This thesis explores lived Christianity as witnessed through long-term anthropological fieldwork in Jerusalem's Old City and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (also known as the Church of the Anastasis), the place that hosts the sites of the Crucifixion and burial of Jesus of Nazareth, among other shrines. The study focuses on how people within the Rum Orthodox community, both clerical and lay, navigate intra-communal networks, as well as those linking them with members of other Christian communities. Within the Church of the Anastasis, fragile legal agreements between different Churches, and the intersection of ethnicity and theology, create a complex reality of overlapping borders and a fragile coexistence among the resident communities. In order to unpack this, the thesis explores the Anastasis shared sacred space and the ways denominational boundaries as well as spatial borders are formed and maintained by the Greek custodian group. The thesis employs a materialist view arguing that any examination of the ways borders have been shaped in the Anastasis will benefit from considering the material aspects of religious practices - as they are followed both within and outside the Anastasis Church - as these shed light onto how people perceive similarities and differences across boundaries and borders. In contrast to the Anastasis context, lay Christians in the vicinity of the Old City interact in ways that push beyond denominational boundaries by crossing spatial borders attending each other's services and engaging in what this thesis calls 'border- crossing practices'. These are devotional practices that local (Palestinian) Orthodox follow that often diverge from the Orthodox Church's approved practice (orthopraxis). The study discusses the distinctive border-crossing attitudes, of local (Palestinian) Orthodox, who often perceive the Church's borders as problematic. By exploring how Jerusalem's Christians negotiate boundaries and borders, this thesis makes a novel contribution to discussions of contemporary shared sacred spaces as well as to debates in anthropology of Christianity and its material culture.

This thesis examines homelessness in Canterbury during a period of continuing and changing government austerity measures. The key research question asks: what does it mean to be homeless and how does homelessness shape the moral person? I answer this question by engaging with the current debates on the anthropology of morals and ethics. Using Fassin's (2015) moral economies as an overarching framework, this thesis explores how and why ideas of morality come into being. To examine how ethical practice unfolds within the sphere of the moral economy of homelessness, this thesis incorporates Lambek's (2015) concept of the ethical as a quality that is intrinsic to human life. In doing this, I suggest ways in which those who are moralised against understand and act upon the issues that confront them as they shape their moral personhood. Based on 15 months' ethnographic fieldwork at a local day centre for homeless peoples, this thesis will argue that heterogeneity within homelessness contextualises the ways in which ethical practices are manifest. It will further argue that homeless peoples shape their moral personhood through the same processes as non-homeless peoples. In focussing on the everyday decision-making of informants, this thesis will consider the socio-economic-political processes that such individuals participate in and the tensions between moralising agendas and individual actions. In examining the tensions between moral expectations and ethical decision-making, this thesis will foreground how informants seek to live and act within their own criteria of what is right and good. This thesis provides a unique exploration of lives that are subject to moralising discourses by both non-homeless and homeless peoples. It contributes to anthropological literatures on homelessness in the twenty-first century and offers insights into wider debates in social anthropology, applied anthropology and urban anthropology as well as the anthropology of morals and ethics. Drawing on related disciplines in the social sciences, it further contributes to literatures in sociology, human geography and social policy.

This thesis explores the relationship between the state and Pemon people of La Gran Sabana, in Southeastern Venezuela, through the lens of state-driven projects such as bilingual intercultural education and extractivism. I examine these relationships in the light of two broader twenty-first century processes; one global- multiculturalism and the paradigm of intercultural education- and one national- Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution. The Bolivarian government has probably lead the most effective project of state expansion in Venezuelan modern history, reaching out to the most peripheral areas of the nation and incorporating their population into the Venezuelan State. Throughout this thesis I argue that despite the Revolution's claims to celebrate internal diversity and pluralism, this process of state expansion has been driven by an extractivist agenda, associated with two different, yet complementary, commercial extractive projects; oil and gold. As such, its ultimate aim remains to ensure the state's control over the territory, and the resources on it, by establishing control over its inhabitants. The collapse between the state and indigenous people enacted in the Revolution's dominant discourse, therefore, outlines new forms of 'national indigeneity', and has the effect of prescribing people's possibilities to lay claims both to a Venezuelan citizenship and to 'legitimate' indigenous identities. Within such broad global predicaments, my research engages with key debates in anthropology about the relationships between Amerindian groups and the state, in terms of representation, interculturality and identity politics, illustrating how local responses to the processes of state expansion reflect complex interactions between multiple elements; gender, personal trajectories and identity construction, for example. The thesis also engages with the Lowland South American and Latin American literature about Amerindian strategies for counteracting the state's centralising (predatory) action, by outlining the multilateral, sometimes contradictory responses of local actors to the consecutive expansions and contractions of the state's extractivist and administrative frontiers. As the cases narrated in this thesis demonstrate, some individuals have actively sought to increase their political participation, embracing the opportunities for enfranchisement provided by the revolutionary government. Others have opted instead for a 'partial' retreat from the state's foregoing expansive motion. I argue that these movements towards reversal are associated with the state's inability to act as redistributor of resources and, as such, are the result of the general political and economic crises facing the country in the last few years.

Climate change is a global issue; one whose perception involves an ontological status whereby multiple perspectives enact its existence. Whilst biophysical scientific disciplines, such oceanography or conservation biology, have presented objective evidence of this climatic phenomenon, social science disciplines, such as sociology, politics, or psychology, have sought to explain how climate change is perceived and addressed by people. This thesis is about this subjective facet of climate change. It endeavours to engage with the worldwide interest in comprehending how people build their understanding and knowledge of climate change, but also takes a step further to investigate peoples' perception of climate change adaptation and look at emotional responses in respect to this climate issue. The specific aim of my research is therefore to provide insights that could be of value in enhancing our understanding of how people engage with climate change. Because most studies of peoples' knowledge and perceptions of climate change have been conducted with segments of the general public in the United States, Europe, and Australia, I decided to focus my study on a rather different society, namely that of my own nation, Ecuador. Moreover, here the interest was to investigate a rural community and to contrast the resulting data with those gathered from a sample of academic conservationists worldwide. In terms of the approach to the study, in being committed to allowing participants the agency to define how they themselves understand this climatic phenomenon, I employed a mixed-mode approach that incorporated qualitative and quantitative data gathering instruments, including face-to-face and online questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and participant observation. My findings provide a unique insight into the perspectives and realities that form the study populations' understandings of climate change. They suggest that despite the global nature of climate change, it is multiple local and individual realities that ultimately determine peoples' engagement with it. I conclude that action preferences, namely mitigation or adaptation to climate change, tend to be predominantly moderated by people's demographic background. I also suggest a tendency among urban dwellers to perceive climate change as an issue that cannot be tackled individually. Furthermore, because the international trend to cope with climate change highlights the relevance of 'resilience thinking', I argue that the results of my thesis can usefully inform the process of advising policy makers and when developing awareness-raising and educational programmes on climate change.

Reliable, robust data is fundamental to effective decision-making. Species observations are used as evidence in a range of areas that work towards conserving biodiversity. Decisions made on these data are only well informed if the species have been accurately identified. Moreover, the misidentification of species can have widespread socio-economic impacts. Despite these important applications of species data, the possibility of accuracy, error, and bias in species identification remains largely unexplored. Both volunteers and professionals conduct species identification, and in its simplest form, this process is a judgement made by reference to identification aids, or from prior knowledge. This thesis aims to fill an essential knowledge gap by investigating accuracy in species identification between individuals, across levels of expertise, and the levels of agreement between individuals with similar experience. Applying methods from forensic face recognition research, individuals with varying levels of expertise, and interest in biodiversity, participated in a series of simple image-based tasks. These tasks involved online, pairwise matching tasks under optimised conditions, and sorting tasks with images downloaded from Internet sources. This study shows that decisions on species identification are highly variable between individuals, and high levels of accuracy are achievable by experts and non-experts. Moreover, experience is no guarantee of accuracy, and inter-specific disparity does not always exceed intra-specific variation. There is a need for a simple, principled method for assessing identification accuracy, which can be performed by experts and non-experts alike. This method also needs to be sensitive enough to capture individual differences. Improvements in technology have led to an increase in data being collected from previously inaccessible areas, and citizen science has widened participation. However, as data collection adapts to incorporate changes in how species observations are collected and by whom, methods for assessing and evaluating the reliability of those data must evolve.

Biodiversity is an important provider of ecosystem services. There is a sense of urgency running through the scientific community regarding its protection and conservation. This urgency is fuelled by a wealth of research into the effects of habitat destruction, intensive agriculture, destructive industries (such as mining and oil exploration) and the insidious threat of climate change. It might reasonably be suggested that the biodiversity crisis we are facing today is in large part due to a lack of regulation around human-activities with regard to biodiversity impacts. In order to impose regulations, protecting biodiversity has been incentivised through various governmental and non-profit private-sector certification initiatives that aim to minimise the negative impacts that industry can have on the environment. Agri-environment schemes are largely governmental initiatives that aim to enhance the biodiversity and societal values of farmland. Timber certification initiatives, such as the Forest Stewardship Council, promote woodland management that takes into account the economic, environmental and social aspects of forestry with equal measure. Protection and enhancement of biodiversity is integral to achieving the environmental aims of certification. However, several studies have highlighted that many schemes (notably agri-environment schemes and some timber certification schemes) ultimately fall short of their projected targets, which is often due to a lack of suitable monitoring with regard to biodiversity. This is unsurprising since biodiversity monitoring is not a straightforward process. Many considerations need to be made when choosing suitable indicators of ecosystem health such as whether to measure species diversity or functional diversity. But perhaps one of the biggest issues is the ability of landowners and managers to contribute to efficient, objective, standardised data collection. Acoustic monitoring offers a means of producing unbiased data that can be analysed objectively and stored indefinitely. With significant advances in hardware and software technologies, the proliferation of acoustic monitoring is evident in the scientific literature. The field of soundscape ecology was in many respects borne out of these technological advances. It has since been usurped by the newer field of ecoacoustics (I use these two terms interchangeably throughout this thesis). Ecoacoustics offers a range of soundscape analytical techniques that aim to understand the spectral and temporal composition of the soundscape. As such a number of acoustic indices can be used to measure different facets of acoustic diversity. This study offers an overview of the current literature in bioacoustics and ecoacoustics. It applies several of these indices to studying the soundscape of Forest Stewardship Council certified plantation forests in the UK. Specifically it investigates the soundscape in relation to habitat and landscape metrics and explores temporal variation in acoustic activity. It offers insights into the relationship between man-made/machine noise (technophony) and biological sounds (biophony) and suggests future directions for research and large-scale monitoring of habitats. Finally it provides a set of instructions on how to build an automated recording unit using readily available parts and provides links to necessary software and guidance on types of hardware available. The key findings indicate that the use of acoustic indices for monitoring landscapes could be a useful tool. Clear relationships were observed between forest structure and stand age, and vegetation structure, with acoustic diversity in Thetford forest over two consecutive years. Although these relationships were not clear in Bedgebury forest, the effects of landscape structure were statistically significant, particularly when using automated recording units. Road proximity had a strong influence on the soundscape in all study sites. And the use of ecoacoustic methods to explore this offers an insight into a new means of investigating the impact of roads on acoustic biodiversity. The development of a low-cost automated recording unit is a significant contribution to the field of soundscape ecology in terms of encouraging participation by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) sector. Likewise, the use of a handheld recording unit and the application of traditional ecological survey methods provide evidence that soundscape/ecoacoustic studies that yield interesting, informative and biologically meaningful results can be done on a relatively low budget. As such this thesis offers a significant contribution to the field of soundscape ecology in terms of both data and logistics. It may be particularly relevant to researchers on a limited budget and/or the NGO and citizen science sector.

Targeting environmental DNA (eDNA) for species monitoring and biodiversity assessment is a newly emerged technique. Surveys targeting eDNA involve the isolation of DNA shed into the environment by an organism to identify species utilizing a particular location. Despite uncertainties surrounding the technique, eDNA has begun to be used extensively for species assessments. Using the great crested newt (Triturus cristatus) as a model species, we (1) determined seasonal trends in eDNA with a view to optimising survey timing; (2) estimated the detection probabilities for eDNA and their covariates; and (3) explored how abundance estimates may be made from aquatic eDNA samples. We conclude that detection varies through the year, with most reliable detection coinciding with peak breeding. However, outside the breeding season detection is possible where larval numbers are high. Environmental and population factors may influence release of DNA from a target species or eDNA persistence in water and sediments. These include sediment type, number of both adults and larvae, changes in adult body condition, habitat variables and sampling location. As many external covariates were found to influence eDNA concentration, it would not be appropriate to use eDNA concentration as a predictor of abundance. However; we apply a modelling approach to generate estimates of abundance using genomic DNA, with a degree of accuracy deemed acceptable for ecological monitoring. The conclusions are directly relevant to refining survey design and analysis for the assessment of great crested newt populations. The results are also applicable more generally to the eDNA survey method, its development, survey design and interpretation, whether for single species analysis or community analysis.

This body of work offers an illustration of optimism and empowered hope in action: Via social science, it seeks to understand certain remarkable conservation efforts of human beings - to aid threatened wildlife species facing increasingly complex, urgent survival challenges from an ever-present, arresting backdrop of threats. This research considers and learns from the extraordinary, wide-ranging, multifaceted, impactful conservation efforts that occur for threatened wildlife - when multiple parties unite for their cause. Against many and fierce odds, conservation partnerships can form across boundaries of all types - national, cultural and sectoral. This study seeks to understand what could be incentivising and fuelling the array of macro-scale conservation efforts, seemingly boundless within and across nations, where regardless of mankind's differences - cultural, religious, professional, societal or otherwise - neither physical nor non-physical boundaries, nor the backdrop of threats to wildlife, appear to impede. This knowledge is crucially-needed to aid conservation outcomes: For many threatened species, cohesive effort is lacking - groups and organisations, between and within sectors, often act in fragmented manner. The upshot of these frequent situations of disparate working is that, despite common goals, bodies follow parallel but discrete tracks, seldom collaborating to maximise the potential of conservation outcomes and impact for their focal species. Conservation does not occur in a vacuum: It is increasingly acknowledged that the precarious state of the world's wildlife is fuelled by anthropogenic drivers. The array of threats to wildlife survival is intrinsically and intricately linked to multiple, complex, multi-layered social, political and economic human factors; in short, biodiversity conservation is beset with 'wicked' problems - issues so intricate and complex that they are extremely difficult to solve. In a once-biologically-rooted discipline, scholarly understanding of the multiple human dimensions of conservation is increasingly recognised as key to effective, impactful outcomes for threatened species. This research makes its contribution by exploring the human dimensions of conservation collaborative endeavours - a much-understudied field. To better integrate conservation for threatened species, there is urgent need for analysis of the human processes involved in conservation collaborative action. Examination of processes relating to connections within and between groups - and how consequent social networks are leveraged - relates pathways for understanding how partnerships and elaborate networks emerge to carry out collaborative endeavours. This research deeply considers micro level conservation interactions - and then relates them to the macro perspective of collaborative conservation action, considering how social capital between individuals influences the wider threatened species conservation movement. By using two multi-site case studies, to give depth of insight to this novel topic, I aim to understand the complexities of the human dimensions of conservation collaboration. Specifically, my objectives are to 1) develop an understanding of the overall array of actors and heterogeneity of effort contributed to the threatened species conservation movement, 2) examine human-related drivers to determine how social capital can influence the building of cross-sector, multi-background, multi-party conservation partnerships and their aggregates, and 3) examine human-related drivers to determine the operation and influence of social capital pertaining to collective action in cross-sector, multi-background, multi-party conservation partnerships and their aggregates. To answer objective 1, with a focus on 36 threatened wild cat species/subspecies, I take a novel approach to explore the array of actors and effort contributing to threatened species conservation. I undertake extensive content analysis of internet sources, examining the conservation actors and their exchanges that constitute the threatened species conservation movement. Once the preserve of biologists, I find the extant threatened species conservation movement has diversified to embrace an eclectic array of actors and effort, including novel actors and innovative contributions from backgrounds not previously associated with threatened species conservation - and, from actors commonly-recognised within conservation, diversification to offer innovative contributions. The results can be used by conservation actors from all backgrounds and sectors to pursue pathways highlighted, widening the aggregates of those working to conservation goals to benefit conservation outcomes and impact. This study also illustrates a novel method by which an overarching purposeful assemblage of aggregated actors, such as a movement, may be studied. To answer objectives 2 and 3, I conduct a case study, employing a social capital framework, based on conservation actors and their extraordinary, diverse, transboundary partnerships working to conserve the snow leopard Panthera uncia. I undertake documentary analysis, carry out extensive interviews - and narrative and social network analysis. To answer objective 2, I explore the human-related mechanisms by which eclectic, successful, visionary conservation partnerships are established. Following on from this, I answer objective 3 by exploring the complexities of inter-party relationships in operation during conservation collaborative action. I identify human-related mechanisms by which eclectic, successful, visionary conservation partnerships build and operate social capital to collaboratively aid a threatened species. By concomitant consideration of other factors considered important to partnership-building and collective action, I also identify overarching themes and every-day scenarios that empower the building of conservation partnerships and fuel their subsequent collaborative endeavours. This study provides a unique perspective of the influence of human-related drivers on the building of cross-sector, multi-background, multi-party collaborative partnerships in biodiversity conservation. It is the first study, to my knowledge, to identify mechanisms by which social capital is created and harnessed in conservation partnerships. The study places individual actors' interactions within the larger ecological and socio-political context in which the threatened species conservation movement operates and makes a novel contribution to social capital knowledge. The optimism embedded in this thesis is not fuelled by blind, uninformed hope, but empowered by research that is informed by real conservation issues and delivers practical, positive solutions as well as theoretical knowledge - in an accessible user-friendly manner. The findings of this thesis attest to the multi-faceted - and positive - nature of the human dimensions of collaborative conservation effort. Building social capital and harnessing it leads to a tipping point that moves conservation endeavour along a positive path - pivotal knowledge that can aid the many species currently passing 'under the radar' with respect to collaborative conservation effort. This study not only provides framework for practitioners of all sorts in conservation, but also transferable knowledge to aid partnership-building and globalised collective action embracing multiple backgrounds, cultures, sectors in many disciplines and theatres. In conclusion, the findings of this thesis advocate that the threatened species conservation movement would benefit from nurturing efforts to more diligently help human interactions - supporting and empowering people to build good relationships - so that we can holistically empower outcomes for wildlife and achieve our biological goals.

The Bologna process describes a collaboration of countries from Europe to Central Asia, where state actors and institutions work towards system convergence in higher education and define an international common space of education policy. This thesis provides a critical reflection on international higher education policymaking and reform implementation through the lens of the Russian engagement with Bologna, contributing to literature in the anthropology of “policy as a practice of power”, and contributing to studies of higher education. Drawing on seven months of fieldwork in Moscow in 2010-11, and from a corpus of European and Russian legislation, education policy documents and university surveys, the thesis explores Bologna as an international sociocultural normative effort, and reveals practices of power that emerge during Russia’s engagement with Bologna. The chapters offer an ethnographic look at Russian actors’ engagement with Bologna, highlighting their roles inside the institutions, their discursive production, network mobility, and the kinds of agencies that thrive inside the Bologna process. I follow the implementation of the European Credit Transfer System higher education standard by a Moscow university, and illuminate practices of segregation inside the institution that limit the appropriation of Bologna’s Social Dimension policies. Through such explorations the thesis shows regimes of power in the Bologna process, practices that strengthen Bologna’s governance model and establish the legitimacy of its policies, and the emergence of political and institutional hegemonies. I also show negotiation practices that emerge during the appropriation of Bologna’s policies, modifying or challenging these educational norms.

The study presents a new form of pilgrimage introduced by Thai authorities and involving visiting to nine temples (Wai Phra Kao Wat) in Bangkok. I will focus on four main aspects of this phenomenon. Firstly, the study will describe the dynamic application of the practice (Wai Phra Kao Wat) including the forms of devotion, the designation of temples by authorities, the pilgrims’ experience, and the role played by local ‘communities’ (chumchon). Secondly, the study will consider this pilgrimage as a case study with which to explore how Thai cultural phenomena provide multiple avenues for Thai people to reflect on their perception of the relation between Buddhism (Theravada Buddhism in particular) and the state. Thirdly, the study explores the contribution of ‘new’ performances of religiosity in popular Buddhism into shaping modern economy and rhetorical politics. Lastly, the study will provide the significance of Wai Phra Kao Wat that could shed light on important contemporary Thai cultural phenomena such as the emergence of ‘pilgrimage tourism’ on socio-cultural and economic changes and the relationship between ritual practice and Thai citizenship. The ethnographic methods including participant observation and interviewing are mainly employed throughout the fieldwork. I conclude that Buddhism in contemporary Thailand becomes an instrument to negotiate identities and meanings at the level of governance. Wai Phra Kao Wat, a state-oriented campaign, has been then utilised to enhance Thai capital’s venture into the global economy as well as to establish regime legitimacy with the inculcation of nation, religion, and monarchy.