This thesis explores equality in a devolved polity in the United Kingdom (UK), and the challenges for inclusive and effective governance and public policy_ The research focuses on gender as this is the most developed of the equality strands, and also due to the historical under-representation of women in politics and public policy, and the campaigning and opportunities which the pre-devolution process in Scotland provided for women. The central research questions within this study are: to what extent are women represented and included in the Scottish devolved policy process? And to what extent has devolution advanced gender equality for women in Scotland? Issues considered in the thesis include: exclusion in political representation; participation in policy making; the extent of mainstreaming of equality in the policy process; understandings of devolution at UK level; which parts of the institutional machinery are most inclusive or receptive for lobbying; equality in Parliamentary or Ministerial time; party approaches to equality; resourcing of equality; and whether equality features within the Scottish constitutional debate. The findings highlight the extent of exclusion from the Scottish policy process. The research provides a stocktake of gender equality in Scotland, and is of significance as it provides an insight into policy processes within contemporary governance arrangements in the UK. It does not attempt to be a comparative study, despite the necessary contextualisation of the constitutional settlement between Westminster and Holyrood.

Understanding contemporary integration policy concepts in view of a purported post-multicultural era is key for the development of future integration policies . In recent years the concept of diversity has appeared as a way of giving a more positive, business oriented touch to local integration policies in European cities. However, to date there has been little empirical research on how the introduction of this concept has changed our approach of integration. It is unclear whether the aim is to activate individual talents to make society more productive or to continue pursuing equality of ethnic and cultural minorities. Is diversity just continuing with the ideas and activities of previous multicultural policies under a new label? Given the lack, of a theoretically - based definition of diversity, this thesis identifies how diversity is defined in practice. It focuses on experiments with diversity as a new integration policy in Amsterdam, Antwerp and Leeds, where municipal 'diversity officers' are implementing this policy. My thesis develops a new method, the 'research traineeship' which involves participant observation and the development of a close and reciprocal relationship between researcher and researched during an extended stay. In doing so, the thesis provides valuable insight into the very heart of what it means to govern integration today. The main argument is that diversity is not only a new name for multicultural policies, but also introduces new substance. Diversity policy in practice combines different policy elements, incorporating ideas from multiculturalism and more recent policy elements, which emphasize security and civic virtues. Diversity policy pursues different and sometimes contradictory motives, such as profitability, equality, addressing conflict, and ), responsibility. The empirical research carried out in the three cities shows precisely how local administrations in charge of implementing diversity deal with the challenge of reconciling these different motives, which is additionally complicated by the high symbolic value of the diversity concept. Furthermore, the research demonstrates that diversity policy coincides with a shift to a more neo- liberal form of governance, which re-defines the role and position of officials, politicians, civil society actors, and citizens and their relationship and forms of interaction. A professionalization of diversity officers is suggested as a strategic response for ensuring the successful implementation of diversity policies in the future.

This thesis develops a normative account of the politics of multiculturalism within the paradigm of an anti-essentialist notion of culture while avoiding the pitfall of 'plural monoculturalism'. In so doing, it contributes to the ongoing critiques of essentialist notions of culture and attempts to overcome the normative deficiencies of Kymlicka's theory of liberal multiculturalism, which tends to lead to the subordination of post- immigration ethnic minorities in accessing common institutions and to collapse a multicultural society into plural monocultures. To overcome these deficiencies, this thesis draws upon Benhabib's critiques of essentialist notions of culture and seeks support in Dilthey's works, even though these are not the obvious point of reference for multiculturalism. However, they do help present a model of culture without ossifying individuals within culture and reifying culture. Dilthey's idea of meaning in history, along with Dworkin's account of well-being, allows us to develop a normative account of well-being without succumbing to reductionism, and thereby to argue - similarly to Benhabib's as well as Arendt's emphasis - that we must be concerned with the circumstances of injustice that affect human conditions within the problematic social world, rather than with a universal human nature. Based on this premise, this thesis shows that social justice is a prime parameter of the 'right circumstances' because unjust circumstances may prevent individuals from pursuing their well-being, which is constituted by engaging in meaningful activities in accord with their genuine convictions. It argues that social freedom is essentially 'agency- freedom' - the notion of freedom as non-domination that is central to modem republicanism - which is tied to social justice, and that an assault on one's capability to participate as a citizen of equal status negatively affects one's social freedom. Drawing from Sen's and Nussbaum's capability approaches, this thesis shows that multicultural social justice should be understood as minorities' 'capability to function' as citizens of equal status, especially in deliberating on claims for recognition as cultural practices are normatively contestable. It argues that the minimal and common normative conditions - social recognition and non-domination - rooted in self-respect must be met without reifying culture and identity. Moreover, it argues that social virtues are important to ensure the egalitarian reciprocity of treating one another as citizens of equal status. Based on this normative premise, the politics of multicultural integration needs to satisfy a set of criteria. The set of criteria developed as a main part of the thesis has the capacity to normatively discriminate in a principled manner among competing political approaches to multiculturalism and diversity. This thesis concludes that modern civic republicanism, mainly derived from Honohan's works, better fulfils the conditions of the normative criteria than liberalism or communitarianism.

This thesis is a study of the political symbols and general political concepts of the Shambaa of north-eastern Tanzania, and of their relation to changing patterns of political action in the Shambaa kingdom as it existed before colonial conquest at the end of the nineteenth century. The thesis is based on research which was carried out between March 1966 and August 1968 in Tanzania, and in 1965-1966 in British and German archives. The work is an attempt to explore the relationship between two bodies of evidence on the political organization of the Shambaa. First, there are the configurations of symbols and sets of general concepts of the Shambaa view of politics. In these, linear non-reversible time is suppressed. History is seen by the Shambaa as an alternation between strong Kings who dominated the chiefs and thereby brought fertility to the entire land, and weak Kings who competed with the chiefs, in which cases there was famine. Secondly, there is the record of political action throughout the history of the kingdom. There were frequent changes not only in the distribution of power between King and chiefs, but also in the potential sources of support for competing leaders, it is shown that the patterns of action which are explained by the Shambaa in terms of the general concepts did indeed change. In Shambaa kingship the divergence between experience and an articulated system of cultural ideology was potentially great because the King was expected to provide leadership when new political or economic forces in the region impinged on the kingdom, and because the King often had the power to act in ways which were unexpected. For these reasons, the most important political concepts were general and ambiguous. They lacked precision in their classification of social groups, and in their specification of accepted behaviour.

This thesis will examine the collective identity of the English Defence League by utilising Ernesto Laclau’s theory of populism. The empirical research contained within this study was gained via an ethnographic investigation of the EDL which included eighteen months of observations at demonstrations and twenty six narrative interviews conducted with a small group of EDL members. The study will utilise concepts that have been developed by Laclau in order to present a theoretical understanding of the way in which the EDL constructs its collective identity. By examining the role of demands and dislocation, equivalence and antagonism and the empty signifier in constructing the EDL’s identity this work will shed new light on how the EDL emerged and the way in which it developed as a populist social movement.