This the;is represents a continued engagetnent with diversity of knowledge, experience 311d methodology. The thesis contains work accepted for publication and 311 accompanying research narrative. This research narrative links the academic outputs presented with an intellectual 311d experiential journey. The first section sets the scene. The experience of becoming an academic is theorised using three diverse resources: (i) auto-ethnography is utilised to make sense of the journey; (ii) Burrell and Morg311's (1979) paradigms of social science are used to situate publications and dOmin311t modes of thinking, (iii) communities of practice ideas (originating from Lave and Wenger) are used to explore ~where and how learning and development have taken place. Having outlined the theoretical resource; being utilised in the thesis, I present the published work as belonging in three p'dfadigms (functionalist, interpretivist 311d radical humanist). Within each of the sections 2, 3 311d 4 the same structure is employed. After a brief introduction to the paradigm and summary of the papers or chapters, the three or four pieces of published work are serially presented (without commentary). Following this, the work is reflected upon using autoethnography. communities of practice and paradigms of social science. Section 5 (entitled Towards Anti-Foundationalism) aims to methodologically re-work Interpretivism and Radical Humanism (using current writing). The final section (Consequences and commitments) explores contemporary vVTiting commitments and the consequences of the intellectual journey taken. Four issues are explored here: voice; theory and practice; communities of practice and diverse ways of knowing

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Using data from semi-structured depth interviews with sixty-seven male academics sampled from four disciplines (physics, chemistry, philosophy, music) in each of two universities, the research illuminates everyday academic life and how academics talk about key pressure points of research, teaching, and the audit culture. Through this context, a deep understanding is acquired about various kinds of social knowledge embedded in academic communities, the social construction of academic success and failure, and the meaning for members of each discipline of the Research Assessment Exercise, the doctorate, academic controversies, tensions within disciplines, and lifestyle. The research draws from several sociological traditions: a variety of work in sociology of higher education, including work on disciplinary cultures and recent studies of audit; sociology of scientific knowledge; and work stemming from sociology of the professions and Cardiff's ethnographic tradition. The findings have implications for the pressures facing scientists working in HEIs and the particular needs of subsets of the sciences, humanities, and research and teaching communities. In particular, the research illuminates the significance of group culture and the shifting nature of success and exclusion, of which an understanding is needed for addressing inequalities in higher education. Academic pressure points - most notably the RAE - are shown to have had a significant impact on academic identities and academic work. The findings also show the importance of social interaction for sustaining a successful learning culture or maintaining a research tradition.

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This thesis develops a theoretical model to explain the creation of international behavioural norms drawing on two literatures: Constructivism in International Relations and the Sociology of Knowledge. This theoretical model draws attention to the interplay between scientific knowledge and normative concerns in the process of norms creation, to the role of non-state actors in norm construction, as well as to the importance of states in normative negotiations. I have also sought to uncover different types of power that both states and non-state actors have employed and the tactics of bargaining and persuasion which prevail and lead to the successful creation of international norms. The proposed theoretical model is applied to three case-studies, which are the creation of the norm outlawing the use of torture, the norm protecting intellectual property rights in the pharmaceutical industry, and the norm for the protection of the atmosphere from the effects of human activities to prevent or slow down global warming. The historical reconstruction of events leading up to the legalisation and operationalisation of these norms has revealed important similarities in the way that these norms were negotiated. There is a resemblance in the manner in which scientific knowledge and normative beliefs interacted. All three case-studies exposed the degree to which non-state actors – NGOs, scientific communities, advocacy organisations, religious groups, businesses, etc. – participated in the creation of international norms, and although this is not a new concept in itself, it is worth reconsidering its intensity and the role of these actors in world politics. My research into the development of these three international norms has also emphasised the need for a better understanding of the points of closure in scientific, normative, and political debates. I argue that the way in which closure is reached is directly relevant to the strength, effectiveness and authority of the norm created.

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Information seeking in context is a developing area of research, which explores the subject in settings ranging from high schools to legal practices to health organisations. Relatively little research, however, has been devoted to information behaviour in disadvantaged communities from a non-library perspective, particularly within a UK context. This study contributes to this field of research by exploring the information worlds — the everyday lives and information behaviour — of people living on a disadvantaged estate in Northeast England. The project was firmly rooted within the qualitative paradigm and employed a combination of ethnographic data collection methods to explore information behaviour including episodic narrative and extended participant observation. Interviews were carried out with 21 estate residents and with 13 key workers. The study discovered that everyday life on the estate was difficult and complex, a fact mirrored in the participants' information needs and in their information seeking behaviour. Cognitive information needs stemmed from everyday life issues such as debts, employment and health problems and were often met only with affective support from informal networks of family, friends and trusted on-estate regeneration workers. Trust was a major factor in information seeking owing to the insular nature of the estate and the participants' need for confidentiality and privacy. Participants often used the term information to indicate what was happening on the estate in terms of gossip and local news, but they also found the term a worrying one, associating it with intrusive questioning and with formal institutions. Formal, off-estate information providers were used for health reasons or in crisis situations, and the public library was not considered as an information source. In order to overcome the many barriers to information seeking, information providers need to focus on working in ongoing partnership with other agencies and on developing trusting relationships with people within their communities.