Innovation and social learning are the dual pillars of cultural evolution, yet we know little about individual differences in propensity to use these learning strategies. This thesis investigated whether intrinsic and extrinsic individual differences predict the use of social or asocial information when faced with novel problems, from a developmental (children) and comparative (chimpanzees) perspective. Using an experimental approach, both species were presented with novel, multi-action puzzle-boxes, and measures of personality (children and chimpanzees) and social network positions (children) were collated and correlated with learning strategy use. Overall, children showed a comparatively greater reliance on social information than chimpanzees; while the majority of seven- to 11-year old children explicitly elected for social information when it was offered, most chimpanzees interacted with a puzzle-box where asocial learning was required before one offering social demonstrations, and chimpanzees’ puzzle-box behaviour was not influenced by three different forms of social information (video demonstrations of ‘conspecific hands’, human demonstrations and observations of conspecifics during task interaction). Personality (agreeableness, openness to experience and conscientiousness) was an important predictor of children’s learning strategies, both in terms of children’s overt choice for and fidelity to witnessed behaviours. By contrast, while there was tentative evidence that ratings of dominance predicted the propensity to observe video demonstrations, personality otherwise was not correlated with chimpanzees’ learning strategy behaviours. Additionally, children identified as having many social connections were more innovative both in terms of asocial exploration and deviation from adult demonstrations. Certain themes also emerged throughout this thesis; children displayed a negative age-related trend in the propensity to use social information. In both children and chimpanzees, females showed a greater propensity to acquire social information, while the use of multiple tasks revealed novel insights into consistencies in cross-task performance in terms of both children’s innovative behaviours and chimpanzees’ use of different types of social information. Specifically, children who overtly elected to solve a novel puzzle-box asocially were more likely to manufacture a tool on an innovation challenge and scored higher on a measure of creativity, compared to children who elected for social demonstrations. In chimpanzees, observations of video demonstrations were correlated with observations of human demonstrations, as was the propensity to observe conspecifics during task interaction across both experiments. By revealing cross-species similarities and differences concerning how personality and social network positions predict learning strategy use, this thesis sheds new light on how cultures emerge and establish, and the evolutionary trajectory of human culture. The methodological and cultural implications, as well as potential future directions, are discussed.

Endometriosis, a chronic disease that affects about 1.5 million women in the UK and 176 million women worldwide, is defined as the placement of endometrial-related tissue outside the uterus. It is characterized by painful menstrual periods, chronic pelvic pain, infertility, and pain during sexual intercourse. It has an average time to diagnosis of 7-10 years. This thesis is based on an ethnographic study conducted primarily in the United Kingdom, which shed light on how health professionals and patients negotiate endometriosis. Utilizing Annemarie Mol’s (2002) concept of disease ontology, this thesis explores the interplay between the multiplicities of endometriosis and the a-diagnostic category, a novel concept that I develop, with hopes of contextualising the struggle to access care for this condition. There are several reasons for a patient’s movement into the a-diagnostic category. Historical understandings of menstruation and of the uterus limit what is presently considered endometriosis. Stigmatized notions of endometriosis and a ‘lay-professional epidemiology’ of the disease used by gynaecologists impede access to diagnosis. Interference with obtaining the endometriosis label can also be seen in the endometriosis movement, despite its advocating for women’s gaining one unifying label. Teenagers, women of lower socio-economic status and of colour, and non-heteronormative/non-cis patients struggle to attain the endometriosis label. Enactments of endometriosis in the gynaecology clinic, as well as outside of it, are multiple and often clash over inclusion in or escape from the a-diagnostic category. This thesis contributes to understandings of an underexplored, gendered, embodied experience of the disease, the effects of the extended delay to diagnosis, and the tensions around the endometriosis diagnosis. It is a context that is crucial for understanding the disease, its symbolic meanings, and for formulation of improved care of those suffering from endometriosis.

The Building a Chinese Socialist New Village Programme that intends to narrow the rural-urban gap, improve the rural living conditions and develop the economy of rural China, has been conducted throughout the country since 2006. This thesis is a study of the new rural landscape in a model of ‘New Village’ in south of China. In this thesis, I set out to answer two key questions: first, how was the ‘New Village’ built up, from blueprint to funding, project execution and so forth? Second, how does the New Village ‘afford’ (in Gibson’s sense) local life and how do the local people adapt into the New Village? I conducted twelve-months ethnographical fieldwork in Baikou New Village, one of the earliest models of the New Village programme, and found that the conflicts and integration between the three dominant concepts – Confucianism, communism and neoliberalism – provide the key framework in understanding the two questions. Under the framework, the landscape of Baikou New Village will be explained from both the micro view and macro view and embedded in the cultural, historical, economic and political contexts, which may contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the Chinese New Village programme.

No description available.

This thesis examines the specific role voluntary organisations can play in promoting carers’ work-care reconciliation. It uses an in-depth longitudinal case study of a work-care reconciliation project delivered by a voluntary organisation to investigate how an organisation implemented support services for carers in practice, the challenges they faced, and the successes they achieved. An ethic of care framework informs the thesis and analysis focuses on relationships and social processes. Using evidence from the case study, it is argued that voluntary organisations can promote carers’ work-care reconciliation by ‘delivering person-centred support’ and contributing to ‘creating carer-friendly workplaces’. It is suggested that, ultimately, the moral and political principles of ‘an ethic of care’ are important for understanding how voluntary organisations can support the work-care reconciliation of carers and the concept ‘civil society’ helps us understand why they can promote carers’ work-care reconciliation in practice. The challenges to sustainability voluntary organisations providing work-care reconciliation support face and changes within civil society, however, appear to threaten the ability of organisations to deliver services in line with an ethic of care and so promote carers’ work-care reconciliation. The thesis contributes to debates regarding how carers can be supported to combine work and care and the changing role of voluntary organisations in society and makes three principal original contributions to knowledge: it presents evidence from longitudinal research into the specific role voluntary organisations can play in promoting carers’ work-care reconciliation, it develops a theoretical understanding of the role voluntary organisations can play and it provides insight into the specific challenges voluntary organisations delivering work-care reconciliation support can face and how they can be negotiated in practice, over time.

No description available.

Social movement scholarship has been slower to incorporate cultural theory than other domains since the 'cultural turn' within social science and the humanities. The leading perspectives in this regard, within studies of social movements, have been frame alignment and those looking to understand 'new social movements'. While these bring culture into focus through a wealth of literature since the 1970s and 1980s, this thesis argues that they remain inadequate in understanding the full role of culture. While the former rely too heavily on static, overly instrumental, powerless and voluntarist notions of culture, due in part to their early affiliation with the resource mobilization paradigm, the latter create an altogether too ideational notion of culture, overlooking the importance of material distribution and one's social position in the production and reproduction of culture. It is the contention of the author that social movement scholarship requires a more comprehensive and holistic approach to culture. This thesis therefore offers an original contribution in arguing for a historical materialist approach to social movements and culture that foregrounds the ideas of Antonio Gramsci and Raymond Williams. This perspective, by contrast, provides an approach to culture that is dynamic, historical, and appreciative of the role of power. In order to show the added value and utility of a historical materialist approach to culture, this thesis provides a detailed and concrete application of the theory to a specific social movement and its use of popular cultural artefact that has received growing attention in recent years for its apparent worldwide diffusion: the Guy Fawkes mask. Through a protest event analysis this research first of all establishes the extent of this diffusion and thus the mask's significance across diverse protest groups. In order to explore the practice of adopting the mask in more detail, this research uses one of the main contexts in which the mask has been employed for further analysis: the Occupy Movement (specifically Occupy London). Through interviews with participants of Occupy London, this research makes the argument that popular cultural forms are made available for use over time through previous human activity, and therefore that their use is both enabled and constrained by wider social and material factors. It also argues that the mask's availability as a practice is subject to cultural contestation and its capacity, due to these wider contextual factors, to resonate with different groups. The argument in this thesis is that existing approaches (such as framing and new social movement theories) fail to bring about such necessary discussions around culture, and that through a historical materialist framework it is possible to more sufficiently analyse the power-laden, conditioned, and ever-changing basis from which such practices emerge and diffuse.

Through the lens of underground heavy metal, this thesis explores the importance of live music and the ways in which music worlds transform, decline and remain resilient. In a departure from traditional academic studies of heavy metal, which focus on notions of youth, rebellion, gender and subversive themes, (Weinstein, 1999; Krenske and McKay, 2000; Bennett, 2001), this thesis takes a novel approach in exploring the active nature of this music world. As artists face problems with digital distribution and the related decline of record sales, live music was expected to flourish, as artists seek to compensate for lost recording revenue through live shows. However, this world is not as straightforward as it might appear; arguably it is an industry which is becoming increasingly volatile. As grass-roots venues close and touring costs increase for artists, underground live music faces a particularly tough struggle. Therefore, in contributing to the growing body of literature on 'Art Worlds', (Becker, 1982), this thesis develops an understanding of the ways in which venues, promoters and audiences attempt to sustain this music world. Through surveying attendance at live events and interviewing active participants, it is argued that whilst this music world suggests elements of decline it also shows perseverance. Through the development of translocal networks and maintenance of community, these participants pool resources in order to facilitate live events; even in the face of tremendous struggle. In doing so, this thesis makes a unique contribution to academic understandings of underground metal, capturing this music world at a particularly tumultuous time.

The study is an evaluation of how Merseyside Police attempted to narrow the Black and Racial Minority (BRM) satisfaction gap, as measured by the Home Office performance indicator. The research considers the sense with which both police officers and, more importantly, victims made of the policies and processes used. It asks whether this activity resulted in an improvement to the service being provided, therefore benefitting the victim, or in the construction of performance data thereby benefitting the organisation. The research was undertaken between 2011 and 2015 and completed as a case study. It involved the views of those people within Merseyside Police who were responsible for the design and implementation of policy along, with some of those responsible for delivering the service to the public. The research also includes the narrative of victims who had taken part in Merseyside Police’s monthly victim satisfaction survey. The BRM satisfaction gap was initially proposed by the Macpherson Report, which had examined the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence. It was one of ten performance indicators intending to monitor and assess whether trust and confidence in the police was improving within BRM communities. Previous research had identified factors other than the quality of police contact as influencing a person’s level of satisfaction. However, this research shows how the BRM satisfaction gap was treated as a single subject by Merseyside Police, who chose to focus purely on service delivery to improve victim satisfaction. Warnings regarding statistical relevance of the BRM satisfaction gap, along with concerns as to whether the victim satisfaction survey was fit for purpose, were ignored in their efforts to ensure the performance indicator was on target. The research highlights how New Public Management (NPM) principles of performance management were used to produce organisational focus and develop a system which closely tracked the service provided to BRM victims by individual officers. However, it shows that although it resulted in a good knowledge amongst senior officers, this was not embedded amongst those delivering the service. Instead, reporting officers developed their own working practices to deliver Merseyside Police’s required ‘Gold Service’ to BRM victims, whilst many victims remained confused and frustrated with the service provided. Merseyside Police did statistically narrow the BRM satisfaction gap. However, the research highlights the influence of performance construction and questions whether the recorded improvement in performance was as result of an improved service or was manufactured by gaming techniques. Although the BRM satisfaction gap was intended to measure trust and confidence, the research concludes this was never a consideration for Merseyside Police who, instead, focussed their efforts on improving their performance indicator.

The research examined the response of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to anti-austerity protests in London following the financial crisis of 2008 and the election of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2010. Research began in the wake of prevalent controversies at the time around how the police deployed force against demonstrators including the use of containment of large crowds for a substantial length of time and the death of a member of the public, Ian Tomlinson, after being struck with a baton during the G20 protests in 2009 (Rosie and Gorringe, 2009). There were also concerns around how the MPS gathered intelligence with Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) accused of gathering and retaining data improperly (HAC, 2009), as well as emerging scandals of undercover officers amongst environmental and social justice campaigns (BBC, 2012a). These controversies led the police to innovate new methods of communication with protesters including liaison officers to mix in the crowd and explain police tactics for the day. This research investigated how the MPS deployed its different tactics which were grouped under the strategies of force, surveillance and negotiated management. Drawing primarily on writings on police culture it used a documentary analysis and a series of semi-structured interviews with MPS officers to examine how the police conceive of public order policing, anti-austerity protests and how their tactics were deployed and may change in the future. The conclusion ends with several interesting insights from the data. The most significant is how the police interviewees see little problem with how the MPS deploy surveillance. This is important as they recognise the controversy that can arise through the use of force. They tend to treat the recent moves towards liaison policing to replace the use of force at protests as the uppermost concern. They acknowledge the hostility that surveillance can engender in activists but see this as largely unavoidable and can be dismissive of civil liberty concerns. This is in contrast to the fact that the documentary analysis of policy recognises that the use of intelligence gathering needs to be proportionate (ACPO, 2010). It is also concerning in a time when there are several revelations around undercover officers embedded in environmental and social justice campaigns. This leads the research to recommend that any future research on public order policing must find a way to surmount the obstacle of gaining access to, and properly assessing, the role of undercover policing to complement research on overt forms of intelligence gathering on the day of the protest.