An unprecedented number of Labour MPs was elected in rural areas in England in 1997. This study examines critically examines the making of rural policy and the implications for rural politics over the life-time of New Labour in power between 1997 and 2010. The analysis begins by evaluating New Labour’s representative role in the countryside after the 1997 election and considering the basis for the party’s claim that it represented rural areas. It then provides a critical assessment of how the New Labour governments operated in relation to the countryside, setting out frames within which to analyse policies for the countryside and discussing programmes such as rural proofing. The study then critically evaluates whether New Labour was ever able to throw off the accusation of opponents that it was an urban construct which marginalised the rural, and discusses how events and crises such as the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak impacted on the approach to rural areas. The body of the research analyses the approach to policy-making adopted by New Labour to investigate whether ‘externalisation’ and ‘decentralisation’ were important in how policy was made and the extent to which the wider New Labour mantra of modernisation affected the countryside. It also evaluates the extent to which temporal and spatial features played a part in how rural policy and politics evolved, and the extent to which this helped explain the course that the government pursued in the countryside. The research concludes by considering whether there was a ‘social democratic moment’ that opened up possibilities for important policy intervention in the countryside, and if so whether this opportunity was taken or missed.

This thesis presents a 'reading' of the Wootton Bassett phenomenon: public mourning accompanying the repatriations of the bodies of members of the British armed forces between 2007–2011. Wootton Bassett, much discussed in the local and national press, was the focal point of conversations about the national mood, and national identity. The thesis explores national identity and the structure of the state, and the Wootton Bassett phenomenon in particular, in order that the two issues might illuminate each other. This thesis is a work of creative nonfiction, which blends various approaches to the reading of historical and contemporary cultural narratives. My aim is to deliver a piece of analysis which is academically rigorous whilst reflecting my position as a creative writer within academia. Working from Althusser's theories of ideology, the methodology is a synthesis of Cultural Studies, close reading of media reports, and memoir. I begin with discussion of 'Ideology' per Althusser, and his proposition that Ideology is an ongoing event, and the state's accepted 'ideologies' are gathered centripetally around a fundamental absence of congruence and coherence. Utilising Althusser's descriptions of interpellation, ideological state apparatuses (ISAs) and the repressive state apparatus (RSA), the thesis moves on to analyse British narratives of national identity: long-term narratives (the symbolic development of the mythical figures Gog and Magog), and then our current context, in particular the ideological redefinitions of the Second World War. Discussion of public mourning for Princess Diana offers an exemplar for discussions of Wootton Bassett in terms of tradition and ideologically-mediated concepts of appropriateness. The concluding sections of the thesis are an Althusserian analysis of the discourse surrounding extremist group Islam4UK’s proposed counter-march at Wootton Bassett. The silence of the repatriation events' attendees is positioned as an uncanny indeterminacy, in which subjects refuse to enact interpellation. Finally, a memoir section describes my trip to the town for the 2014 armistice day memorial ceremony. Through these various approaches, the thesis explores the partial and mutable nature of ideology and national identity, and the scope within these structures for the subject to act with agency and dignity.

Depuis des décennies. The Economist est considéré comme une référence incontournable pour tous ceux qui s'intéressent à l'actualité politique et économique internationale. The Economist apparaît comme un journal d'opinion qui vise à renforcer l'influence d'une élite possédant un pouvoir économique et culturel dans le monde. L'hebdomadaire vante souvent son objectivité, son indépendance ainsi que sa vocation internationale ; cependant, le lecteur averti perçoit The Economist comme un magazine qui n'est pas si différent des autres dans la mesure où il cherche à défendre sa cause, sa doctrine et à faire valoir sa propagande. Cette thèse tente d'analyser l'image d'une personnalité politique, le Premier ministre britannique, Tony Blair, et de mettre en relief sa politique européenne et sa relation anglo-américaine à travers unelecture critique de The Economist de mai 1997 à mai 2005. Cette étude, qui se base sur l'approche de l'analyse critique du discours, envisage de souligner l'absence de partialité de The Economist, qui défend des valeurs néolibérales et tente ainsi de répondre aux attentes des lecteurs et de défendre sa vision du monde / For decades. The Economist has been considered as an indispensable reference for those who are interested in international, political and economic news. The Economist has established itself as a journal which aims to reinforce the elite's influence on decision-making in economics, politics and culture in the world. The weekly magazine frequently proclaims its objectivity and its independence as well as its international appeal; nevertheless, the alert reader perceives The Economist as a magazine which is not so different from the others in that it defends its own cause, advocates its own doctrine and promotes its chosen propaganda.This thesis tries to analyze the image of a political figure, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and to focus on his European policies and Anglo-American relations through the study of The Economist between May 1997 and May 2005. The methodology of critical discourse analysis will help to demonstrate the partiality of The Economist, which vehicles neoliberal ideas, thus fulfilling readers' expectations while defending its own vision of the world

Dans cette thèse, nous étudions la relation entre la population juive et l'espace urbain de Londres comme forme de territorialisation d'une communauté en milieu urbain. Notre objet de recherche est d'une part la manière dont les représentations et les projets d'un groupe investissent l'espace urbain en l'investissant de signification et en modelant la géographie du groupe. De l'autre, on étudie l'interaction entre ces représentations et ces projets produits par le groupe et ceux produit par la société plus vaste - en relation à l'espace urbain tout comme à la place des groupes ethno­religieux dans cet espace. A cette fin, en introduisant la géographie talmudique de l'érouv et ses effets sur les pratiques des juifs qui les observent, on analyse tout d'abord ! 'évolution de la distribution de la population juive dans Je Grand Londres, du début du siècle XXème jusqu'à l'époque contemporaine, en soulignant la relation entre besoin rituels et équipements communautaires. Ensuite, on démontre Je processus de territorialisation de la communauté juive dans le nord-ouest de la ville et les effets de la création dans la municipalité de Barnet d'un nouvel équipement rituel, l' « érouv », au sein d'un grand débat public sur le rôle des communautés dans l'espace urbain. Cette étude souhaite apporter un regard sur les principales questions contemporaines autour des communautés ethno­religieuses dans les villes européennes, à savoir la concentration résidentielle, le retour du religieux comme facteur important dans l'orientation des identités et l'apport des politiques envers les communautés, ainsi que la signification religieuse de l'espace public. / This thesis explores the relation between the London Jewish population and urban space as a form of community territorialisation. The research aims to bring together two completing perspectives. Firstly, how cultural representations and projects of a group signify the urban space and affect its social geography. And secondly, the interaction between those representations and projects produced by a group and the representations of the urban space and the place of ethno-religious groups in it produced by the larger society. Having introduced the Talmudic geography based on the ritual time of Shabbat, the text analyses the evolving geography of Jewish presence in London. The shift from an initial concentration in the East End at the tum of the 201h century to the current settlement in North West London shows the relationship between ritual needs, community facilities and Jewish concentrations. The text demonstrates the distinctiveness of the Jewish population's dynamic in urban space, which seems to be a unique case among the contemporary London ethnic and religious groups, an example of Ceri Peach 's positive segregation rather than a ghetto. The text subsequently explores the creation in the 1990s of a new facility, the North West London Eruv, aimed at a local Jewish community. This project is analysed for the debate it raised about its potential demographic implications and the right of communities to religiously signify urban (public) space in a multicultural society.