This research concerns the relations and tensions among the state as an institutional public power, the people congregating as a collective, and private individuals. It intends to investigate these relations through two land politics cases in the Socialist Beijing, set against the historical background of the city and Chinese conceptual contexts. Suggesting certain similarities to public/private demarcation, the thesis starts with a genealogy of the Chinese gong-si division, arguing the moral superiority of the abstract ideas of gong over si; it argues that changing understandings of gong/public and the intricate connections between various gong and si embodiments (i.e. state, collective, family, individual) contribute – and in some ways constitutes -- politics. Based on data acquired by archival work, in-depth interviews and literature reviews, the thesis then grounds the issue into two empirical cases: the land ownership nationalisation in the expansion of Tiananmen Square, and the struggles over property in the Bell&Drum Towers area from the 1950s to 1970s. The thesis argues that the significant power of the state, particularly the compulsory power to expropriate land, depends on moral and political authority attained by its status as a gong embodiment, is dependent on: its constant practice of constructing other bodies such as family and individual as si embodiments; constructing private property and private economy as flawed si; and also on its suppression of other public/gong entities, especially the collective and the city. However, it also argues, challenges from the private/si category and from other potential public/gong bodies always exist too. This is reflected in private people’s strategic use of the normative gong in their daily practices related to property and in many collective practices. It is the divergence between gong and si and the simultaneous intimacy between them that generates politics.

Iceland provides an important opportunity to investigate relative sea-level (RSL) changes and Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) glaciation in a sensitive area of the North Atlantic. This project employs new and existing RSL data, coupled with glacio-isostatic adjustment (GIA) modelling, to resolve the current debates surrounding the extent of the LGM Icelandic ice sheet (IIS). Robust understanding of the LGM IIS is important, because there are two markedly different maximum and minimum ice loading scenarios, with very different implications for global thermohaline circulation. Previous studies of glacial geomorphology and sedimentology have failed to differentiate between these scenarios. Reconstructing RSL changes in northwest Iceland can address this issue because the two LGM glaciation scenarios yield significantly contrasting RSL histories. Northwest Iceland is also an important location in which to determine Earth models for Iceland. In this study, a series of new sea-level index points (SLIPs) have been generated for northwest Iceland from isolation basin and coastal lowland sediment samples along two perpendicular transects. Diatom, tephrochronological and radiocarbon analyses have allowed the generation of new RSL curves for the region, showing higher marine limit elevations close to loading centres and differing influences of Younger Dryas ice re-advance. Mapping of the marine limit has shown differences in the pattern of deglaciation due to fjord width and morphology. The contrasting LGM glaciation scenarios have been tested using the GIA modelling, with the new and existing RSL dataset as a constraint. Both field data and GIA model outputs support the maximum glaciation hypothesis.

Peatlands are important carbon reservoirs both nationally and globally, because they have the potential to be both sources and sinks of carbon. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is carbon lost from peatlands via the fluvial pathway. UK upland peatlands have a history of atmospheric deposition, degradation, and erosion as well as being extensively managed. Management of the upland peatlands presents an opportunity to maximise carbon storage and water quality benefits. The research aim was to contribute toward the understanding of vegetation management effects upon peatland carbon exports and water quality. In the context of two studies: 1) bare peat ecological restoration (Bleaklow); 2) heather management through cutting and burning (Goyt Valley). Multi factorial designed in-field experiments were set up. Between 2007 and 2013, sites were monitored monthly for CO2 fluxes, water table (WT) depth and water samples were collected and analysed for DOC concentrations. The results were statistically analysed using general linear models and were critically discussed. In both studies, water sample DOC was better explained through inter-annual monthly variation than variation between sites. Bleaklow bare peat restoration and Goyt Valley management did not significantly influence soil pore water DOC concentrations. However findings supported the use of gully blocking and stabilisation techniques to revegetate bare peat, raised WT, promoted CO2 influx through gross photosynthesis and reduced site acidification. Goyt Valley heather management through cutting was a good alternative to burning in dry localities (to raise WT). Runoff water and peat through-flow (at 10 cm depth) DOC was influenced by managed cutting and burning. Water sample DOC significantly varied along a peat profile (horizontally) and catchment. Through-flow DOC concentrations were greater than soil pore water at the wet locality and lower at the dry locality. The findings emphasised the importance of temporal and spatial scale when considering vegetation management effects on peatland carbon exports.

Despite making up less than one per cent of total housing stock in England, since its introduction at the national level in 1980, shared ownership has played an important material and ideological role as part of wider neoliberal reforms to replace publicly-owned rented stock with privately-owned housing. The scheme has been used as part of a bundle of mechanisms to reduce spending on public housing, to enable access to appreciating housing wealth as part of asset-based welfare policies, and to spread a set of personal, social and community benefits which have come to be associated with ‘home’ ownership. In the first two decades of the twenty first century shared ownership has taken on new prominence as a solution to the “housing crisis”, characterised by declining owner occupation rates and a chronic shortage of affordable and secure housing particularly for younger low to middle income households. Although launched with significant amounts of hyperbole and taking up an increasing proportion of government subsidy for affordable provision, the evidence suggests that schemes like shared ownership have a limited impact upon these underlying problems in the housing market. Indeed, shared ownership can be seen to embody some of the contradictions at the heart of neoliberal policies that seek to find market solutions to market-based problems. This thesis explores these contradictions by examining the extent to which shared ownership can be used to meet the housing needs of particular regional populations as well as individual households. Drawing on empirical material gathered through in-depth interviews and participant observation with households and front-line housing staff in Cumbria and London, the thesis illuminates a set of tensions that run through the veins of shared ownership as a form of social and market-based housing. The thesis reveals the challenges housing associations experience in meeting housing needs whilst also driving sales; the divergent ways in which public and private discourses deal with ambiguities in relation to established tenure norms; and finally the difficulties both households and housing associations face in attempting to manage the risks associated with marginal home ownership.

Collision zones worldwide show a vast array of complexity that is difficult to relate to simple collision dynamics. Here we address the problem of linking surface observables to collision dynamics through the use of two and three-dimensional numerical models. We will focus on two specific observables, topography and the presence of ultra-high pressure metamorphic terranes. Our model topography predictions are used to explain the uplift and subsidence history for the Arabia-Eurasia collision. This allows us to relate the post-collisional marine deposits, found on the overriding plate, to a steepening of the subduction interface. Our three-dimensional model is used to explore possible exhumation mechanisms for the Western Gneiss Complex in Norway. From these models we show how an asymmetric collision can help drive exhumation of material that has experienced comparable conditions to the Western Gneiss Complex. The linking of upper mantle and lithosphere dynamics to both topography observation and exhumation patterns allow better understanding of the subduction and collision process.

Crystalline silica, in the form of quartz and cristobalite, can cause respiratory diseases, such as silicosis. However, the observed toxicity and pathogenicity of crystalline silica is highly variable. This has been attributed to a number of inherent and external factors, including the presence of impurities that can react with the silica surface. Substitutions of aluminium (Al) for silicon in volcanic cristobalite, and phases occluding its surface, have been hypothesised to decrease its reactivity. Diatomaceous earth (DE), an industrial source of cristobalite exposure, is studied to determine if structural substitutions in cristobalite are universal and whether they influence toxicity. Crystalline silica is also synthesised with incremental amounts of Al and sodium (Na) dopants. The effect of impurities on cristobalite toxicity is investigated through the physicochemical characterisation of DE and synthetic crystalline silica, and toxicological studies assessing the biological reactivity of these particles. The physicochemical properties of DE varied by deposit source and processing technique. In processed DE, substantial quantities of cristobalite were observed. However, crystalline silica content could not be correlated with the potential toxicity of DE and this was attributed, in part, to impurities in the cristobalite structure and low cristobalite abundance at the particle surface. Al-only doped or co-doped (Al+Na) synthetic cristobalite contained structural substitutions (1-4 oxide wt.% Al+Na). Co-doped samples also contained Al/Na-rich phases, such as albite. Doping reduced toxicity compared to non-doped cristobalite. Al-only doping was more effective at decreasing cristobalite reactivity than Al+Na doping. The reduction in cristobalite toxicity was attributed to structural impurities. This thesis concludes that impurities can reduce the toxic potency of cristobalite and may explain the low reactivity of cristobalite-rich volcanic ash and DE. Whilst further work is required, to determine if these effects are sustained long-term in the lung, the research has substantial implications for the regulation of crystalline silica exposures.

River confluences are common features of the landscape as a result of the dendritic nature of river catchments. Much of the research to date has investigated flow at lowland confluences, whereas the most dynamic river confluences are likely to be found in upland areas. Therefore, in order to improve the understanding of the flow, sediment transport and morphological processes at river confluences, it is necessary to investigate the applicability of the findings from lowland confluences to their upland counterparts. This thesis uses field and numerical modelling experiments to increase the understanding of the dynamics of these upland river confluences. Flow and particle tracking data have been obtained from two different field sites: the more stable upland river confluences of Moor House National Nature Reserve and the steeper confluences of the Borgne d’Arolla braid plain. These data have been used to test two new numerical modelling developments. The first is the application of an explicit free surface model within a Computational Fluid Dynamics framework to enable the simulation of flow in natural rivers with steep water surface slopes. The second is the development of a new, reduced-complexity Discrete Particle Model that uses the three-dimensional flow data to simulate individual particle trajectories and the Generalised Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation method to estimate the uncertainty in these trajectories. There are three main findings in this thesis. Firstly, at upland confluences changes in the flow direction over the less well-defined banks have the greatest impact on individual particle trajectories and thus the morphological evolution of these confluences. Secondly, as water surface slopes increase, topographic features have less impact on the flow field than undulations in the water surface. Finally, turbulent flow structures and helical flow cells are found to be less important for the dynamics of these upland river confluences.

This thesis examines practices of fire risk governance in the contemporary British Fire and Rescue Service (FRS). I trace the fundamental organisational and operational transformations the Fire and Rescue Service has undergone since the early twenty-first century. I argue that these transformations are structured around a new conceptualisation of fire as an event to be secured. Rather than understood and acted upon merely by its occurrence in the here and now, fire is known and governed in the contemporary as a risk of the future. Through a case study of one of its regional headquarters, I explore what I call the digital infrastructure of the FRS. This digital infrastructure encompasses the data, analytic technologies and organisational processes by which fire is rendered as a risk. In turn, I inquire into how the risk projections made by the digital infrastructure facilitate and condition what I call anticipatory modes of governance to manage fire. Forming the strategic architecture of the contemporary FRS, these modes of governance are deployed in the present but are directed at, and justified through, visions of fire risk in the future. Through my case study, I describe overall the contemporary problematisation of fire risk governance. I call this problematisation governing through risk. I use the term governing through risk to express how risk identification has become the conditions of possibility for the Fire and Rescue Service in the present day. I show how risk identification works to organisationally shape the FRS and justify the existence of the service as a contemporary security apparatus. Furthermore, I argue that risk identification is used to mould and legitimate the forms of strategy used to govern fire risk and secure populations from fire.

The Cretaceous mudrocks at Haltenbanken are buried 2-4 km below seafloor. Density porosity ranges over a factor of two at the same depths in different wells, with higher porosities in the west. Although the Cretaceous mudrocks are overpressured, pore pressure is laterally invariant across Haltenbanken; hence porosity differences cannot be due to differences in effective stress. Differences remain after plotting porosity against temperature. Porosity differences are somewhat reduced by adjusting depths for recent exhumation and burial. I suggest the following sequence of events: the Cretaceous mudrocks were normally compacted and hydrostatically pressured in the early Pliocene, because Tertiary sedimentation rates were low; Pliocene exhumation and deposition of Naust Formation glacial sediments occurred rapidly, without porosity loss because low-permeability overburden inhibited pore water expulsion; enhanced temperatures accelerated clay diagenesis, and lithification occurred with a laterally invariant pore-pressure profile because horizontal permeability is much higher than vertical permeability. If this interpretation is correct, the Cretaceous mudrocks at Haltenbanken exhibit chemical undercompaction, where pore water expulsion was inhibited during clay diagenesis and lithification. This finding illustrates the risk in predicting pore pressure in exploration wells using data from offset wells, and suggests a method for estimating Pliocene exhumation history on the Norwegian margin.

Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is arguably the most important animal health problem in the world. TB is endemic in the Global South, and also affects several nations and regions with highly developed cattle farming industries and statutory eradication programmes in the European Union, including Northern Ireland. The disease has implications for livestock agriculture, wildlife ecology, public health, and the national economy. In addition to scientific and technical complexities, socio-economic and socio-cultural factors affect efforts to control the disease. Disease problems such as TB at the human-nature interface are complex and indeterminate, and require innovative multidisciplinary research to find holistic and workable solutions: geography has much to contribute. This investigation uses a political ecology framework, and provides explanations for the historical and geographical patterns of the disease through a ‘chain of explanation’ approach (Blaikie & Brookfield, 1987). It utilizes political ecology, STS, rural, cultural, health, ‘more-than-human’ and veterinary literatures to produce a political ecology of animal disease control in the First World. Significantly, this account is as much about people and politics as it is about land use, technology, cattle, badgers, bacteria and disease. Conducted from the positionality of being a vet and a farmer’s son, and based on ethnographic interviews with farmers, vets, policy makers and other agricultural industry representatives, the links in the chain explain why the statutory eradication programme has not yet been successful in achieving its original aim. The disease continues to spread across the landscape and evades efforts to eradicate. The thesis shows how TB permeates time and space shaped by global economic forces, political structures, cultural practices and complex ecologies. TB, often invisible and underestimated, must be made visible again. New network structures are required to rescale governance and move closer to the target of TB eradication.