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'Sexual citizenship' is relatively a new term, which emerged in recent decades with gay and lesbian demands for 'equal rights' with heterosexuals. Rather than taking the concept of sexual citizenship as given, this thesis investigates the conditions of its emergence and the process of its making by focusing on 'stories' offabout homosexuals or hoinosexualities, which have been circulated, debated and represented in the British parliament. I analyse these stories at three different moments in time: during debates on the Sexual Offences Act in the 1960s;Section 28 of the Local Government Act in the 1980s; and the Civil Partnership Act in the 2000s. In particular, I explore the gradual coming-out ofwhat Scott calls, 'the evidence of experience' in the debates, which, in the form of personal stories, has become an important way of (re)presenting/relating evidence of the 'truth' of homosexual identities, linked in turn to the idea of their rights/ rightness. A number of questions guide my inquiry. What are the conditions upon which a (sexual) story's access to the political arena is authorised (or rejected)? Who tells stories or whose stories are told? What 'problems' do stories recount? How are personal sexual stories publicly represented and contested in parliament? What moral and political effects do these stories have on political claims about sexual rights and responsibilities? In addressing these questions, I explore the complexity of stories' journey from personal to political in the sexual citizenship making process, which entails not just a transition from non-recognition to recognition, but also a process of exclusion and misappropriation whereby stories, in the process of becoming public narrative, are often rigidified and formalised, producing stereotypical/fixed 'facts' and 'moral' points. In analysing this problematic process by which sexual stories enter into a public and national political domain, and make their case for the recognition of sexual rights in Britain, I hope to shed light on the more general question of what it means to be a recognised (or recognisable) sexual citizen in contemporary Britain.

This thesis examines the consequences of gaining access to financial products and services and of becoming more capable of using these (i.e. financial inclusion). In particular, the study aims to investigate the key processes which promote financial inclusion and the wider consequences of becoming financially included for the individual concerned. This work is based on qualitative interviews with 41 users of third-sector organisation which play a significant role in the government’s financial inclusion strategy. All agencies were involved in the promotion of financial inclusion, either through the provision of financial services, advice, or education. Respondents were drawn from seven out of 19 agencies which were initially interviewed in order to explore the field. The research also aimed to capture the longer term benefits of using financial inclusion initiatives and becoming financially included. This was achieved through the accomplishment of follow-up interviews with a sub-sample of 24 interviewees approximately one year after the first interview. The discussions with service users explored the experience of disadvantaged individuals in terms of financial exclusion prior to coming into contact with one of the participating agencies and how their life circumstances had changed following contact in an in-depth manner. The first four chapters of the thesis provide the theoretical, empirical and political background for an understanding of the concept of exclusion from financial services, its consequences and what can be done to tackle the problem. Chapter 5 sets out in detail how the research was conducted and the data analysed. The following two chapters, then, look at the impact of financial inclusion policies on the lives of disadvantaged people through the discussions with service users. The concluding section of the study reviews the main findings in light of the research questions. It suggests the significance of financial inclusion in social inclusion processes, but also the limitations of the extent to which financial inclusion can radically change the life circumstances of individuals. This highlights the need for policy makers to tackle both direct barriers of financial exclusion as well as its underlying causes such as low income.

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Young people's reproductive health is a growing policy and research concern, both because of high levels of disease and unwanted pregnancy in this group, and because of a desire to improve less tangible aspects of health such as psychological well-being. To design effective and targeted interventions to improve reproductive health, we need to know both how and why young people behave sexually, and what types of programmes might lead to behaviour change. Little is known about either topic. This thesis uses a qualitative approach to examine sexual behaviour among young people and focuses on a low-income area of Mexico City. The study analyses the personal, social, and physical contexts of sexual activity among young people, the ways activity is explained and justified, and the processes of decision-making about sexual behaviour. Concepts of risk and vulnerability, their variation with context, and their effects on behaviour are explored. In addition, sources and ranges of meanings (individual and shared) of sexual activity and sexuality are investigated, as is the relationship of these to behaviour. A sexual health programme, Mexfam's "Gente Joven" - a peer-led, outreach programme - is also studied, with the aim of understanding how such a programme might affect young people's actions. An interaction-orientated theoretical approach is used. Three social levels are considered: the macro, the individual, and the dyad. Despite not using an overtly gender-orientated perspective while collecting data for this project, it was impossible to analyse the final interviews without gender being considered as a major explanatory element. Stereotypical gender roles where men are controlling and women controlled did not provide a useful framework to interpret the data, however, and a more complex picture emerged with women seeming to have a certain flexibility to reinterpret and transform social rules, and men being more restricted than they first appear. In the final part of the thesis, the processes by which Mexfam's "Gente Joven" programme might affect behaviour are discussed, in the light of the findings from the first part of the study.

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