This thesis presents a series of small-scale empirical investigations into artists, education and change. It is flamed by a theoretical perspective derived from the work of the French social theorist Pierre Bourdieu and his conceptualisation of the social world and its functioning in relationship to education, formal and informal, and, artistic and cultural change. See (Bourdieu, 1977/72), (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1970), (Bourdieu, 1993). The thesis combines published book chapters and journal articles with a previously unpublished commentary to highlight aspects of education and artistic change in terms of habitus field, and cultural capital. Each empirical research project employs a three-level relational approach (Bourdieu 1992) to the analysis of artists' biographies, including their educational experiences in relation to cultural institutions, and to the changing structures of the artistic field. Artists are studied during the 30s and 40s in St Ives, in the 40s and 50s in New York, and at the turn of the twentieth century in London. The studies investigate how artists of a certain habitus constituted themselves as an avant-garde by their positioning within the art, field and the broader social space, and examine the role of education in the development of an artistic avant-garde. In each case, configurations of social, economic and cultural capital are examined to show the crucial role of education at times of change. The temporal structure of social change and its disruptive effects are discussed directly in a book chapter -Hysteresis. Cultural institutions are also analysed as sites of informal education and artistic consumption, e. g. through field analyses of the founding of three major museums. The study explores how such a social analytical approach to artistic production enriches and deepens our understanding of the 'rules' of art and the part played by education within this. Qualitative analyses of this type which apply Bourdieu's methodology and theory of practice to art and culture are original and have been developed from the earlier work of Grenfell (Grenfell, 1995) that explored the nature of pedagogical habitus for trainee teachers. A series of qualitative methods have been developed by the author and are presented in this thesis. Concluding remarks also address what, in the author's view, are the advantages and limitations of adopting a Bourdieusian approach to the study of the social world.

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The term ‘banter’ refers to a specific type of jocular interaction that is playful in nature, but characterised by it’s often impolite, offensive, and abusive tone. An interactive practice that permeates many spheres of the social world, it is particularly prevalent within male-dominated sporting arenas. Indeed, banter is often an inevitable part of masculine rugby settings, and the people and interactions that help to construct them. Drawing on data from a three-year ethnographic study of a Northern Rugby Club, this thesis is concerned with how men experience and negotiate the gendered structures which underpin such sporting sites. In doing so, it provides an empirical examination of the ways in which banter is used to engage with hegemonic masculinities in practice. Moving beyond current conceptions of ‘the rugby lad’ to introduce the idea of ‘mischievous masculinities’, the thesis offers a nuanced way of theorising the relationship between masculinity and humour that enables greater flexibility in our understanding how men construct, deconstruct and negotiate the boundaries of their gendered identities. Indeed, by examining how banter is used within contemporary sporting communities, we can begin to be more productively account for, and problematize, the agency and diversity that characterises lived experiences of hegemonic masculinity.

The current paradigm on cognitive ageing suggests that greater social participation, higher socioeconomic status, as well as more physical and mental exercise, have a positive effect on cognitive decline trajectories with ageing. In turn, favourable cognitive decline trajectories with ageing lead to better outcomes in terms of everyday functioning. Although this paradigm has received significant recognition in research and policymaking, it has been insufficiently examined among cognitively healthy older adults. This research set out to examine explicitly among cognitively healthy older adults, whether higher social participation, higher socioeconomic status, as well as more physical exercise and Internet use have a beneficial effect on cognitive vitality and everyday functioning. Firstly, a meta-analysis of studies that examined the relationship between cognitive performance and everyday functioning among healthy older adults was conducted. Subsequently, the translation and cultural validation of two measures of everyday functioning from English to Greek was carried out. Lastly, a cross-sectional study that examined the relationship between social participation, socioeconomic status, physical exercise, Internet, cognitive performance and everyday functioning was conducted. The findings indicate that cognitive performance and everyday functioning are moderately related in the healthy spectrum of cognitive performance. Furthermore, social participation, education, Internet use and exercise seem to moderate age-related decrements in cognitive performance. These effects seem to be contingent upon certain age groups and subpopulations with specific characteristics. The findings do not support the transferability of cognitive benefits to everyday functioning. It was concluded that social participation, Internet use and exercise might have a significant beneficial effect on at least one domain of cognitive performance (executive function) in older adults with specific characteristics, without resulting necessarily in everyday functioning benefits.

Social work with children and families includes responding to concerns about child maltreatment within the family, and taking protective action where necessary to safeguard the child. Social work is therefore concerned with protecting children from harmful parenting environments with the home as a significant parenting environment. Social workers engaged in child protection practice typically undertake home visits which include interviews with parents, together which inform assessments of parenting. The communicative interactions that take place within the home visit are therefore a significant element of social work child protection practice. Research studies that have focussed on the communicative skills of social workers are suggestive of difficulties in addressing child protection issues in ways that remain empathetic to parental concerns. However, few research studies take place in the situated context of the home visit. This study addresses the communicative encounters that take place between social workers and parents in the context of home visits where children have been identified as at risk of maltreatment. The research also focusses on social workers’ accounts of home visits in order to capture how these reflections shape and reflexively influence the practice of home visits. The research included accompanying social workers on home visits as well as interviews and questionnaires with social workers. A social constructivist approach was adopted that included a hybrid analytic that integrated conversation analysis and discourse analysis, in order to maintain a focus on the interactive encounter, and the context that shaped such encounters. The thesis contributes to understandings of child protection social work as an essentially communicative practice, with the home visits as a significant context that shapes interaction.

Current understanding of housing need in later life is shaped by demographics, social policy, legislative responsibilities, and a growing, but limited body of research and guidance on supporting individuals with dementia to maintain independence with appropriate levels of care. Informed by a survey of extra care housing provision and adopting a grounded theory approach, this study aimed to consider the appropriateness of extra care housing for people with dementia based on the experiences of those living and working in two extra care schemes. Focus groups and interviews revealed four themes to living well with dementia in extra care; a clear understanding of what extra care is and is not; a physical environment that helps people feel safe and find their way easily; a friendly, skilled and competent support team; and a well-developed community where residents can take part, develop friendships, and reduce unwanted isolation. Set within two current discourses of care and support and management, the juxtaposition of social worlds theory and total quality and operational excellence theory helped to frame the issues raised by participants, offering a new model of extra care. The addition of ‘place’ in the new approach highlights the need to manage the spatial environment in extra care to ensure a cohesive and inclusive community. What mattered to residents, staff and managers was having a personalised and flexible service with the right processes and people in place to support people with dementia. Combining sociological and managerial perspectives puts residents and staff at the heart of establishing an approach that delivers. This study contributes to knowledge development in three areas; understanding of extra care housing for people with dementia; interdisciplinary approaches to models of extra care provision; and methodology on researching living with dementia in a supported housing environment. Future research could evaluate the new approach to extra care proposed in this thesis.

The world as we know it today, is not only made up of the various countries and the populations who live in them, but also consists of systems, rules and regulations not just at the national level, but at a global scale as well. While some of these global systems, concepts and regulations bring many folds of benefits to those countries who can access them, there are those who are left behind, forever reaching out but not quite reaching it. These would be the smaller states, who remain disadvantaged from their geolocation to their socioeconomics within which they struggle to survive. Although the sovereign state is very much a real concept, on the economic and political front, the ‘bigger’ countries transcend their geographic boundaries through their economic and political institutions, and systems. And although for these countries the world is becoming a smaller place, for the smaller countries the world is becoming a bigger place, with a multitude of economic and political actors who make rules, regulations and legislations by which the smaller countries have to abide, and hence, the question needs to be asked as to how the smaller countries would survive in the ever increasing globalisation of the world. One of the main arenas within a country that can sculpt the way in which it acts and reacts in the global system is its policy arena, where the policies the country adopts, or can adopt, impacts not just the survival in the global world, but lay the foundations to compete in it. In this respect, this thesis takes a new outlook on the old concept of policy formulation and implementation by the country’s own people, to address their ground reality, through the concept of ‘policy sovereignty’ such that smaller states can address their many policy issues that remain overlooked by the global system.

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This thesis asks what the practice of allotment gardening can tell us about social change. Through interviews and participant observation, it explores allotment gardening as a food provisioning practice, and interrogates how it fits with other food-provisioning practices. It also seeks to situate allotment gardening – in which the individual is both producer and consumer –within an alternative food network paradigm, and tease out whether this distinction makes a difference to how individuals approach issues of ethical consumption. I draw on Giddens’s structuration theory and contemporary practice theory to identify the elements of allotment gardening as a practice. Subsequently, I use the data collected from my fieldwork to reflect upon the strengths and limitations of practice theory as an analytical approach to social change. My findings indicate that allotment gardeners did not systematically share the motivations of ethical consumers but that allotment gardening nonetheless achieved some of the aims of ethical consumption. My research also makes a twofold contribution to contemporary practice theory. First, detailed data analysis demonstrates the multi-layered role that social geographic notions of place/space play in the performance of allotment practice; a dimension which could be more fully developed in further research. Second, in support of current thinking that practices must be analysed not in isolation but in combination if we are to account for social change, I argue that a shift in emphasis is necessary to realise the potential of Reckwitz’s notion of the individual as the ‘unique crossing point’ of practices. This involves situating the individual as the determining element within practice, rather than just one element among others. My data further demonstrates how focusing on the individual as a crossing point of social networks reveals the significant impact that relationships have upon practices.