The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) had been introduced in 1881 in the hills of Darjeeling as a vehicle for economic and social development in Colonial India. The importance of Darjeeling as the economic and strategic centre accelerated the implementation of the DHR as the main mode of transport in the Himalayan foothills of Northern Bengal. At the time of its inception Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was a commercial railway carrying freight and running regular mail trains serving the new needs of the region as it developed as a military base and tea production centre. Since then the DHR has evolved through different periods of time incorporating different phases of its own existence both as a mode of transport and as a heritage form. In 1999 the DHR was declared as a World Heritage Site due to its significance as a hill passenger railway and an example of the engineering excellence of 19th Century and the socio-economic development that it brought into the Darjeeling region. However, even after ten years of its inscription as a World Heritage, very little research has been done on the DHR. This thesis, thus, focuses on the DHR. In my research, I have firstly attempted a cultural analysis of the 'journey' of the DHR. How it is instrumental in making 'travel experiences' and how it is itself constituted through different embodied travel practices and performances. In this context it is shown how the 'hybrid geographies' of humans and machines that contingently make both people and materials move and hold their shape. In this way, it explores the complex relationality between the traveller and the mode of travel and how it incorporates different aspects of mobilities and materialities. I also focus on the DHR's relationship with the community alongside the railway track: how the people and this 19th century mode of travel, continue to be attached with complex and enduring connections. Secondly, I have focused on the representational aspects of the DHR. It is evident that tourists reorder the world through the manipulation of texts, images and practices 8 similar to what colonialism did to codify colonial people to better impose its institutions and policies. In the present context I therefore explore, in light of post-colonial theory, how the DHR has been proliferated in various discourses. Hence, I examine the significance of the intangible aspects inherent in the DHR and attempt to trace out these 'contact zones' by drawing upon aspects of post-colonial theory. Indeed, the research gains theoretical currency from two different theoretical perspectives, namely, 'Post-Colonial Theory' and the new 'Mobilities' paradigm. Methodologically, the research was broadly ethnographic and based on mainly on interviews taken in the field, as well as observations on board the train. Significantly, I also walked extensively along the track (nearly 35 km) from Kurseong to Darjeeling at different times as a comprehensive way to understand the whole process of the DHR. This can be conceptualized as the 'co-present immersion' of a researcher in the field for observing and recording. The thesis concludes with indications to possibilities of future research on the DHR such as the relations between cars and the DHR which could bring new understanding to the mobilities paradigm.

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Coral reef resources are under threat globally from liuman-induced changes including; development, pollution, fishing, over-use and climatic change. Here I consider the ecological and economic effects of the scuba diving and snorkelling industries on the coral reefs of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). I begin examining the current ecological impacts of scuba diving and snorkelling across reefs in the BVI; I also look at diver behaviour, and the recovery of hard corals following exposure to diver damage. The intensity of dive and snorkelling use currently appears sustainable. However, there are several sites based on wrecks that are subject to extremely high levels of use, thus the benthic organisms situated at these sites are under significantly greater levels of stress than those situated at other sites. All corals monitored following simulated diver damage showed rapid recovery. However, there were differences in recovery times between hard coral species and types of damage. Coral reef ecosystems are particularly important to the economies of many island nations and help attract tourists as well as providing the basis for excursion industries such as scuba diving and snorkelling. In the later chapters of this thesis I focus on the current and potential value of coral reefs to the BVI by conducting several choice experiments with visual aids. I found a significant consumer surplus related to the guided scuba diving and snorkelling industries of the BVI, both of which were influenced by changes in environmental quality. Finally, ecological and economic methodologies were applied to a specific ecosystem threat. I used the 2005 Caribbean wide bleaching as an example of a catastrophic event experienced by the reefs of the BVI. The ensuing economic and ecological losses were measured and found to be significant. These results demonstrate the strength of a combined ecological and economic approach to reef management.

This thesis aims to enhance understanding about gender and migration through its empirical investigation into decision-making processes about labour migration within rural households in Vietnam. It emphasises that migration is a gendered process shaped by social norms and structures. It will demonstrate that choices migrants and their households make during the migratory process reflect not only their gender identities and social positionings but also the household and community contexts they come from. The study adopts a multi-level approach that focuses on both agency and social structures as enabling and constraining forces of human actions in the decision-making process. At the individual level, it investigates how different forms of social identity shape one's ability to choose and the kind of choices s/he makes. Social identities structure men and women's perceptions of rights, obligations and legitimate behaviour and hence the way they choose to act in decision-making about migration. Going beyond the individual level, the research examines how intra-household dynamics, particularly the gendered division of labour and decision-making mechanism, as well as social norms and relations influence the way individuals and households strategise their migration. A village community in the Red River Delta of Northern Vietnam, where out-migration from rural areas is an important livelihood strategy for rural households and has been predicted to be more important in the coming years, has been chosen as a case study. Although both quantitative and qualitative data was collected and used for analyses, the research draws primarily on narratives of a randomly selected sample of migrants, nonmigrants and their household members. Research findings will enhance the evidence base for policy making and provide important theoretical and methodological insights for future research in the field.

Commoditisation is a common phenomenon at most visitor attractions, and sacred sites are no exception: The merchandising opportunity is taken by many retailers to gain considerable economic benefit. For example, the annual sales of religious souvenirs' in Italy were estimated at US$255m. While most of the studies associated with commoditisation at sacred sites concentrate on the commercialisation process or its soqial and/or cultural impacts, little research has been done to investigate its influence from a visitor's perspective. In addition, compared with Christian sites in western countries, Buddhist sites in China have received much less academic attention. 'The aim of this study is to fill the above research gaps by investigating the role of commoditised religious souvenirs in visitor experience' at Chinese Buddhist sites. Specifically, it seeks to achieve the follOWing objectives: to find out the major factors considered by visitors in evaluating their experience at Chinese Buddhist sites, the importance of the availability of religious souvenirs in the overall visitor experience, visitors' attitudes toward commoditisation at these sacred places and the factors that account for these different attitudes. The field research was carried out at three Buddhist sites in China, the Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Wutai Mountain in Shanxi Province and the Lianhua Temple in Liaoning Province, which were chosen as a result of a classification according to different levels of commoditisation. In-depth interviews and observation were used as data collection methods. Overseas visitors were excluded from the sample to eliminate the influence caused by cultural differences on visitors' evaluation. Four types of factors were identified to be considered by the respondents during their evaluation of their visit experience, i.e. those related to people, place, facilities and critical incidents. Among these factors, the availability of Jeligious souvenirs was not regarded as significant to their visit by most respondents. Their attitudes to commoditisation at the Chinese Buddhist sites varied -from aversion, tolerance, acceptance. and enjoyment to mixed feelings and differentiation. Their opinions were formed mostly with consideration of the purpose, location. ownership and sales practice of the souvenir trade. There was the possibility that their age, profession, life stage, religious background and level of Buddhist knowledge had spme influence on their views on commoditisation at the Chinese Buddhist sites.

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The study investigated men and women's engagement with education in two South Wales valley communities across three generations. It drew upon theoretical tools from social representations theory (Moscovici, 1984) to map dominant social representations circulating in two South Wales valley communities—Abertillery and Ynysawdre. Both communities had experienced a traumatic rupture in community life due to the closure of coal mining in their locales. This study understands social representations as belonging to communities, anchored in the strategies and practices that are particular to that locale and its specific history, and recognises that they influence action and interaction. A snowball sampling method was used to recruit men and women of three generations—16–25 years, 30–45 years and 50–70 years—who were given two research instruments. The first instrument was a semi-structured photo-elicitation interview. The photographs re-presented aspects of the visual and material culture of the locale. Questions related to the locale and to experiences of education and work. The second instrument was an unstructured interview that elicited experiences of education and work. A thematic analysis identified themes, or social representations, that related to the dominant social representations of education and work. Although individual accounts were elicited, differences in the appropriation of social representations and the meanings they held were found between locales, between generations and between genders. Data from both instruments allowed the structure of social representations within each locale to be mapped, which illustrated gender differences and change across generations. A narrative analysis of individual accounts demonstrated how social representations circulating in the locale became psychically active and acted as symbolic resources as individuals and groups made sense of the rupture in the community. Local communities constrain and facilitate what is available for constructing narrative accounts and social identities in relation to education and work, which shift across time.

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Spatial mobility in later life has received much attention by researchers and policy makers in recent years as part of discourses around active ageing and ageing independently. Here mobility is predominantly conceptualised in terms of its function for ensuring older people’s well-being and quality of life. It is therefore often seen as a “means to an end”, for instance in providing the individual with the capability to carry out independent activities of daily living. In this study, mobility was initially understood as movement through time and space. The data collection and analysis was based on the life course approach to environmental gerontology which allowed for the inclusion of temporal and spatial aspects of mobility in later life. This broad analysis is further expanded upon by participants’ own meanings of mobility which were elicited during focus group discussions and interviews to include physical and psychological aspects of mobility. As a result, in this participatory research project, older people’s discussions contributed to the expansion of the conceptualisation of mobility as fundamental to living, and consequently a broadening of the understanding of mobility in terms of a physical, social, psychological and spiritual engagement with the world. The nature of this engagement with the world is further analysed in terms of connectivities. These connectivities are developed over the life course and influence the way in which the older individual is able to relate to her or his social, structural and physical environment, and the resources that are available to the individual for coping with changes associated with ageing. I argue that changes in mobility and in the relationship between the ageing individual and the world are part of a dynamic interplay which supports continuity of identity and the self. But I also point to the limitations of current “decline” discourses of ageing which restrict the extent to which the ageing individual is able to make sense of the embodied experience of ageing and the continuity of the self in a coherent manner. This study shows that the inclusion of a transcendental or spiritual perspective into the life course approach would enable researchers and practitioners to emphasise the ageing individual’s resources for a positive future.