Stock Transfer Research Articles

Community Ownership of Social Housing in Glasgow: building more sustainable, cohesive communities?

Reconfiguring the United Kingdom’s ‘problematic’ council housing through transforming its management and ownership, has emerged as a significant aspect of the policy agenda to deliver more sustainable, cohesive communities (Perry and Blackaby 2007; McIntyre and McKee, in Press). Empowering residents to take decisions about priorities for their local area promises both to challenge paternalistic and monolithic management practices, as well as forge relations between different citizens in a community through their active involvement in local governance structures. Drawing on the case study of community ownership of social housing in Glasgow, this paper explores the challenges to delivering this agenda following the city’s 2003 housing stock transfer. In particular, the assumption that such a ‘community’ exists and wants to be involved is explored, as well as the inherent tensions within such a model of community governance. The paper concludes that the mobilisation of ‘community’ may exacerbate divisions within the tenant group as opposed to transcending them.

The Paradox of Tenant Empowerment: Regulatory and Liberatory Possibilities

Tenant empowerment has traditionally been regarded as a means of realising democratic ideals: a quantitative increase in influence and control, which thereby enables “subjects” to acquire the fundamental properties of “citizens”. By contrast governmentality, as derived from the work of Michel Foucault, offers a more critical appraisal of the concept of empowerment by highlighting how it is itself a mode of subjection and means of regulating human conduct towards particular ends. Drawing on empirical data about how housing governance has changed in Glasgow following its 2003 stock transfer, this paper adopts the insights of governmentality to illustrate how the political ambition of “community ownership” has been realized through the mobilization and shaping of active tenant involvement in the local decision‐making process. In addition, it also traces the tensions and conflict inherent in the reconfiguration of power relations post‐transfer for “subjects” do not necessarily conform to the plans of those that seek to govern them.

Interspecific hybridization and introgression are associated with stock transfers in salmonids

Domestic stocks may endanger wild populations by escapes or deliberate releases, not only through competition for resources but also through gene pool contamination if they reproduce in the wild. One of the risks is increased interspecific hybridization by interspecific matings. Stocking of domesticated genomes into wild ecosystems leads to a heightened frequency of interspecific hybridization in sympatric south European Atlantic salmon Salmo salar and brown trout Salmo trutta. Introgressive hybridization involving brown trout males of domestic origin was demonstrated. Following cessation of domestic stock releases in eight south European rivers, hybridization decreased significantly. These results emphasize the risks associated with stock transfers and escapes of domestic individuals in wild ecosystems and illustrate the potential role of domestic stocks when they contribute to secondary contact between species.

The Political Economy of Social Housing Reform—A Framework for Considering Decentralised Ownership, Management and Service Delivery in Australia

Several State Housing Authorities in Australia are currently examining models of devolved management and ownership of social housing stock and addressing reduced Commonwealth State Housing Agreement funding (or have already done so). These changes in the provision and mode of below-market accommodation are reflective of two broad trends: firstly, a greater reliance on market and not-for-profit provision of public services; and, secondly, a change in the role and mode of bureaucratic intervention at various levels of government. In this article we illustrate a framework for analysing these changes by focusing on the transfer of some 86 000 properties from the Glasgow City Council to the Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) in 2003 and also provide an interpretation of how the restructuring of social housing in the UK reflects the political economy of property rights, and the governance and incentive structure through which the restructuring of advanced economies is implemented. We conclude by briefly drawing implications from the British case for Australia. The analysis is conducted in a new institutional tradition that assesses property rights and the provision of social housing, and associated policy goals, under comparative institutional arrangements or governance structures. We argue that stock transfer in essence is a policy of delineating ownership of different attributes of the housing stock and that such a delineation is crucial to the functioning of the emerging governance structure and the ability of stakeholders to extract value from ownership. We draw on a series of interviews conducted by the authors as part of research into the 2003 GHA transfer. These interviews were conducted with policy makers and politicians (past and present), the regulator in Scotland, GHA staff and representatives of the community-based housing association sector in Glasgow.

Critical pedagogy, experiential learning and active citizenship: a Freirean perspective on tenant involvement in housing stock transfers

A key feature of housing policy in the UK is the transfer of affordable housing stock owned by local authorities to not‐for‐profit registered social landlords. Such transfers involve local authority tenants to varying degrees in the development and implementation of the transfer proposals. Reporting the findings of a series of interviews with tenants involved in stock transfers, this paper argues that tenant involvement in housing stock transfers is in itself a site of critical pedagogy, characterised by experiential learning and active citizenship. It goes on to outline Freire’s philosophy of emancipatory education, and analyses the interview data within a theoretical framework provided by Freire. It concludes that Freire provides a useful conceptual framework for understanding tenant involvement in housing stock transfers, and addresses some of the practical and policy implications for actors in the stock transfer process that flow from this.

Privatization and Corporate Governance in Poland: Problems and Trends

The paper is devoted to the problems of the impact of on corporate governance formation in Poland. It discusses the dilemmas of choosing a model for and corporate governance, legal background, mechanisms of corporate governance formation depending on a method applied, and the evolution of these structures in the course of systemic transformation in Poland. The Author comes to the conclusion that the processes of and corporate governance formation in Poland are marked by both successes and failures. The most spectacular success is in the sense which boosted the growth of new private businesses and the share of the private sector in the national economy. Privatization in the sense (ownership transformation of state-owned enterprises) was only a partial success, both in terms of quantity and quality. Some methods of proved to be more permeable, easier to implement for a number of social, political and technical reasons than the others; thus, the progress of was very uneven across sectors, and some of them (infrastructure, extractive industries and some others) remain predominantly state-owned. There were two reasons for this situation: the highly gradualist, consensual character of Polish procedures and the emergence of interest groups not interested in of remaining state-controlled companies. Recently, new trends are seen that can be interpreted as a certain convergence of corporate governance models and a convergence between the effects of different methods in corporate governance and performance of enterprises. Taking this into account, the Author elaborates on whether the how to privatize question still actual and on the feasibility vs. efficiency policy dilemma. In this paper, term privatization is used in a narrow sense. It means transfer of state-owned stock into private (non-state) hands (unlike in the broad sense; i.e., development of the private sector of economy - both through of state-owned enterprises and spontaneous formation of de novo private companies). The OECD definition of corporate governance is used: the system by which business corporations are directed and controlled (OECD, 1999). The corporate governance structure specifies the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation, such as the board, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders, and spells out the rules and procedures for making decisions on corporate affairs.

Stock structure of pallid sturgeon analyzed with microsatellite loci

Summary Recovery efforts for the endangered pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) include supplementation of wild stocks with hatchery reared progeny. Identifying the extent of genetic stock structure, which has previously been detected in samples from the range extremes, will help to determine whether stock transfers might be harmful. DNA microsatellite genotypes were screened in pallid sturgeon from the upper Missouri River, lower Missouri River, middle Mississippi River and Atchafalaya River and analyzed using a combination of Bayesian model-based and more traditional F-statistic based methods to characterize genetic differentiation. Scaphirhynchus specimens were collected by researchers active in the recovery effort and genotypes were screened at 16 microsatellite loci. Because there is considerable genetic and morphological overlap between pallid sturgeon, shovelnose sturgeon, and their hybrids, a combination of morphological and genetic techniques were used to eliminate shovelnose and possible hybrids from the sample. Genetic differentiation was detected among samples (overall h ¼ 0.050, P ¼ 0.001). Pairwise h, genetic distances, and Bayesian assignment testing reveal that pallid sturgeon from the upper Missouri River are the most distinct group with pairwise comparisons of pallid sturgeon among all the remaining samples exhibiting lower h values, higher genetic distances, and self assignment scores. Our results indicate that using local broodstock, when available, should be used for pallid sturgeon propagation. If local broodstock are not available, geographically proximate individuals would limit genetic differences between native and stocked individuals.

Community Ownership in Glasgow: The Devolution of Ownership and Control, or a Centralizing Process?

Abstract The largest housing stock transfer in Europe, the 2003 Glasgow transfer, promises to ‘empower’ tenants by devolving ownership and control from the state to local communities. This is to be delivered through a devolved structure in which day to day housing management is delegated to a citywide network of 60 Local Housing Organizations, governed at the neighbourhood level by committees of local residents. The receiving landlord, the Glasgow Housing Association, has further made commitments to disaggregate the organization via Second Stage Transfer in order to facilitate local community ownership, as well as management of the housing stock. This paper argues that while the Glasgow transfer has enhanced local control in the decision-making process within the limits permitted by the transfer framework, it has nonetheless failed to deliver the levels of involvement aspired to by those actively engaged in the process. Displaying, at times, more of the semblance of a movement than an organization, the Gl...

Shell Strength and Appearance in Cultured Blue Mussels Mytilus edulis, M. trossulus, and M. edulis × M. trossulus Hybrids

AbstractWe studied shell strength and appearance in six mixed‐species cultured populations of blue mussels (Mytilus edulis, M. trossulus, and their hybrids) from Newfoundland, Canada. Shell strength (defined as the force causing shell breakage) and shell thickness both increased with shell length. Strength and thickness varied significantly among sites and among genotypes within sites; M. edulis had stronger and thicker shells than M. trossulus. Shell strength was related to shell thickness and shell width, both of which were greater in M. edulis than in M. trossulus. Hybrids tended to be intermediate. Appearance was studied on the basis of shell color and shape. The frequency of brown‐shelled mussels varied considerably among sites and was higher in M. trossulus than in M. edulis. Shell width, depth, width‐length ratio, and depth‐length ratio all varied significantly among sites. Within sites, M. edulis had a greater shell width, width‐length ratio, and width‐depth ratio than M. trossulus, whereas hybrids were intermediate. Intrasite variability in shell shape characteristics, expressed as total population variance, was greater in the mixed‐species populations from Newfoundland than in a unispecific M. edulis population from Prince Edward Island. In a reciprocal seed transfer experiment, shell width, width‐length ratio, and width‐depth ratio were greater in M. edulis than in M. trossulus of similar age. Width‐length and width‐depth ratios decreased with increasing age. Fourteen months after transfer, shell width and depth differed between transferred and nontransferred stocks. Interspecific relationships between M. edulis and M. trossulus in shell width and width‐length ratio were similar in transferred and nontransferred stocks, while the other shell dimensions and their ratios differed. We infer that genotype‐related differences in shell shape may change after stock transfer owing to site‐related effects on shell growth. We discuss these results in terms of their potential impact on future industry development, particularly expansion of the seed supply for further industry growth.

Ownership Transfer of Social Housing in the UK: A Property Rights Approach

Retrenchment of the public sector as a direct provider of rented accommodation has been accompanied by a growing reliance on housing associations as alternative providers of below‐market rented accommodation in the UK. The most successful vehicle to date (in terms of transferred ownership of units) for growing the not‐for‐profit sector has been so‐called “large‐scale voluntary transfer” of dwellings formerly owned by local authorities. Since the turn of the century this has been accompanied by the rapid expansion of “arms‐length management organizations” in England. Notably though, for a process concerned with the transfer of legal entitlements to property, the literature on stock transfer and social housing reform is marked by a curious absence of any discussion of a property rights dimension of this process and, particularly, how degree and form of ownership is capitalized through the prevailing (and changing) governance structures. The point of departure for this article is an examination of how stock transfer separates ownership over social housing attributes and the relative valuation of property rights. We argue that stock transfer involves the de jure transfer of property to a new legal entity, but that a significant part of de facto property rights remain “un‐transferred”, or have been redistributed within the public sector and thus do not necessarily constitute a redrawing of the public domain boundary.

Assessing genetic diversity of protected coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) populations in California

California coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) are under legal protection owing to significant declines in abundance over the last decades. Previously, California coho salmon were characterized as having low genetic diversity and weak population subdivision, attributable potentially to homogenization by out-of-basin hatchery releases. Here, diversity at seven highly polymorphic microsatellite DNA markers is assessed within and among 32 collections of coho salmon from 16 California watersheds. In 71% of local populations, genotypic composition deviates significantly from that expected under the assumption of random mating. We develop and apply methods to adjust for two potential causes of deviation from random mating expectations: (i) Wahlund effects, owing to heterogeneous collections of individuals, and (ii) the "Allendorf–Phelp's effect", owing to closely related juveniles in samples. Such population-level "adjustments" reduce within-region and increase among-region variance; after adjustment, we find strong concordance of genetic and geographic distances. We conclude that stock transfers have had minimal impact on population structure and that California coho salmon populations likely comprise small numbers of endemic breeders, potentially experiencing high levels of genetic drift and inbreeding.

Discriminating the impact of recent human mediated stock transfer from historical gene flow on genetic structure of European grayling Thymallus thymallus L.

Microsatellite markers were first used to partition individuals of European grayling Thymallus thymallus, from the Danube, Rhine and Main, and Elbe drainage systems into subpopulations and to estimate individual immigrant ancestries over the last few generations. Subsequently, the studied populations were ‘purged’ from recent immigrants and the proportions of evolutionary lineages within the ‘purged’ populations were re‐estimated by applying mtDNA markers. The results confirmed a high level of admixture of the divergent mtDNA lineages (i.e. natural secondary contact) in populations sampled at the contact zones of the drainages. In addition, a substantial amount of introgression was observed for several populations that were known to be affected by stocking of European grayling from different origins.

Applications of Porous Tantalum in Total Hip Arthroplasty

Porous tantalum is an alternative metal for total joint arthroplasty components that offers several unique properties. Its high volumetric porosity (70% to 80%), low modulus of elasticity (3 MPa), and high frictional characteristics make it conducive to biologic fixation. Tantalum has excellent biocompatibility and is safe to use in vivo. The low modulus of elasticity allows for more physiologic load transfer and relative preservation of bone stock. Because of its bioactive nature and ingrowth properties, tantalum is used in primary as well as revision total hip arthroplasty components, with good to excellent early clinical results. In revision arthroplasty, standard and custom augments may serve as a structural bone graft substitute. Formation of a bone-like apatite coating in vivo affords strong fibrous ingrowth properties and allows for substantial soft-tissue attachment, indicating potential for use in cases requiring reattachment of muscles and tendons to a prosthesis. Development of modular components and femoral stems also is being evaluated. The initial clinical data and basic science studies support further investigation of porous tantalum as an alternative to traditional implant materials.

Inventory control with indivisible units of stock transfer

We consider an infinite horizon, single item inventory model with backorders and a fixed lead time. Demand is stationary stochastic and review is periodic. Inventory may only be replenished in multiples of a fixed package size q but demands may be of any size. Ordering costs are linear and combined holding and shortage costs can be expressed as a convex function of the inventory position. The control policy is defined as ( s, S, q), where an order is placed if the inventory position falls to or below s and the order size is the largest multiple of q which results in the inventory position not exceeding S. The parameters s and S are restricted to be multiples of q. The objective is to find the control policy that minimizes the long run average cost per unit time. The optimal solution procedure requires renewal theory and a structured search. Fortunately, a heuristic based on the ‘quantized ordering’ approach of Zheng and Chen provides solutions that are near optimal over a broad range of parameter values.

Transfers, Contracts and Regulation: A New Institutional Economics Perspective on the Changing Provision of Social Housing in Britain

Social housing policy in the UK mirrors wider processes associated with shifts in broad welfare regimes. Social housing has moved from dominance by state housing provision to the funding of new investment through voluntary sector housing associations to what is now a greater focus on the regulation and private financing of these not-for-profit bodies. If these trends run their course, we are likely to see a range of not-for-profit bodies providing non-market housing in a highly regulated quasi-market. This paper examines these issues through the lens of new institutional economics, which it is believed can provide important insights into the fundamental contractual and regulatory relationships that are coming to dominate social housing from the perspective of the key actors in the sector (not-for-profit housing organisations, their tenants, private lenders and the regulatory state). The paper draws on evidence recently collected from a study evaluating more than 100 stock transfer organisations that inherited ex-public housing in Scotland, including 12 detailed case studies. The paper concludes that social housing stakeholders need to be aware of the risks (and their management) faced across the sector and that the state needs to have clear objectives for social housing and coherent policy instruments to achieve those ends.

Late-Holocene catastrophic floods in the terminal Arno River (Pisa, Central Italy) from the story of a Roman riverine harbour

The results of the stratigraphic and sedimentological analysis carried out at an exceptional archaeological site situated in the coastal plain of the Arno and Serchio Rivers (western Tuscany, Italy) are reported. The site, discovered near central Pisa, records a 1000-yr history of a riverine harbour built by the Etruscans and used by the Romans. This harbour was adjacent to the Arno River, located within an abandoned channel then still connected to the sea, thus allowing efficient stock transfer to and from Roman Pisa. The archaeological importance of this site is primarily due to the discovery of at least 16 well-preserved Roman ships and many other remains mostly deriving from their cargoes. The sedimentological relevance of this record is related to the recurrent, catastrophic, destruction of the harbour documented by the features of the sediment encasing the ships and by the ships’ distribution and age. Such repeated destruction was related to catastrophic flood flows generated by levee crevassing of the Arno River during high-magnitude floods that occurred between the second century BC and the fifth century AD. The Pisa harbour tells a story of river channel instability. The repeated flooding of the harbour indicates that the Roman Arno River attempted to abruptly change its course, exploiting a pre-existing river channel. The concomitance of climatic and eustatic causes is expounded upon to explain the sedimentary dynamic of a coastal floodplain during historical times.

The Role of Housing Stock Transfer Organisations in Neighbourhood Regeneration: Exploring the Relationship between Regeneration, ‘New Localism’ and Social Networks

This paper defines stock transfer organisations and argues that they have a pivotal role in accessing funding for the social and economic regeneration of their communities. It places housing and regeneration policy within the changing policy context of ‘new localism’, which, at least rhetorically, emphasises improvement in public services, multi-level governance structures and devolution of decision making. For stock transfer housing organisations this means an increasing need to engage in a wide range of partnerships and policy forums. Bourdieu's notion of habitus, i.e. social, economic and cultural capital, is used to explore the possible reasons for the differential approach of stock transfer organisations to regeneration and the variable success at engaging in a wide range of regeneration activity and attracting additional resources.

Housing Stock Transfer: Investing in Renewal as a Tool for Sustainable Regeneration

This paper sets out the argument that housing renewal has a major role to play in economic and social regeneration in areas of council owned housing. It considers the role that housing stock transfer, with the shift of ownership from local authorities to Registered Social Landlords (RSLs), might have, not only in generating the investment needed to improve the quality of housing and environments, but also in terms of creating wider regeneration benefits. Using the Welsh policy context, it examines how the first large-scale housing transfer is being used to secure broader regeneration objectives.

Stock Transfers in Spanish Brown Trout Populations: A Long-term Assessment

Stocking of fish from other populations has been commonly employed for enhancement of wild brown trout, Salmo trutta, populations in north Spain. Young hatchery reared brown trout of central European origin were introduced into some Asturian rivers every year since 1984. Based on variation at the isozyme locus LDH-C1* and at the microsatellite locus BFRO 002, two genetic markers race-specific in Salmo trutta, we detected introgression of foreign genomes into native gene pools in some Spanish trout populations where only pure native individuals were present 10 years ago. We strongly suggest development of alternative management policies for conservation of Spanish natural brown trout populations without endangering the traditional recreational fisheries.

Housing Stock Transfer in Birmingham and Glasgow: The Contrasting Experiences of Two UK Cities

ABSTRACT Housing stock transfer is arguably one of the more controversial aspects of New Labour's housing policy. It was a policy originally pursued under the Conservative governments from the 1980s into the early 1990s and has gained pace under New Labour since 1997. Across Britain, the Westminster government, along with the devolved Scottish and Welsh administrations in Edinburgh and Cardiff, have all demonstrated a commitment of late to the use of stock transfer to reshape and reconfigure social housing provision. This paper considers some of the key aspects of stock transfer, not least the underlying national policy drivers of demunicipalization and use of private finance, and then explores the contrasting fortunes of stock transfer in the two largest local authority social housing authorities in Britain, that is Birmingham and Glasgow. In 2002 Birmingham tenants rejected stock transfer while in Glasgow, following a tenant vote for transfer, the city's entire council housing stock was transferred to a...