Securing public participation in environmental actions (EAs) such as recycling as a means of making progress towards sustainable consumption is a central issue in UK environmental policy. Participation in EAs has typically been studied from the individual perspective, thereby ignoring the relevance of the social context of the household. This thesis advances understanding of the adoption and practice of EAs from the household perspective. A qualitative -research approach is taken, utilising focus groups with 29 households within a constructivist grounded theory methodology. In terms of theoretical contributions, the unlinked literatures on participation in EAs and household decision making are integrated in light of the research findings resulting in a conceptual framework of the adoption and practice of EAs in households which is grounded in the data. This framework considers EAs in isolation and patterns across EA repertoires and is applicable to the variety of commonly-promoted EAs and household types and different levels of engagement in EAs. Elements of the framework include the multiple units which drive EA adoption and are responsible for EA practice; the situational, household and individual characteristics which shape these units; the multiple routes to EA practice and their tentative differentiation in terms of desirability from a policy perspective; factors facilitating the maintenance of repetitive EAs; types and means of socialisation influence from a leader to other individuals; from where and how knowledge for action is acquired and transmitted through the household; and communication within the household about EAs. Particular empirical contributions include the recognition of the decoupling of attitudes towards an EA and behaviour as a result of factors pertaining to the social context of the household; a new understanding of motivation to engage in EAs relating to how a leader's motivation is established in the first instance and then transferred to other household members; and the recognition that specialised roles relating to EA adoption and practice may be taken up gradually. In terms of methodological contributions, the literatures on focus groups and qualitative family research are integrated to coin the term 'household focus group'. To produce the necessary detail, an original interview activity involving the diagrammatic representation of EA adoption and practice is developed, which is extended into an original means of data analysis involving detailed visual representations of the processes within the household.

Humanism is a cUlture-system comprising a value-orientation and a personal and social ideal. Al though primarily an eVG.luati ve cuI turesystem, the majority of beliefG are dra\vn from science and it is more truly a~ ideology than a religion. Humanism is pro~hetic in form and occupies the position of a counter-ideology in contemporary society. Humanism is the resultant of tlle processes of rationalization occurri~g on the conjunction of Ethicism and Rationalism, tOGether with the environmental influence of the culture of the professions. The primary organizational initiatives which created the British Humanist Hovement came from the Zthical Union a..'1d the Rationalist Press Association. In order to regain an adaptive relationship with their environment, these bodies es~oused a humanist co~~itment and wooed the 'ne,., generation'. IEhe perception of 8. COmr.J.on commitment and interest and the desire to avoid competition led ther:l to form the British Humanist Association. Humanists differ markedly from the total population of Great Britain in the predominance of men over women, in their comparative youth and in their superordinate socio-economic, educational and occupational status. In particular, humanists are distinctive by their occupancy of professional status. This is explained by the marked congruence between the cultural items contained in Humanism and the content of the culture of the professions. This congruence is most clearly seen in relation to the culture of the socializing professions. Although this congruence explains the predisposition of professional people to adopt a humanist position, certain personal and and structural factors cause this predisposition to be translated into support for the movement. The decline of religion and the growth of the professions in t''ientieth century Britain provided a social context conducive to the spread of Humanism; whilst the humanist movement itself provides the humanist professional ''lith intellectual and social support and a means of restructuring society and his role-set.

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This thesis examines the historical development of professional associations in social work and assesses their role and influence in t'Ze developnent of social work as an occupation. An account of the formation and development of seven individual associations of social workers in the period 1900 to 1970, to,; sther with the attempts to form a single 'generic' association durinsm that period, is followed by a discussion of the development of the British Association of Social ? -porkers from 1970 to 1990. This account examines the reciprocal influence of the nrofessional associations on the occupation and of the emerging occupation on the professional associations. Both are set within the wider context of changes in the broader society and in the provision of welfare services in particular. The thesis then examines aspects of the internal affairs of the associations, ')aying particlar attention to the questions of the membership of the associations; selected aspects of the internal government of the associations; and the management of tension and conflict within the associations. Five areas of activity are then studied individually to ascertain the role and influence of the professional associations. These are attempts to define the occupation of 'social work'; attempts to influence patterns of recruitment and training; attempts to raise and maintain 'professional' standards of service; attempts to influence salaries and conditions of work; and attempts to influence social policy. These various strands are dra,, m together in a conclusion, which emphasises the dynamic nature of the relationship between the professional associations, the development of social work, and the eider social context. It traces four stages in the development of this relationship, and argues that the aspects of identity and fellowship provided by the professional associations are also important. Whilst the professional associations' influence has waxed and waned in different areas of activity at different times, no account of the development of social work is complete without considering their impact. ELF.

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In this thesis, I argue that the nascent politics of Intellectual Property is poorly served through attempts to conceive IP rights as an “enclosure of the intangible commons of the mind” and highlight a number of problems with the enclosure/commons dialectic more generally. To this end, it tries to indicate some new possible directions for the politics of IP, based on the insights of pragmatist philosophy and Actor-Network Theory. Such insights, I argue, allow us to interrogate questions about IP along two axes that the enclosure/commons dialectic neglects. A move away from the “intangible commons” allows us to focus on the very material way in which many of the harms of IP rights play out, and on IP's contentious function as a regualtor of objects, bodies and technologies. Second, it allows for an interrogation of the epistemological question of whether knowledge is considered to have been created or discovered, a distinction which is of vital importance to the question of whether any give sort of knowledge will be protected by an IP right. In order to address these difficulties, I argue that, instead of seeing knowledge as a sort of substance, we should instead see it in terms of practice and relations. Ideas, I argue, are not things, but assemblages of materials. This perspective is developed and illustrated through a number of case studies. I examine the history of copyright, showing that its emergence was not as a means of granting rights to ideas, but instead as a method of controlling the circulation of books. The notion of knowledge as a substance, I argue, was introduced only later, as a way of legitimating and naturalising this system. I offer a similar account of the information commons, an idea that developed from the tendency to frame issues of internet regulation in terms of applying the law to a particular place – cyberspace. Finally, I examine the controversy surrounding the Google Book Search project. I argue that the attempted settlement should be understood as a combination of two different systems of control. Again, the language of substance obscures this insight, presenting the settlement as a compromise over access to knowledge. I conclude by arguing that this theoretical critique is also a political critique – that a politics of IP which gave up on the idea of knowledge of substance would necessarily have to focus more on the specific parties and practices that are threatened by IP rights.

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UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX ATHANASIOS A. KASTRITIS DPHIL IN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT THE WAYS HYPOTHESIS: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO SOCIETY SUMMARY There has been a tendency in theories of social constitution to regard the person-society connection as a partial overlap, whereby certain properties of one would be either interdependent with, or over-determined by, those of the other. An attempt to see one totally immersed in the other would be bound to end up with either a reductionist view of society followed, all too rightly, by its rejection as a category altogether, or a vanquishing of human individuality in a mirror house of oppressive inter-subjectivity. Yet intuition would indicate that each one of us is born in a coming together of worldly possibilities whereby the most private phenomenon, the perspective itself, is formed out of the very flesh of social life. Could this intuition be extended past this delicate moment to allow for a constitution of society which, while able to deliver and sustain distinct human perspectives, still extends past their presupposition for its constitution? The Ways Hypothesis presents its reader with a thought experiment which explores the possibility and implications of conceptualising a different type of social constituent as an alternative to the human individual. The thesis introduces the notion of ‘way’ in its variety of significances and applications and gradually narrows it down to a restricted definition. Engaging in a discussion of existing propositions on the character of, as well as the need for, a concept of society, it uses this restricted definition to introduce an intertwining of ways as a socially specific aspect of reality. It concludes by exploring two implications of this proposition: an understanding of the human self as a sense of place constituted in the intertwining of ways; and a complementary view of theory formation that extends the former to a sense of space. The thesis adopts a minimalist approach to realism, introducing a lightweight ontology that lends itself openly to a pluralist epistemology. It does not set out to replace the task of research, but actually strives to develop its proposition without stepping on the toes of theoretical explanation and empirical work. The liquidity of its key concept allows the argument to trade insights with a wide range of theoretical works including: Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception and Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of practice; Bruno Latour’s ANT sociology and the philosophy of Michel Serres; the sociologies of Émile Durkheim, and Norbert Elias; Georg Simmel’s sociology of space; William James’ radical empiricism.