This study focuses on the Creole village of Chamarel in the south of Mauritius. It examines trends in Mauritian tourism and how this has changed to include ecologically sensitive areas. It will discuss the historical context of Mauritius and the relevance of a plural society to tourism, with a particular focus on the representation of Mauritian culture, the Creole identity and the relevance of this to community development. The research explores community tourism in Chamarel, utilising a multifaceted qualitative approach involving an ethnographic investigation intertwined with data from other techniques. Data was collected from semi-structured interviews, participant observation, casual conversations, narratives, social events and netnographic sources. The data was expanded over a ten year period to identify patterns and themes in community tourism during 2004 to 2014. This multifaceted approach represents a new methodology for the study of Mauritian tourism. There has been a significant change in Chamarel to cater for ecotourism and community tourism. The findings shed light on community participation. This is achieved through the analysis of Government reports and development plans. The range of sources used enables a very rich, multi-perspectival account of community tourism through ‘native eyes.’ The research suggests that interpretations of being Mauritian take on new meanings through the development of community tourism and reveals that ethnicity amongst other factors influenced the success of development in Chamarel.

This thesis explores the intersection at which UK trade union learning meets global worker solidarity, primarily through the use of in-depth interviews with learners and learning providers. It examines the extent to which trade union learning influences and activates members to respond through solidarity to address key challenges posed by neo-liberal globalisation. Mobilisation theory is drawn upon to assist in identifying the foundational elements for global active-solidarity formation whilst transformative learning theory assists in examining any possible complementarity with trade union learning methods and approaches. Research into formal learning through trade union courses and informal learning opportunities, including overseas study visits, indicates that awareness of global labour issues is growing, as is active-solidarity, supported in large part by contemporary trade union learning provision. Nonetheless, dominant global ideologies, limited member mobilisation and continuing trade union political disunities present a challenge for transformative learning and global trade union solidarities.

This thesis contributes to knowledge concerning the volatility and forecasting of exchange rates in the emerging world. It investigates the exchange rates of the leading trading blocs in that part of the world. This thesis examines exchange rates of selected emerging countries across continents and fills gaps in the literature pertaining to local and regional analyses of exchange rates, with an investigation of the determinants of their fluctuations in selected common markets in Africa, Asia, Central and Latin America. Exchange rates of countries from the four different regions are investigated separately, followed by an analysis within and across regions to identify common patterns of exchange rates fluctuations. Monthly forecasts are generated for a period of 24 months to test the performance of the times series, cointegration and combination techniques used in this thesis. The results show that exchange rates of countries in the same region behave similarly following a shock to the system. Additionally, exchange rates of countries at the same stage of development albeit in different geographical location (Central America, Southern Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia) share some similarities. This thesis found that all exchange rates examined have been volatile. Furthermore, asymmetric volatility was particularly relevant in the modelling process mainly for countries that suffered from the aftermath of a financial or debt crisis, especially in Asia and Latin America. Exponential smoothing time series models provided the most accurate forecasts for the sampled exchange rates, while combination models outperformed single time series models in about 70% of the cases. ARDL cointegration models had limited success in the forecasting exercise but were particularly relevant as a composite method and were the best performing models when combined with time series techniques.

In the early part of the 21st century, decisions not to defend parts of the coastline of England and Wales, with homes expected to be lost uncompensated, were contentious. Academic literature encourages further consideration of how people in such locations organise themselves to influence policy, and the function of social class in this regard. This study suggests that there are limits to the influence that can be exerted on policy in this way, and that larger, better resourced and better-socially-connected communities are more inclined and able to organise as effective action groups. However, limits to influence are also due to deliberative structures and processes that can marginalise local concerns and representations. The subject is approached through literature review and three case studies of policy setting and collective action - two at local level, for purposes of comparison, and one of a national lobby group and its engagement with central government. At local level, differences in approaches taken to the formation of coalitions with institutions and other groups are particularly evident. Sustained collective action can result in influence; however, local concerns are not always articulated publicly, and do not always result in collective action. The business of grassroots action falls typically to very few people with significant costs for them, and such arrangements can feed official concerns around representative legitimacy. Overall, coastal planning exercises do not appear to satisfy the main tenet of 'localism' - that citizens should be given power over decisions that affect them. Many coastal communities may require support in order to participate effectively, and policy owners must avoid privileging the preferences of the ‘usual suspects’. This may not be sufficient, however, given contention over the orthodoxy that losses resulting from decisions not to defend are borne significantly by individuals.

The aim of this thesis is to explore how employee and freelancer lay active members of the UK union BECTU (Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union), who are not employees of the union, view the effects of their activism on their professional and personal lives. In doing so it discusses whether participants' views are affected by their definition of the term 'activist', and by the nature of their relationship with the union. Central to this study is the question of whether participants' responses might differ depending on their employee or freelancer employment status. In order to contextualise the study background desk based research into the existing literature is undertaken. It explores the key themes of trade union activism and employee and freelancer employment status, and the relevance of a range of theoretical perspectives is discussed. Overviews of the relevant aspects of the UK broadcast industries, and of BECTU's history and structure, are provided in order to further inform the research. A combined methods approach is adopted, providing qualitative and quantitative data in order to deliver comprehensive answers to the main research questions. The primarily qualitative research involves semi-structured interviews conducted with high profile union activists. A questionnaire completed by delegates attending BECTU's Annual Conference in 2014 provides quantitative data to complement and enrich the findings of the qualitative data. This thesis contributes to the existing literature about trade union activism by uncovering how its participants define the term 'activism' and assessing the effects of activism on individual members rather than on unions as entities. It illustrates the importance of seeking to understand and utilise participants' definitions of value laden terms, rather than depending on researchers' initial interpretations. It finds that although there are some differences between the effects of trade union activism on employees and on freelancers, how individuals' view their relationship with the union influences the importance that they place on those effects.

Even long before the recent financial and economic crisis of 2007/2008 economists were more than aware of the insufficiencies and a lack of realism in macroeconomic modelling and model calibration methods, including those with DSGE methods and models, and spelled the need for further enhancements. The issues this research started addressing even before the 2008 crisis imposed demand for improvements, was use of single, fully informed rational agents in those modes. Consequently, the first part of this research project was aiming to improve the DSGE econometric methods by introducing novel solution for DSGE models with imperfect, partial information about the current values of deep variables and shocks, and apply this solution to imperfectly informed multiple agents with their different, inner-rationality models. Along these lines, this research also shows that DSGE models can be extended and suited to both, fitting and estimation of long-term yield curve, and to estimating with rich data sets by extending further its inner-mechanism. In the aftermath of the 2008 crises, which struck at the beginning of this research project, and the subsequent, extensive criticism of DSGE models, this research analyses the alternative causes of the crisis. It then focuses on identifying its possible causes, such as yet unknown debt accelerator mechanism and the related, probable model miss-specifications, rational inattention, and as well, a role of institutional policies in both the development of the crisis and its resolution. And finally, in a response to many of the critiques of the, usually monetary policy oriented DSGE models, this research project provides another set of novel extensions to such models, aiming to bring more of Keynesian characteristics suited to a more active, endogenous fiscal policy deemed needed in the aftermath of the crisis. This project, henceforth, extends the NK-Neo-Classical synthesis monetary DSGE models with a novel, endogenous, counter-cyclical fiscal policy rule driven by news and unemployment changes. It then also shows overall benefits of the resulting, mutually active, monetary-fiscal policy for both capital utilisation and overall economic stability.

The equation of exchange is not in itself a theory of the demand for money. It can be argued that it is no more than an identity velocity determines the value of velocity. Given certain assumptions it can be a theory of the aggregate price level. One such supposition is that velocity is a constant, or at least a stable function of a few variables. Velocity over time is far from being a constant. Friedman argues that this is mainly due to errors of measurement and deviations between actual and desired velocity. Keynes suggests that there is no reason to believe that velocity is stable, and that in periods of underemployment equilibrium it may be quite volatile. He also proposes that velocity will depend on the structure of the economy, including the state of technology and institutional arrangements. The main aim of this thesis is to employ long time series data and up to date econometric techniques to produce evidence that relate to these two opposing views. The models employed use both income and transactions velocity measures. Transactions velocity has been much neglected in the twentieth century, on the grounds that a direct statistical measure is not available. This thesis attempts to resolve this problem by using archive material, sixty variables and seven thousand observations to construct an original transactions series for the period 1870-1991. The thesis traces the historical origins of the concept of velocity, provides a comprehensive and critical review of earlier work on the subject and produces a considerable amount of empirical work based on long term United Kingdom series of observation. The reported evidence using Johansen cointegration techniques, suggests that there is a long run vector between velocity and a few economic variables. However, the dynamic relationships are both unstable and volatile over the full sample period. Only in using sub-samples can satisfactory statistical results can be achieved.

Within the EU region the EU member states, by discarding their right to exercise fiscal and monetary policy independently, have signed up to a set of rules and regulations that will eventually lead to European and Monetary Union (EMU). These set of rules as reflected by both the Maastricht criteria as well as the Stability and Growth Pact, contain no reference to either the unacceptable levels of European unemployment or the balance of trade position. The ensuing wave of criticism directed at the motivation as well as the rationale behind such a stringent set of rules and regulations has caused a lot of uncertainty to emerge as to what the future of such an economic venture would be. The primary objective of this thesis is to investigate the existing problem of European unemployment within the new economic environment that emerged after the demise of Bretton Woods and most crucially after the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty. Further, it develops an alternative demand-based macroeconomic framework on the basis of which the undertaken econometric analysis provides evidence in support of our approach. In particular, by examining the way macroeconomic policy has evolved after the demise of Bretton Woods and questioning the premise with which the new economic orthodoxy has established its authority in euroland, we review the current position of EMU countries in relation to the convergence criteria. It is argued that the deflationary bias in conjunction with the institutional arrangements peculiar to an independent European central bank (ECB) undermine the potential of future economic policies to deal with persistent levels of unemployment. Moreover, it is sustained that the absence of a strategy tailored to stimulate economic activity together with the underlying deflationary nature implied by convergence criteria, may be potential factors that contribute to the perpetuation of high levels of unemployment. Lack of demand in conjunction with the prevalent instability in the labour markets have harmed productive efficiency and most importantly the creation of additional capacity on which employment could be encouraged. Therefore, a case for policies designed to boost aggregate demand is made. In pursuing our objective, a post Keynesian macroeconomic framework provides the theoretical underpinnings on which the empirical investigation is based. On the methodological front, panel data analysis is applied to EU countries. The results obtained suggest that unemployment in Europe is a by-product of economic policies devoid of any measures to affect demand as well as supply factors. Moreover, on the basis of the evidence, the deflationary bias that characterises the EU economies especially after the ratification of the Maastricht treaty appears to have dampened economic activity and hence employment in most EU member states. Some further investigation into the rationale behind the introduction of the Stability Pact yields additional evidence casting considerable doubts on two of the most fundamental reasons put forward in defence of the Stability pact, namely the fear for interest rate spillovers across the EU economies and the significant role of national savings in conditioning investment. Finally a concluding chapter provides some alternative policy recommendations.

The liberalisation of transport capacities and prices of land-based transport of goods in Europe in the 1990s led to an increasingly market-orientated decision process for the users of piggyback transport services. However, the empirical research has not yet examined the contracts co-ordinating German piggyback transport chains in this changed environment. This analysis seeks to explain the four types of contracts most commonly used in German piggyback transport by relating them to the theory of transaction cost economics (TCE). The qualitative case study approach adopted here derives from the tradition of Oliver Williamson’s research. The hypothesis of the thesis relates the different contract designs to the type of transport service: the higher the specificity of an asset to fulfil the transport service required by the freight forwarder, the higher the tendency to vertically integrate piggyback transport services. Put differently, the following question is answered: ‘do the contracts used by freight forwarders to acquire the transport service of rail operators result in the lowest transaction costs o f the existing contracts for the specific haulage requested?’ The thesis models these transaction attributes o f the rail transport services for piggyback according to TCE and subsequently assigns them to the contract design elements o f the four types o f contracts. The first two contracts are efficient in all transport services they co-ordinate and the third is efficient to a large extent in terms o f the volume o f services co-ordinated. The fourth contract type cannot currently be designed in a way efficient for TCE.

In this study a quarterly model of UK Personal Sector portfolio and expenditure decisions over the period 1976 to 1967 is constructed and estimated. This model differs from most other empirical studies of Personal Sector portfolio behaviour in that separabililty of preferences is not assumed and so an integrated framework is adopted for estimation which allows for simultaneous interrelationships between the various decisions.