The restrictions many parents place on children's spatial freedoms are often tied to concerns about `urban risk'. Concurrently, those children afforded greater spatial autonomy are often represented as threatening and disruptive to local social interaction. Little research has, however, explored the implications of children's spatial freedoms on social cohesion. Framed by the concept of social capital, this paper examines the role children play in developing the kinds of connection and relationship that build social networks, trust and neighbourliness. Focusing on children's lives in three inner-city and two suburban locations in England, the paper explores neighbourhood social capital in relation to two `critical interactions': first, between social policy, parenting values and children's autonomy and, secondly, between children's and parents' local engagement.

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Sum m ary. T his note look s at the juxtap osition of a polarisin g incom e distrib ution and à professio nalisin g' occu pation al stru cture as an accou nt of recent tren ds in L ondon. It suggests that H am nett m ay read too m uch occu pation al upgrad ing from the data and that he does not tackle adequately the question of earn ed incom e polarisat ion. W hile welfare system s alw ays m ediate the relation ship betw een the glob al and the local, Esping-A nderson ' s welfare state categor isation s do not help to exp lain differen ces betw een New Y ork and L ondon. Gender relation s are seen to underpin occu pation al and incom e tren ds in m etrop olitan areas.

In recent years employers in Britain have taken up equal opportunity policies more widely and structural changes in the economy have generally favored women. Against this, the pursuit of labor market deregulation is generally thought to impact adversely on women. This paper considers the changing British policy framework of the last ten to fifteen years and the effects on women's employment, highlighting differences amongst women. Deregulation and flexibilization are argued to have affected the conditions of part-time employment for women rather than its scale and pattern of expansion. The changing gender wage gap in Britain and the growth of pay inequalities amongst women are analyzed using a shift-share approach. The limited convergence in earnings between men and women is largely confined to full-time workers and has two distinct aspects. Full-time female employees have made some inroads into higher-paid occupations, but at the bottom end of the market the narrowing of the gender wage gap reflects little more than the deterioration in the position of low-paid men, relative to the median. The British case shows the limitations of an equal opportunities agenda pursued within a wider regime of burgeoning labor market inequalities.Britain, Gender Wage Gap, Deregulation, Equal Opportunity Policies, Labor Market Inequalities,