Prostitution is highly contested and extensively researched yet despite the amount of research that has been carried out there has, until recently, been little focus on how people leave prostitution. Within the literature that does exist, the complexity of leaving prostitution is widely acknowledged. Exiting is seen as a process not an event, and one which is not necessarily linear, and studies recognise that those who seek to leave face multi-faceted barriers. The role of support organisations in facilitating transitions from prostitution is acknowledged but such organizations remain largely unexamined, as do the associations with faith traditions that have been noted amongst some of these organisations. The existing literature attests to the role of alternative employment in enabling women to exit and remain out of prostitution and a small number of empirical studies have begun to explore the role of micro-enterprise development and vocational skills training in the context of prostitution. The provision of alternative employment through the operation of a social enterprise, has, however, received scant attention. This thesis contributes to understandings of the process of exiting prostitution through an exploration of the phenomenon of faith-based projects that support women to leave prostitution through the operation of social enterprises. Based on data from an internet mapping study and ethnographic research with two case studies, a project in India and a project in the US, both of which are running social enterprises, the research examines the nature of such projects; how they support women to exit prostitution; how the social enterprise models employed by these projects operate; the salience of faith in the nature and work of such projects; and the experiences of the women engaging with these projects. In doing so, this thesis contributes to knowledge in three areas: (1) exiting prostitution, (2) social enterprise, and (3) faith.

During the 1990's an emerging preoccupation with risk and safety was understood to be having a disproportionate impact on parents and in particular how they were bringing up their children. Fear was leading to children and young people's independent movement and association being severely curtailed. It was believed that this trend was having a detrimental impact on children's learning and sociability: subsequent generations of adults were potentially going to have deficits in their independence and competency. This research degree aims to establish what it was that past childhoods, ones that were more 'free', provided for the developing individual: what space they inhabited; what experiences occupying those spaces generated; what community relationships existed between children and adults; what expectations were place upon these children and how these factors drove the development of independent, autonomous, active adult subjects. The initial tasks facing the project were to pull the problem into focus and establish what changes to modern society were occurring. Further to this, was to understand what childhood is and what the teleological journey to adulthood entails. Furedi and Vygotsky were deployed to accomplish these ends and to help make sense of 108 extended interviews with older people born between the years of 1903 and 1965. The data reveals how freedoms and licence available to these children impacted on their learning and development. It shows, through a rich and textured archive, how a cultural script, at odds with the one at work today, shaped emerging individuals. Conclusions should not be understood to be neo-traditionalist. Much in the past is best left there. There are somethings however that we would do well to rediscover and deploy in society's reproduction. Chiefly, I believe that the distinction between childhood and a confident adulthood, as a context for adults taking collective responsibility for future gener needs to be redrawn.

As the use of agent-based models (ABMs) in policy making continues to expand, it is increasingly clear what a variety of uses ABMs can be put to. Using the development of the SWAP model of soil and water conservation (SWC) adoption in developing countries, this thesis explores how a non-predictive policy-focused ABM can be useful in policy and theoretical contexts. Policies designed to increase adoption of SWC have generally been unsuccessful due to poor calibration to farmers’ needs. This is understood to be a result of poor interaction between the various stakeholders working on SWC. The SWAP model is developed: (i) as an ‘interested amateur’ to be used as a discussion tool to improve the quality of interaction between policy stakeholders; and (ii) as an exploration of the theory on farmer behaviour in the SWC literature. This approach was underpinned by a set of semi-structured interviews with policy practitioners on their understanding, use, and evaluation of models used in policy. The model’s use as an ‘interested amateur’ was explored during a workshop with stakeholders in Ethiopia. Participants recognised the value of the model and it was successful in aiding discussion. However, participants described an inability to innovate in their work, and viewed stakeholders ‘lower-down’ the policy spectrum as being in more need of discussion tools. A pattern-oriented modelling approach showed that the theory used in the model is successful in recreating broad patterns of adoption, but is too generic to represent a variety of different contexts. This thesis develops and presents the first use of the ‘interested amateur’ approach for ABMs. The findings suggest it has value and could be applied in other policy domains. The performance of the SWC theory is also encouraging, suggesting it can be used as a basis for other ABMs exploring farmers’ SWC behaviour.

Twenty five years ago, the 'voice' of the child emerged within a key piece of legislation (UNREC, 1999) alongside moves to re-position the child as social actor by the 'new' Sociology of Childhood. Adopting a methodological framework, Actor-Network Theory, that allows for the inclusion of non-human actants and can also capture the process of becoming an ADHD child, this thesis looks at how far the child's voice has been translated into the practice of the professionals who are mobilised in relation to the diagnosis of Childhood Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a condition which is claimed to be one of the most common mental disorders among children in Great Britain (Green et al, 2004). Drawing on the analysis of qualitative interviews with twenty-two professionals working with childhood ADHD in one geographical area, as well as thirteen documents, I argue that the inclusion of ‘the child’s voice’ is not routine in professional practice in the case of ADHD diagnosis processes because what the child says and how they say it is highly entwined with that process of diagnosis and response. As the child becomes identified as problematic, the child's utterances are treated as vocalisations rather than voice. This is further compounded by the referral route to, and assessment by, CAMHS or Paediatrics, the child enters one of two different assemblages with different possibilities for status, actorship and voice. The diagnosis and interventions added further layers to the presence and positioning of the child's voice. I argue that if, and how, the child's voice emerges in an assemblage depends upon a number of factors, including the positioning of the child, professional values, organisational practices, and the artefacts present. Artefacts, such as questionnaires or medication, extend opportunities for voice for some children, while muting others. Therefore, the findings also highlight a number of complexities of voice, particularly when the decisions are not of the child's making. The child's voice emerges as a controversial topic, part of the performance of the network appears to be to translate the vocalisations of the child into more adult controlled and legitimated speech or silences. I conclude that controversies and complexities need to be more openly discussed to create the conditions under which it is possible for the child's voice to be translated from policy into professional practice.

This thesis analyses the challenges from European constitutionalism to the classical concept of constitutional sovereignty and develops an alternative concept of multidimensional sovereignty that is adequate for understanding the architecture of political authority in the multilevel European Union constitution. Hereby, the thesis addresses two problems that are widely spread in European constitutional theory. First, it provides a clear and concise definition and concept of the European constitution. This is mainly based on an analysis of the emergence of the concept of the constitution and its meanings in the Western European history of (nation) states and by examining whether these meanings are applicable to the European context. Secondly, it identifies and explains which phenomena of European integration and the European Union polity actually challenge the core features of the traditional concept of sovereignty: indivisible and unitary sovereignty. The three challenges, that undermine the classical monolithic understanding of sovereignty, are multiple levels of authority, multiple sources of authority and new, non-hierarchical forms of authority relationships that occur in the European Union polity. That is why a revised concept of constitutional sovereignty is developed and which is particularly capable of grasping the transformed features of sovereignty in Europe: multidimensional sovereignty. This concept includes a complementary and multilevel structure of political authority in Europe. Throughout the thesis, the analysis and findings will be illustrated by constitutional practice and adjudication in Germany and the United Kingdom in order to show that the question of constitutional sovereignty has strong practical implications for and is highly influenced by constitutional practice in the Member States.

I am vegan. This means I eschew animal products (such as meat, dairy and eggs) for ethical reasons. Academic interest in animal advocacy is expanding, as evidenced in the emerging field of Critical Animal Studies (Taylor and Twine, 2014). However, concurrent with a ‘criminalization’ of legitimate protest since 9/11 (Gilmore, 2013), empirical research suggests a tendency for mainstream media sources to ridicule, misrepresent and discredit vegans (Cole and Morgan, 2011). I examine the events and experiences that have been significant in shaping the biographies of vegan animal advocates. I use biographical interviews with twelve (12) vegans alongside visual methods, and autoethnography. Participants created comics -the narrative juxtaposition of words and images- about their lives, and I created an ‘autoethnographic’ comic about my biography as a vegan researcher, thus examining animal advocacy from a reflexive, situated vegan perspective. I found that vegan identity is often subject to normalizing processes (Foucault, 1977), and is necessarily fluid across social situations (as evidenced in descriptions of ‘coming out’ vegan). Vegan identity is performed and achieved in various embodied ways. These processes intersect with other social structures such as gender and sexuality. Access to cultural narratives about veganism is also significant in the experience of participants. The project contributes to the diverse fields of Biographical Research and Critical Animal Studies, adding rich biographical and visual data to existing empirical evidence around animal advocacy. It sets a precedent for the potential use of comics in research, particularly in connection with queer methodological approaches that challenge existing representational forms and focus on fluidity. It also offers novel applications for autoethnographic and visual biographical approaches.

Phase one: Children and young people (CYP) who have been identified in school as experiencing behavioural, emotional and social difficulties (BESD) and who present with challenging behaviour are commonly offered interventions as a supportive strategy. Responding to challenging behaviour in school settings may vary between schools and typically may be reflected in the behavioural policy of the school. The question arises as to whether supporting a CYP with BESD and responding to the challenging behaviour they may present, is being done in a consistent manner, or whether the two are distinctly considered as an approach to “managing needs” as they arise. This phase of the CAR approach explored staff views and experiences on supporting and responding to CYP who experience BESD. I sought to explore the current practice of staff members (SENCos, teachers and TAs) so that insights could be gained on how the needs of CYP with BESD are being met in schools. Through a series of semi-structured and focus group interviews with the staff, themes from responses revealed interesting findings regarding staff perceptions relating to the emotional needs of CYP and the impact of a diagnosis and parental anxieties. The teaching assistants’ valuable contribution to supporting CYP experiencing BESD as well as class teachers expressing how challenging behaviour impacts on their self-esteem were also key findings in this study. The salient themes have been discussed in detail with reference to psychological theory, as well as implications for phase two. Phase two: The use of solution focused approaches (SFAs) in educational practice is on the increase, being implemented in a range of contexts. Originally based on solution focused brief therapy (SFBT) (de Shazer, 1985), emphasis is placed upon the solutions and in thinking about the future, steering away from talking about the past and the problem. This paper describes the second phase of the CAR approach. The aim of this phase was to use SFAs with SENCos who participated in phase one of this study. As the Trainee Educational Psychologist (TEP) working within the two learning communities, I facilitated and supported SENCos on implementing SFAs. They did this firstly in relation to their own practice, and secondly with another member of staff (a teacher or a TA) for supporting a CYP identified as experiencing BESD and challenging behaviour. The procedure involved the SENCos attending three sessions which took place between September 2014 and February 2015. Following each session the SENCos were assigned a task, typically involving them to use SFAs on their own practice as well as with other staff members. I visited each SENCo following the sessions to support them in discussing their reflections as well as during the meeting with the other members of staff they intended to support. The final session involved a group evaluation, in which experiences were shared and a plan was formed in preparation of the next cycle of the action research approach. Data collection included semi-structured interviews with each SENCo, a group evaluation as well as an analysis of the SENCos’ individual reflections (accounts kept throughout the study), using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Higher order themes were then grouped according to context, mechanism and outcome themes, which draws upon elements of realistic evaluations (Pawson and Tilley, 1997). The findings revealed insights into the enabling factors as well as challenges encountered by the SENCos. Implications for future research in this area are also discussed.

No description available.

This thesis introduces the concept of the Experiential Ethnographic Mode to describe fiction film in which a particular approach is adopted during the filmmaking process, one which involves time spent on location and close collaboration with local residents. This filmmaking process forms an integral part of the filmic product, which seeks to evoke within the viewer a sense of the filmmakers’ experience of being there. The Experiential Ethnographic Mode is elaborated according to its three basic components – time, space and sound – which are fundamental to the experience of being there and, of course, to the cinematic medium. In order to explain the concept of the mode, this thesis takes as its illustrative example the school of Ukrainian poetic cinema. The Experiential Ethnographic Mode is offered as a defining characteristic of this school, and its identification enables a new interpretation of the films. These films, produced principally in the 1960s at the Dovzhenko Studio in Kyiv, are characterized by a blend of fiction and non-fiction; the use of local, non-professional actors and experimental soundtracks; and a concern with the issue of cultural heritage. The works can be connected to the traumatic events of the country’s recent past, events which transformed the relationship between the people and the land. Rather than seeing the films as oriented on the past and a lost way of life, however, this thesis shows how they are anchored in the present and assert the continuity of traditions. Employing Marianne Hirsch’s notion of ‘postmemory’ to describe the relationship of the second generation to the trauma of the first, it is argued that the films, through their use of the Experiential Ethnographic Mode, can be seen to engage in ‘postmemorial work’ and attempt to rebuild intergenerational connections.

No description available.