The thesis examines foreign immigration and its relations with the local housing market using secondary data for England and Wales. It specifically looks at the effect of immigration on several key housing market variables such as house prices, housing supply, sub-market house prices and overcrowding as well as its interaction with indigenous households. It subsequently looks at ethnic group wide differences in overcrowding experiences and explores potential factors that drive these differences in outcomes taking into account of both the cultural and financial dimensions. Among the findings, three points are worth being highlighted: (1) immigrants have weak negative effect on local housing wealth through a small reduction in house prices however evidence has confirmed native flight at the top of income distribution and out-migration response tends to take place over longer distance, i.e. across neighbourhoods rather than within neighbourhood; (2) private rental and free rental stocks were on the rise moderately in high immigration areas which demonstrate the positive response of supply in response to immigration inflows; (3) there possesses differences in overcrowding experiences in ethnic groups. For some, migration and co-ethnic support are effective in mitigating these deprivations while not for others. Number of overcrowded households rises almost across all groups in response to increases in small builds while only building extra-large sized stocks in owner-occupied and social housing sectors have moderate positive associations with reductions in overcrowding.

In Malaysia since the mid 1980s, Public-Private Partnership (PPP) toll road projects have been implemented as an alternative road system to the existing roads. Although it has been three decades since PPP toll road projects began to be implemented in Malaysia, the government could not implement certain terms in the contract resulting the government to compensate the private companies in the form of cash or in kinds (extension of concession period, tax exemptions, etc). This research was undertaken to investigate the changes within and among the social relations of actors in the public sector that promoted alterations in the formulation of PPP toll road projects in Malaysia. It aims to understand how changes are advocated which alter the dual relationship between social and institutional structures and individual agency in the production and reproduction of institutions. The institutional context for actors’ agency is formed by the policy, legal and regulatory and organisational frameworks. Over time in the PPP process, changes have taken place in these three frameworks which promoted and motivated changes in actors’ assumptions and rationales for action. These changes have resulted in alterations to the terms of the Concession Agreement (the agreement which stipulates the obligations between the public sector and private sector which governs the PPP toll road projects until the end of the concession period) which are being used for all the new PPP toll road project negotiations. Since this research is interested in the establishment and changes to actor’s social relations which are influenced by institutions, institutional theory is employed, while structuration theory provides a lens to look into changes over time.

The aim of this thesis was to understand the enormous processes of building and rebuilding of housing in Turkey with strong state involvement, targeting squatter housing neighbourhoods, whilst also considering the effects of redevelopment processes on the residents of squatter settlements Ankara, Turkey. In order to understand the overall social, economic, and spatial change of the Turkish cities, three theoretical perspectives were used: urban, state, and built environment and housing theories. Most of the existing literature on squatter settlements' redevelopment examined the eviction of the inner city squatting settlement areas through gentrification theories. However, in the case of Ankara, thousands of hectares of squatter settlement neighbourhoods have been redeveloped since 1980s and gentrification theories account for only a small part of the phenomenon. Massive redevelopments have not always led to displacement and the current redevelopment projects cover 30 percent of the population and 40 percent of the existing city. Therefore, this thesis sought to fill a gap in the literature explaining squatter settlement redevelopment in Turkey. In addition, in many developing countries there have been similar levels of intervention to the urban space by different level of state agencies, and the current findings may also aid to understand redevelopments in developing countries A qualitative methodology was used, undertaking an extensive review of the academic literature, policy and official documents regarding three case studies selected. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 63 different actors involved in the redevelopment projects and 2 focus groups with gecekondu residents in each case study area. The findings of this research suggest that role of the governments in the neoliberal period since the 1980s has been conceptualized as purely disciplinary in terms of class relationships. However, in fact most governments implemented cooperative policies as well. The two key concepts in order to theorise the intervention to the urban space in the period of post 2000 are rescaling the state ii and financialisaiton of the built environment and housing. After 2000, the integration of housing credits and upward scaling of state intervention led to a dramatic increase in housing production. The findings of the Altindag and Mamak case studies showed that from the gecekoundu owners' perspective, the overall housing material quality increased. However, the redevelopments also created various difficulties for the owners and substantially changed their social and cultural lives. Moreover, gecekondu tenants have gained little from the redevelopments. Overall, these findings demonstrate that the role of the central state and city-wide municipalities in relation to the built environment has increased enormously since the 1980s in contrast with the downward scaling of the state as found in many European countries. This shows the importance of understanding state scaling in relation to the economy, society, urbanisation and politics of particular countries.

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By implementing housing strategies which focus improving provision for more affluent groups, policymakers may hope to alter the demographic mix of a locality with the aim of stimulating economic growth to compete more effectively in a globalised world. This thesis examines the potential role of high-end new-build housing as part of a 'bootstraps' (Eisenschitz and Gough, 1993) local economic growth strategy in the context of 'austerity urbanism' (Peck, 2012). To explore these issues, the thesis employs a mixed-method, biographical approach to examine inward and internal migration into new-build homes in Doncaster, a post-industrial metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire. In doing so, the research provides a story of Doncaster, its neighbourhoods and its residents, exploring the ways in which individual, shared and collective narratives combine to influence household needs and preferences, and ultimately mobility outcomes. The empirical findings of this research suggest that targeted high-end new-build housing is insufficient as a policy mechanism to attract the substantial inward migration of middle-to-high income groups in Doncaster. Here, the potential economic benefit associated with a housing-based urban competition strategy appears not to have been met in empirical outcomes. In addition, whilst new-build housing provided a welcome addition to local market for more affluent existing residents and newcomers, findings suggest a policy focus on more affluent groups has the potential to exacerbate local spatial inequalities and threaten social cohesion by creating new opportunities for the segregation of more affluent groups. In analysing the factors that contribute to these empirical outcomes, the research highlights the dynamic and embedded nature of decision-making. In turn, the findings of the research suggest a need for a more relational approach to understanding mobility decision-making.

The study is a comparative analysis of women returners living in two spatially and socioeconomically segregated areas of Sheffield: Kelvin/Thorpe and Greenhill/Bradway. It examines the experience of returning to paid work after childbearing, identifying both variations and similarities which occur between the two cohorts. The study is located within a theoretical framework which is principally informed by dual systems theory. It is therefore concerned with the structuring effect of both patriarchy and class on women's choices, when re-entering paid employment. The influence of the particular local labour market in which the study is placed, Sheffield, is also acknowledged. The study consists of three sections. The first section provides a theoretical overview, examining various labour market theories. Relevant themes and concepts are explored which relate to women returners: the family, education, "gendering" of jobs within the labour market, deskilling and the resenve army of labour. The second section examines research methods, especially practical and methodological considerations relating to women in general and the subjects of this study in particular. It also analyses Sheffield's local labour market and its effect on women's employment. The last section is concerned with an analysis of empirical data, examining factors which influence women's return to employment. It compares and contrasts interviewees' experiences and attitudes towards their education, employment prior to childbearing, patterns of return and spatially related determinants. The study concludes with a brief discussion concerning social polarisation and the underclass.

Interest in the relationship between storytelling and planning has grown in recent years, drawing on scholarship from across the social sciences and humanities to respond to questions and debates about the nature and purpose of planning. It has been suggested that, at the least, story offers planners an important tool to assist them in the difficult business of working for more equitable futures, whilst others have gone further, suggesting that story could represent a route to making planning more inclusive and democratic, perhaps even being a mode for doing planning. This thesis represents a contribution to these debates, by way of a participatory engagement with a group of residents working towards a better future for their community, a working class neighbourhood in Sheffield, United Kingdom. In the context of a nationally funded community development initiative, the research has involved three years of working alongside residents on a variety of planning and community development projects. All of these have an implicit role for story and storytelling, whilst others have explicitly tried to intervene in putting these to work. Through the course of outlining and analysing this work and its implications, and situating this within wider debates and contexts, the thesis makes a contribution to our understanding of how story figures in making change in community contexts and of what it means for non-professionals to engage in planning activity. Ultimately, it suggests that if story is to realise its democratic and inclusionary promise a re-politicised understanding is needed of both story and planning in community contexts.