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This research examines Libyan geopolitical discourse over the 40 years from 1969 to 2009 that is, the period following the revolution which brought Muammar Abu Minyar Al-Qaddafi to the leadership of that country. It asks how and why Libyan geopolitical discourse changed over this period. To answer this question, it reviews the scholarly literature bearing on Qaddafi and Libya's international and strategic relations; it analyses 188 speeches delivered by Qaddafi; it examines interviews, books and documents by him; and it draws on interviews conducted by the author with Libyan political commentators. It hypothesises that, in response to threats to Libyan sovereignty and survival, Qaddafi repeatedly shifted Libyan geopolitical discourse in a way that amounted to a tactically polyvalent responsive-defensive strategy. In sustaining the hypothesis, it makes several findings. It methodically establishes that Qaddafi was the progenitor of Libyan geopolitical discourse. It reveals the ideational content of Qaddafi's discourse in terms of its lexicology, placing him within the Arab nationalist lexicon derived from Nasserism. It demonstrates that Qaddafi used, mainly, three verbal discursive strategies in constructing and reconstructing Libyan geopolitical discourse lexical reiteration, presupposition and indexicals plus visual imagery and symbolism. It argues a three-stage periodisation of Libyan geopolitical discourse: pan-Arab, pan-African and Libya as a nation-for- itself. These changes at geopolitical level, however, never challenged Qaddafi's and Libya's commitment to their Arab identity. It finds that discursive change came as a response to threats to Libyan sovereignty or security and was intended to defend Libya against, or mitigate, these threats. It reveals subtleties in his view of Libyan security as a means to unite Arab and African worlds, rather than preferring one over the other. That is to say, Qaddafi's move towards Africa implied a rejection of Arab governments but not of the Arab world, of which he continued to consider himself and Libya a part. And, finally it finds that, although discourses appeared sometimes to be mutually or internally contradictory, they were intended to serve the same strategy: namely to protect Libyan sovereignty and security. That is to say, discursive change served a tactically polyvalent responsive-defensive strategy.

This thesis is an investigation into the relationship between culture in New Labour policy and within the competition for the European Capital of Culture 2008. The study interrogates a policy paradigm which it identifies as a 'creative city/urban planning' approach to urban regeneration. It locates this approach within a wider New Labour 'Third Way' politics, in that it attempts to reconcile economic instrumentalism with a rhetorical commitment to a politics of the social. Based on elite interviews and documentary analysis, this thesis argues that this approach to urban regeneration draws on a misappropriation of the work of cultural theorist Raymond Williams. It demonstrates how this misappropriation results in an unbounded anthropological definition, whereby culture colonises all areas of economic and social life. Within this template, culture becomes a surrogate economic and social policy. This is illustrated in the case-study of Liverpool's bidding for, winning of and plans for Capital of Culture 2008. This analysis shows how culture without parameters is usurped within both a neo-liberal economic agenda, and a policy template which recasts social inequality as a personal cultural deficit. Within Liverpool's urban strategy, culture is conceived as a social and economic panacea. However, when culture comes to mean everything, it invariably means nothing. This thesis attempts to put Raymond Williams' 'vague and baggy monster' back in its theoretical cage.

This study undertakes a critical investigation of the ideology underpinning the social practice of voluntary community service (VCS) in contemporary America. VCS is described as a hegemonic practice promoted by the Bush government, with the aim of social regulation and control of the people. The study combines Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with Michel Foucault's theorising of the practices of modern government, for its methodological and analytical procedures. It incorporates Wodak's Discourse Historical Approach and Van Leeuwen's discourse analytical approach, i.e. recontextualisation, representation of social actors and social action, and legitimation. Two sets of data are analysed: political discourse which comprise four key speeches by G.W. Bush between 2001 and 2002, and data from an ethnographic study of a group of grassroots practitioners of VCS in the state of Oklahoma. The analyses of Bush's speeches centre on his attempts to mobilise the American people in VCS through the launching of a national service program - 'the USA Freedom Corps'. The thesis compares Bush's 2001 Inaugural Address and the 2002 State of the Union Address, of which only the latter appears to have succeeded in getting more people to volunteer. The analyses reveal a discursive shift in Bush's strategy from the pre- and post- September 11 period, whereby the latter speech appeals not only to the nation's patriotic feelings but also represents VCS as a 'wartime effort' in connection with the September 11 attacks and the subsequent 'War On Terror'. The analyses show the discursive deployment of the right-wing Christian ideology underpinning Bush's service initiative that is part of his political philosophy -'compassionate conservatism', and its policy for welfare reform - the Faith Based Initiative. The ethnographic study of the grassroots level practice of VCS demonstrates how this dominant ideology is adopted and naturalised amongst the VCS practitioners. The USA Freedom Corps and the Faith Based Initiative are discussed as programs of conduct that steer its practitioners (the American people) to adopt the preferred attitudes, beliefs, practices and lifestyles. It is argued that the social practice of voluntary community service in contemporary America has become a hegemonic practice that aims for moral regulation and social control.