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The imprisonment of trade unionists in the United Kingdom for events occurring during strikes has been a rare occurrence, particularly over the past three decades when strikes have declined to an all-time low. The trials and convictions of a group of North Wales building workers in 1973-74 for picketing-related offences during the first and only UK national building workers strike raises important issues for all those engaged in challenging the politics and effects of austerity and neo-liberalism. This thesis is an analysis of the case of the 'Shrewsbury 24', using newly-available documents that have been located during the research. It illustrates how the state used the criminal justice system in an attempt to curtail effective picketing by workers during industrial disputes. Draconian prison sentences were handed down to six of the pickets to send a signal to the trade union and labour movement that the government were prepared to use the courts to deter mass picketing. The thesis explores the laws that were used against the pickets and the enormous discretion available to the police and prosecutors in deciding whether and what to charge at any given time. It illuminates the landscape of hidden dangers posed by the criminal law, which can be used arbitrarily against trade unionists and campaigners who organise or participate in direct action. Using a Marxist theoretical approach, including Gramsci's concept of hegemony, this thesis explores the role of the state and of ideology in criminalising trade unionists. The thesis, through an examination of theories of miscarriages of justice, concludes that by locating the convictions of the pickets within a class-based framework the political character of miscarriages of justice is revealed.

This thesis investigates crime memorabilia, or ‘true crime objects’, and proposes the concept of ‘authenticity’ as a way of understanding the perceived value and imagined criminality inside of objects, artefacts, exhibitions and consumables associated with famous violent crimes. Murderabilia has enjoyed a sustained rise in interest in both news media and popular culture, but academic research has been limited. It addresses a central contradiction in the paucity of literature that has touched upon murderabilia – to what extent is murderabilia an extension of existing violent transgressive narratives in popular culture; or a will to transgress these mainstream discourses themselves; or a combination thereof? To that end, this thesis seeks to understand where the consumption of criminal transgression sits as part of the broader system of objects, and the broader popular cultural genre of true crime as well. Through a digital and traditional ethnography conducted over ten months (September 2014 – July 2015), covering museum exhibitions of murderabilia, personal murderabilia collections, and manufactured murder merchandise, murderabilia is revealed as a complicated negotiation of some of the contradicting demands of art, culture, antique – and consumerism. It is argued that the consumption of murder objects is reflective of a broader societal will to transgress banality and sameness in 21st century Western consumer capitalist marketplaces, and not as an embracement or glorification of criminal transgression itself. Consumers are positioned in pursuit of experiences of perceived authenticity, despite embracing dominant popular cultural narratives of crime in the process.

This study investigates speaker-audience interaction in political oratory. The aims of this study are (1) to investigate the contextual and cultural differences in speaker-audience interaction in political oratory, (2) to contribute methodological innovations in the analysis of political discourse, and (3) to emphasise the practical implications of the study for real life. By combining qualitative and quantitative methods, speaker’s verbal and nonverbal behaviour and audience’s behaviour (forms of response and collective behaviour) are analysed in three speech contexts of Korean presidential election 2012: acceptance speeches to the nomination as political parties’ candidates for presidential election, presidential election campaign speeches, and presidential inauguration speeches. It is presented that: (1) there are close relationships between orator-audience interaction and speech contexts beyond the cultural dimensions; (2) invitation to respond is shaped by multiple layers of resources (verbal devices and nonverbal factors); (3) grammatical order is an important factor in the cultural differences in terms of the projectability of turn completion in orator-audience interaction; (4) the production of orator-audience interaction occurs by mutual respect of each other’s turn and mutual collaboration to achieve their shared goals; (5) audience behaviour has evolved through the political time periods. It is argued that political speech context (i.e., the purpose of oratory, speaker-audience status, political culture and system), language, and nonverbal factors are important variables in studying speaker-audience interaction. Based on the findings, practical implications in social and political behaviour are presented.

This study develops a sociological approach to the study of coincidence. It uses real-life, textual accounts of coincidences sourced from the Cambridge Coincidence Collection to examine the ways in which events are constructed as coincidences and as non-coincidences in discourse. This is a direct departure from previous research in the field of coincidence studies, which has predominantly focused on ontological questions of coincidence. The aim of this study was to identify rhetorical devices people use in coincidence accounts. It draws on a broadly discourse analytical approach, examining the ways in which cognition, reality and identity are constructed in accounts of coincidence. An initial single case study identified possible rhetorical patterns, which were then identified, dismissed or fine-tuned in light of the data set. Four rhetorical devices have been identified in the analysis: 'mirror formulations', which narratively bind together the two story-segments that constitute coincidence; the 'discovery/departure' device, which manages stake and intentionality of the narrators; the 'but ... still' device, which is a type of show concession through which narrators display an orientation to probabilistic reasoning; and coincidence disconfirmation, which discursively turns private matters public. The main finding of this thesis is that all rhetorical devices of coincidence construction identified in the CCC orient to an idealist notion of natural sciences, thus simultaneously adhering to – and perpetuating – its ideological influence. Thus, whilst often classed as ‘paranormal’ experiences, peoples’ coincidence accounts work hard at justifying their own existence in terms of mainstream scientific standards. This thesis provides an original contribution to knowledge by unpicking the consequential question of how a set of events is discursively constructed as a coincidence or the responsibility of agentic action.

This research is an exploratory investigation into the phenomenon of violence in the armed conflict 2007-9 in the Swat valley, between the Taliban and the State of Pakistan. The study aims at analysing violence committed during the conflict, its significance, and the response of the community. It explores violence and its impact in a specific context, and contributes to our conceptual understanding of violence. Because it is a sensitive topic to research and since the concept of violence is inherently complex, a qualitative methodology is adopted. Three approaches which generate three different sets of data are used for triangulation: semi-structured in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and newspaper articles. Through thematic analysis, this research finds that violence was carried out mainly for securing control over areas and maintaining it. In so doing, the civilian population of Swat was subdued through excessive use of three types of violence, namely physical violence, psychological violence, and social violence. “Social violence” in particular, in this context, is a discovery of this research and a significant and unique contribution of the thesis. The commission of violence however had a detrimental impact on the warring parties, making them lose civilian support as a result. Local communities when faced with severe violence had to struggle for survival, a complex phenomenon comprising three types, physical, psychological, and social, paralleling the forms of violence they experienced. The people struggled hard because violence disrupted the society, affecting institutions, values, and social relations. This thesis finds that it was a unique time socially and historically in Swat where significant levels of violence disrupted the societal order. In short, the research not only explores violence in the armed conflict in Swat, but also explains the complex nature of it.

The main research objective of this thesis examines how individual, self-identifying British Pakistani Muslims negotiate their senses of belonging through their marital selections. Drawing upon cases on intermarried case studies, I ethnographically explore how these individuals experience and interpret wedding ceremonies, sequences of expected obligations and reciprocity, religious belonging and raising children, and how digital and social media serve as tools of inspiration and mediation around issues of intermarriage. Although disparate in ethnographic representation, what unifies and casts these case studies and themes as an anthropological area of reflection is the individual sense of ‘unique’ life stories, and more importantly how these life stories interlink with similar life stories through a multi-layered narrative process. Considered to be relatively endogamous, British Pakistani Muslims in cultural, religious, and racial intermarriages become anthropologically engaging. While some individuals of this study conceptualise their experiences as transcending kinship boundaries, others are continuously weighing their relationship choices against their traditional upbringings, considered by some participants to be contradictory experiences. In response, I argue that the diverse examples of intermarriage not only demonstrate how narrative is formed and reformed through past-present-and-future imaginings and experiences, but also how navigating social risks plays a significant role in partner selection, child rearing, and other relationship behaviours. Individuals, like those of this study who push the boundaries of risk, do not do so as isolated agents, but are able to do so due to an increasing testing of social boundaries and of weighing risk, emotional labour, and future imaginings that are reflected upon through collective narrative processes.

This thesis explores the lives of women after marriage. It focuses on their position in households and their roles as wives and mothers. The findings are supported by a 14-month ethnography in a rural village in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. The village itself has been subject to periodical changes that have impacted village life. Contrary to popular discourses, this has not resulted in a disintegration of village life. From my exploration of women’s lives this thesis shows the mechanisms that enable integration to be achieved amidst developmental changes. Moreover, women play a central role in keeping family life together. Within the parameters of women’s responsibilities as caregivers, they are able to build and maintain the household and preserve a public image of a ‘good house’. However, at times houses are engulfed with problems that rupture marriages and family lives. In such instances, I show how women work to restore their marriages and family lives by strategically enlisting the help of their children, affines, kin, close friends and the state. When these prove inadequate, I show how women turn to supernatural solutions such as sorcery. Women also use virtual resources in the form of televisions and mobile phones to find relief from the suffering that occurs in the home. In efforts to restore family life, women are working within structures of subjugation rather than challenging them. Women’s capacity to mend ruptures in marriage and family life causes them to see their lives as a series of ‘beautiful mistakes’. Family life is necessary, valued and important for the women in this thesis but it is also a source of pain and suffering.