Sri Lanka has a strong social development record and throughout the civil conflict of the past two decades the country's welfare state has remained in place. In the wake of the controversial defeat of the armed separatist movement, the LTTE, the Sri Lankan government faces the challenge of convincing its citizens of the benefits of a unified nation. This thesis looks at the role government provided social services have to play in contributing to perceptions of social solidarity and national belonging in the country, asking the extent to which social citizenship is a relevant concept in a multi-ethnic, developing country context. It uses a multiple method approach, using both quantitative and qualitative data to examine the question through the perceptions of young adults in the country. The findings suggest that access to welfare does contribute to perceptions of citizenship amongst young Sri Lankans, but that this is dependent on the type of provision. Universal welfare is associated with perceptions of social solidarity and inclusion amongst young adults while, i~ a context of ethnic divisions, poverty-targeted social policies appear to enhance perceptions of difference and exclusion. This suggests that social policies aimed at addressing marginalisation may work to accentuate grievance, a process here coined the 'paradox of social cohesion'. The findings therefore point to a sense of citizenship that is essentially fluid and unstable, with young people expressing differing perceptions of both the state and their fellow citizens in relation to different types of social services, and varying in relation to their civil, political and social rights. While it is evident that the extent to which welfare is experienced as socially just is key to its association with perceptions of citizenship, the thesis argues that in a developing country context, where the majority of the population are poor and the challenge of equitable targeting greater, a' discourse of equality may have a greater chance of being associated with social justice. In Sri Lanka, this is partly because targeted policies represent a disjuncture in their country's tradition of 'welfare state citizenship'. Here it may be seen how social policies initiated by external donor agencies, and based on new or alternative understandings of citizenship, may bypass the process of social negotiation required for the organic development of citizenship as a stable institution. Social citizenship should therefore be · conceived as an evolving and iterative interaction between social policy and political discourse in the negotiation of social justice in a specific context.

During 2004-2012 Georgia became a test-case of the neoliberal development paradigm, as President Saakashvili's government actively implemented one of the most radical neoliberal programmes. Deregulation of the economy was justified by the need to achieve rapid economic growth which was expected to trickle-down to the whole population. The growth has certainly been superior compared to preceding years; the economy grew by six per cent a year during this period while the GDP per capita almost tripled. However, progress in tackling poverty did not appear to match this economic performance. This thesis explores the impact of the neoliberal reforms on poverty in Georgia. Drawing on an official data source, the Integrated Household Survey, conducted by the Georgian statistical office on a quarterly basis, it analyses the dynamics of core welfare indicators. We find that despite some progress in a few areas, the overall welfare of Georgia's population has worsened. The most worrying development is the growth in poverty, which has increased from 18 to 26 per cent. The failure of the neoliberal model in Georgia is not surprising given both its conceptual limitations and the large volume of empirical evidence documenting its negative social effects in different parts of the world. The thesis also explores the impact of the welfare system, as it is one of the main instruments for widely spreading the benefits of growth. We find that social transfers have a considerable effect and without them poverty would reach 33 per cent. Nevertheless, the existing social protection system requires major reforms to fulfil the core objectives of a welfare state. We outline a broad framework for a particular type of welfare regime termed progressive-selective, combining universal and targeted measures geared towards ensuring a minimum level of protection for all citizens while also contributing to better economic performance through investment in human capital.

This project examines problems experienced by tenants in relation to the design of purpose-built local authority grouped dwellings for old people - mown also as 'sheltered housing'. The study is structured around analysis of 'zones' in dwellings, namely: (a) Living areas (b) Sleeping areas (c) Cooking/meal preparation areas (d) Sanitary areas (e) Ingress/egress areas (ie the point of entry to a dwelling) A sample of 105 flat and flatlet dwelling units in South Wales were visited by a team of fifty five undergraduate fieldworkers from the Welsh School of Architecture, UWIST, Cardiff. Data was collected by means of interviews with tenants and by making detailed scale drawings of the dwellings concerned, including: (1) The plan layout (2) Furniture arrangements (3) The location of fittings (eg plug sockets, light switches, emergency call devices, heating controls, window catches) (4) The type and location of equipment (eg, washing machine, refrigerator) The interview schedule did not focus on predetermined and set issues, but was designed to encourage respondents to describe problems which they experienced in connection with the design of their dwellings. Problems relating to space for activities and access t? fittings were identified from the graphical data by applying specific spatial criteria which were developed during the study. The analysis of findings enabled conclusions to be drawn on: (a) Space requirements for different zones within dwellings (b) Types of zone - eg, separate bedrooms versus bed recesses (c) The type and location of fittings in zones The implications of findings are that two person, one bedroom dwellings which are spatially adequate for old people can be achieved within the current mandatory overall space standards (MOHLG 1969B pp 5-6) for 'Category l' flat dwellings (ie 47.50 square metres). But analysis of the data suggested that single person bed sitting rooms are not suitable for elderly people. It did not seem that a spatially adequate one or two person dwelling could be achieved within current mandatory space standards relating to 'Category 2' dwellings, namely:

This thesis is a critical examination of social work discretion within adult Social Services. The topic is explored through a critical analysis of Lipsky's examination of discretion within street-level bureaucracies. The thesis first outlines Lipsky's analysis of discretion and subsequent research within the street-level bureaucracy perspective, identify the limited analysis of the role of managers and the influence of professionalism on discretion as areas for further consideration. The thesis explores debates about management control and professionalism with regards to social workers' discretion, and how these relate to the continuing relevance of Lipsky's work on discretion. Two key alternative accounts of discretion in contemporary social work are identified: domination managerialism, arguing that managers have achieved control over social work and have extinguished discretion; and the discursive managerialism perspective, which sees managerial control and professional discretion intersecting in different ways in different settings. The thesis examines these arguments in terms of their descriptions of different regimes of discretion, that is: how discretion is characterised; claims about the nature of management control; and the role of professional status. These issues are examined through a study of an older persons team and a mental health team within the same local authority. The study suggests that 'management' is not monolithic, but is an internally differentiated group, and that local managers exercise significant discretion themselves and contribute to practitioner discretion. Furthermore, professionalism as a formal principle, in structuring discretion continues to be significant, but to different degrees in the two different teams. The thesis concludes that the street-level perspective is useful in identifying limitations on managers' ability to control discretion. However) this perspective is also criticised as offering a limited account and neglecting the role of managers and professionalism in explaining the nature of social work discretion in Social Services.

Collaboration has been a central feature of Welsh Government policy in respect of delivering effective public services for over a decade yet continues to be difficult to achieve in a meaningful way across sectors, organisations and boundaries. The report of the Commission on Public Service Governance and Delivery in Wales (2014) reinforced the importance of pursuing collaborative initiatives and offered proposals for approaching collaboration more consistently and effectively. This thesis adds new knowledge to understanding the complexities of collaboration through a critical overview of three research outputs relating to collaboration in social services in Welsh local authorities. By reviewing the literature on collaborative theory and practice and applying it to the research outputs which constitute the portfolio, a conclusion is reached that collaboration will remain an elusive objective unless action is taken to improve its chances of successful implementation. A new strategy is proposed for obtaining the necessary increase in the scale and pace of collaboration to justify its position as a continuing part of Welsh Government policy.

This thesis draws on the 'critical case' of Sweden and focuses on the provision of pensions to assess the extent to which the post-war social democratic regime and adherent meanings and practices in daily life have been transformed in a neoliberal direction. The Swedish economy of the late 1990s, still distinctly social democratic, although retrenched and increasingly 'financialised', was not stable. The 1999 pension reform has further privatised financial risk and hence potentially advanced neoliberalism. By subjecting the ability to consume, in working-life as well as m retirement, to financial market performance, the rate of growth of inequity 1s accelerated. The systemic infrastructure and the knowledge-formation required for this pension system to function as intended as well as be accepted as legitimate seem however to be lacking. The system engineers, following neoliberal ideas, sought to fulfil the objective of institutionalising a mass investment culture in the everyday by promoting the notion of risk as potentially profitable if managed well. Yet, as argued in the thesis, due to their politico-ideological preferences, they underestimated the resilience of existing demographic and geographical cleavages formed by the traumas and desires provoked by economic restructuring and financialisation in the post-war period. By analysing subject-formation in the everyday, the thesis shows that for a finance-led accumulation regime to be stable in Sweden, these cleavages and inadequacies have to be regulated. The new pension system in Sweden thus points to the tendential microfoundational limits of the projects of neoliberalism and financialisation.

In this study, carrots of Beypazari variety, cultivated during 2004 season were chemically and steam peeled. Effects of temperature, concentration of NaOH solutions and immersion time on lye peeling of carrots were studied / optimum time-temperature-concentration relations were analyzed mathematically. Then suitable combinations of concentration, temperature and time were determined just by considering degree of peeling. Increases in both temperature and concentration of lye solution led to a decrease in peeling time. However it was observed that the temperature of the lye solution was the main effect on the quality of carrots. Treatment with 0.75 % NaOH at 77&deg / C for 10.5 minutes was found to be optimum to peel the carrots, mathematically. In steam peeling, the peeled surface area-time relations were analyzed mathematically. Complete peeling was achieved at 8.5 minutes. Under complete peeling conditions, the effect of chemical and steam peeling on quality of carrots were determined. Then the mathematical optimum value for chemical peeling was evaluated for quality parameters. The optimum chemical peeling value was fitted to the peeling yield-pectin relations. The peeling yield of steam peeled carrot was higher than the chemically peeled carrot. The color of the chemically peeled carrot had the highest consumer acceptance compared to conventional peeling. Finally, the two conditions were suitable for considering the need of the plant design.