This thesis presents the findings of a sociological study of gay SM (male homosexual sadomasochism) in the United Kingdom from the 19505 to the present. Located in the social constructionist tradition of Weeks (1981, 1985, 1995a) and Foucault (1984, 1988, 1990), the study employed both quantitative and qualitative methodologies and research methods. The analytical structure for the presentation of the findings follows an adapted version of Derek Layder's (1997, 2(04)) theory of social domains. The study opens with an account of the development of gay SM in the United Kingdom, divided into four historical phases. The fourth and current phase provides the first comprehensive ethnographic description of gay SM's present-day social worlds, focusing on the growth of the commercial sector and the Internet as the most significant factors in the production and reproduction of contemporary gay SM. Having set the historical scene, I update existing demographic information on participants and define three levels of self-identification and five categories of individual narrative constructs of gay SM. I then apply Gagnon and Simon's (1973) theory of sexual scripting to socialization into gay SM, describing seven sources of intrapsychic scripting and three patterns of conversion from intrapsychic to interpersonal scripting. This introduces a detailed account of small-scale and group gay SM interactions that stresses their embodied, emotional characteristics and highlights the leading role of small-scale interactions in private in the production and reproduction of gay SM for much of the period under study. The examination of lived, embodied interactions is complemented by an analysis of the various discursive constructions of gay SM, with special reference to the relationship between 'sadomasochism', 'leather' and 'SM' and to the role of the 'Black Pound', the term I have chosen to describe the discourses found in the gay SM commercial sector. I summarize and conclude the thesis with a definition of gay SM as 'The performance of consensual eroticized power-relationship interactions between gay men'.

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Abstract This thesis investigates the effects of the nation-building agenda carried out by the Malaysian state on the sense of collective belonging of the Kadazan people of the Bornean State of Sabah. The thesis includes a reconstruction of the formation of the two most important forms of collective identification, the nation and the ethnic group, and the analysis of the way in which Kadazan villagers identify themselves in relation to discourses circulating in various media and the practices in which they get involved in their everyday life. Kadazan villagers consistently show a rejection of the state propaganda and a general unwillingness to identify themselves as members of the Malaysian nation, which I attribute to their marginal position within the Malaysian state. They more often identify themselves as members of their ethnic group or village, collective forms of identification that seem to allow for a higher degree of participation in their definition than the national one. The empirical analysis of the everyday self-identification in relation to practices and discourses shows a complex picture, as Kadazan villagers differently situate themselves as Malaysian, Kadazan, Sabahan and members of their village in different occasions and contexts. One of the explanations of this fact lies in the ambiguous character of Malaysian nation-building, promoting unity while at the same time treating citizens differently depending on their ethnic and religious background. The official discourse and practice of ethnic and religious differentiation has been deeply internalised by the Kadazan and has become a primary reason for their opposition to the state, as they feel treated as second-class citizens. Another explanation for the development of a sense of belonging to various collective forms of identification among the Kadazan rests in the fact that their recent history has made these significant as expression of different sets of shared lived experiences, providing the basis for the development of senses of commonality with members of the national, sub-national, ethnic and village communities at the same time.

This thesis investigates and analyses the wedding ceremony in western society. The white wedding ceremony developed within Christian religious doctrine and although charged with certain symbolic meanings and traditions has not remained static but has evolved and changed to reflect contemporary lifestyles. The wedding ceremony has always been an indicator of ideals and aspirations at every social level and this work focuses on the sublime ceremonial as well as the evolving nature of marriage. Couples historically married to cement dynasties and to ensure passage of lands and wealth and their marriages were arranged but once couples could marry partners of their choice and love liaisons became normal then the ceremony provided an ideal opportunity for festive exhibition and theatrical excess. Wedding pageantry has readily adapted to encompass recent celebrity culture that has pervaded modern societies. Modern craving for instant acclaim has been promoted by profiteering industries and businesses dedicated to providing the dream wedding within any budget. This thesis argues that the nature of marriage has changed from a life-long heterosexual legal committment to one person to a relationship that anticipates some degree of separateness and autonomy within a heterosexual or same sex association. The ceremony itself has evolved to accommodate changing ideals and expectations of first marriages and to provide opportunity for couples to remarry within the dictates of contemporary fashion. The wedding ceremony remains a significant and symbolic occassion because it has adapted and changed to accommodate contemporary tastes, styles, standards and edicts and because of this it will survive.

In this study I am concerned to discover how and why local youth in Newcastle upon Tyne are appropriating black culture, in the absence of a local black population to act as a reference guide. In doing so, I provide a new approach to the analysis and interpretation of white identity in a globalised world. Central to this approach is the focus on new ethnicities where the local is fused with the global in order to create identities free of the radical underpinning of whiteness and Englishness. Thus, I argue, these identities are truly hybrid in nature, and can neither be labelled white, or black, as they are in equal parts influenced by Geordie and African-American cultures. I highlight this further by showing that this syncretisation and blending of cultures has been occurring in the North East of England for over forty years. The study is divided into two parts. The first begins with a substantive literature review of critical reflections on white appropriations. I then define hip-hop and rap, trace their origins, and beyond that analyse their antecedents. I also take a critical look at my location of study in terms of its social deprivation and struggle with post-industrialism, and introduce the techniques behind my fieldwork. In the second part I present an extended ethnography. During the course of four separate fieldwork chapters, I consider varying aspects behind these white appropriations, in terms of local sensibilities and cultural affiliations, cultural isolation and long distance black bonding, the denial of race and the need for authenticity, in the context of this specific urban setting. The thesis concludes with a summary of the information gleaned from my fieldwork.

This thesis takes the primary contemporary icons of Chinese tradition –the popular practice of Tai Chi‐and subjects its career in both China and the West, to a series of critical interrogations focusing on three main moments; the invention and (re)imagination of tradition, the practice's migration from China to the West, and its translation by its English practitioners. During the Imperial period, when Tai Chi was defined primarily as a martial art, it was the focus of a sustained struggle between its official deployment as part of the military machine and its practice by clandestine societies and insurgent movement. It was simultaneously incorporated into the push to modernization and promoted as a part of an unbroken cultural legacy that defined the uniqueness of Chineseness in various forms during Republican China, Mao's era and Post‐Mao era. The thesis also looks at the key figures and the process of institutionalization and indigenisation as the practice generated its own national professional associations and competitions in England since 1940s. Based on ethnographic research in the Midlands, the thesis explores the contending understandings of Tai Chi among its English practitioners. It explores the ways in which British instructors locate themselves within an ‘authentic' tradition by way of a latent lineage system. This allows them to maintain their own personal commitment to Tai Chi as a martial art conflicts while working with the market drive for mass participation based on concepts of relaxation and alternative therapy and medicine. The ethnographic research also explores the ways that students in Tai Chi classes translate it into an indoors practices with an outdoors imagination, and as a bodily discipline with a spiritual basis, and how they construct their understanding of this spiritual dimension by drawing on polysemic interpretations of oriental conceptions such as Yin, Yang and Qi rather than the standardised references to Taoism in the public representations.

The techniques used to analyse glass in forensics and archaeology differ: forensic analysis relies almost completely on Refractive Index, whereas archaeology uses compositional analyses. This thesis focuses on examining, explaining and challenging those differences through the analysis of colourless glass from forensic and archaeological contexts. Two major studies are undertaken, one focussing on stained and painted glass from Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and one based on modern automotive glass. The analytical techniques common to each discipline are applied to the samples of glass used in the research. The studies each focus on individual research questions; the Christ Church study investigates the 17th century Van Linge window scheme, the compositions of fragments of glass from throughout the cathedral’s history are investigated, and shown to separate into distinct compositional groups. The study also successfully recreates the Van Linge window scheme; and the historical and compositional analyses allowed the study of one of the in-situ painted windows in the cathedral. The automotive glass study investigates the complex relationship between glass manufacturers and vehicle manufacturers. The research revealed that certain makes of vehicle were beginning to group and glass from specific areas of the world was also grouping together. This study highlights the potential use for glass as a tool for intelligence gathering rather than just as evidence. The application of the different analytical techniques to each study is discussed along with the merits of using each of the techniques. The potential of using forensic techniques in archaeology and archaeological techniques in forensics is evaluated. Specifically, LA-ICP-MS, which is rarely used in forensics, could be an innovative and potentially important tool for the forensic evaluation of cars and other glass evidence. A discussion of the research and databases needed to make the most of the techniques is assessed.

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This thesis explores how Chinese individuals experience social change as a result of migration and how this takes shape in the practice of casino gambling in the UK. In London, a high proportion of casino customers are of Chinese origin, especially in those casinos which are situated in the vicinity of Chinatown where I carried out fieldwork. In the thesis, the nature of this relationship is reconsidered as a mutual encounter against the political and economic background of the British gambling environment, a phenomenological description of gamblers’ actions when they are gambling and an examination of how migration is experienced by different individuals. The aim is to challenge the perception of gambling as an irrational activity which presupposes a restricted conception of time, economic rationality and success. As such, this thesis focuses on Chinese gamblers’ ideas of luck, fate and greed and reflects on the different ideas of success that emerge from risk taking of various kinds including in business, through migration and last, but not least, in the casino. It demonstrates that the relationship between time and money cannot be assumed but must be reconsidered in situ through the way individuals create and experience different temporalities and rationalities via the circulation of money. The casino is a particularly illuminating place since the articulation of time and money is constructed in contrast with the notion of time discipline that dominates most other life rhythms. This means that even though the circulation of money and the flow of time may be suspended or slowed down in the aftermath of the migration journey, the space of the casino, with its contained spatiotemporality, still offers the opportunity to experience movement in a repeated and systematic manner. To summarise, this thesis shows how Chinese people in London shape and re-shape their selves forming different temporalities and using various ways of exchanging money.