This thesis is based on research using a postmodern cultural studies approach, which was carried out in the South Leeds area of Beeston. It focuses on the social networks and leisure lifestyles of a particular group of working-class men described as 'the lads'. The associated works of Baudrillard, Foucault, Giddens, Maffesoli, and Rojek, but particularly Bauman, provide the intellectual reference point for the theoretical orientation of the thesis, which argues that the demands and opportunities required by postmodern conditions disperse and fragment collectivities, such as community and class, to form expressions of belonging, within which the liberty of the reflexive individual, not the collective, is now the overriding value. The work focuses on the extent to which these 'lads' seek to preserve existing (modern) lifestyles and (modem) conceptions of self-identity and community. Making reference to research carried out in the pubs and clubs in Beeston and Leeds city centre, the work elucidates the extent to which this self-constitution of community is constructed around existing modem discourses. The research shows that 'the lads" leisure is key, as it provides them with the time and space (the pub and the club) for the making and the articulation of a spurious sense of belonging and certainty. The thesis argues also that this imagined community is a site of resistance which allows men to assert their masculinities. Making reference to the research, the cultural studies approach shows that masculine behaviour is a key way of expressing the norms and values of the imagined community, which provides a form of ontological security for resisting the cultural and material practices of recent gender change, where it is no longer enough to be a 'hard' man. The thesis is located in a postmodem research genre that rejects empirical sociology - which places emphasis on the collection and systematic analysis of 'data'- in favour of a mystical and pragmatical cultural studies approach. In the writing of the thesis, the author utilises the rhetorical strategies of popular fiction, which makes for an ethnographic account that is more engaging and effective than 'traditional' ethnographic approaches. The thesis combines this cultural studies approach with a historico-sociological analysis, which takes into account both the elaborate and related social, cultural, political and economic structures of modernity and postmodernity. In this way the thesis offers a more diverse and thoroughgoing analysis, making for a synthetic approach that both advances the key theoretical ideas and underpins the academic rigour of the thesis.

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This study investigates Irish masculinities on Tyneside with thirty eight men of Irish descent over three living generations. The intergenerational approach to researching men’s lives contributes to the geographies of masculinities literature by researching the relationships between place, age, and gender. It considers the intersections of masculinity with roles within the family: such as son, father and grandfather. Furthermore, it looks at masculinities in the context of the workplace, the home, the school, and wider social settings to shed light on the aspirations and economic priorities of ‘Irish’ men. These discussions reveal gender and generation dynamics: looking at ‘growing up’ in the post industrial city; at the fusion of Irish and Geordie cultures; as well as the underpinning influence of class and religion. I note the intersections of age, roles within the family, embodied working identities and attitudes towards a religious upbringing as key to understanding the everyday experiences of men of Irish descent, in what I have called ‘Irish Incarnate’. To date, there has been much work on the intersectional aspects of identity – gender, race, religion – though much less which combines this with an intergenerational approach. I argue that generational differences have acted as a force of change in the perceptions and performances of Tyneside Irish masculinities. The thesis reveals significant change, often shaped by wider socio-economic factors, such as social mobility and the declining role of institutional religion; but also continuity, through an inheritance of culture and heritage and at times an explicit resistance to change. Through studying the processes of place, age, and masculinity with men of Irish descent I analyse how they negotiate growing up and growing old and all that is in between; how nationality is considered across generations, of what bits of them they claim to be Irish and why; and why ultimately, this all matters.

This research identifies and draws out the complexity of masculinities produced and performed within the military. A common theme amongst academics writing on the military is that a unique set of hyper-masculinised subjectivities are produced and performed through the day to day activities of the soldier; these are considered hegemonic in that they marginalise and subordinates alternative productions of identity. This investigation seeks to challenge the notion of a hegemonic military masculinity by highlighting the intersectionality of these military subjectivities. Although gender is a key factor in coming to grips with the notion of being a soldier, empirical material collected emphasises how it is co-constituted by other social constructs such as class, able-bodiedness, and heterosexuality. Equally this research identifies the various spaces and temporalities in which these particular identities manifest. These various spaces provided an everyday, deeply symbolic and affective reservoir for the production of memories, bleeding past and present, as well as the future, into each other.

This thesis represents an attempt to take an empirical 'snap-shot' of the range of ways in which male identity is constructed in both the media and in individual. representations of self These constructions of male identities are considered in the light of recent critical and social constrictions theory of gender and masculinity which addresses contradictions and tensions in male identities, to consider how male identities are constructed and negotiated in relation to women and other men. The thesis employed a social constructionist theoretical framework that both guided the use of methods (thematic analysis and Q-methodology) and allowed for this emergent identity constructions to be considered within the broader social, cultural, political and historical context. The implications of the findings for theory of male identities are discussed.

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Queering male homosocial sporting environments and the relationship to masculinity and the body, is a multidimensional under-researched area of knowledge which experiences particular Queered epistemological challenges. This thesis aims to consider the relationship that men have with their bodies in homosocial sporting environments. Acknowledgement is given to the bonds that men make in defining their masculinity; this includes the role of the body and theenvironment in which this body exists. Ethical approval was granted from the University of East London. Participants were recruited via a poster campaign, or targeted via email. Four homosexual and four heterosexual sportsmen were recruited into the study, representing a homogenous sample, in line with Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. The data was acquired through semi-structured interviews; these were digitally recorded, with each interview lasting approximately one hour. The digitally recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim, and prepared for analysis utilising Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology. Through the analysis and interpretation of the data, two superordinate themes with seven subordinate themes evolved from the data. The first superordinate theme ‘Embodied Unrest of the ‘Bulked’ Torso: Muscle Ideology and Performative Violence’ has three subordinate themes. The second superordinate theme, ‘Performative Masculinities Embodied in Homosocial Environments’ accumulatedfour subordinate themes. In brief, three significant findings evolved as a result of the thematic data. This included the impact of bulked muscles e.g. the biceps, as a representation of power, while at the same time the gaining of insights into how the body plays a significant role in defining masculinity and at time hierarchical disenfranchisement to other men. A second finding resulted in the acknowledgement of a new tenant of Masculine Capital; this was entitled ‘Cock-Supremacy’. The final finding highlighted discourse that suggested how sporting-footwear shapes how men bond and define masculinity in homosocial environments. In conclusion, this research gains new insight into the role of embodiment within a homosocial sporting context. The changing nature of Masculine Capital is also in flux, but consideration turns to new undiscovered ways in which sporting-footwear is shaping men’s definitions of masculinity. The results gained from this study not only impact on sports sociology, but also have a significant importance in gender/masculinity/sex/uality studies.

This thesis is about getting married and the making of manhoods in Sabon Zongo; a Muslim, Hausa enclave in Accra. I elaborate the normative rights and responsibilities of men within idealised relations of consumption, production and exchange, and how they are implicated in accepted and valued notions of manhood. Men achieve and articulate socially accepted and valued, productive and responsible manhoods through marriage by establishing a household of dependents. Irrespective of actual productive activities, women, children and unmarried 'youth' are said to be incapable of meeting their own consumption needs, and so dependent on male household heads, who produce and provide on their behalf. These dependencies are said to justify the status, prestige and authority of married men. Whilst marriage matters to men because it brings about an improvement in how they are socially evaluated, it is seldom easily achieved. Unmarried men must subordinate themselves to the authority of senior men, whose support is necessary if their marital aspirations are to be realised. Thus it is control over reproduction, rather than production and productive resources, which underpins male authority. However, idealised accounts of manhood, and the marital process through which it is achieved, often contradict what actually happens in practice. I explore men’s efforts to reconcile tensions between ideals and actualities. I examine marital pathways as sites of representation, in which men seek to influence the social evaluations made of them by others. I draw on Goffman (1956, 1974, 1980) and De Certeau (1984) to examine how men go about curating and choreographing the marital process, in particular the exchange of marriage goods, and how they seek to manage information for impression management. I show how a convincing performance requires the cooperation of others, including one’s notional dependents. This reveals a paradox of dependency; in that such cooperation is not only difficult for men to secure, but may involve compromises that call their very manhoods in to question.

The thesis begins by arguing that there is a real absence of an empirical understanding of men in British 'gender based sociology'. This is established by exploring current debate within gender based sociology and by examining the extent to which the feminist critique of sociology has marginalised men in gender based research. The thesis then explores how men's lives and work are linked by examining gender theory and feminism. It is argued and concluded that men's identification with work has become a function of a social sex-ordered division resulting from both capitalist and patriarchal relationships. Such relationships are established and supported by men (actively as well as passively) and socialising agents such as family, church, state, professions, guilds and unions develop to protect men's position in paid public work. Men's recent experiences of the British labour market are then considered. It is concluded that two main trends are important in male employment. They are the general decline in male labour market participation and the overall decline in male full-time employment; and second, the growth in male non-standard employment forms such as part-time working. Finally, an empirical account of men's employment is provided by offering a secondary analysis of the National Child Development Study (1991). The data suggest that men's lives are far more complex (and less homogeneous) than originally thought. For example, men do experience different working forms, they do experience differing levels of education and training, men do have varied attitudes towards work and home, and experience health differently when compared to other men. The thesis concludes that men's experiences of work and employment need to be documented and brought back to the attention of the sociological researchers. What sociologists need to do now is further document the change in men's lives and the impact changes in working life has on men.

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