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The capacity of trade unions to renew themselves clearly depends on a variety of political and organizational factors. British trade unionism has long been seen as defensive, sectional and reactive. In contrast, Swedish unions have a reputation for interest and involvement in organizational innovation. This contrast is broadly confirmed in our case studies, though political and economic changes pose severe problems for traditional strategies in both countries. If British trade unions are to develop strategically, they will need their own positive agenda on the central workplace and societal issues. Looks at the obstacles and potential for doing this in the sphere of work organization, utilizing comparative research in the UK and Sweden.

Cross‐national and other studies.

Norbert Wiener’s cybernetic paradigm represents one of the seminal ideas of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, its full potential has yet to be realized. For instance, cybernetics is relatively little used as an analytical tool in the social sciences. One reason, it is argued here, is that Wiener’s framework lacks a crucial element – a functional definition of information. Although so‐called Shannon information has made many valuable contributions and has many important uses, it is blind to the functional properties of information. Here a radically different approach to information theory is described. After briefly critiquing the literature in information theory, a new kind of cybernetic information will be proposed called “control information.” Control information is not a “thing” but an attribute of the relationships between things. It is defined as: the capacity (know‐how) to control the acquisition, disposition and utilization of matter/energy in purposive (cybernetic) processes. This concept is briefly elucidated, and a formalization proposed in terms of a common unit of measurement, namely the quantity of “available energy” that can be controlled by a given unit of information in a given context. However, other metrics are also feasible, from money to allocations of human labor. Some illustrations are briefly provided and some of the implications are discussed.

The paper argues that the widespread changes in manufacturing industry are best conceptualised as paradigmatic, in that they constitute a patterned reconfiguration of ideas, beliefs and values about manufacturing philosophy, strategy, structure, organisation and operations. The widespread adoption of teamworking is part of this patterning and is argued to reflect a new institutional form of manufacturing organisation. In investigating teamworking, the paper uses the concept of organisational archetypes to investigate whether or not teamworking takes a single, or variety of interlocking forms. Empirical studies are introduced to justify the articulation of three teamworking forms: a “‘self‐directed” archetypal form and two other sub‐types, “lean” and “project”, neither of which, it is argued, are truly archetypal. The paper concludes that broad institutional changes toward a teamworked manufacturing organisation impact on the “interpretive schema” of managers operating in specific task environments who prescribe and deploy this new organisational format. This creates the two hybrid sub‐types in practice. The findings of this research have implications for both practitioners involved in designing and introducing teamworking into manufacturing firms, and for academics researching on team based organisational design.

This paper aims to discuss tourism development, tourism policy development and its challenges in Rotterdam through the lens of “new urban tourism”, reviewing the relevance of the concept.

This paper comprises a review of the concept of new urban tourism and a case study of Rotterdam. Methods used include a literature review and social media search, an analysis of policy documents and street interviews.

Tourism in Rotterdam has grown rapidly, exhibiting aspects of new urban tourism such as encounters with the ordinary and everydayness, authenticity and de-differentiation. Details about tourism motives and nature of tourism are unknown. It is concluded that the concept of new urban tourism is a rather elusive and difficult notion to apply to the case of Rotterdam.

This research is a case study of one city.

This paper suggests that different tourism information and statistics are needed for policymaking and for understanding urban tourism.

The Rotterdam case raises new questions about new urban tourism, as the concept appears to be rather indefinable.

An appeal under the Food and Drugs Acts, reported in the present number of the BRITISH FOOD JOURNAL, is an apt illustration of the old saying, that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In commenting upon the case in question, the Pall Mall Gazette says: “The impression among the great unlearned that the watering of the morning's milk is a great joke is ineradicable; and there is also a common opinion among the Justice Shallows of the provincial bench that the grocer who tricks his customers into buying coffee which is 97 per cent. chicory is a clever practitioner, who ought to be allowed to make his way in the world untrammelled by legal obstructions. But the Queen's Bench have rapped the East Ham magistrates over the knuckles for convicting without fining a milkman who was prosecuted by the local authority, and the case has been sent back in order that these easygoing gentlemen may give logical effect to their convictions.”

It tends to be called the corner shop, mainly because it occupied a corner building for extra window space, but also due to the impetus given to the name by television series seeking to portray life as it used to be. The village grew from the land, a permanent stopping place for the wandering tribes of early Britain, the Saxons, Welsh, Angles; it furnished the needs of those forming it and eventually a village store or shop was one of those needs. Where the needs have remained unchanged, the village is much as it has always been, a historical portrait. The town grew out of the village, sometimes a conglomerate of several adjacent villages. In the days before cheap transport, the corner shop, in euphoric business terms, would be described as “a little gold mine”, able to hold its own against the first introduction of multiple chain stores, but after 1914 everything changed. Edwardian England was blasted out of existence by the holocaust of 1914–18, destroyed beyond all hope of recovery. The patterns of retail trading changed and have been continuously changing ever since. A highly developed system of cheap bus transport took village housewives and also those in the outlying parts of town into busy central shopping streets. The jaunt of the week for the village wife who saw little during the working days; the corner shop remained mainly for things they had “run out of”. Every village had its “uppety” madames however who affected disdain of the corner shop and its proprietors, preferring to swish their skirts in more fashionable emporia, basking in the obsequious reception by the proprietor and his equally servile staff.

Centres on the promotion of quality in schools and ways by which best practice in industry can be applied in education. Explores definitions, procedures, assessment methods and analyses what can be learned from major theorists on the subject and the experience of industry. Drawing from information gathered during an industrial placement in a major chemical company, compares attitudes and practices with those of staff in a Calderdale junior school. In both (the industrial settings and educational setting) attitudes and priorities with regard to quality appear very similar. It could be concluded from the study that quality requires commitment from the top, it should involve and be owned by all staff in the organization and that a culture of searching for continuous improvement should prevail. Such an approach would have a greater impact on standards, performance and, most importantly, identifying training needs in education if theory and practice from industry can be regarded as relevant and comparable.

The chapter will document the Canadian reaction, as reflected in the demand of New Zealand, that Canada fundamentally alters its dairy supply management system in order to participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. The Canadian government has resolutely refused to do so, supported wholeheartedly by dairy farmers throughout the country. This is in part because of the effect such an action would have on rural spaces and the debilitating result it would have on Canadian dairy production. As well, the chapter will address the issue of the cost of dairy products in New Zealand as compared with Canada. Part of this analysis will focus on the role of supermarkets in determining the price structure of milk in both Canada and New Zealand. Finally, the chapter will offer an examination of the New Zealand system as represented by Fonterra and the Canadian system as epitomized by dairy supply management.