No description available.

Individuals’ interactions with place and space are of key importance for any geographer. By considering the geographies of rurality, ethnic relations and also the emerging field of rural racism, this thesis considers how rural space is important in shaping and influencing the experiences of minority ethnic residents in Wales. A multi-method research strategy, favouring in-depth interviews, is used to explore the experiences of rural living, with quantitative material derived from Census data establishing a context for these experiences and perceptions. Both the visible and invisible nature of minority ethnic people in rural Wales have been explored in this thesis, as well as the stereotypical and idyllic constructs that surround the lives of rural minority ethnic residents in Wales. This thesis demonstrates that ethnic and religious diversity is a part of almost every locality within the study area of this thesis (Powys and Carmarthenshire). The results suggest that minority ethnic residents show both similarities and differences compared to other in-coming groups (namely the English) within the rural Welsh countryside. Yet, also how their experience can be distinctive due to isolation from linguistic, religious, cultural and co-ethnic support. Racism has been found to be a common problem within the study area. Additionally, this thesis demonstrates the complexity and variety of the minority ethnic population and their experiences. Whilst minority ethnic people may encounter spaces as a defined group, there were variations between individuals in how the reacted to these spaces, and how they coped. Minority ethnic individuals often had a positive part to play in local communities and enjoyed the benefits of rural living. Not all are passive victims of rural racism. The thesis concludes with some major learning points that have emerged form this research which might inform future policy.

Population census data show that increasing numbers of children are migrating within Britain. The general geographic pattern is of urban areas losing children whilst rural areas gain. As the majority of children migrate within families, the aim of this thesis is to explore: the motivations for families’ migrations to the English countryside; the processes of these migrations; children’s involvement in migration decision-making; and children’s experiences of these migrations. In-depth interviews were carried out with children and parents in thirty-seven families who had recently migrated from urban locations within Britain to rural Devon. It has been posited that families migrate to the English countryside ‘for the sake of the children’. However, there is a dearth of research that justifies this suggestion. The ‘for the sake of the children’ hypothesis is deconstructed in several ways in this thesis. Firstly, the motivations for families’ migrations are shown to be more complex than simply ‘for the sake of the children’. Secondly, exploring the processes of family migration shows that half of the families had experienced more than one migration step and that this often had implications for children’s social and educational adjustment. Thirdly, examination of children’s involvement in making migration decisions demonstrates that, despite the recommendations of global and national legislation, the majority of children did not have high levels of involvement in migration decision-making. In relation to children’s experiences of living in their rural migration destinations, the dominant social imagining of idyllic country childhoods is shown to be misleading. The majority of families had not expected living in the countryside to be idyllic prior to migrating, and the majority of children’s experiences had not been wholly positive. However, many of the children were happy in their migration destinations, perceiving elements of rural living to be beneficial for them.

In November 1992 the government accepted 1,000 Bosnian ex-detainees released from Serb-run detention camps for resettlement in Britain. This group was the first refugee quota to be accepted into Britain for more than a decade. A resettlement policy was developed by the government in conjunction with the Refugee Council which aimed to resettle the Bosnians in six cluster areas. The resettlement was managed by four non-governmental organisations. The thesis aims to determine the extent to which Bosnia resettlement patterns were shaped by state intervention or by individual refugee decision making. It also aims to make a number of recommendations for future resettlement programmes in Britain. The research was carried out in four locations in Britain - London, West Yorkshire, Oxford and Derby - where qualitative methods were used to investigate key research issues. Interviews were carried out with a range of actors in the resettlement programme, including policy makers and managers, project staff and refugees. The thesis finds that implementation of the resettlement policy varied such that the arrivals were, in practice, the recipients of a very different resettlement policies. It describes the resettlement patterns of the Bosnians and concludes that whilst the resettlement policy played a major role in shaping these, the extent to which they reflect individual decision making varies. The research provides an insight into the decision making strategies of refugees where familiarity and the location of relatives were found to be the key influences shaping resettlement preferences. Housing availability is also found to have played a major role in shaping resettlement patterns.

The study adopts a spatial perspective on language decline and nationalist resurgence. The early chapters present a discussion on the process of nationality-formation and assess the utility of current approaches to the study of nationalism. Chapters four and five focus on the social and spatial changes which have affected Welsh culture in the period 1891-1971, concentrating on patterns of language decline and the formation of institutional support mechanisms e.g. the Urdd, Welsh-medium education and religion. Chapters six and seven present a Principal Component Analysis of the correlates of Welsh culture change for the period 1961-71. Forty eight socio-economic, linguistic and political variables are defined by Local Authority Unit in order to measure their pattern of covariation, to construct distinct ecological contexts and to suggest the processes of change operative at this scale. Chapters eight and. nine discuss the political response to culture decline in an analysis of the development of Welsh Nationalism and the Welsh Language Society. The final three Chapters adopt a behavioural approach to test whether the processes inferred from the multivariate analysis could be demonstrated to occur at the micro scale. It was considered that a comparison of the aggregate attitudes of respondents drawn from three socio-cultural contexts in Gwynedd, and from five significantly different socio-cultural contexts throughout Wales could be used to support or refute the hypotheses under investigation. Practical policy suggestions related to Welsh language planning are suggested, along with other implications from the findings, in the conclusion.

The research presented in the thesis evaluates the resettlement of refugees in countries outside their region of origin, with reference to the Vietnamese in Britain. The principal feature of Government policy towards the Vietnamese was the decision to engineer a dispersed resettlement pattern. Many commentators have argued that dispersal failed and, as a result, voluntary secondary migration from outlying regions into nascent concentrations has been stimulated. Yet, these contentions have been supported by little, if any, empirical evidence. In order to overcome this deficiency, a data set relating to the mobility of refugees was assembled and analysed. These data revealed the geographical pattern, frequency and timing of secondary migration at a range of spatial scales. In addition, a study of the causes of secondary migration and an investigation of its geograhical impact were undertaken. These analyses therefore enabled an assessment of the policy to disperse. The results indicated that the Vietnamese response to dispersal had, indeed, been voluntary secondary migration. This phenomenon developed rapidly after initial resettlement and led to the concentration of the vietnamese population in economically marginal areas, which were likely to constrain their life chances. The primary reasons for spatial mobility were associated with the desire to reduce the social isolation experienced as a result of dispersal, although housing motives became more important when multiple mobility was considered. The analysis showed that secondary migration clearly reduced isolation. however, this was at the cost of accommodation in some of Britain's poorest inner city areas. In the light of these findings, recommendations relating to the resettlement of refugees in countries outside their region of origin have been presented. It is hoped that these proposals may be utilised in the future design of policy towards refugees in Britain, and may add to the dialogue relating to the efficiency of dispersal, both in academic circles and among refugee fieldworkers.

This thesis is concerned with two fields of study, namely that of the subdivision of an urban area into relatively homogeneous residential areas, an area of study known as social area analysis; and secondly the study of juvenile delinquency from a geographical perspective. After providing an evaluation of the theoretical and methodological bases of social area analysis, the study analyses the structure of Swansea, Cardiff and Newport by using multivariate techniques to analys data drawn from the 1966 Population Census. The measures which result from this analysis are described and compared with those produced by similar studies conducted in Britain and in other countries so that the distinctiveness of the results of this study and of British studies in general may be assessed. The spatial distribution of the principal classificatory measures are related both visually and by means of statistical techniques to a model of the structure of the British city; the results being compared with the patterns produced by similar British and non-British studies. A social area typology is produced and the categories within it are described for each of the study areas. The social area typology produced for the Cardiff study area acts as a backcloth for the further study of the incidence of juvenile delinquency. The incidence of juvenile delinquency in Cardiff is analysed, first, in spatial terms by the calculation of a number of offender indices for three different time periods. Some consistency in the distribution of the indices is apparent and "delinquency areas" are identified in particular parts of Cardiff. Second, two of the offender indices are related to a number of environmental indices, and a number of ecological associations are established by a variety of statistical techniques. In particular the strength of the association between the incidence of juvenile delinquency and low socio-economic status is noted. Finally social surveys conducted in relatively delinquent and relatively non-delinquent sample areas are used to test certain hypothesis derived from theories concerned with the explanation of the incidence of juvenile delinquency. Of the hypotheses tested greatest empirical support is provided for the sub-cultural hypothesis.

Since 1992, Egyptian Ministry of Tourism has established an annual special events agenda to achieve a cluster aims. Over a ten-year period, the special events involved have not demonstrated clear success; a situation partly attributed to managerial problems and the lack of a good practice model of special events management applicable to the Egyptian context. Thus, this study focuses upon developing a model for managing cultural special events, which is potentially applicable in an Egyptian context. The issues related to special event management were examined via an extensive literature review, which culminated in the development of a theoretical model of special events management. The theoretical model was then used as a projective instrument to stimulate the presentation of a multiple case study of three Welsh cultural special events. Utilizing semi-structured interviews, the Welsh cases resulted in three reasonably similar managerial models, which were then unified in a Welsh best practice model through the use of the Delphi technique. Three Egyptian cultural special events were analysed, which enabled the exploration of the managerial models currently applied to these cultural special events. The three Egyptian models were then compared against the Welsh best practice model resulting in the identification of eight dissimilarities. Following discussions with Egyptian practitioners, these dissimilarities were reduced to six managerial problems to which the failure of some of the Egyptian events can be attributed. Consequently, a theoretical guide for managing these six problem areas was developed out of the literature. Semi-structured interviews with the Welsh practitioners were utilized leading to the development of the theoretical guide into a Welsh best practice guide. Finally, the Welsh best practice model and the guide were discussed with the Egyptian experts, via semi-structured interviews associated with the Delphi technique, resulting in the development of a suggested model and guide potentially applicable in an Egyptian context.

Rural Wales, like many other rural areas in the late twentieth century, faces the problem of in-migration as a by-product of counter-urbanisation. However, in Wales the main problems arise from the fact that the majority of in-migrants have settled in areas that are regarded as the cultural and linguistic 'heartland' of Wales. In-migration of English Incomers to Wales is perceived by the Welsh to be the catalyst for change within rural communities. This research adopts a multi-methods form of analysis that is predominantly qualitative, in order to consider the nature of the Welsh rural community through the perceptions of individuals who reside there. The thesis provides in-depth discussions with rural inhabitants regarding the issue of in-migration and its perceived impacts, against a quantitative background of census data analysis. Through the analysis of dialogues this research considers the connection between the Welsh rural community and 'Welshness' and understandings of this connection. It also considers the relationships that exist between local incomers, in relation to their perceptions and experiences of the Welsh rural community. Census data documents the increased influx of English-born migrants into rural Wales, and verifies the existence of economic and social differentials between the incomer and local populations. Despite in-migration to Wales occurring in parallel with the process of economic restructuring and social recomposition experienced in most rural areas of the UK since the 1970's, the resident population equates all changes with process of in-migration. Indeed in-migration is the key issue, which links all resident dialogues regarding change to the Welsh rural community, and the Welsh culture. These communities signify the 'core' areas of Welshness; any change is perceived as a threat to Welsh culture and as a result causes cultural conflict between the locals and the incomers.

Little has been written about urbanisation in the Gulf in Western literature. This thesis investigates the urbanisation process and population structure in the UAE as an example of the impact of oil on the urbanisation process in the Arab Gulf States. The investigation of this problem is based on indicators, such as urbanisation development, population change, values and religious trends in an attempt to verify' the hypothesis that there are positive and negative impacts of oil and oil wealth on the urbanisation process and the population of the UAE, similar to these in other Arab Gulf States. Two methods were used in this study to measure the impact of oil on urbanisation and population structure. The first was a comparative study between urbanisation before and after oil's discovery, the purpose being to measure the differences in the urbanisation trends that oil wealth has brought. The second, was a field survey to investigate public opinions about the differences between the past and the present. The thesis examines the development following the discovery of oil in 1960 and the oil price jump in 1973. The UAE' urban development has made such huge steps forward that by 1995 about 84% of the total population were urban. The huge oil revenues ($10,945<I> </I>million in 1994) have been invested in infrastructural projects all over the country. The present investigation makes clear that urbanisation in the UAE could have never developed and spread so rapidly without oil wealth, and it warns that the host population's traditional culture is in danger of disappearance with the huge influx of expatriates.