The recent revival of self-employment in the UK and other advanced industrialized economies has been viewed contrastingly as an indication of economic vitality and, alternatively, as a form of labour market deficiency. These different perceptions rest essentially on two opposing processes of...

The launch of the Small Business Service in the United Kingdom stimulated a review of small business policy and support in the United Kingdom. The Service inherited a substantial number of policies and initiatives which have been criticised for their poorly stated aims and overall lack of...

This article reports a study of the attitudes of small business owners to the localities in which their businesses are located and local economic development. The views of the owners contrasted strongly with those of representatives of local business bodies and economic agencies. The findings...

Dominant sociological interpretations of the economic structures of industrial societies have long neglected the role of small scale economic activities. However, current rethinking, stimulated by attempts to explain economic restructuring in the 1980s, appears to offer petty capitalism and...

We respond to repeated calls over the years to further develop cluster theory specifically in an African context. Our contribution is to construct a framework which integrates theories focusing on path dependency, transaction cost economics (efficiency and systemic interdependency models) and...

There has been growing interest in the impact of land-use regulation and planning on housing development and markets, and a consequent search for quantified measures of their extent and efficacy. Nevertheless, despite the UK having a long-established and comprehensive planning system, this kind...

This study addresses issues of social or environmental justice in local urban environmental services, through the particular lens of street cleaning services. While UK policy gives some legitimacy to the idea that services should be enhanced in disadavantaged areas, it is unclear how much...