The thesis explores influences of the alcohol-specific (e.g. alcohol use, attitudes) and nonalcohol-specific (e.g. relationship quality) family environment on similarity and differences in adolescent siblings' alcohol use. Previous research has shown the importance of siblings for adolescent adjustment (Plomin & Daniels, 1987; Rowe & Gulley, 1992). However, research exploring family influences on siblings' alcohol use is scarce in the UK. Using a variety of theoretical perspectives, this thesis attempts to make a comprehensive account of family influence. Social learning principles (Bandura, 1977) such as modelling-imitation and reinforcement (via attitudes, norms) are considered as alcohol-specific mechanisms within families, accounting for similarity in parent-child dyads and sibling pairs. Regarding the influence of the non-alcohol-specific family environment, it is drawn on family systems theory (Minuchin, 1985), stresses and strains on parenting, and differential parenting approaches. This explores interrelations between marital, parent-child, and sibling relationships, and adolescent alcohol use (Hetherington et ah, 1999) within which models of siblings' differential intrafamilial experiences are integrated. Particular attention is given to the role of gender throughout this thesis. The study reported here used a cross-sectional design. It included 116 intact families, applying a multiple informant approach. During home visits, each parent and two siblings (younger siblings: 11-15 years, older siblings: 14-19 years) completed standardised questionnaires on demographics, alcohol/substance use, attitudes, family relationships, and other aspects of adolescents' life, combining self-reports and perceptions of others. The analysis is divided into three results sections and employs a variety of statistical methods (descriptive statistics, correlational and regression analyses, analysis of variance). Descriptive results (Chapter 5) of the level of family members' alcohol/substance use indicate that both parental and adolescents' use was lower than national surveys suggest. Differences in individual family members' self-reports and perceptions of the family environment support the use of self-reports of alcohol use and repeated analysis employing parent and child reports of family relationships. Findings on the alcohol-specific environment (Chapter 6) confirmed social learning processes. Male adolescents' alcohol use was related to parental and brothers' modelling, with parental norms being influential for older males' consumption. No such associations emerged for females regarding their parents or sisters. Older siblings' supply of alcohol was significantly associated with younger siblings' (excessive) alcohol use, but only among same-sex siblings. Neither parental alcohol norms nor perceived sanctions of adolescent alcohol use varied as a function of sibling gender similarity, but same-sex siblings experienced stricter parental alcohol norms than mixed-sex pairs. In relation to the non-alcohol-specific family environment (Chapter 7), parental alcohol use showed few disruptive effects on parenting behaviour. Marital quality affected the parent-child relationships of both siblings which in turn predicted sibling relationship quality, suggesting congruence in the quality among these family subsystems. Parenting toward each adolescent influenced this child's alcohol involvement. Younger adolescents showed lower alcohol use when their older sibling was exposed to marital discord. Generally, receiving the more favourable treatment relative to one's sibling resulted in lower alcohol involvement relative to this sibling. Sibling gender similarity moderated the siblings' level of monitoring and associations within the difference score models. Overall, the findings demonstrate the importance of the wider family environment for siblings' alcohol use and the role of gender in processes of social influence. Both parents and siblings provide opportunities for social learning of alcohol use. Child-specific experiences were the best predictors of adolescent alcohol use. However, the similarity in the climate of various family relationships reflects the importance of shared, family-level influences. Implications for alcohol education and prevention and recommendations for further research are discussed.

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Theorists such as Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim have presented an 'individualisation thesis' which states that in our 'de-traditionalised', globalised world of late modernity, identities are now fluid and individual trajectories no longer fixed; as 'reflexive agents', we must choose from an array of lifestyles and assemble our own 'life projects'. This emphasis on active agency is reflected in constructions of welfare users in 'Third Way' and New Labour policy in the UK. Policy discourses depict welfare agents as aspirational and responsible decision-makers, simultaneously downplaying structural differences and presenting 'families' and 'communities' as consensual and motivated by shared interests. Sure Start, an area-based New Labour programme for families with young children can be seen as exemplifying many of these characteristics, and can be viewed also as a 'Third Way' initiative, reflecting in particular, a focus on a 'social investment' perspective. This thesis, based on a study of a Sure Start programme in the multi-ethnic area of Brambleton, considers the extent to which policy and theoretical assumptions about parental agency are reflected in constructions of mothers and professionals. The qualitative case study approach emphasises the contextualisation of findings in 'time' and 'place', in particular depicting Brambleton as a 'racialised space' through which understandings of 'need' and agency are constructed. It explores the social processes through which mothers are able to act in the family, the community and within the Sure Start programme. This is done using an epistemology which combines both constructivism and phenomenology and a theoretical framework that incorporates aspects of Bourdieu's 'theory of practice'. The methodology used includes a focus on the life stories of white and Pakistani mothers, interviews with professionals and a narrative approach to analysis. Research findings suggest that agency should be understood as shaped by identity within the family and through cultural practices. In addition and in a reflection of this, they point to the differential access to and impacts of Sure Start use for white and Pakistani-origin mothers in Brambleton in this period, highlighting the varied 'rationalities for action' that welfare users have. These findings have significant implications both for theoretical models of agency and for policy, in particular, suggesting that policy needs to incorporate a more nuanced understanding of human agency which prioritises a recognition of difference and constraint.

This study examines women's employment in Iran between 1979-1997, analysing the changing position of the Islamic state in reaction to economic circumstances and women's responses. In making this assessment the interaction between economic circumstances, the institutionalisation of gender inequality and also the responses of women are examined. This study demonstrates that economic forces and women's struggle for change undermined the Islamic state's gender relations. The Islamisation of state and society which followed the 1979 revolution involved an attempt by the Islamic state to seclude women within the home in accordance with the state's gender and employment policy and practices. The power of the state to transform gender relations, however, was constrained by the Iran-Iraq war, as the survival of many families depended on women's earnings. The end of the war with Iraq and the return of men to the workforce did not result in women's return to the home. Economic reconstruction and inflation increased women's participation in the workforce. This study demonstrates that in 1997, women's participation in the labour force, despite a rigid sexual division of labour imposed ideologically by the Islamic state, is no less than it was in pre-1979. However, the state continued to strengthen patriarchal relationships within the home, employment and wider society, thus maintaining that women's participation in the workforce is by nature temporary and that ultimately a woman's place is in the home. Women of different classes and with different levels of religiosity responded to the economic circumstances and the state's gender ideology. Their participation in the political movements and their active role in the economy has raised gender consciousness. The result is an alliance between religious and secular women in urban areas who have demanded reforms and forced the Islamic state to return to the position of the reforms of pre-1979 in relation to women and the family, and women's education and employment.

This thesis examines gender and ethnic inequalities in the Nigerian civil service through the lived experience of Ijaw women and the strategies they adopt to combat perceived discrimination. A theoretical framework of structure, culture, agency, intersectionality, and social identity theory underpinned this research. Hermeneutic phenomenological methodology was adopted within which 40 in-depth semi-structures interviews were conducted. Findings indicate that for most respondents, ethnicity is a politicised identity while gender identity tends to be passive. Other emerging identities were revealed such as language, age and indigeneship (having historical ties to one’s state of residence). Civil service organisations were found to legitimise inequality regimes with respect to gender and ethnicity. These inequality regimes are definitive of Ijaw women’s workplace lived experience. While some participants identified as traditionalists, others adopted strategies such as ‘Awaiting Divine Intervention’, Masking, Exiting the organisation, Assimilating, Performing, Negotiating and Reforming the system, to combat perceived discrimination in their organisation.

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Hypotheses deduced from the sociology of sport were conceived in terms of their cultural, normative, communicative and functional aspects for the integration of West Indian schoolchildren. The hypotheses were assessed in an investigation in two London secondary schools. Questionnaires were given to 645 English boys, 635 English girls, 144 West Indian boys and 188 West Indian girls. 249 English and 60 West Indian boys were asked retrospectively about their primary school careers. The questionnaires were supplemented by observation, interviews and the analysis of school records and other data. The West Indian children investigated were found, as a group, to be failing academically but over achieving in sport. School factors appeared to be crucial in explaining this over-achievement. Sport based peer groups appeared amongst the West Indian children but there were no indications that sport facilitated communicative integration between them and either English children or academic teachers. Functional interdependence in school teams of West Indian and English children did not appear to effect functional integration. There were indications that West Indian children desired academic success and that sport may function as an accomodation mechanism to academic failure. Normative integration, as measured by attendance rates and the desire to stay on at school and enter further education, appeared to be high amongst West Indian children who had represented the school at sport. Cultural integration appeared to be strong, especially where sport affected life styles. Sporting success did not raise the self esteem of West Indian children.

A review of the literature on illegitimacy shows three explanatory models. The individual model which explains why some women become unmarried mothers. The social model which explains why illegitimacy levels vary in different societies. The interactive model which explains how individual and societal factors interact to produce a particular societal level of illegitimacy and mothers of illegitimate babies with particular characteristics. The interactive model was found to be the most productive as it used the most appropriate definition of illegitimacy, did not assume that illegitimacy was deviant and included all factors relevant to the process of becoming the mother of an illegitimate baby. Hypotheses were formulated concerning the characteristics and process of becoming the mother of an illegitimate baby in societies with high, medium and low levels of illegitimacy. A sample of 721 pregnant women was taken which included Irish, English and West Indian women as examples of individuals from societies with low, medium and high levels of illegitimacy. Statistical analysis showed that age and class were important predictors of illegitimacy while nationality (ethnicity) had an interactive effect, although both predictors and characteristics of mothers of illegitimate babies were not clear cut. Interviews with 79 mothers of illegitimate babies showed a range of types varying from the young girl who had made a mistake to the well educated, middle class woman who had decided to have an illegitimate baby. Examination of ethnic groups showed that in some cases illegitimacy could be related to normal sexual behaviour whereas in others it was deviant to conventional norms. This did not include, however, those deciding to have an illegitimate baby. To explain all types of illegitimacy a wider perspective therefore had to be taken. Illegitimacy and the one parent family was seen as one way of child bearing rather than as a deviation from the norm of marriage and the two parent family. It was shown that societal support for the one parent family is increasing and this could lead to more women seeing the one parent family as a viable situation in which to rear children, but this depends on the extent to which it is supported in the future.