To explain participation in the self-service economy, competing theorisations have variously depicted participants as rational economic actors, dupes, seekers of self-identity, or simply doing so out of economic necessity or choice. To evaluate motives for self-servicing in the home improvement...

Evaluation of scientific research is crucial, however, although numerous studies have been conducted in this area, it is not easy to measure academic productivity/ performance. The most important perspective in measuring the productivity/ performance comes from the economic field, where it is...

This article discusses four standardization and adaptation strategies. Two strategies foster adaptation: one by submission, and the other by indifference. The other two strategies foster standardization: one by superiority and the other by disputable standardization. The study focuses on small...

This article reports the first cross-national evaluation of the prevalence of a little discussed wage arrangement where formal employers pay their formal employees two wages, one declared and the other an undeclared 'envelope wage'. Analysing the results of a 2007 survey conducted in the 27...

Across the social sciences, the dominant “thin” reading of monetary exchange that views it as universally market-like and motivated by monetary gain is being challenged by a “thicker” reading that seeks to unpack the complex and messy characters and logics of monetised transactions....

Most studies of paid informal exchange evaluate its varying magnitude across space and social groups. Little attention, however, has been paid to the variable nature of paid informal exchange. Instead, the unchallenged assumption is that such exchanges are universally conducted under work...

W ILLIAMS C. C. (2003) Developing community involvement: contrasting local and regional participatory cultures in Britain and their implications for policy, Reg. Studies 37 , 531-541. This paper evaluates critically the implications and legitimacy of the current UK government policy towards...

Williams C. C. (2005) Fostering community engagement and tackling undeclared work: the case for an evidence-based 'joined-up' public policy approach, Regional Studies 39 , 1145-1155. Examining two realms of public policy treated as unrelated by academics and policy-makers, namely fostering...

This paper evaluates critically the validity of the competing conceptualizations of informal employment that variously read such work as a leftover of a previous mode of production, a by-product of, alternative or complement to formal employment. Until now, the common tendency has been for...

This paper critically evaluates the recent shift away from a “thin” reading of monetary exchange, which views money transactions as universally market-like and profit-motivated, towards “thicker” readings of exchange, which identify the permeation of wider economic relations and...