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This paper aims to examine the Victorian attitude to the poor by focussing on the health care provided at a large provincial hospital, the Newcastle Infirmary.

The archives of the Newcastle Infirmary are reviewed alongside the local trade directories. These primary sources are examined in conjunction with the writings of contemporary social theorists on poverty.

At a time when poverty was seen as a sin, an act against God, it would be easy to assume that the Victorians faced no moral dilemma in dismissing the poor, particularly what were seen as the “undeserving poor”, out of hand. Yet, the paper observes how accounting was used both to persuade the wealthier citizens to contribute funds and to enable the hospital to exercise compassion in treating paupers despite this being prohibited under the hospital's rules. Such a policy conflicted with the dominant utilitarian view of society, which emphasised the twin pillars of economic expediency and self‐help.

More case studies are needed of other hospitals to ascertain how typical the Newcastle Infirmary was of the voluntary hospital sector as a whole.

Although many histories of British hospitals exist and some have examined how accounting was used to manage within these institutions, the concern has not been with accounting as a moral practice.

Tribology embraces various subjects ranging from chemistry of oil to metallurgy of contacting surfaces, but it would take some stretch of the imagination to see any connection between tribology and overalls —but there is some indirect connection between tribology and cleanliness. The author of this article suggests that the wearing of clean overalls at all times by those who come into contact with oil will tend to reduce unclean methods of handling it and so will reduce the possibilities of contracting diseases that can emanate from cutting and other oils.

This paper is adapted from a Royal Institute of British Architects Building Futures project and is intended to stimulate discussion around the impact that the ageing population could have on the way cities of the near future are designed (and lived in); specifically the positive contribution that an active, older generation could make to both society and the economy in the UK. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Following a public debate and a series of roundtable discussions with experts across a wide range of disciplines from architecture and urban design to gerontology, in both academia and practice, the project team developed a series of potential future scenarios; speculations that draw out the potential positive contribution that an active Third Age could make, both socially and economically.

The author has made a series of practical recommendations for architecture and design professions related to the speculative scenarios presented that they believe would begin to harness the potential of an active Third Age whilst mitigating some of the likely challenges. It is imperative that ageing becomes part of the mainstream debate on city design and planning.

Whilst the scenarios presented respond directly to trends – key drivers of change – identified and evidenced, they remain speculations to stimulate debate and are not themselves grounded in rigour.

The practice of architecture, urban design and planning must better recognise the implications of an ageing population and look for ways of harnessing the opportunities that this presents, whilst addressing the clear challenges. Urban policy must also better reflect a shifting demographic landscape and adapt appropriately to encourage the necessary innovation in this area if they are to make a successful transition to an older population in the coming decades.

The author hopes that this work begins to reposition ageing – and particularly active ageing – as a positive opportunity for both society and the national economy, shifting the debate from one currently focused on challenges and the potential public sector burden.

There is little in the way of progressive thought as to how architecture, planning and urban policy can better accommodate an older population and ensure that cities embrace the whole population for the duration of their lifetime, whatever that may be.

The purpose of this paper is to answer two main research questions. First, the authors ask the degree to which the UK corporate governance code has changed in response to both systemic perturbations and the subsequent enquiries established to recommend solutions to perceived shortcomings. Second, the authors ask how the solutions proposed in these landmark governance texts might be explained.

The authors take a critical discourse approach to develop and apply a discourse model of corporate governance reform. The authors draw together data on popular, corporate-political and technocratic discourses on corporate governance in the UK and analyse these data using content analysis and the historical discourse approach.

The UK corporate governance code has changed little despite periodic crises and the enquiries set up to investigate and make recommendation. Institutional stasis, the authors find, is the product of discourse capture and control by elite corporate actors aided by political allies who inhabit the same elite habitus. Review group members draw intertextually on prior technocratic discourse to create new canonical texts that bear the hallmarks of their predecessors. Light touch regulation by corporate insiders thus remains the UK approach.

This is one of the first applications of critical discourse analysis in the accounting literature and the first to have conducted a discursive analysis of corporate governance reports in the UK. The authors present an original model of discourse transitions to explain how systemic challenges are dissipated.