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The thesis is a study of change in the transition from youth to adulthood in contemporary Britain. Through an analysis of data collected in a survey of young adults and their parents, undertaken in conjunction with a critical appraisal of more general evidence on the organisation of employment and life cycle processes, the thesis explores the social organisation of dependency and obligation. Following the recession and mass unemployment in the early 1980s there has been an increasing interest in the consequences of economic change for life cycle processes. Several writers have explored the question of whether employment restructuring has disrupted the attainment of adult lifestyles, and citizenship rights, amongst recent cohorts of young people. Research, however, has reached contradictory conclusions over the significance of economic change for patterns of transition to adulthood. Another problem is the failure of research to locate youth adequately in relation to the social structure. Further, the coherence of gender processes in the organisation of transition has been obscured, since the life cycles of men and women are conventionally seen to be structured around different principles. It is an argument of the thesis that these problems are related, and arise from an inadequate consideration of the interrelations which give meaning to youth and transition as <i>life cycle stages</i>. Existing studies of family related life cycle transitions and studies of the youth labour market both embody, and reflect, a conceptual division between 'social' and 'economic' processes. This division, however, does not reflect real processes. The framework developed in the thesis offers an integrated analysis of life cycle dynamics and economic processes, through which changes in the organisation of transitions from youth to adulthood are explained.

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The first part of the thesis examines the subjective definitions and conceptions of poverty held by local residents. It finds that local residents generally resist the idea that they are poor. In their own accounts, they emphasise their personal capacity and scope for control, rather than the constraints that they face. The research goes on to ask: what is it about the experience of people in these areas and their understanding of the meaning of poverty which makes them deny that they are poor? For those interviewed poverty is interpreted at a personal level as a form of identity associated with a lack of agency. People are identified as poor not by their material circumstances alone, but by their inability to cope with and remain on top of conditions of material hardship. It is in this context that respondents stress their ability to manage and overcome the difficulties they face and by this means seek to demonstrate their personal competence and moral adequacy. In the second part of the thesis, the relationship between poverty, agency and identity is explored with respect to the community and local people's involvement in community action. Two distinct discourses on poverty are identified in the accounts of local residents active in local groups and organisations. An exclusive discourse of poverty identifies poor people as a distinct social group by reference to their weakness, demoralisation and dependent status. Local activists experience this discourse as exclusionary and disempowering. However, a more inclusive discourse on poverty is apparent in the accounts of some activists which links the experience of poverty to more positive forms of collective action and mutual support developed in the community. This discourse is compatible with a conception of people as social agents, actively involved in maintaining their welfare in conditions of relative material deprivation. The thesis raises questions about the ways in which poverty is understood in different contexts and by different groups. It also reveals the problematic nature of poverty discourse for individuals who experience material hardship or belong to groups identified as poor. It is the struggle to maintain a positive self-conception in the light of negative meanings conveyed through poverty discourse that emerges from this study.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the management of accountability and identity in an online commercial weight loss group. The commercial weight loss context is socially significant because it is a space which foregrounds women's efforts to control their bodies and behaviour in order to conform to culturally prescribed norms of 'femininity' through continued selfsurveillance and restriction of consumption. The analysis examines 2219 individual posts in 422 message threads over a 24 hour period on a message board on the Weight Watchers website. The site explicitly promotes itself as a space in which members can obtain advice and emotional support from fellow dieters in an encouraging and egalitarian environment, and is therefore intended to be used as an aid to becoming a more successful 'weight watcher' (and consequently a 'better woman'). Using a feminist hybrid discourse analytic method, and drawing on Coffman's notion of 'face', the empirical chapters explore the interactional management of progress reports by group members. The commercial weight loss group provides a space in which the confession of transgression is encouraged, and analysis of the message threads reveals that members of the message board community are accountable to both societal gender norms and to their fellow weight watchers. In these confessional exchanges group members realign themselves with social norms of 'femininity', and renew their commitment to the body modification project. Group members employ face-protective mitigation strategies in their delivery of confessions, and responses to confessional posts orient to group norms of solidarity and support while rehabilitating the transgressing members back into the eating regime. The analysis also explores the use of humour in the construction of the confessional message which, despite its potential to undermine the regime, appears to perform a face-management function, and is used to display 'expertise' about the regime while fostering group solidarity. In message threads where group members report 'inexplicable' failure to lose weight, the group work to maintain commitment to the regime by explaining lack of success in ways which are protective of the reputation of the regime as an effective means of losing weight, thus ensuring continued dedication to the body modification project. The community offers solutions which provide the member with new 'expertise', helping her to become a 'better weight watcher'.

Three studies were conducted to investigate how men who have sex with men (MSM) use the Internet and particularly gay-themed websites (GTWs), and what are the effects that such use might have on aspects of their lives and communities, from sexual behaviour to gay identification and gay-related social action. The research took place in the capital cities of Greece and the United Kingdom, Athens and London respectively, two places with different levels of openness and acceptance of gay people. The first study included 20 Internet-based and face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 10 MSM living in Athens and 10 MSM living in London. The findings of thematic analysis showed that GTWs provide a parallel gay scene to the existing offline scene that, above all, facilitates the initiation of communication between MSM who then meet offline, mainly for sex. With its ease of access and the relative anonymity it provides, this online scene appeared to be very important to the sexual identity of MSM who feel unsafe or unable to disclose their sexuality offline. Challenges in terms of particularly its individualistic nature and the adoption of commodification and standardisation practices of gay men were flagged for the negative impact they might have on a sense of community and collectiveness. The second study was a survey completed online or offline by 173 MSM living in Athens and 188 MSM living in London. It aimed to investigate perceived and internalised homophobia of MSM of each city and found that those living in Athens reported higher levels of perceived homophobia, disclosed their sexuality less but had a higher global self-esteem compared to MSM living in London. In terms of the relationship between GTWs' use and self-esteem, findings showed that self-esteem was not related to greater dependence on the 'Gay Internet'. For MSM living in Athens, greater perceived homophobia of others related positively to greater use of GTWs, and communicational rather than informational facilities were preferred by those who appeared to feel less comfortable with their sexuality. The final study, a survey completed through the Internet by 151 MSM living in Athens and 225 MSM living in London, examined different patterns of use of the online gay scene, its evaluation and its contribution to explaining the participants' Internet-initiated sexual behaviour, gay identification and willingness to undertake gay-related social action. Findings showed that the online compared to the offline gay scene appears to be more addictive and a space with less healthy intra-group behaviour that does not facilitate as much a sense of community. Then, there was some evidence that communicational use of GTWs, which is mainly linked to satisfying sexual needs, contributed to explaining gay collective identifications in the case of MSM living in Athens. Also, more positive perceptions and experiences of the online scene, especially in terms of social capital, were found to relate to gay identification and willingness to undertake gay-related social action. The assumptions of Klandermans's (1997) Expectancy Value Model for collective action were not supported as they were tested within the Athens survey only. The results are discussed in the light of the implications they may have for the way the Internet is seen to be changing stigmatised people's individual and collective identities and actions, and in particular those of gay people and their communities.

Acquired brain injury (ABI) can be a sudden, dramatic and sometimes fatal event that instantly disrupts the lives of the patient and their families. ABI causes a variety of deficits including motor, cognitive, functional, emotional and behavioural. Whilst the extent of these deficits and their recovery may vary, and the affect of these injuries on the family has been the subject of much research over the past three decades, the specific impact that challenging behaviour has as a consequence of the ABI however, is sparse. This thesis will present the findings of a descriptive phenomenological study which set out to describe the experiences of those immediate family members of persons who have suffered acquired brain injury and present with challenging behaviours. Five carers who met the inclusion criteria participated in the study and were recruited from a regional neuroscience centre. The experiences were collected through in-depth, face-to-face semistructured interviews with family members of persons with acquired brain injury. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim to provide textual descriptions of the family members' experiences. Analysis provided rich descriptions of the family members' experiences. Seven interrelated themes emerged through data analysis: one theme described the challenging behaviours of the people with acquired brain injury and six themes describe the experiences of the family members; emotional turmoil that these behaviours engendered, a profound sense of loss, concerns for the future for themselves as well as the injured, a sense of loneliness, the affect on family functioning and finally the family members coping and adapting to the behaviours. The interview data also revealed that with time the experiences expressed were not dissipated. This study contributes to healthcare providers' understanding and knowledge of families experience of living with a person with acquired brain injured and their cognitive, emotional and behaviour sequelae, and supports the need for continued research in this area.

Aim: The aim of the thesis was to identify how resources, developed in childhood, could help overcome adversity in adult life.;Methods: The analysed data came from the National Child Development Study. Resources were indicated by externalizing and internalizing symptoms, reading, mathematics and BMI. Operationalization of the resources was conducted using data measured at a single time point and group based developmental trajectories identified by mixture models. Associations between the developmental trajectories and birthweight, preterm birth and parental social class were tested in order to identify the trajectories' origins at birth. A source of adversity was indicated by unemployment. Logistic regression was used to test if the resources could protect people from experiencing unemployment. Statistical interactions between unemployment and resources in the prediction of health consequences were used to test for resilience to the consequences of experienced unemployment. Health consequences were assessed by self rated health, limiting longstanding illness, Malaise, GHQ and weight change.;Results and conclusions: For both genders, group based developmental trajectories provided a reasonable summary of the data for externalizing symptoms, reading and mathematical ability and BMI. Parental social class was associated with all the disadvantaged developmental trajectories. Low birthweight and preterm birth were associated with disadvantaged emotional and cognitive development, and high birthweight was associated with trajectories that contained individuals who had a high BMI throughout childhood but did not develop adult obesity. For women, the associations between unemployment and health consequences were limited. The only indicator of (lack of) resources associated with unemployment was internalizing symptoms. For men, unemployment represented a challenge to health, all the resources protected men from experiencing unemployment, and reading skills and internalizing symptoms indicated resilience to the health consequences of unemployment. The theoretical and methodological issues raised by the use of developmental trajectories and traditional methods are discussed.

Disability is a contested concept. There is a little agreement within the social sciences on who disabled people are, what causes disability or on the impact of disability on identity and identity formation. On the one hand, there are those within medical sociology who see disability arising as the outcome of impairment and focus their research and theorising on the trouble that an impairment causes for disabled people. This understanding is based on a normative definition. On the other hand, there are those within disability studies who argue that disablement arises as a consequence of a society that is organised in a way that excludes people with impairments; they focus their research on societal and environmental barriers. In the latter paradigm, any focus on impairment itself is seen as a diversion from the 'real' problem: the discrimination and oppression of disabled people. The impact of impairment, the personal experience of disablement and issues of identity are ignored in favour of radical rhetoric. There is a theoretical deficit at the heart of this approach. In order to address this lacunae the experiences and views of disabled people themselves must inform theoretical developments. This study involved in-depth analysis of data generated by semi-structured interviews with 28 men and women with a physical impairment. The analysis shows how, for many of the participants in this study, having an impairment did not constitute trouble; impairment has become part of their embodied being. It also shows how disabled people are not an homogenous group, but are individuals. Their understandings, identity and experiences are fluid, contextualised and situated. There is no such thing as 'the disabled' and many reject an identity posited on such criteria. Their main commonality is a common experience of discrimination and oppression. How this discrimination is interpreted is individual; further, impairment and disablement are linked and should not be seen as separate entities.