continue reading “Passion and Precarity: How Creative Industries Leverage Motivation”

Tax Rises Less Regressive Than Spending Cuts – How Does the Council Financial Crisis Impact Households?

There is increasing concern about the financial viability of some local authorities with estimates by the LGA suggesting that councils in England are facing a funding gap of £4 billion. In 2023 Birmingham City Council (BCC) was served a section 114 notice. This means that effectively the council ran out of money. In short, BCC … Continue reading “Tax Rises Less Regressive Than Spending Cuts – How Does the Council Financial Crisis Impact Households?”

Improving Public Funding Allocations to Reduce Geographical Inequalities

This blog shares details of a new project called ‘Improving public funding allocations to reduce geographical inequalities’, involving an inter-disciplinary multi-institution team led by Charlotte Hoole (Principal Investigator), Anne Green, Sheela Agarwal, Sarah Ayres, Jon Burchell, Ceri Davies, Jonathan Davies, Mike Emmerich, Daniel Mutibwa and Andy Pike, with James Gilmour, Abigail Taylor and Sanne Velthuis. … Continue reading “Improving Public Funding Allocations to Reduce Geographical Inequalities”

Vision to Legacy

Anne Green looks back at the achievements of the now-defunct Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP), summarising some of the findings from our report about the partnership – From Vision to Legacy. What were the Local Enterprise Partnerships? Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) were non-statutory bodies responsible for local economic development in England, until … Continue reading “Vision to Legacy”