This qualitative study is an empirical examination of the lived experience of women’s ‘life-course persistent’ offending and – for some – the episodes of ‘prolific’ offending which pockmarked it. It investigates factors central to the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of women’s enduring recidivism within the context of the individual life course, as well as seeking to understand the impact of various criminal justice interventions – including the Prolific and other Priority Offender [PPO] initiative – in shaping their offending trajectories over the life-course. Twelve incarcerated women in two English prisons, identifiable as either ‘persistent’ (six or more convictions across the life-course) and/or ‘prolific’ (identified as a PPO), and fifteen criminal justice practitioners and professionals participated in the study. Data was generated by drawing on life-course, ‘pathways’, narrative, and feminist modes of inquiry and analysis. The overall research findings drew attention to the centrality of addiction in the ‘criminal careers’ of female persistent and prolific [PAOP] offenders, and that these addictions often had their roots in women’s acute trauma histories, and the subsequent adoption of substance use as a (maladaptive, and enduring) coping strategy. The biographical accounts provided by the women suggest that the language of ‘persistence’ may serve to obscure the lived realities of repeat criminalisation, which in their experience were better understood as recurrent episodes of attempted, or frustrated, desistance. The accounts given by practitioners and professionals highlighted that while largely sensitive to the need for gender-responsive interventions in working with female PAOP offenders, a lack guidance, resources, and access to appropriate services can act to undermine their abilities to respond in accordance with this awareness. Finally, both practitioners and PAOP offenders alike indicated that the androcentric and risk-focused PPO framework was not appropriate effectively supporting substance-addicted female PAOP offenders in ‘getting out of the life’ they were often so desperate to leave behind.

Adolescent emotions, especially those of happiness and unhappiness have seen an increase in interest over the last century, particularly in the modern Western world. This has resulted in a rise in guidance and policy which specifically focuses on the behaviours and actions of adolescents. The impact unhappiness has on adolescents has been extensively researched, and has been convincingly linked to deviant behaviours, including drug and alcohol use, crime, a rise in poor mental health and well-being and an increase in unemployment and social unrest. However, examination of the data shows that there continues to be an over reliance from the fields of developmental psychology and physiology research which utilises data from large scale surveys and questionnaires. There continues to be a lack of evidence generated by the adolescents themselves and therefore a lack of knowledge as to what they understand their emotions mean. To date the sociology of emotion has offered little in the way of contribution to this social group, compounding the dominance of other fields of research, and as a result there has been a blurring of the boundaries of mental health, well-being and happiness By focusing on the micro social processes of everyday life and utilising theoretical concepts of Goffman’s (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life and Hochschild’s (2003) The Managed Heart, a research project which focused on gaining adolescents understanding of the meaning of everyday happiness and unhappiness was constructed. Methodologically this is challenging to capture. However by adopting principles recognised by research from the sociology of childhood, and using data generating methods as photo elicitation and in depth interviews; it has enabled emotions to be situated within a personal and textual history, generating rich and individualised data from which to explore the key research questions. The key findings illustrated adolescents performed emotions as a way of communicating meaning and conveying social action within their everyday lives. As such they demonstrated that they were concerned with performing in an ‘emotionally competent’ way. It is the development of this concept which is offered as a new contribution to the sociology of emotions. Fundamental to the adolescent’s performance being viewed, by them, as emotionally competent was the notion of authenticity and sincerity in their performance. Participants spoke about distinguishing between their external performance and their internal feeling world and as such their performance was categorised into three distinct performances; those being the emotionally guarded, the emotionally present and the emotionally acted. They reported that providing their performance was judged to be authentic and sincere, they were then seen to be performing in an emotionally competent way. It was concluded that emotional competent performances are a key which unlocks arenas of the adult world. Transition from adolescence to adulthood primarily lay in the hands of adults who governed their lives and therefore demonstration of emotional competence was rewarded by increased responsibility and autonomy. The adolescents noted that the power balance lay in the hands of adults; so whilst judgements of emotional competence was made by both adults and peers, they were aware that navigating their social landscape was fraught with complexity and performing competently assisted in the transition from adolescents to adulthood.

The thesis is a collection of six stand-alone chapters aimed at setting the foundations for the philosophy of computational social science. Agent-based modelling has been used for social research since the nineties. While at the beginning it was simply conceived as a methodological alternative, recently, the notion of ‘computational social science’ has started to be used to denote a separate disciplinary field. There are important differences with mainstream social science and traditional social research. Yet, the literature in the field has not accounted for these differences. Computational social science is a strongly practice-oriented field, where theoretical and philosophical concerns have been pushed into the background. This thesis presents an initial analysis of the methodology, epistemology and ontology of computational social science, by examining the following topics: 1) verification and validation and 2) modelling and theorising, 3) mechanisms 4) explanation 5) agency, action and interaction and 6) entities and process philosophy. Five general conclusions are drawn from the thesis. It is first argued that the wider ontological base in agent-based modelling allows for a new approach to traditional social dualisms, moving away from the methodological individualism that dominates computational social science. Second, the need to place a distinction between explanation and understanding and to make explanatory goals explicit is highlighted. Third, it is claimed that computational social science needs to pay attention to the social epistemology of the field, for this could provide important insights regarding values, ideologies and interests that underlie the practice of agent-based modelling. Fourth, it is suggested that a more robust theorisation regarding the experimental and model-based character of agent-based modelling should be developed. Finally, it is argued that the method can greatly contribute to the development of a processual account of social life.

This thesis focuses on the ways in which identity is constructed in the United Arab Emirates in the face of rapid development and immigration. The thesis draws upon ethnographic data collected over three years in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, among other Arabian Gulf communities, to explore how foreign knowledge systems, specifically genetic models of inheritance, are incorporated into indigenous bodies of knowledge to reshape the ways in which local people see themselves in the world. Long held Gulf Arab conceptions of the self and body in relation to nature, spirits and foreigners are challenged by the promises of globalization and modernity. This conflict creates both personal and social anxiety for many local people as they attempt to consolidate desert and Islamic tradition with the ambiguity of new urban and social landscapes, creating a metaphor between Gene and Djinn. This thesis follows this conflict ethnographically through the rapid construction of a new aristocratic class of citizens in the country, and the ways in which some of them imagine their downfall. As people move through the desert, the coast and the rapidly growing cities, their quest for an elusive notion of modernity ricochets into local systems of destiny, cosmology, agency, body practices, and kinship, and the languages one uses to articulate the ‘self’ and world are transformed.

This study compares the significance of small-scale fishing (SSF) for local Bijagós and in-migrant residents on the Island of Uno, Guinea Bissau, by integrating quantitative and qualitative analyses into four empirical chapters. The role of commercial SSF as an occupational safety-net is explored. Determinants of contemporary involvement in fishing are presented. Catch dynamics of the in-migrant fleet are reviewed and the significance of protected areas and protected species discussed. Finally, the adoption of livelihood strategies is investigated, through an analysis of the asset-constraints underpinning local and in-migrant household economies. Bijagós male villagers recall substantial former involvement within commercial SSF. In-migrant fish-workers describe entry strategies into SSF which differentiate long-standing members from new arrivals. Late entrants driven by political and economic circumstance support the role of SSF as a safety-net which provides an escape from chronic poverty. Demise of the local sector is attributed to an over-riding commitment to animist initiation rituals, (from which control of land and labour flow) coupled with declining agricultural yields and growth of in-migrant fishing. Today, fishing for the Bijagós is a marginal, mainly subsistence-based activity. In contrast, in-migrant workers display little non-fishing occupational involvement. Resultant conflict between these groups illustrates disempowerment of the Bijagós villagers. In-migrant landing surveys highlight the persistent use of local and State Protected Areas while illustrating the overlap between commercial near-shore fishing grounds and potential elasmobranch nurseries. Household economic surveys reveal the importance of cash loans in promoting endurance of the SSF sector. The insights delivered from this analysis inform our understanding of the constraints and limitations of existing management arrangements, which govern the commercial SSF sector in this region.

Baboons live in social groups and environments that are similar to early hominids, thus they provide a good model for the study of the evolution of human behaviour. Adult baboons (Papio anubis) exhibit complex social behaviour and communication skills, but the process by which they acquire these behaviours has not previously been investigated. Understanding infant socialisation – the process of development from complete maternal dependence to an independent member of a social group – provides insight into the evolution of human behaviour and language. Audio recordings and behavioural data were collected from olive baboons in Gashaka Gumti national Park, Nigeria. This is a marginal environment, with temperatures and rainfall more extreme than other baboon study sites. Physical interactions with the mother (e.g. weaning, being carried), physical interactions with other group members (being taken from mother; ‘infant handling’), and vocal communication are documented from birth to weaning. Infant socialisation in Nigerian baboons is characterised by frequent aggressive and affilitative handling by adults in the first 6 months of life, and a limited vocal repertoire of which three calls are produced from birth, and one is produced after 7 months of age. Only one call shows evidence of context specificity, and communication most likely takes place in the form of an online readout of an infant’s emotional state.

This is an ethnographic examination of the practices of giving vocal testimony to the experience of 9/11 in contemporary New York. I argue for an understanding of such practices as a process of externalizing interior states of being and rendering them contagious. Through recourse to the dynamic materiality of the voice, the experience of the past event comes to move between bodies, producing memory. I focus chiefly on instances where this voice is subject to “mediation”, particularly by sound recording technologies. As the voice moves between bodies, technologies, times and spaces an assemblage is drawn together. It is from the assemblage – a complex gathering of atomic elements – that the specific qualities of the “post-9/11 Voice” emerge. This contagious voice then goes on to provide the ground for the political and ethical memory of the event in the present. I follow this voice on its path through a number of different arenas in the memoryscape of post-9/11 New York. Discussing its deployment in archives and museums, in public gatherings and in everyday conversations I recursively relate it back to the ethnographic project itself. The configuration of a voice which instantiates a contagious movement of experience between bodies – producing subjects in the process – reveals a number of parallels between “field” and “academy”; parallels which produce both the memory of 9/11 in contemporary New York and the ethnographic description of this memory.

The pastoral rangelands of the Mara in Kenya have been a hotspot of evolving conservation and development initiatives. However, these initiatives have tended not to produce positive outcomes for either people or wildlife. At the same time, pastoral policies have promoted the privatisation of rangelands, subdividing the land to individual ownership. Within this backdrop, a number of wildlife conservancies have been recently set up where tourism investors pay Maasai landowners to vacate their land of settlements and livestock. As market-driven approaches that have profound impacts on the way land is viewed, used and managed in the Mara, this thesis situates itself within the growing body of literature on neoliberal conservation. The study takes a mixed methods approach to evaluate these initiatives for pastoral livelihoods and the environment. Using a political ecology lens it analyses the nature of the partnership between the tourism investors and Maasai landowners and the levels of participation and power between different actors. It investigates the contribution of wildlife conservancies to pastoral livelihoods, and uses evaluation techniques to assess the impact of participation in conservancies on pastoral livelihoods. It also examines the resultant settlement and livestock grazing displacement and the implications this has for livelihoods and the wider landscape. The thesis finds that conservancies can contribute large incomes from tourism to participating households. However, this is not more than the contribution of livestock, meaning that conservancy land use restrictions create considerable trade-offs for livestock-based livelihoods. Also, since payments are based on land ownership, and a previously inequitable system of land distribution, there are considerable inequity implications of such schemes as poor and marginalised groups tend to be left out. Furthermore, although conservancies are positive in keeping the range open for wildlife inside of conservancies, this must be considered in light of the displacement effects to non-conservancy areas.

This thesis investigates ideas in science. Ideas are explored as an analytical category and examined as an indigenous concept to scientists. This study identifies ideas in science as thoughts or plans, and seeks to understand the main characteristics of ideas as well as explore what factors affect the extent to which they can develop in a laboratory environment. This ethnographic study is based on fifteen months of participant observation in biomedicine laboratories at one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the world. The resulting data is evaluated using Actor-Network Theory (ANT) in order to demonstrate how ideas are dynamic and best thought of as networks that are acted upon by scientists’ beliefs (Chapter 5), experimentation (Chapter 6), discussions (Chapter 7) and the institutional settings within which science takes place (Chapter 8). This thesis argues that understanding what ideas in science are, and what factors shape and influence them, is a vital part of recognising and appreciating what it means for scientists to ‘do’ science. This study demonstrates the dynamism of ideas in science by explaining how: scientists’ use of the word ‘belief’ acts on how ideas develop; experimentation justifies idea developments and scientists’ discussions facilitate the sharing and connection of ideas. Chapter 8 places the dynamic ways that ideas develop (explained in Chapters 5, 6 and 7) within what is shown to be a stifling institutional context that values ideas as static objects (for example, as delivered and communicated in publications or funding proposals). This friction, it is argued, forces ideas to become institutionally ‘frozen’ and incentivises incremental shifts in thinking.

At the heart of Devon in the southwest of England lies Dartmoor, a large expanse of high moorland and rocky tors. Anyone who has visited Dartmoor or seen photographs and read about it will have their own personal images and feelings for the place, which will be as varied as the landscape. Over recent years landscape approaches have adopted strategies to understand how people experience and perceive the landscape that surrounds them (Ingold 2000, Thomas 1999, Tilley 1994). Phenomenology attempts to reveal the world as it actually is experienced by the subject as opposed to how we might theoretically assume it to be (Tilley 2004a). Writers such as Casey (1996, 2000, 2001, 2008), himself influenced by Merleau-Ponty, consider the body as vital and fundamental in perceiving, understanding and familiarising oneself with the landscape. Issues of memory, place, attachment and cosmology are nested within the landscape and remains of human activity, both past and present. Anthropology has demonstrated how peoples’ understanding and perception of the landscape structures moral codes and practice (Basso 1996) and kinship affiliation and re-negotiation (Gow 1996). Therefore, the focus of this study is to understand how peoples’ experiences in the Bronze Age and in the present were/are structured by the landscape characteristics (topography, geology) of Dartmoor. Applying a ’contextual’ approach to the past and present peoples’ involvements with the landscape, it is hoped that a better understanding of how their embodied experiences were structured by their involvement with the Dartmoor landscape. There are three aspects to the study. One focuses on the Bronze Age remains of two specific areas in Southern Dartmoor to approach the question of prehistoric engagements. Secondly, using structured and unstructured interviews the aim is to understand how Dartmoor as a whole continues to structure peoples’ experiences and how they become embodied. The third aspect considers how the Moor is ‘imaged’ and the contrasting views between different groups. The aim is to demonstrate how peoples’ perception of Dartmoor’s landscape are formed and continued to be structured by its particular characteristics expressed through literature and issues of conservation.