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The study investigates mothers' engagement in "other activities", namely: voluntary work, unpaid caring, club activities, further education, recreational classes, and flexibly-organised leisure activities. A community survey of 376 mothers of primary school children was carried out in two towns in Northern Ireland, followed by indepth, semi-structured interviews with a subset of 20 middle class mothers drawn from the survey population. Quantitative and qualitative analyses show how participation is shaped by mothers' reasons for engaging in activities, also by structural and subjective factors such as the social class of their households, their employment decisions, their family responsibilities, their feelings about income, and about partner support with childrearing and domestic life. A concept of an ethic of care for' self' and' other' is drawn upon to analyse the women's reasons for participating in activities, also for their employment decisions, and concepts of 'justice' and 'entitlement' are used to explore facilitators and constraints on participation. Concepts of 'achievement-oriented' and 'relationshiporiented' are developed and applied to their approaches to mothering, which are shown to blend concerns with children's achievement and emotional wellbeing. Linkages are explored between these approaches and the women's involvement in other activities and paid employment. The qualitative analysis draws attention to ambiguities and inter-connections between paid and unpaid wor~ mothering and other activities, and between 'self and 'other' concerns in these areas. In survey and interview analyses, spending higher hours in chosen activities is shown to go along with greater emphasis on an achievement-oriented approach to mothering, in which mothers aim for children's educational and occupational success and/or behavioural conformity, and lower hours in such activities with greater emphasis on a relationship-oriented approach, in which mothers focus on the quality of the mother-child relationship, and on the child's emotional wellbeing and capacity for sensitive responsiveness to others.

This study tells the story of Britain's single largest group of refugee children - the children of Somali refugees - as they have experienced growing up amidst marginal working class communities and inner-city neighbourhoods. It focuses on the major themes in the lives of these children and their families and the challenges confronting them in terms of adjustment to a new society, family and school life, education, employment, identity, goals, and aspirations (see Rumbaut & Portes 2001:12). In addition to data gathered through qualitative interviewing in London in two different time periods over a decade apart, the study pulls together existing research that bears directly or indirectly on children's immigrant experiences and adaptational outcomes in both the US and the UK. On the whole, it is suggested that the environments created by a combination of immigrant's human and social capital and the context that receives them dominate the process of adaptation and its prospects for success. There is much evidence in this research to support the assertion that 'family resources, family strategies, and parental expectations' are significant factors in the success of immigrant young people. Where that was weak or nonexistent, some of the young people concerned could not escape from the external challenges that confronted them in schools and neighbourhoods. A few of them fell prey to a social context that promoted a set of undesirable outcomes such as dropping out of school, joining youth gangs, and using and selling drugs. As Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut (2001) found out elsewhere, a tentative explanation from this research is that there is a patterned sequence of adaptation conditioned by predictable social forces: refugee human and social capital, first, and opportunities and barriers in the host society, second. These sets of factors play themselves out over time conditioning the adaptation of first generation immigrants, and the academic performance and career horizons of their offspring (ibid.). The background of war, flight and exile also continue to influence the lives of these children and their families.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether compositional and contextual factors relating to neighbourhoods in which children live can explain differences in their wellbeing, over and above factors at the individual and family level. Data collected on young children, sampled from advantaged, disadvantaged and ethnic minority electoral wards within the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) were used to explore the research objectives. 2001 census small area statistics were uniquely utilised to further characterise MCS wards. Multi-level statistical modelling techniques were employed to analyse these data. Findings suggest that individual and family level factors account for most of the differences in cognitive, behavioural and physical wellbeing. Wards in disadvantaged and ethnic minority areas were shown to be negatively associated with children's readiness to start school and their vocabulary abilities. Behavioural difficulties and the body mass index (BMI) of children were also associated with these wards. Alongside these factors, several subjective measures of the local area were associated with children's wellbeing. Poor local safety and problems with litter were negatively associated with school readiness and vocabulary skills respectively. Problems with noise, pollution, lack of places to play and poor access to shops were associated with children having behavioural difficulties. Problems with litter in the vicinity were also related to children having a higher BMI. Furthermore, some 2001 census small area statistics, characterising the demographic composition of each ward were also associated with child wellbeing. Wards with high numbers of children living in them were associated with poor school readiness scores and areas with high numbers of cohabiting childless couples were associated with children having lower vocabulary scores. Wards with high levels of female lone parents who were employed and married couples with children were associated with fewer child difficulties. None of these census factors were associated with BMI.

This work is a modest attempt at examining and understanding the nature and impact of development process in Malaysia during the Mahathir administration. The main time frame chosen is from the year 1981 to 1992, although the events after this period up to the completion of this thesis are also relevant in various ways. The analysis is made primarily in the light of the Government's Islamization policy and Vision 2020. The study is undertaken in view of a popular belief that development during this time demonstrates a significant shift from its long standing traditional approach. How far does this claim bear the truth? The result of this study reveals an answer to this primary question. The research, which adopts what the researcher calls <I>a comparative sociological</I> study or approach that combines the elements of sociological and Islamic studies together, primarily analyses the Government development policies and strategy which are believed to have been responsible in bringing about the observed changes and impacts on the society, especially on the Muslims. For practical reasons, comparison takes place in various forms and on different levels. For example, in the theoretical chapter the philosophy of development and change as seen from both perspectives is established as a framework upon which our analysis of Malaysian development is based. Contrasts between certain development policies and the achievements of two different eras are also made through longitudinal comparison. Standard comparison is used more often due to the nature of the subjects under scrutiny. Despite its unavoidable reference to Malaysia as a whole, the research, however, places more emphasis on the development and changes in the Peninsular. Logistic and financial constraints explain the need for this geographic limitation.

The study is an examination of hacking, placing the act in the context of theories of technological change. Hacking is found to provide illustrative evidence within computing of theories which emphasise the societal shaping of technology over the notion of technological determination. The evolution of hacking is traced, showing how it reflects changing trends in the nature of information, the most vivid of which is the conceptualisation of information known as 'cyberspace'. Instead of simply cataloguing the impact of technical changes within computing and the effects they have had upon information, the study shows how technical change takes place in a process of negotiation and conflict between groups. The two main groups analysed are those of the Computer Underground (CU) and the Computer Security Industry (CSI). The experiences and views of both groups are recounted in what constitute internalist and externalist accounts, respectively, of hacking and its significance. The internalist account is the evidence provided by hackers themselves. It addresses such issues as what motivates the act of hacking; whether there is an identifiable hacking culture; and why it is almost an exclusively male activity. The externalist account contains the perceptions of hacking held by those outside the activity. The state of computing's security measures and its vulnerability to hacking is described, and evidence is provided of the extent to which hacking gives rise to technical knowledge that could be of potential use in the fixing of security weaknesses. The division within the CSI between those broadly cooperative with hackers and those largely hostile to them is described and the reasons why hacking knowledge is not generally utilised are explored. Hackers are prevented from gaining legitimacy within computing in a process referred to as 'closure', whereby they are stigmatised.

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This thesis makes both a theoretical and empirical contribution to the study of Muslims and multiculturalism in Britain. It specifically uses the work of the African-American thinker, W.E.B. Du Bois, to theorise how what I call 'Muslim-consciousness' connects to certain Muslim mobilisations for an improvement in their 'civic status'. Muslim-consciousness is characterised as the advent of salient Muslim identities that are being adopted and deployed in various permutations by many Muslims themselves. The emergence of Muslim-consciousness is examined at length with reference to debates concerning race, religion and ethnicity. Civic status, meanwhile, is understood to be derived from various conceptions of citizenship. It is argued that under the terms of a peculiarly British multiculturalism, a differentiated citizenship has prevailed for some minorities, which has recognised or supported some minority identity related particularities, and has helped to achieve an elevation of these minorities' civic status. The first part of the thesis explores these issues theoretically, before empirically investigating them in the second half of the thesis through the use of multi-method case-studies (including primary interviews, documentary evidence and discourse analysis). More specifically, the second half focuses upon salient Muslim mobilisations for the state funding of Muslim schools, discrimination legislation and a 'positive' public and media representation, as arenas in which Muslims are currently seeking an elevation of their civic status. It is argued that an exploration of what is termed Muslim-consciousness, within and amongst some Muslim communities themselves, alongside the way in which this consciousness is understood politically (at both an official, governmental, level as well as discursively in public and media commentary), allows us to observe the operation of at least two types of minority consciousness. According to this thesis, these types of consciousness have previously been theorised by what is called the 'Hegelian Du Bois', and comprise the movement from a consciousness that exists in itself, and which is derived from the treatment of a dominant party, to a consciousness that exists for itself, and which, as such, is capable of mobilising on its own terms for its own interests. In Du Bois' terms, this consciousness risks turning in on itself, and becoming a 'double consciousness', when it is benignly ignored or malignly coerced. These distinctions are framed within a schema taken from Du Bois and become progressively 'thicker' in capturing (a) the political dimension in which Muslim consciousness in Britain is formed, (b) the nature and content of this consciousness in and for itself, alongside (c) the transformative potential it heralds for society as a whole. The thesis ends with a typology of contemporary Muslim-consciousness in Britain, before looking forward to emerging research agendas on these topics.