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In the late 1960s the Victorian vocational education sector was in crisis. The federal Martin Report into tertiary education excised many of the sector’s university‐level courses and relocated them into new Colleges of Advanced Education (CAEs), leaving many ‘middle‐level’ and technician vocational courses in limbo. Junior technical schools also offered apprenticeship and middle‐level courses, further confusing where courses were, or should be situated, suggesting an overall ‘gap’ in program provision. This challenge came when the Technical Schools Division (TSD), the smallest of Victoria’s three division structure (primary, secondary and technical) continued its struggle to maintain sectoral identity through courting acceptance from private industry and the public sector for its credentialed programmes. With significant others, TSD Director Jack Kepert, followed by Director Ted Jackson, responded by designing policy to reshape the TSD’s structure and functions and its reporting relationships within a new technical college and junior technical school system. Jackson’s policy statement, The future role of technical schools and colleges (1970) facilitated these changes. The paper narrates the events constituting this period of policy innovation and evaluates their contribution to the creation of a more seamless

In the aftermath of the banking crisis in South‐East Asia, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recommended that the South‐East Asian economies adopt several aspects of the New Zealand approach to bank supervision. The New Zealand approach relies heavily upon market incentives. This paper analyses three key aspects of the New Zealand supervisory regime: the removal of deposit insurance; the public disclosure regime; and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's supervisory responsibilities. In this paper, we argue that this supervisory regime is built on weak foundations, and therefore, it should not be emulated by other economies.

Within the UK the past three decades have witnessed dramatic and continuing changes in the geography of retail provision. During this period the traditional supremacy of town and city centres at the top of the retail hierarchy has been increasingly successfully challenged by the development and diversification of out‐of‐town and edge of town shopping facilities. This ‘out of town exodus’ (Schiller, 1987) can be traced from the food superstores opened by grocery retailers from the late 1960's onwards through the development of retail warehouses, retail parks and regional shopping centres (Guy, 1994) to a more recent ‘fourth wave’ (Fernie, 1995) which include warehouse clubs, factory outlet centres and airport retailing. The cumulative effects of these developments are seen to pose a major challenge to retail businesses in town and city centres and perhaps more fundamentally to the centres themselves. The traditional spirit of the UK's town and country planning policies, first established some fifty years ago, was to positively support retail activity in town and city centres and to restrict out of town retail development (Guy, 1994). However, from the early 1980's onwards, such policies had only a limited effect in stemming the tide of retail decentralisation and they often seemed to be honoured more in the breach than in the observance.

Breakaway training is a mandatory training programme for mental health staff in both NHS and private services. However, the question that remains outstanding from the recent guidance on the management of short‐term violence published by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) (NICE, 2005a; 2005b) is whether breakaway training is effective?This paper provides a history of and evidence for breakaway training, and a study examining the content of breakaway training in one English high secure hospital is provided.

Stakeholder theory provided the broad theoretical lens to explore environmental issues in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The diversity in issues examined ranged from concern for immediate stakeholders, their industry group and the influence of global warming on their business activities, to the type of environmental information included within their internal information systems. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A mailed survey was used to obtain data from SMEs operating in Australia. The focus was primarily directed to medium size firms.

The findings indicate that SMEs were aware that their stakeholders, particularly their employees and customers were concerned with environmental issues. The respondent SMEs were also aware that global warming would influence their activities, for example, the design of their projects, occupational, health and safety, labour contracts and customer relations. Overall, the findings suggest that any tailored approach to regulate or self-regulate environmental management in SMEs, be industry and stakeholder driven.

The limitations of this research are primarily those applicable to the survey method, SME response rates, and the geographical location covered by the survey. The focus of this study is primarily medium size firms, rather than micro small business.

This study gains insights into some of the practical aspects of environmental management in SMEs and in so doing adds to the growing body of literature in this under researched area.

This paper aims to explore the recent introduction of directly elected police and crime commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales, and to consider to what extent this new innovation should be considered as a positive contribution to the achievement of democratic policing.

The paper draws on a range of key sources of academic literature on police accountability and the sociology of policing, as well as considering the content of government pronouncements and legislation.

The central argument of the paper is that the introduction of PCCs needs to be examined within the context of the hegemony of neo-liberal logic in public services reform. It is argued that some enduring myths of policing, including the myth that the police impartially uphold an impartial law, lend themselves to the depoliticisation of policing which is necessary in order to facilitate neo-liberal colonisation of the service, which is inimical to democratic policing.

The paper builds upon and contests some of the early critiques of the introduction of PCCs which have emerged and proposes a new direction for the development of critique in this area. It will be of interest to policing scholars as well as anyone concerned about the relationship between democracy and policing under current conditions of deep public service cuts and the colonisation of service provision by neo-liberal values.

This study examines models of traditional and alternative citizenship such as legal, flexible, global and cultural citizenship, as a foundation for understanding “liminal citizenship”. The study identifies international students based in the United States as liminal citizens and examines the role of theatre in encouraging their civic engagement. It creates a model for using applied theatre techniques to raise international students’ awareness of the possibilities of inclusion within their host communities and to empower them to become active community members.

VINE is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of library housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is edited and substantially written by Tony McSean, Information Officer for Library Automation based in Southampton University Library and supported by a grant from the British Library Research and Development Department. Copyright for VINE articles rests with the British Library Board, but opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the British Library. The subscription to VINE is £10 per year and the subscription period runs from January to December.