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This thesis focuses on one of the most controversial and ambitious urban regeneration policies of recent years – the plan to create sustainable communities via Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders (HMRP). Announced as a ‘step change’ in urban policy to overcome problems of low demand and abandonment experienced most acutely in nine former industrial towns and cities in the north and midlands of England, the Sustainable Communities Plan (SCP) (ODPM, 2003a) involves the demolition and relocation of mainly white, working class inner-urban communities. This thesis focuses on a year long moment in the process of regeneration in one such HMRP in North East England, known as ‘Bridging NewcastleGateshead’ (BNG) and draws from rich, detailed ethnographic case studies of three former industrial communities. Originally, the thesis draws together critical engagements with the concepts of space, governance, community, sustainability and materiality to develop a relational understanding of urban regeneration. Starting with an understanding of ‘spaces of regeneration’ as spaces in the process of becoming this perspective moves beyond normative, prescriptive understandings of spaces as static and contained and subject to the process of spatial regulation from above i.e. power over. Rather than a straightforward process of spatial regulation to transform people and places, the process of regeneration involves uncertainties, negotiations, contestations and emotions between the multiple social, material, economic and environmental networks. The thesis has drawn together urban theories and empirical evidence (including historical and contemporary policy analysis as well as a range of qualitative methods) to illustrate the relational transformation of people and places. Governmentality provides the main conceptual framework. This leads to an in-depth exploration of the rationalities and technologies of urban regeneration from three perspectives in the empirical chapters - governing communities, demolishing communities and transforming communities.

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This thesis is an examination of urbanisation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and a further examination of urbanisation in Saudi Arabia; more specifically, the drivers, patterns and consequences of migration urbanisation are addressed. The case study examines the experiences of migration and urbanisation in Buraydah City in Saudi Arabia and focuses on three groups of migrants; namely, urban to urban migrants, villagers and Bedouin from desert areas in order to gain the perspectives of different types of migrants experiencing the same migration. The study adopts a multi-dimensional approach to understanding such processes in that it considers the political and socio-cultural aspects as well as the economic aspects as factors. The MENA region is experiencing one of the fastest rates of urbanisation in the world and is unique because it has rich and poor nations as well as nations that are experiencing conflict. These factors have led to mass migration within and from outside the region, directly impacting urbanisation. Moreover, Buraydah City in Saudi Arabia is used as a case study because it is a medium-sized city and most urbanisation is being witnessed in cities of this size, and has been neglected in the literature. Urbanisation in Buraydah City was investigated through a field study which involved a questionnaire, interviews and oral histories and the results were analysed using SPSS and NVivo software. Moreover, a general mapping of patterns of urbanisation and population growth in MENA and Saudi Arabia using GIS. The results of the study suggest that although there is diversity within MENA in terms of urbanisation as a result of its economic diversity, government policy and conflicts, on the whole the region shows universality. The study also showed that Saudi Arabia has similar drivers of urbanisation to that of MENA; however, in contrast, the consequences for migrants were found to be positive. The main driver was the search for work; the specific reasons behind this driver differed from country to country. The study also found that besides differences in drivers and consequences between the migrant groups, there were also generational differences.

The thesis argues that ecotourism development can contribute towards rural community development, biodiversity conservation and conservation education. The thesis examines the ways in which ecotourism in Ghana has become a topic of great interest among researchers, policy makers and development practitioners, especially in the current decade. The thesis makes original contributions to the body of knowledge on ecotourism through its tripartite study—historical, comparative and methodological studies – and in particular by the use of vernacular poetry to mediate local development debate. The thesis employs triangulation and qualitative methodology to analyse colonial continuities in ecotourism development in Ghana. Historically, ecotourism development in Ghana has continued practices of colonial wildlife conservation and forestry and has failed to problematise marginalisation of local communities in ecotourism development. This replicates crisis narratives on environment and people, entrenchment of Northern funds and expertise and marginalisation of local ecological knowledge in ecotourism development. The comparative study has revealed that the creation of BFMS and KNP and ecotourism based in them, have brought hardships to the residents of the surrounding communities such as restriction of access, crop raiding, reduced protein sources and access to medicinal plants and animals. The methodological study argued for creating knowledges that seek to ‘speak back with’ the researched communities. This aim of the thesis developed the Sankofa Postcolonial Methodology (SPMET), for geographical research in Africa. The thesis then further explored the epistemic tenet of the SPMET by positioning poetry as a postcolonial epistemic tool par excellence in Africa. This involved creating research and interpretative poems for conservation education through ecotourism development in Ghana.

This research examines the paradoxes of agricultural transformation of national and Indian and local (Kerala) in the post-reform period of economic liberalisation since 1990 in Kerala, India. The research was conducted in four locations in Kerala - Ambalavayal and Thomatchal (composite village) in the highland region, Thathamangalam in the midland region, Karamuck in the lowland region and Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala. It employs a mixed methodological approach and takes a postructuralist feminist stance focussing on women’s differences. It addresses current gaps in the literature on women’s informal agricultural and key issues of space, differences and power relations and makes a contribution to gender, development and globalisation debates in South Asia. The research reveals that women have generally borne the brunt of agricultural transformation and the impact on their farm roles has been paradoxical in terms of their inclusion and exclusion. However, these impacts vary across different geographical locations of highland, midland and lowland and for women of different caste and ethnicity groups, although marginalised low caste remain particularly affected. Changes to farm roles have been paralleled by shifting gender power relations at the household scale, which varied for women of different age groups. Old and middle-aged women have experienced a reversal in gender equalities whilst young women are withdrawing into domesticity and have limited economic empowerment, despite gaining considerable social empowerment. This reveals a paradoxical situation of (some) women becoming socially empowered alongside their inability to bargain on the farm and within the household. In particular, the research identifies a shift from caste to class-based alliances of ‘Sanskritisation’. These debates of crisis of development and paradoxes of women’s empowerment in Kerala have much to contribute to general debates about gender and development elsewhere.

The principal aim of this thesis is to examine the relationship between visitors and the Cornish church heritage. From the tourism literature, the concepts of the marker (MacCannell 1976), collage tourism (Rojek 1997) and the romantic gaze (Urry 1990) are considered within the motivational and information-seeking elements. Additionally, a range of literature from history, geography, sociology, Cornish studies and the emerging tenets of tourism research is utilised. Historic sources, such as guidebooks and postcards, illustrate the nature of the visitor experience in previous decades and foreground the contemporary review. The latter comprises an analysis of visitors’ books and a face-to-face survey with 725 respondents at three churches. From this data, a cross-profile of the Cornish church visitor is created, identifying multiple motivations which include a search for ‘roots’ and Celtic elective affinity, besides spiritual support and aesthetic satisfaction. Socio-demographic and socio-economic indicators segment the church visitor population although lifestyle is argued to be as significant. There is a clear distinction between the visitors and the national average across a number of practices, including television viewing and holiday-taking. A distinction also exists in terms of educational qualifications and membership of heritage organisations. Bourdieu’s (1986) concept of cultural capital acquisition is posited as an influential determinant for a number of visitors. Conflating the multiple motivations for first-time and repeat visitors, a classification of purposive, incidental, and accidental Cornish church visitors is created. A small number are frequent visitors to churches whilst, for the majority, the experience is just one element in the overall visitor experience. It is apparent that the extant Cornish church heritage forms a key attraction in the county’s destination image.

This study developed and investigated responses to a new conceptual framework for sustainable tourism indicator development in a Scottish context.  In recent years, growing attention has been paid to both sustainable tourism indicators and to transparency in decision-making. This has been coupled with calls for academics to set out an underlying theory upon which a sustainability indicator approach could be based (Bell and Morse, 2008). This study responded to these calls. A conceptual framework of seven implicit determinants – concepts which this study contended affected indicator selection but which were not always considered explicitly was developed. Data were gathered from international sustainable tourism indicator authors and experts, stakeholders, and policy-makers.  This enabled an exploration of the relative importance of considering these implicit determinants, familiarity with them, possible links between them, and the potential for additional implicit determinants.  Analysis suggested the framework was of greatest use to strategic level policy-makers and that the framework should be introduced as early as possible into the indicator development process. It was also advocated that the framework should be considered in its entirety. Furthermore, four underlying reasons as to why people might approach indicator selection differently were advanced.  These included an individual’s role in indicator development, the amount of power an individual had, the context (political, institutional and geographical) in which an individual was developing indicators, and an individual’s familiarity with sustainability. This study provided Bell and Morse’s underlying theory to guide indicator selection and decision-taking, the form of a conceptual framework.  This will aid those developing indicators to make explicit decisions regarding the conceptual issues embedded in sustainable tourism indicator development. In doing so, it will increase transparency and improve the process of indicator selection.

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This thesis examines the relationship between place and identity; it is concerned with the process of attachment to place and how this process is linked to identity. The study is longitudinal in design and uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The context is provided by the enforced relocation of Arkwright Town, a one hundred year old North East Derbyshire mining village, to a near-by site; this research monitors the relocation process over a six year period. This work is framed within the transactional paradigm which assumes that the process of change involves a dynamic confluence of spatial, cultural and temporal aspects and, furthermore, that individuals and groups influence and are influenced by their spatial environment in a way which cannot be described adequately in terms of a direction of causality. It adopts a social constructivist position which accepts that the participants’ ‘reality’ is shaped by the meanings they attribute to their socio-spatial environment; hence the focus of this work is on how participants to this study experienced the socio-psychological changes during and after the relocation. The interview data were analysed using a combination of grounded theory and interpretative phenomenological analysis to identify the meanings which the relocation had for the participants; a range of theoretical concepts from both social and environmental psychology were then used to interpret participants’ experiences. The findings included participants’ accounts of the degree to which their previous behaviour patterns were disrupted and the meanings which those disruptions held for them. They pointed to interruptions of friendship patterns, to changes in previous privacy regulation mechanisms, and highlighted the degree to which participants’ previous socio-spatial schemata had become redundant after the relocation. It is suggested that the reduced visual access in New Arkwright not only diminished a sense of connectedness to others but also restricted an information flow which had been part of the functioning of the community. Participants’ quotations were also used within the framework of Breakwell’s (1986) Identity Process Theory to investigate the degree to which the participants’ identity processes were affected by the changes in the spatial environment, and especially whether the spatial change threatened or enhanced the four principles of identity described in Breakwell’s theory: self esteem, distinctiveness of the self, self efficacy and continuity of the self. Evidence was found for the important role place has in maintaining and enhancing the four principles of identity and that place is, therefore, an important link to identity. The data show that the relative salience of each identity principle can change over time during a situation of major change and in addition, a marked change from collective to individual functioning was identified. Moreover, participants’ accounts suggested that there are five important factors which, when present, facilitate the development of an emotional bond with place. These are here termed aspects of place attachment; they emerged during the pre-relocation interviews and provide a useful extension of Fuhrer & Kaiser’s (1992) work on attachment to home. Further support for these aspects was found during the post-relocation period both in the qualitative and quantitative data. They comprise a sense of security; a sense of autonomy; the desire and ability to engage in appropriation; an optimal level of internal and external stimulation; and place congruence. Thus this thesis uses existing theory to understand better the effect of the relocation on the villagers; it helps develop the link between environmental and social psychological theory through its investigation of how place can be an integral part of identity, and it extends current theory on place attachment through the concept of the five aspects of attachment to place.