This thesis explores the sporting interests and experiences of a small sample of young British Asians, drawn from two UK cities: Leicester and Wolverhampton. Framed in the immediate post-London 2012 period, the thesis focuses, broadly, on three key themes: sporting consumption practices pre- and post-2012; the construction of local, national and ethnic identities through sport; and participation opportunities for ‘doing’ sport for British Asians in these two different locations. Preparations for London 2012 included promises of a nationwide sporting legacy that would ‘inspire a generation’ of young people to get involved in local sporting activities and reconnect the UK’s diverse communities. However, British Asians representing Great Britain in Olympic sport remain an infrequent sight, despite the presence of large British Asian amateur sporting communities. Twenty-eight semistructured interviews were completed with a sample of young British Asian males and females to explore, within this context of elite-level underrepresentation, the local impact of the Games on the overall British Asian sporting experience. A central theme within this research was the generational shift apparent in the feelings of belonging to England and Britain, as citizens and sports fans. The alternative structure of competition in the Olympic Games promoted an inclusive national identity; one that celebrated difference and diversity and offered a way in to the national collective that is sometimes lacking in other contexts. However, my sample of young British Asians did not notice increased local opportunities to be physically active, and thus their participation habits remained stagnant. Despite initial positivity and increased feelings of belonging during the Games, London 2012 was not the transformative moment promised. Positive local effects were, at best, ephemeral.

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This thesis is about distance education as work in campus universities. It seeks to understand how distance education arose and has been sustained in campus universities. The research uncovers that critical to the development and sustainability of distance education are the workers (academic and administrative) who believe and are committed to this form of provision for those who are otherwise unable to study. The literature on distance education rarely addresses the role of the distance education workers. Rather it suggests that distance education is very unlikely to develop, let alone be sustained, if the appropriate infra structure is not in place to support it. More recently a contrasting approach, ignoring policies and organisational structures, suggests that the wide scale adoption of learning technologies will mainstream distance education into conventional university provision. There will be little or no difference between the two methods of course delivery. My professional observation was that neither accounts could explain the vibrant and successful distance education that had grown bottom up within departments in campus universities in the UK. This provision, whilst successful, remained marginal to mainstream university teaching and learning. The research for this thesis took place between 2012 and 2015. It utilises an iterative ethnographically informed interview process and was in two stages. The first stage was concerned with ascertaining what ten internationally well known and successful leaders of distance education provision considered to be the critical factors for successful distance education provision. Called the leader/experts in the research, I had anticipated that they would stress leadership and management - and they did. However what emerged from these first stage conversations was that above all else it was the people who worked in distance education who made it take off and thrive. Thus whilst infra structure and technology were important, they were second order considerations for success. These leader/experts pointed to the team working and shared values of distance education workers and their role, as leaders in distance education, was to provide an enabling environment for distance education workers. The second and substantive stage of the research explores how 27 distance education workers in 6 departments in three UK campus universities, describe their work and why it is important to them. The analysis of the research data suggests that distance education workers, in all research sites, saw themselves as working in non hierarchical teams where all, regardless of grade or role, supported each other, worked cooperatively and learned together. This is described as the distance education community of practice and is seen by the distance education workers as very different to the typical (individualistic and competitive) ways of working in academic departments. In addition the interviewees all stressed their involvement and engagement with their distance education students, and emphasised that in all aspects of their work they were student centred. Interviewees also stressed their belief in the benefit of distance education, in particular emphasising the values of access. These core ideas and dispositions are described in the thesis as the distance education habitus. The distance education community of practice and distance education habitus give the distance education workers a sense of identity separate to their campus colleagues and explains their tireless efforts to 'work around' the systems and processes of the campus university, which are not designed to ensure the flexibility distance education students require for successful study. However all the interviewees, but most particularly in two of the universities (A and C), also reported that these ways of working were being eroded and stifled by changing managerial practices that promoted what were described as more 'efficient' ways of running the university. These managerial practices included technology led systems approaches to the management of all students, and changing requirements demanded of academic staff. The thesis concludes by drawing analogies with other public sector provision and noting the contradictions that whilst higher education policy makers are addressing the need for flexibility the operational management of universities are making this harder to achieve.

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This thesis provides an ethnography of sonic practices among the Batek. Sonic practices are central means by which Batek people create, appreciate, and negotiate relationships with each other, and with the non-human persons of the həp (‘forest’). Practices discussed include storytelling, naming, listening to and mimicry of the forest, musical instrument playing, speaking, singing, and laughing. These are related to visual practices, such as weaving and carving, as well as to social life more broadly. This thesis therefore illustrates how Batek aesthetics are both social and oral or visible; connecting diverse practices by drawing on Batek discourses surrounding things that are btʔɛt (‘good, beautiful’), and that cause the emotion of haʔip (‘to feel longing, yearning, nostalgia, love, desire, absence’). Language and ‘musical’ practices are theorised as points on one communicative spectrum, as in Batek, singing, playing instruments, and speaking, are all encompassed by the term klɨŋ (‘sound’). The thesis draws on the ways that Batek people talk about sound, to argue that sounds are not just ephemeral, but can be potent forms of energy. Important ways that the Batek share and transmit their socio-aesthetics are therefore through sonic practices, and the emotional responses they evoke in those that witness or practice them.

This thesis is based on a 15-month ethnography conducted in a peri-urban area adjacent to the south Indian city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The fieldsite comprises of a newly established special economic zone catering to the IT sector and employing over 200,000 IT workers amidst a few rural villages with a population of around 30,000. A key consequence of the transformation of this area from agriculture to a knowledge economy is the varying scales of adoption of personal communication technologies and social media by its different socio-economic groups. As exploring the role of social media in the everyday lives of people of this area is the central focus of this ethnography, this involved an in-depth research of both their online and offline lives. This thesis presents the impact of social media in work and non-work settings such as home and education, which in turn are influenced by factors such as caste, age, class, politics, and gender. The ethnography made clear the degree to which social media usage was deeply rooted in local traditions and practices. This thesis explores how social media constantly undermines the modern workplace boundaries of work and non-work spaces. While taking work home is seen as a social conformance to the modern workplace expectations, managing non-work aspects at work is generally viewed as dissent. However, this thesis argues that such dissent is actually in conformance to the historical ideology of work in south India where such boundaries traditionally did not exist and constant interactions with the non-work space was considered a part of everyday sociality. The impact of social factors led to relative continuity between offline and online spaces. For example, with respect to gender, women belonging to certain castes were either barred from accessing social media or kept low online visibility under surveillance from families and caste networks, thereby reflecting offline patriarchy. Offline hierarchies of class and age were also reflected online. Families went further in using social media to showcase ideal in-group behaviour to the outside world. A direct reflection of the aspiration for social mobility in this area was in education. A key finding was that the symbolic interpretation of social media differed significantly based on the status and the resources that the schools possessed within the community and the socio-economic groups that the students belonged to. This also influenced the teacher-student relationships on social media. The ethnography presents evidence for these uses and consequences of social media both for villagers and the new class of IT workers.