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The purpose of this paper is to use the example of public housing renewal public‐private partnerships (PPPs) to build knowledge on whether social infrastructure PPPs may appeal to the private sector as a less risky investment in a time of global financial uncertainty.

The research is based on an international literature review and a limited number of semi‐structured interviews with social housing PPP participants in England, the USA and Australia. These interviews were conducted by Dr Gilmour as part of his doctoral research in 2008.

The familiar distinction between social and other forms of infrastructure PPPs has been found to be unhelpful in the case of public housing renewal. This type of PPPs, through their cross‐subsidisation model, face relatively high revenue risk during a recession. However, the commitment of the public sector to the social goals of such projects suggests contract negotiation rather than default is likely if problems occur. PPP risks need to be understood by studying their detailed contract terms, rather than by broad categorisations.

This paper provides a grounded discussion rather than detailed research findings. Only a small number of projects are included and they are not necessarily representative. Cross‐national comparison is challenging because of different housing policies and economic conditions.

This paper fills a gap in the literature by both contrasting approaches to a particular type of social infrastructure PPP in different countries, and by making an early assessment of the likely impact of recent turbulence in financial and property markets.

Introduces the concept of the “grey employee syndrome” and demonstrates how companies can help their employees to realize their true potential and at the same time reap the benefits of a motivated workforce. Stresses the importance of a supportive management and staff training in order to achieve continual improvement, comparing kaizen‐based and innovation‐based approaches. Gives case examples of company turnarounds as a consequence of becoming more process‐oriented rather than purely results‐based.

This work presents the results of the survey “Organisational structures and logistics in the branded product history of the grocery section in Italy” developed with the aim of pointing out the organisational structures for the logistics co‐ordination of successful firms. Starting from a review of the literature on the main logistics organisation theories, this paper presents an organisational analysis of 118 industrial firms, working in Italy in the grocery sector, carried out for the main logistics activities. On the basis of this anlaysis, a classifying model of the organisational configurations presently adopted in Italy for internal integration is proposed. According to the model, six different organisational solutions have been singled out: integrated logistics, partially integrated logistics, bipartite logistics, distribution logistics, manufacturing logistics, and split logistics.

THERE was a rather remarkable statement made at the Royal Institute of British Architects by Mr. Berwick Sayers last month. He affirmed that so far as the recorded issues of the reference libraries in the municipal libraries of London were concerned, only 8,880 books were consulted daily. This, as the statistical account of twenty‐nine public libraries, shows an average of a fraction over 302 books daily. To some this may seem not an inadequate issue, if all the books recorded are books which the student and the searcher for information have used. The point of the meeting at which the remark was made was that the reference libraries of London should do more in co‐operation with industry, and it was argued by the representatives of ASLIB who took part in the conference that our London reference libraries should be strengthened in the science and technology departments, even at the expense of the lending libraries. The experience of the public librarian seemed to be that few people lived in London near their work; and that they had command of the special libraries in London in a way that provincial industrialists had not, and therefore they did not make any use that mattered of London reference libraries. The Chambers of Commerce in the various boroughs of London consist of small traders as a rule whose main purpose is “to keep down the rates,” and who have very little connection with industry on the scale in the minds of the ASLIB representatives. In short, the chief function of the London public libraries is mainly that of home reading. Ultimately the solution of the reference problem may be the establishment of one or two great regional reference libraries supported by the co‐operation of the boroughs. Co‐operation, however, is in its initial stages yet, and it will probably be some time before such an ideal, if it be an ideal, is achieved.

If law's foundational promise lies in the belief that it promotes the social good, then we need to reassess the limits of that promise. Exploring the often problematic translation of legal goods into social ones, the central claim is that the legal discipline has been limited by a “legal imperative” that manifests itself in an excessive focus upon law as a social tool and attitude of complacency in the face of law's limits. Seeking to displace this approach, the author argues for an attitudinal shift that expresses honesty about limits, greater social inquisitiveness and care about law's promise.

Just what is the Conservative Government's industrial relations policy? There are usually two different sets of answers given by industrial relations commentators to this question, determined by their stance on the Government's general policies. The first line of argument is that the question itself is a contradiction in terms: the Government, by definition of its laissez‐faire economic philosophy, has no specific policy towards industrial relations. The content of national and locally negotiated contracts, in both the private and, increasingly, the public sector, must be the product of what the market can afford, and of a bargaining process that is unfettered by interference from external agencies. The free play of market forces must be the primary determinant of wage and price levels. Thus Margaret Thatcher and Arthur Scargill have at least one thing in common, that is, a view of free collective bargaining in which wages and prices are determined by the daily trial of strength between capital and labour. Indeed, the Government's employment legislation was placed on the statute book, so they tell us, not to strengthen the hand of the employer at the expense of labour, but because the state had been used by previous governments, Labour and Conservative alike, for the benefit of trade union growth, and not in its more traditional role as a guarantor of individual freedom and private property. Hence the Government must stand aloof from disputes like the recent miners' strike.