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I would like to be able to report that the film Salmer fra kjokkenet (Kitchen Stories) (dir. Bente Hamer, 2003) was a direct consequence of the powerful arguments I made for the use of ethnography in housing studies almost 20 years ago (Franklin, 1990). Sadly, I cannot! In this touching comedy drama from Norway, a team of Swedish ethnographers working from the Swedish Home Research Institute descend on a remote rural locality in Norway during the 1950s in order to study the kitchen habits and cultures of single living men. It is an improbable quest, until one learns that the same team discovered how Swedish housewives needlessly walk the equivalent distance between Stockholm and the Congo every year as they go about their routine kitchen business; a finding that successfully paved the way for more efficient kitchen design and culture. So it was that the team descended on the very perplexed and uncooperative Norwegian bachelors (the last sub-group in their programme) in order to map out their domestic inefficiencies. Comic tension is built both through their ethnographic props (the researchers were to sit on giant stools in the kitchens, giving them panoptic vision), rules (they were not to talk to respondents, although that proves awkward when lights are turned out by thrifty Norwegians) and living spaces (they were to live in specially designed, round caravans parked outside their respondent's homes). The film would have been a vindication of my arguments not so much because it demonstrates the truth that practical housing outcomes can arise from spending sufficient periods of time studying cultural milleux, but because it also demonstrates that the relationship between researchers and respondents become more productive over time, resulting in more reliable data, better understandings of that millieux and what their problems (and therefore often ‘ours’) actually consist of.

Transnational migration has produced a state of flux in the naturalized conception of home as a fixed, bounded, discreet and trouble-free place of origin, (re)casting home as a more complex, or perhaps simpler, project entangled within the workings of the global capitalist economy. In this context, here the author qualitatively explores migrants’ engagement with the notion of home in the sense of how they conceptualize and experience home, based on the lived experiences of Sri Lankan women who have migrated to Kuwait as live-in migrant domestic workers (MDWs) independently of their families. The stories of the MDWs simultaneously made the meaning of home as conventionally defined, more straightforward and more complicated: home was taken on a journey with them to a faraway foreign land. The MDWs negotiated and constructed belonging and not belonging dialectically in multiple homes, thus being simultaneously “here,” “there” and “nowhere.” In migration, home thus manifests the evolution of female power and duty, portraying it at once as a locus of women’s liberation and as new and perhaps more extreme forms of (re)subjectivation in the emplacement of home within global capitalism. Migration performs home as a space in the (un)making: an ongoing project through the course of life.

The purpose of this paper is to explore, via an examination of a large number of games released in the quadrennial 2000 to 2003 for the five dominant video‐games platforms, the extent to which current product quality matches expectations.

All games software released between 2000 and 2003 for the five dominant video‐games platforms (Playstation2, Xbox, Gamecube, Gameboy Advance, and PC) were recorded and analysed for their perceived level of quality. The games were sorted with respect to country of origin, platform, publisher, genre, and time of release with the aim of assessing possible relationships with quality.

The results are disquieting in that they suggest a threat to the long‐term prosperity of the games industry, when quality as perceived by experienced gamers and reviewers is taken into consideration.

The main limitation of the study is that customer perceptions in the form of review scores may be biased as a means of gauging true software quality. Further research is required to develop more stringent means of assessment for the benefit of consumers and developers.

The findings represent a comprehensive reflection of the quality of software in today's games market.

This paper fills a sizeable gap in the area of quality analysis for interactive software, and provides an objective overview of the current state of the games market and is a useful source of information for researchers of quality assessment in the area of software and market analysis.

This paper, examines the controversial issues within the videogames industry surrounding territorial lockout (TL – the ability to build in incompatibility between products destined for different regions of the world). Little research has been conducted either to uncover the precise reasons why TL is implemented, or to gather consumer and industry attitudes towards its application. We therefore, conducted a survey of gamers and industry professionals to elicit attitudes towards TL. The results show not only that the justifications suggested for its application appear to be insubstantial but also that the measure is to a large extent ineffective. The findings, thus prompt videogames hardware manufacturers to reconsider their position as regards the application of TL.

Researchers often make use of SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) codes when gathering and analysing data about the activities of companies. The use of these codes is, however, fraught with potential difficulties, errors easily creeping in and consequently distorting results. This paper outlines the major SIC code systems in use on both sides of the Atlantic – which, despite efforts to standardise them (and thus to make them worthy of their name), still present levels of inconsistency and unreliability both internally and comparatively – and discusses various problems associated with using the codes as data sources.

During the last two years, the first experiments in digital interactive TV have been carried out, and full digital services are due to become available in many European states and elsewhere in the world within the next few years. These services will create a range of novel marketing opportunities, and Formula One Grand Prix would appear to offer significant potential in this respect. This paper reviews recent developments in the digital TV marketplace, focuses on how these may impact on Formula One, and suggests that production‐car manufacturers who also supply engines for the sport should now seriously consider taking advantage of the emerging medium.

This article aims to review business and academic literature on the topic of business succession planning (BSP). The purpose is to allow the vast quantity of evidence and opinion to be contextualised, and enable a better understanding of the key themes within BSP, particularly with respect to small, family‐owned businesses.

An extensive literature search of business magazines, journal databases, textbooks, and relevant reports and citations was carried out. A categorisation of the evidence, involving over 400 articles, allowed informed discussions on the key themes surrounding BSP.

Key findings include family succession, legal, financial, and fiscal components, barriers against implementation, and methods for managing the process. A detailed summary of these and other topics is given, which together constitute the critical themes which should be borne in mind by businesses facing BSP.

The main weakness of this paper is the lack of theoretical development. However, the findings prompt key areas for future research, and help to contextualise the topic for any potential new developments in succession planning.

Despite the need for further scientific and validated studies, businesses are urged to devote sufficient resources and attention towards succession to promote long‐term survival and prosperity.

This paper allows researchers and business practitioners to obtain a wholesome reflection on the key themes within BSP, which are often exacerbated by the sheer volume of diverse opinion. The value of this paper is that it amalgamates the available evidence and offers a detailed, informed insight into the current state of research and practice in business succession.

It is commonly accepted that the study of urban politics has become increasingly complex and fragmented, characterised by a shift away from formal local government structures to a diverse range of public, private and voluntary agencies. The analysis of ‘multi-level’ local governance (Stoker, 2004) in contemporary urban societies therefore requires a need to focus on informal relationships as well as formal institutions, acknowledging the role of a multiplicity of actors and their interactions within partnership and network structures. In this respect the limitations of a purely quantitative methodology have been well-documented, including a lack of depth, insufficient attention to power relationships and an inability to account for symbolic action (see, e.g. Silverman, 2001 and other chapters in this collection). Qualitative methodologies offer the opportunity to consider meaning, complexity and institutional fragmentation in urban policy through detailed empirical and theoretical analysis. However, it is less clear what kinds of theoretical tools are most appropriate to underpin effective qualitative research. The purpose of this chapter is not only to suggest a general approach (that of social constructionism), but also to demonstrate how recent developments can be applied effectively to overcome some of the criticisms of constructionist social theory. The chapter suggests a number of approaches that can provide a means by which contemporary urban processes can be systematically interpreted.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the record on housing affordability in Australia over the period 1985 to 2010, conceptually link this with the purported demand and supply drivers given in the literature, and comment on government policy responses. The paper also provides a suggested framework for future research on housing affordability.

The paper employs descriptive analysis of measures of affordability using commercial and other information. In addition, the paper undertakes analysis of the affordability drivers and government responses using recent governmental inquiries and other research into housing affordability.

Housing affordability in Australia has worsened significantly in the past quarter century, including in both urban and regional areas, and is now among the world's most unaffordable. The main contributor at the national level has been the escalation of housing prices because of continuing strong demand arising from strong economic and population growth, the availability of cheaper and more accessible finance, and tax and other incentives for home and investor housing ownership. An additional contributor is unresponsive housing supply resulting from an extensive governmental role in land release and zoning, infrastructure charges, and building and environmental regulation.

As an analytical paper, the central aim is to summarise the findings and conclusions of other work and provide a suggested framework for future research. Accordingly, no attempt made to model directly the relationship between housing affordability, its demand and supply drivers and government policy responses.

There is a need to reassess government policy at all levels as it relates to population, economic, urban, and environmental planning and government regulation and taxation and housing affordability. Need for future empirical work to quantify the causes and consequences of housing affordability.

This study provides a complete account of housing affordability and policy and the literature on housing affordability in Australia over the past 25 years.

Model the drivers of Australian housing affordability and forecast equilibrium affordability. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Uses autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to model housing affordability measured by the Housing Industry Association's Housing Affordability Index (HAI) and the housing price-earnings multiplier (HPE). Six sets of explanatory variables, including housing finance, housing construction activity and costs, economic growth, population, alternative investments and taxation.

Primary long-run drivers are housing finance, dwelling approvals and financial assets. Economic and population growth only have a short-run influence, while housing taxation has limited impact in long run. Forecasts indicate long-run HAI equilibrium values of 109 (above the historical minimum of 107) and a HPE of seven (below the recent historical maximum of 8.2).

Reduced form model encompassing both demand and supply factors involves complicated interpretation given direct and indirect effects on affordability. Analysis at national level ignores regional impacts that may also affect housing affordability.

The impact of the low rate of new dwelling approvals (public and private sector in the long run and public sector in the short run) points to a persistent structural gap between the demand and supply of housing. Strong economic and population growth often blamed for the worsening of housing affordability, at least in the 2000s, has no impact at the aggregate national level.

Only known paper to provide quantitative estimates of macro drivers of Australian housing affordability over a long period using alternative measures of relative housing affordability.