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This thesis presents a materialist analysis of the modem African chieftaincy. Chieftaincy is conceived as a dialectical unity of local state and corporate land relations that are both form and effect of the contradictory development of the capital relation in sub-Saharan Africa under conditions of colonial imperialism. As a state institution the chieftaincy is everywhere constituted as a territorialised tribal authority, while as a landed institution it has the potential (though by no means the necessity) to assume the `class function' of modern landed property in relation to agrarian and industrial capital. The thesis terms this phenomenal form `tribal landed property'. Drawing on oral histories, institutional interviews and archival data collected during a year's local-level fieldwork (2000-2001), the thesis applies this theoretical framework to a detailed case study of the BaFokeng chieftaincy. It proceeds at two increasingly concrete levels of analysis. The first explores how the core relations of tribal authority and corporate landed property that have defined and dynamised the modern BaFokeng chieftaincy were historically constituted in the course of South Africa's `racial capitalist' development (1837-1977). This establishes that the institution was a creation and, in key ways, a beneficiary of the emergent colonial, segregationist and apartheid orders, while casting new light on key themes in rural South African historiography. The second focuses on the (celebrated) struggles between this chieftaincy and an alliance of the Bophuthatswana homeland regime and the Impala mining company over the rights to the vast platinum reserves in BaFokeng and the distribution of their revenues (1977-1994). Analysis of the 'economic' dimension of this struggle demonstrates the utility of conceiving the BaFokeng chieftaincy as a distinctive form of modem landed property in contradictory relationships with mining capital, mine labour and the state. This also contributes an oriýtinal account of the increasingly important platinum industry. The logic of this 'tribal landed property' approach may open the way to a more general materialist conception of `communal' tenure forms typically considered beyond the reach of political economy.

This thesis examines the similarity of partisanship preferences between parents and children. It is the first study that provides an overview of all the factors that have a potential effect on family political transmission. Drawing on the traditions of political science and sociology, it examines individual, family, and context level factors. Additionally, it is the first attempt to elucidate which theoretical perspective better accounts for the observed intergenerational association of partisanship. Although this issue is frequently discussed in the political socialisation literature, academics have traditionally assumed a direct influence of parents on the partisan orientation of their children, whereas the intergenerational association of partisan preferences can also be explained from a rational choice perspective, assuming that parents have an indirect effect on children through other individual variables such as education and class. My examination of the various factors seeks to clarify to what extent these theoretical views are suited to explain this phenomenon. The analysis draws on British data from both the BHPS and the BES. In the first part of the thesis, cross- sectional multivariate regression models are carried out in order to investigate how particular individual and family level factors shape the transmission of partisanship within the family. Next, longitudinal models are applied in order to examine the endurance of parental influence on children's partisan orientation. As regards individual variables, girls seem to be more likely to reflect parental party preferences and less likely to develop a partisan orientation when compared to boys. Furthermore, respondents show a tendency to depart from parental partisan preferences as they age. Although education and class differences between parents and children are significantly related to differences in partisanship, a direct effect of individual class and education mobility on partisanship cannot be confirmed. Regarding family variables, parent's interest in politics and parents' agreement do not always enhance parent-child similarity. Children who live in lone parent households are significantly different from children who live in dual-parental households, but the size of the household has no significant effect on partisan transmission. Turning to the endurance of parental influence, voters whose parents used to maintain a clear party orientation are more likely to develop a party orientation themselves. On the other hand, the likelihood of reflecting parental orientations weakens substantially when respondents move out of the family household. Also, the longer children live together with parents, the greater the likelihood that they reflect parental partisanship. Contrary to prior expectations, there is no evidence to claim that newer generations display lower levels of parent-child similarity than older generations. However the percentage of children and parents in the sample who support the same political party has declined in the previous decades, and there seems to be some evidence to argue that this phenomenon is causally related to the dealigmnent of parents. In sum, the findings seem to favour an interpretation of family transmission in which both elements of a direct and an indirect influence of parents on children are present, and this thesis therefore provides some support to both socialisation and rational choice theoretical accounts.

The project National Identity in the Era of Globalisation is a research on the nature of national identity and its potentials in the era of globalisation. National identity is approached by psychoanalysis and by political analysis. Psychoanalysis offers us some insight on identity and the process of identification, a process that shapes the individual personality-and identities-since birth. Identification is essential for understanding how people identify themselves and how they are mobilised by other people, groups etc. It also reveals the role of the others (outgroups, foreigners, etc.), who are also important to the extent that they act as reference points of identification, including negative identification; to a large extent their presence is essential for the coherence of the national group as the nation's aggressiveness is directed outwards, acting as a stabiliser for the cohesion of the group. National identity occurs out of identification with the national group, so its peculiar characteristics are defined by the nation. Nationalism inevitably comes to the fore, not only as the force that has forged the nation-state, but also as a mass mobilising ideology that determines the aspirations of the 'nationals'. As it will be argued in this thesis, nationalism changes national identities to 'nationalistic identities', and signifies the nation with new characteristics. Most significantly, nationalism appeals strongly to the human unconscious, and accounts for the seemingly 'irrational' characteristics of national identity. Thus, national identity partly derives its strength, prevalence and ferocity from nationalism. What are the prospects, then, of national identity in the era of globalization. In order to answer this, we must define globalisation and examine the position and strength of the national state in the current globalising era. Also, the prevalence of nationalism as a political force and ideology that signifies the nation and national identity to a large extent must be explored in the era of globalisation. As globalisation seems to provoke national awakenings and enhance existing nationalisms, the potentials for national identities to be strengthened or rendered obsolete will be examined.

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This work focuses on young people’s experiences of political information, to identify how information literacy instruction may support young people to develop political agency. To explore the phenomenon of political information, the study uses three theories: personal construct theory, phenomenography and critical pedagogical theory. The methods used were surveys, repertory grid interviews and semi-structured focus groups. Prior to the collection of substantive data, a survey was conducted to gain insight into the participants’ political knowledge and attitudes. To identify what sources of political information young people are exposed to, 23 repertory grid interviews were conducted with 14 and 15 year old pupils in a secondary school in South Yorkshire, England. To map the different ways in which these sources are understood, three focus groups were conducted in line with the phenomenographic approach. Parents, friends and teachers were found to be the most influential sources of the wide range of political information the participants use and are exposed to. Additionally, mass media and social media were found to be significant. The interview and focus group data was analysed using personal construct theory and phenomenographic techniques to produce a set of personal construct categories and a phenomenographic outcome space. The participants experienced the production of information, the evaluation of information, the relationship between their use of information and their sense of political agency, and their conception of politics in variously complex ways. Although the majority of experiences of political information were found to be lacking a critical dimension, the potential for young people to critically evaluate information and its sources was identified. Several critical pedagogical concepts were identified as being of potential use to practitioners seeking to support young people in the development of critical capacities. The most relevant of Giroux’s critical pedagogical concepts to illuminate the structural issues affecting young people’s experiences of political information were identified as political illiteracy, the banking model of education, media literacy, political agency, civic literacy and critical consciousness. These findings contribute to information literacy and information behaviour theory. Most significantly, the recommendations emerging from the analysis of the research data through the outcome space and construct categories may help practitioners in their work, to better understand the information literacy needs of young people in relation to political participation.