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This chapter reviews and critiques the recent evolution of place-based entrepreneurship policy in the United Kingdom, in particular the governance of policies targeted at the regional level to promote economic development and competitiveness. The focus of the chapter is the evolution occurring from 1997, when the Labour government came to power, through to the period leading to the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government, which came to power in 2010.

A review and critique of key academic and policy-based literature.

The chapter shows the way in which governance systems and policies aimed at stimulating entrepreneurship have permeated regional development policy at a number of levels in the United Kingdom. In general, the overarching themes of enterprise policy are similar across the regions, but the difference in governance arrangements demonstrates how emphasis and delivery varies.

Place-based enterprise policy needs long-term commitment, with interventions required to survive changes in approaches to governance if they are to prove effective; something which has been far from the case in recent years. Whilst the analysis is drawn from the case of the United Kingdom, the lessons with regard to the connection between regional modes of governance and effective policy implementation are ones that resonate across other nations that are similarly seeking to stimulate the development of entrepreneurial regions.

Evidence of ongoing disparities in regional economic development and competitiveness, linked to differences in regional business culture, suggest the continuance of market failure, whereby leading regions continue to attract resources and stimulate entrepreneurial opportunities at the expense of less competitive regions.

The time period covered by the chapter – 1997 onwards – forms an historic era with regard to changing regional governance and enterprise policy in the United Kingdom, with the emergence – and subsequent demise – of regional development agencies (RDAs) across English regions, as well as the introduction of regional governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which were handed certain powers for economic and enterprise development from the UK central government.

Purpose – The Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings have presented new challenges in how the media covers school shootings. These events have transformed Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, and Seung-Hui Cho not only from disgruntled youth to school killers, but also into actors, writers, and directors of their own narrative.

Methodology/approach – This article focuses on the role of the masculine identity and underlying messages in the communicative process of the shooters. Further examination looks at what particular messages the shooters are communicating through the media. This includes an analysis into their journals, internet postings, and videos that were left behind as archives of the performative scripts. Finally, reflection is presented in terms of which parts of the shooters’ messages are or are not communicated and why.

Findings – This article considers the differences in the Columbine and Virginia Tech cases in terms of who is controlling the information that gets released to the public. In the case of Columbine, information was or was not released by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, whereas in the case of Virginia Tech, nearly all decisions regarding material release was made by the media (particularly NBC News).

Originality/value of paper – This article applies Muschert and Ragnedda's (2010) examination of cultural scripts to two benchmark cases, examining the mediatization of the shooters’ own words.

During the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the onslaught of flooding, the single most important role for government and the public sphere was deemed to be law and order, at times to the exclusion of other public responsibilities. Law and order were articulated almost exclusively as a policing matter with the emphasis on order rather than law. Policing took different public and private forms in the early days of the flooding. This chapter examines the nature of that policing and the unquestioned presence of private police as a key element of the law and order response to Katrina in New Orleans.

To disseminate helpful advice to current and future candidates about the accounting academic job market.

Literature review, interviews with recently hired faculty members, insights from the author’s experiences as both job candidates and search committee members, and discussions with colleagues.

In this chapter, we discuss the current state of the job market for accounting professors and offer our insights as well as those from a group of recent graduates. It is our recent experience that many rookie candidates pursue initial faculty positions with an incomplete understanding of many aspects of the market, including how the market clears, job expectations, and other issues that we believe are important. While others have adequately addressed the importance of research in the profession and alluded to some aspects of the market, we provide additional useful information about the market and other career aspects in order to assist new graduates in their quests to find fulfilling appointments. Our chapter complements existing literature to form an updated and more complete picture of the market and profession.

This chapter helps prepare candidates for the job market by providing information and advice that complements advice given in Ph.D. programs and the existing literature.

Candidates entering the job market will better understand the nuances of the market and can make more informed decisions about the institutions that best meet their needs.

The chapter provides important practical advice for job seekers about the accounting academic job market not available elsewhere.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to analyze how campaigns, movements, new media outlets, and professional journalism organizations interact to produce political discourse in an information environment characterized by new actors and increasingly fragmented audiences.

Design – To do so, this chapter offers a rare inside look at contemporary strategic campaign communications from the perspective of staffers. Twenty-one open-ended and semi-structured interviews were conducted with former staffers, consultants, and vendors to the 2008 Obama campaign.

Findings – During the primaries the Obama campaign worked to create and cultivate ties with activists in the mediated “netroots” movement, what Todd Gitlin has referred to as the “movement wing of the Democratic Party.” The campaign sought to influence the debate among the principals and participants in this movement, given that they play an increasingly central role in the Democratic Party networks that help shape the outcome of contested primaries. During the general election, when the campaign and its movement allies shared the goal of defeating the Republicans, sites in the netroots functioned as important conduits of strategic and often anonymous campaign communications to new specialized journalistic outlets and the professional, general interest press. It is argued that campaigns and movements have extended established and developed new communication tactics to pursue their goals in a networked information environment.

Implications – This chapter's contribution lies in showing how much of what scholars assume to be the communicative content of amateurs is often the result of coordination among organized, and often hybrid, political actors.

The Indiana Writers Center (IWC) believes that everyone has a unique story to tell. The mission of IWC is to nurture a diverse writing community, to support established and emerging writers, to improve written and verbal communication, and to cultivate an audience for literature in Indiana (About the Indiana Writers Center, 2012, para. 1).

For more than 30 years, the IWC, a nonprofit organization, has worked to foster a vibrant literary writing community in Indiana, providing education and enrichment opportunities for both beginning and accomplished writers. (About the Indiana Writers Center, 2012, para. 1).

Teacher, writer, and community activist Darolyn “Lyn” Jones was asked to join the staff at the IWC in 2005 to meet the new initiative: take writing out of the center and to marginalized writers. Her charge was to help writers both find and share their voice.

The origin of this initiative began with a group of girls, ages 12–22 in a maximum state prison. The girls became the Center’s muse and because of their words, the Center was compelled to build, create, and nurture even more youth writers. The backstory of the IWC work with the girls will be featured in this chapter.

The product of that early work has now evolved into Building a Rainbow, an eight-week long summer writing program designed to teach creative narrative nonfiction writing program to youth using a curriculum that helps them identify meaningful moments, see them in their mind’s eyes, and bring them alive on the page in vivid, compelling scenes.

Currently funded by the Summer Youth Program Fund (SYPF) in Indianapolis, the Building a Rainbow writing program is free to youth participants and held in various locations that serve a diverse student population. This chapter will highlight our work with four different community partners: our first group of youth, girls at a maximum state prison, and our current work with an all African-American youth development summer camp for students ages 6–18 run by the Indianapolis Fire Department, a Latino leadership institute that works with Latino students ages 11–16, and a south side, historic community center that works primarily with Caucasian students living in poverty.

By forging new collaborative relationships with arts organizations, schools and universities, community organizations and social service providers, IWC has worked successfully to

• Create community with our writers and with partnering sites

• Identify, sort, and prioritize program objectives (Caffarella, 2002, p. 21) in designing and delivering curriculum that meets the diverse needs of each site’s student group and meets our mission

• Solicit and train instructors, university student interns, and community volunteers (Caffarella, 2002, p. 21)

• Present, publish, and perform our work for the greater writing community.

Create community with our writers and with partnering sites

Identify, sort, and prioritize program objectives (Caffarella, 2002, p. 21) in designing and delivering curriculum that meets the diverse needs of each site’s student group and meets our mission

Solicit and train instructors, university student interns, and community volunteers (Caffarella, 2002, p. 21)

Present, publish, and perform our work for the greater writing community.

Besides learning about the programming above, readers can also read and hear the words and voices of students at the sites as they share their memoirs of people, places, and events that have shaped them.

Purpose – We use data from the United States and Finland, a literature review, and historical analysis to understand the concept and role of cool within global consumer culture.

Methodology/approach – This is a conceptual review and qualitative analysis of data from depth interviews, journals, and online discussion groups in two U.S. locations and one Finnish location.

Findings – Cool is a slang word connoting a certain style that involves masking and hiding emotions. As cool diffuses we find that it is both distilled and diluted. The concept itself has also evolved. What was once a low-profile means of survival and later a youthful rebellious alternative to class-based status systems has become commoditized.

Research limitations/implications – The study has been conducted in two cultures with a limited range of ages thought to be most susceptible to the appeal of being cool.

Practical limitations/implications – Marketers may not yet have exploited cool as effectively as they have exploited sex, but mainstream consumers now look for cool in the marketplace more than within themselves. The result is a continuous race to offer the next cool thing.

Originality/value of chapter – It is argued that coolness is a new status system largely replacing social class, especially among the young.