In recognition of the fact that 2008 was the International Year of Sanitation, UN-HABITAT collaborated with the Greater Moncton Sewerage Commission (GMSC), hosts and organizers of the IWA Global Biosolids Conference, "Moving Forward Wastewater Biosolids Sustainability: Technical, Managerial, and Public Synergy" held in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada in June 2007 to publish this Global Atlas, which comprises the inputs from cities and organizations around the world.The objective of this Global Atlas was to provide a global picture of the current status of information and opportunities for wastewater biosolids/sludge disposal and reuse, including trends and regional comparisons. The Atlas also aims to contextualize biosolids management within the larger framework of global development challenges.The publication runs to 608 pages and chronicles excreta, wastewater sludge and biosolids management practices in 37 countries and regions throughout the world with reports on sanitation in 59 jurisdictions. They range from developing countries, with substantial portions of the population without access to modern plumbing or flush toilets, to developed countries with sophisticated treatment systems.It is crystal clear that, in addition to clean air, the well-being of our planet also requires that water, wastewater and the resulting biosolids (sludge) need to be managed more seriously, and in a focused, coordinated and cooperative manner. However in order to do so it is necessary to have benchmarks and knowledge of how biosolids/sludges are being managed globally.The Atlas includes a global summary providing a broad overview of excreta, wastewater sludge, and biosolids management from many areas around the world -a "Big Picture" of how this resource is being managed.A concise overview of the relevance of biosolids management today, the key global trends with temporal and regional comparisons, including recommendations for advancing this global resource agenda is also presented.The presentation will serve to communicate that the publication is available and that it provides a concise overview of the existing state of the management of biosolids across the globe.

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Since the late 1960s social policy scholarship has been concerned with the distribution of the resources or benefits across social gradients. This paper presents a review of the literature on one mechanism by which inequity might be produced -activism by middle-class service users enabling them to capture a disproportionate share of resources. The review used the methodology of realist synthesis to bring together evidence from the UK, US and Scandinavian countries over the past thirty years.The aim was to construct a "middle-theory" to understand how and in which contexts collective and individual activity by middle-class service users might produce inequitable resource allocation or rationing decisions that 2 disproportionately benefit middle-class service users. The paper identifies four causal theories which nuance the view that it is the "sharp elbows" of the middle-classes which confer advantage on this group. It shows how advantage accrues via the interplay between service users, providers and the broader policy and social context.

here is concern that the 'localism' promoted by the UK Coalition Government will further empower the already powerful. This paper uses Bourdieu's theory of practice to theorise middle-class public service use. Building on a previous evidence review (Matthews and Hastings, 2013) it considers whether the habitus of the middle-classes enables them to gain disproportionate benefit from public services. Service provision is understood as a 'field' marked by a competitive struggle between social agents who embody class-based power asymmetries. It finds that engagement with the state is a classed practice producing benefits to those already empowered and that localism may exacerbate inequalities

Problems of housing supply and affordability in England have long been recognised by policy-makers. A key barrier to supply is seen to be community activism by socalled NIMBYs (not-in-my-back-yard). The localism policy agenda, or devolving decision-making down to the local level, is central to how the UK Coalition government seek to overcome this opposition. This conceives NIMBYism as a demonstration of homo economicus -of the rationality of economic beings seeking to maximise their utility. In this view, residents would not accept large urban extensions in suburban areas because they took on localised costs with no obvious benefits, unless incentivised appropriately. In this paper we use analysis of British Social Attitudes Survey data as well as the results of the first review of middle-class activism in relation to public services to identify the likelihood of residents being incentivised by this version of localism to accept new housing. We conclude that the evidence on the individual and collective attitudes suggests that it is unlikely that localism will deliver new housing. Importantly, the political power of affluent and professional groups means they can ensure that their opposition is heard, particularly in the neighbourhood plans delivered through localism. The paper argues that planning for housing needs to understand communities as homo democraticusas actively engaged in negotiating between complex interests with respect to support for new housing.