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Donor conception has an established place in lesbian reproduction, and one that diverges from cultural understandings of conception, parenthood and family. However, to date, there is no major UK study into lesbian couples' experiences of pursuing donor conception. Exploring these experiences, the thesis first investigates, in a review and critique of the literature, existing research into lesbian conception. Noting the few studies into lesbian reproduction, it discusses how it figures in related areas of research: feminist studies of reproductive technologies; kinship and assisted conception; changing patterns of intimate and family life; and politics of gay and lesbian normalisation. Second, it investigates lesbian couples' clinical and self-arranged donor conception practices in an empirical study based on interviews with 25 couples in England and Wales, a study which the literature review suggests is the largest in the UK, to date. What emerges from couples' accounts is an irresolvable tension between being in receipt of donor sperm and a romantic desire to become a biogenetic nuclear family. The interviews are thematically analysed to explore the nature of this conflict. The thesis demonstrates that couples seek to negotiate donor conception through disassembling its material, practical and conceptual elements and reassembling these components in coordinated ways. In addition, couples undertake a repertoire of practices that signal togetherness, with the aim of constructing a bounded 'nuclear' family. Through these practices, lesbian couples seek to contain the potentially destabilising impact of the donor on their desired way of becoming and being a family. This takes place in a social context which challenges their claims to parenthood, and the constant possibility that their conception processes, and the meanings they give them, will be undermined. The findings underline the centrality of connectedness in contemporary personal life and the unremitting hegemonic power ofthe nuclear family model.

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The central objective of this thesis is to present an account of gentrification that overcomes some of the weaknesses of existing analyses. In particular, I attempt to move away from singular theoretical analyses and I seek to capture more fully the "chaos and complexity" of gentrification (Rose, 1984: Beauregard, 1986). In so doing I argue that gentrification cannot be understood in terms of universal explanatory statements but that local specificities are fundamental to the phenomenon. To open up the analysis of gentrification, I adopt some ideas from post-modernism: pluralism and contextualism. These two ideas form the background to the specific objectives of this thesis: Firstly, theoretical pluralism is investigated through the juxtaposition of a Marxist and a post-modernist explanation of gentrification. By juxtaposing these two key theoretical/conceptual frameworks of understanding I deliver an illustration of gentrification which is sensitive to the economic, cultural, social, spatial and political dimensions of the process. I discuss the complementarities and productive tensions which exist between these two sets of ideas. Secondly, the contextualism of the gentrification process is investigated through a comparison of gentrification in London and New York. I consider whether an Atlantic Gap is evident between gentrification in two neighbourhoods: Barnsbury in the inner London borough of Islington, and Park Slope in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. An emphasis on theoretical pluralism questions the ontological security of singular theorisations, and an emphasis on contextualism questions universal explanations of gentrification.

This thesis examines lone fathering, parenting and masculinities drawing on data from a study of 35 lone parent fathers who had responsibility for dependent children in households where there was no woman resident. The sample was drawn from child benefit records, and thus is a more representative sample than those used in previous similar studies. Quantitative and qualitative data was obtained via an in-depth interview with the sample members, 19 divorcees and 16 widowers, who were all resident in the North of England. The research explores the impacts of interactionist and structural factors on the experiences of the lone fathers studied. The study has indicated that there was no single pattern of lone fatherhood, it is suggested that differences can be best understood as the expression of different forms of masculinities operating within the different patriarchal structures of society. This research argues for a six fold division of the social construction of patriarchy into the patriarchal relations of the domestic setting, the economic setting, community and neighbourhood, sexuality, the state and culture. On the basis of orientations to gender roles, two forms of masculinities have been established. 'Traditional patriarchs' tended to have experienced lone fatherhood as a gender and parenting crisis to be resolved via minimal change. They were more likely to have developed routines for managing housework than traditional patriarchs, they tended not to regret the additional responsibilities of lone fatherhood, and had an orientation to masculinities which placed child care and parenting as important for men as well as for women. The results of this study suggest that the commonly held assumption that therre has been no recent significant restructuring of male gender roles is an oversimplification. Whilst the members of this sample should not be seen to be New Men, both traditional patriarchs and gender pioneers were more involved with their children and with the management of the household than they had been prior to lone fatherhood, and virtually all the men in the study were more 'active' as fathers and as workers in the domestic setting than men have generally been found to be in studies of two parent families. The study concludes with a discussion of some issues that arise from these findings, and with suggestions for further research.

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Forest dwellers in most parts of the world live in close association with the forests. Of late, relentless pressure on these forests has brought their own survival into question. Deforestation of tropical forests has brought into focus different strategies of forestry development for such areas and participation of people in these strategies. Since its inception in late sixties social forestry as a strategy of forestry development aims to close this gap. The thesis aims to analyse attitudes of tribal people towards their participation in the social forestry approaches in use in Madhya Pradesh, India, through analyses of their socio-economic system, their interaction with forests, and their perceptions about forests, forest management and social forestry. The study is based on primary data collected through a household survey in 24 villages in the tribal areas of Nimar, Madhya Pradesh. The results indicate that a household level approach to planning social forestry is essential with a view to involve the people in the developmental strategy. The socio-economic factors play a significant role in framing the attitudes of the households towards adopting social forestry within their system. Lack of irrigation is a major constraint among all household categories. The interaction of households with forests also has an influence on their attitudes in some cases. The pattern of interaction is similar for a large majority of both landholders and landless households. However, their perceptions are found to be significantly different. Their perceptions do play some degree of influence in influencing their attitudes. While their participation in social forestry has been low, the tribal households do show strong inclination towards social forestry with many factors influencing their attitudes. Farm forestry and Joint Forest Management appear as the two most favourable approaches. An application of logistic regression has been suggested as a planning methodology to ascertain the probability of participation at the household level. The proposed methodology should be considered as a topic of future research.

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This thesis has two dominant focusses: class political division and the theatrical faculty of Northern Ireland's Protestant working class since 1960. It seeks to restore the Labour credentials of the constituency's recent past alongside its literary repercussions, both of which appear for decades to have diminished. It views political developments through the prism of six dramatists and writers to have either hailed from, or inspired, this profile. It takes into account their political activities and diverging viewpoints, many of which have been either forgotten or obfuscated, as part of a broader examination of the group. Drawing on interviews with the playwrights concerned, their unpublished scripts, as well as rarely-consulted archival material, the thesis contends that - contrary to a good deal of trite polemic and safe scholarly assessment - the Protestant/working class has historically and continually demonstrated a vigorous and resonant creative pulse as well as a tendency towards political fission. The latter is simultaneously sketched through a hard historical approach which returns repeatedly to the Labour movement. At times, such as in the early-1960s, these dynamics coalesced to a remarkable degree. Always cognisant of the accompanying ambiguities and complexities, the thesis above all taps into a sense that cultural and political performance are separate entities, and that the collapse of a certain Labour and Left wing ethos did not depress the emergence of dramatic writing from this disparate and capacious community. It argues that its consistency in producing playwrights of politically-charged and diverse persuasions counters its monolithic, reactionary reputation.