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Although the first known sociological writings on sport in the English-speaking Caribbean (ESC) date from 1953, the sociology of sport is very much a nascent subdiscipline that occupies a very marginal and almost nonexistent position in the region’s educational, research, and development agenda. This is evident in the number of sport sociologists, courses of study, professional organizations, conferences/seminars, and publications on the subject. While this chapter examines the historical, social, cultural, institutional, and economic factors that have contributed to this situation, it also profiles the limited publications in the field, the theoretical and methodological characteristics, its authors, and their location, as well as some of the recent positive developments that make for change. However, while noting the positive signs of change, it is suggested that the future for the sociology of sport in the ESC is rather mixed for its growth will continue to be constrained if traditional thinking towards the study of sport and its funding persist or remain dominant.

As the number of redundancies and closures grows, one notices that many are in subsidiaries of multi‐national companies. One of the possible reasons for this is of particular interest: the ability of their managers. How capable are they of responding to adversity when their very existence is a result not of indigenous talents but more a symbol of the success of their parents? Furthermore, does the nature of these companies prevent their managers from maturing sufficiently to be able to act without parental guidance?

The British North American colonies were the first western economies to rely on legislature-issued paper monies as an important internal media of exchange. This system arose piecemeal. In the absence of banks and treasuries that exchanged paper monies at face value for specie monies on demand, colonial governments experimented with other ways to anchor their paper monies to real values in the economy. These mechanisms included tax-redemption, land-backed loans, sinking funds, interest-bearing notes, and legal tender laws. I assess and explain the structure and performance of these mechanisms. This was monetary experimentation on a grand scale.

THE joint publication, by the Institute and Society of County Treasurers, of Public Library Statistics for 1963–4 provides material of considerable topical interest at this time. The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 came into force on 1 April 1965 and only a day or so before this date the Department of Education and Science issued Circular 4–1965, which, in addition to giving a general description of the provisions of the Act, includes an appendix drawing attention to the report of the Ministry of Education published in 1962 (“Standards of Public Library Service in England and Wales”) which, the Circular says, “gives guidance on the factors to be taken into account in considering the adequacy of the service”.

Organizations can develop and implement a range of strategies to address environmental issues. A wide range of actions can result from these strategies. Describes the environmental strategies of over 250 US firms. In particular, examines company participation in 25 environmental activities and discusses industry differences in environmental activity. Also discusses the range of environmental strategies and managerial perceptions of environmental issues. Concludes with a discussion on policy implications and directions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of line managers in managing attendance at work in the lean regime of grocery retailing. The increasing competitiveness within the sector, coupled with the sophisticated control systems in place put pressure on managers to keep labour costs low. Attendance, therefore, becomes a critical factor, particularly as staffing levels become leaner. Taking this into account, it is necessary to understand the parameters of the line managers’ role in managing attendance, especially within the lean food retail market and the antagonistic terrain of the supermarket shop floor. The paper discusses the impact of lean retailing on line managers’ authority and provides a fresh sociological analysis regarding their role in managing attendance, offering insights into managerial practices on the UK supermarket shop floor.

The paper draws on qualitative research evidence from two case study grocery retail organizations in the UK. It reports on 44 semi-structured interviews and provides a multi-level analysis aiming to understand the different perspectives on the problem examined.

The paper reveals the existence of a centralized absence management policy and highlights the greater involvement of line managers in this procedure. Line managers though were subjected to forces of bureaucratic control, intensification and degradation of their work. Despite having an active role within the attendance management process and high responsibility for the implementation of rules and procedures handed down by head office, they had limited authority over the process. Line managers perceived the latter as routine and a box-ticking exercise and had developed coping tactics to deal with the control from above.

This paper provides practical and theoretical considerations over the role of line management in the labour process, investigating their role in managing attendance at work within the lean terrain of food retailing. This research contributes to the ongoing academic discussions related to the devolvement of HR responsibilities to the line, highlighting the great involvement of line managers in the absence policy. It also provides a sociological perspective over line managers’ authority and discretion in managing attendance, revealing that they were subjected to direct and bureaucratic control within their role in attendance management. However, the research reveals that line managers were not passive in the face of direct control from above and had developed tactics to cope with the monotony and the repetition of this process, attempting to somehow escape the top-down control they were subjected to.

MID‐OCTOBER sees the activities of the library world in full swing. Meetings, committee discussions, schools at work, students busy with December and May examinations in view, and a host of occupations for the library worker. This year—for in a sense the library year begins in October—will be a busy one. For the Library Association Council there will be the onerous business of preparing a report on State Control; for libraries there will be the effort to retain readers in a land of increasing employment and reduced leisure; and for the students, as we have remarked in earlier issues, preparations for the new syllabus of examinations which becomes operative in 1938. It is a good month, too, to consider some phases of library work with children, “which,” to quote the L.A. Resolutions of 1917, “ought to be the basis of all other library work.”

THE College of Librarianship is best considered on its own terms, as an institution unique in the history and present pattern of British library education, but its significance and probable future development can best be assessed if two external factors are kept in mind.

In a recent reference to changes brought about by the local government reorganisation of 1974, we criticised some of the names given to the new areas. Some of these name changes have made difficulties for those who follow from afar the doings of local authorities, as well as raising the ire of local people. Local names, however, are not the only casualty. The creation of new and larger governmental organisations rarely, if ever, results in economy and as anticipated, it was not long before the new local authorities were being directed to embrace financial stringency and all that it incurs. One such other casualty has been the loss of so many of the annual reports of local authority departments, very few now arriving at BFJ offices. In every case, the reason has been the same—severe restrictions on spending. Not that this was not necessary in many fields, but in respect of annual reports, we are convinced it was false economy. For so many of the reports, it was our pleasure to review them in the pages of BFJ. A prominent Labour politician was once heard to refer to them as “hard and dry reports for hard and dry officials”. It all depends probably on what you are looking for in them. Statistics there must be but most enforcement officers and public analysts, endeavour to keep these to the minimum, the general impression being that these are “dry”. If you are looking for trends, for comparison of the year under review with preceding years and then for comparing the results reported in one part of the country with another, where the population, eating habits, consumer reactions may be different, the tables of statistics are highly important.

We present a legislative background and assessment of approaches to financing the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare services, and focus on issues related to beneficiaries eligible for both VA and Medicare benefits. We refer to a large, VA Medical Center (VAMC) hospital and healthcare complex as a case for comparison of financing approaches. Several legislative proposals had been made to grant the VA funding transfers from Medicare. To date, none has passed in the Congress. Our analysis shows that payments from Medicare would need to be adjusted for the specialized characteristics of VAMC patients, as well as for higher capital costs related to the federal VAMC mandate to maintain reserve capacity for national health emergencies, in order to appropriately apply Medicare payments.