This thesis deals with slaves. More precisely, it deals with the slave-run agricultural estates in Italy during the period of Roman imperial expansion. The main point to be addressed is that of the relationship between its two main genders: adult male and female agricultural slaves. Whilst scholarship has maintained for almost a century now that male slaves played a significantly more important role in this period than female slaves, this thesis will argue that their economic and social contributions were at least equal. It will further to this argue that the traditional view is largely based on a highly biased and discriminating attitude towards the role of women in the world of work, and on a more general disregard and subsequent unbalanced valuation of women's contributions. The prevalence of male slaves on Roman agricultural estates is traditionally attributed to their availability for purchase as a result of Rome's intensive warfare. Furthermore, the various labour tasks usually associated with agricultural slaves are typically regarded as male labour domains, especially work in the fields, be it for grain, wine or olive production. To start with, this thesis will question the narrow range of productive activities that were carried out at these estates. By suggesting through examination of the evidence in a non-traditional way the regular occurrence of productive activities that are typically regarded as female labour domains, especially wool and textile production, the door is opened for a fresh look at the evidence for female labour on agricultural estates, ranging from epigraphic material for the management staff, to passages in the literary sources, and finally the application of demographic and economic models that support the propositions derived from the study of the ancient evidence. Although this thesis title may suggest a descriptive focus on the female slave, it is in fact merely one of analysis: this thesis does not strive to explain the various tasks carried out by female slaves, nor does it aim at the compilation of whatever evidence there may be for female agricultural slave labour. Rather, it aims at questioning a preconceived model of a male-female-relationship that, in current imagination, has huge repercussions on other significant aspects of Roman history. By creating a picture that encompasses slave family life (based on female reproductivity) and high female productivity, traditional views of chattel slavery, based on social deracination and total loss of any liberties, are questioned together with views of economic activity that leaves the Italian (servile) countryside virtually free of a female element.

It is well known that Liverpool surpassed Bristol as Britain's premier slave trading port in the mid-eighteenth century, but the reasons for Liverpool's dominance remain debated. In this comparative research, the theoretical framework of entrepreneurship and various notions of capital, including financial, human and social, accessed through merchants' associational networks is employed to determine whether or not Liverpool merchants were more entrepreneurial in the trade which in turn made them more successful. An interdisciplinary methodology that embraces concepts from both economic and business history as well as social network and socio-cultural analysis is used to ascertain how slave merchant networks in both ports operated and managed their trade. Entrepreneurship has quickly become a popular field of study in economics, sociology and business, and provides a new avenue to explore the organisation of the slave trade in both merchant communities. Additionally, by applying the notion of entrepreneurship within Liverpool slave merchant networks, a more convincing and satisfying explanation for their relative success besides their often-argued but little-explained "business acumen" is offered. An examination of nominal data sources, including the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database and club membership as well as qualitative sources such as merchant correspondence and parliamentary papers are used to map trends in business organisation between the two cities and over time, and to draw conclusions on the relative strength and nature of business partnerships. It is argued that Liverpool merchants managed slaving voyages within comparatively larger investment groups; thus, the business network a Liverpool merchant was part of was also larger. From these larger networks, Liverpool merchants had greater access to knowledge, skills and resources, collectively known as capital, and this larger pool of expertise offered more competitive advantages to their trade. Because of this, Liverpool merchants, as entrepreneurs, were able to surpass their counterparts in Bristol to become the leaders in the slave trade.

UK cities have been transfonned over the past thirty years as they have had to adapt from a declining manufacturing industrial base to a service sector led economy. To achieve these changes many cities have undergone urban regeneration policies that have resulted in significant changes to their physical structure and that have in tum affected the social, economic and environmental dynamics of the built environment. One critical dimension of this regeneration of urban areas has been balance between new development and the conservation of historic buildings and townscape. This thesis will therefore consider the application of regeneration policies to historic urban quarters and analyse their effectiveness. The aim of the research is to evaluate the effectiveness of regeneration policies, particularly those applied to urban historic quarters in England since 1997. First of all, this thesis will identify the criteria for positive urban regeneration developed from a thorough literature review of urban regeneration practice. The research will also examine the effectiveness and success of policies and evaluate the influencing factors. Then, these criteria and factors will be examined through two mixed-use regeneration case studies of historic urban quarters in England: the Lace Market in Nottingham and the Jewellery Quarter in Binningham. The thesis will evaluate the regeneration outcomes (physical, economic and social) and the effectiveness of urban policies applied in these two cases will be analysed.

During the last few decades most developing countries have experienced a rapid growth in population which has resulted in rapid urbanisation in the form of new towns and an expansion of existing towns, coupled with an increasing dependance upon developed countries for the implementation of the new housing programmes. In Algeria, since Independance the problems of the high population growth and the rural-urban migration have led to a rapid growth of cities and towns. Since 1975 the Algerian government has been executing numerous housing programmes named ZHUN's (Zones d' Habitat Urbaines Nouvelles), the main objective being to build as many dwellings as possible in the shortest possible period of time to reduce the housing deficit. This policy has led to the construction of many new housing projects, consisting of stereotype "international style" buildings, very often built by foreign contractors with little appreciation of the life styles and requirements of the local people. This study is, in general, concerned with the effects of the problems of the new social and physical environments on the residents' level of satisfaction with the housing projects. The main objective of this study is to suggest a set of guidelines, or a development programme, for designing new urban housing projects which fulfill the requirements of the different socio-economic groups of residents and which will increase their level of satisfaction. The case study (Ain-Allah) is one of nine new housing projects (ZHUN's) in Algiers, some of which are still being constructed. The case study has similar physical features to those of the majority of the ZHUN's. With regard to its social structure, however, it is occupied by residents with different social characteristics and backgrounds. The ZHUN's are generally occupied by people from the colonial areas, but residents in Ain-Allah are composed of two distinct groups; those who moved from the traditional area of Algiers (the Casbah) and those who moved from the Western style areas (Colonial areas). These two groups did not only move from two different physical settings, but they also have different socio-economic characteristics. The case study is representative of most social and physical features of the ZHUN's, as discussed in greater detail in the next chapter. In addition, it provides the opportunity to examine how different social groups react to the same physical environment. Findings reveal that satisfaction with the new project is influenced by residents' previous experience. Residents originating from a traditional setting (Casbah) tend to evaluate their new environment mainly by the cohesion and level of friendship between neighbours, whilst those from the western style (colonial) areas tend to attribute more importance to quality of the physical environment. When planning a new project, emphasis should not only be placed on the spatial organisation of the built form, but also on the selection of the residents and their level of homogeneity. Many researchers have argued that outdoor common spaces provide the opportunity for social contacts between residents, which in turn, encourage the process of friendship formation between them. In this research, however, findings show that the arrangement of the new buildings around large common outdoor spaces with direct visual contact affected the level of privacy of the flats. This has, consequently, hindered residents' familiar outdoor social activities and slowed down the rate of friendship formation between them. On account of the Islamic culture, based on segregation between males and females, spaces used by men (outdoor open spaces) should not be in direct visual contact with the flats which are mainly used by women, in particular housewives. The process of friendship formation is also found to be much more rapid between neighbours who originated from the same area than between those who moved as strangers and did not work together. The latter required longer for integration to the new community. Also, people working together make friends more quickly than those who do not. It is also found that the new built form affects the rate of friendship formation. Proximity of the new flats and sharing the same landing, staircases and building access encourage social contacts between residents. A comparison between a housing cluster (cluster three) occupied by heterogeneous groups (Casbah and colonial areas) and two clusters (clusters one and two) occupied only by homogeneous groups (cluster one occupied by people from the Casbah and cluster two by people from colonial areas) revealed that friendliness, but not necessarily friendship, existed between heterogeneous residents living in the same cluster (cluster three). It was also found that physical proximity between homogeneous residents (in both clusters one and two) promoted friendship formation between them. However, findings show that no social relationships existed between the two heterogeneous groups living separately (clusters one and two). To promote friendliness between heterogeneous residents and friendship between homogenous residents, this research suggests that when allocating the flats, buildings should be occupied by homogenous residents, and basic housing units by heterogenous residents. Findings also reveal that satisfaction with the outdoor spatial organisation is related to the function of the outdoor spaces. For example, when comparing levels of satisfaction with outdoor common spaces in a basic housing unit composed of residential buildings and a basic housing unit with facilities at the ground floor of its buildings, it was found that a higher number of people in the former were satisfied. The common space in the basic housing unit with facilities was transformed from a quiet semi-public space for local residents to a public space where people from all parts of the project come to do their shopping. This resulted in both a loss of privacy and noise disturbance. According to the literature, the size of a housing area, or the catchment area, is determined by the location of the primary school and shops. It suggests that these facilities should not be located at more than 5 to 7 minutes' walking distance (around 500m) from the furthest dwelling. In this research, however, it is found that the majority of people living at less than 10 minutes' walking distance (650m to 700m) from these facilities were satisfied with their location. The new projects can, therefore, have a larger catchment area than those proposed by the literature and the CNERU. Findings also suggest that it is more economical and satisfactory to locate the new housing projects as close as possible to existing commercial centres. This would not only reduce the cost of connecting a new project to water, gas, electricity and sewage systems, but would also ease the use of the facilities of the nearby commercial centre(s) by the new residents. Finally, specific measures are recommended for planning and designing new urban housing projects. It is necessary to provide an environment which allows easy integration to the new community, and with which residents can identify and be satisfied. This is possible to achieve by understanding the socio-economic and cultural characteristics of the residents, by housing these residents in such a way as to encourage friendship formation between them, and by providing a new built form which fulfills the requirements of the residents and which does not hinder their familiar social activities.

This thesis is concerned with the planning of rural settlement in England during the twentieth century, and in particular with the application and the impact of the principle of selected village development. Both the development of planning legislation and the 'philosophical basis of rural settlement planning are examined in detail. Since 1947 the concept of selected village development has come to dominate the planning of rural settlement. This concept is examined at length with particular attention paid to the relationship between selected village development and central place theory. The progressive adoption of policies of selected village development since the early 'fifties, has usually been related to systems of settlement classification. The operation of classification schemes is examined at length and is supplemented with an examination of the spatial inequalities between five different classifications, in the Isle of Wight, Huntingdonshire, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, and West Sussex. The impact of selected village development policies is studied in detail through two case studies, one of a 'pressure' area (South Nottinghamshire), and the other of a 'remoter' rural area (North Norfolk). Besides a more general study of these areas, twelve villages are studied in considerable detail through a questionnaire survey of a sample of households in each village. The results of nearly four hundred household interviews form the basis for a detailed discussion of socioeconomic patterns and processes in the study areas. The concluding chapter presents a summary of the thesis and also an assessment of the principle findings. Specific suggestions for consideration as improvements to the planning system are presented. Together with the general conclusion that selected village development policies, appropriately modified, represent the most practical policy alternative for planning rural settlement in England.

Following the launch of the 'Develop the West' strategy in 2000, western China has undergone huge changes. Chongqing has been at the leading edge of this wave of development and its model of economic reform is particularly interesting and has also attracted public attention. This study aims to answer a series of unexplored questions about Chongqing's urbanisation and rural-urban migration. The first empirical chapter (Chapter 4) derives a simultaneous equation model from the standard theoretical framework of wage growth to estimate the determinants of wage growth of urban workers of various industries and the effects of openness. Data for 38 industries in Chongqing over the past 11 years is grouped into four sets of panel data in terms of different magnitudes of openness. The data shows that the increase in the demand for labourers is positively related to the wage' growth of urban workers. Openness, captured by industry's utilisation or non-utilisation of FDI, impels industrial sectors to use automation techniques more efficiently. The effect of productivity on wages in the group of industries which do utilise FDI is more than twice that of those in the group of industries which do not. Moreover, this chapter has not found enough empirical evidence to support the theory that the building of new cities benefits urban wage growth. The second empirical chapter (Chapter 5) examines the impacts of dynamic localisation and urbanisation externalities on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) in three sectors at the county level between 2001 and 2008, by using panel model estimates based on a modified production function. The results show that the all-industry category localisation externalities' elasticity to productivity is significantly negative and that urbanisation externalities are insignificant. The implication is that the specialisation in Chongqing is no longer able to afford the high growth of economic development; thus, the so called 'Chongqing model' lacks sufficient economic basis. The third empirical chapter (Chapter 6) is based on an in-person survey of 102 households and l38 respondents carried out by the author in 2009. The chapter assesses the determinants of transferring behaviour of the rural-urban migrant workers by using Probit and OLS estimations. A number of conclusions can be drawn from the results. For instance, income in rural areas is crucial to migrant decision-making as to whether to accept urban hukou, and manufacturing and construction workers do not receive more wages than others. The survey results suggest that the quality of Chongqing's large urban population accumulation is still at a low level.

In South Korea, believed to be one of the most racially and culturally homogeneous nation-states, ‘multiculturalism’ has emerged, since the mid-2000s, as a discursive space within which migrant incorporation and racial/cultural diversity are discussed. Despite the proliferation of multicultural discourses and policy developments, issues of racism have not come to the fore in Korea, not only in the practices of policymaking but also in scholarly work. This thesis problematises this absence and interrogates the contingent configuration of contemporary multiculturalism and racialised nationalism. To achieve this, it starts out by questioning the entrenched idea of Korea’s ‘racial irrelevance’ and the persistent decoupling of nationalism and racism. The thesis employs open-ended, semi-structured in-depth interviews as its key method. A total of forty-five interviews were conducted with various social actors, who actively respond to the multiculturalisation of Korean society, in their role as migrant rights activists, government agencies, media personnel, (far-right) anti-multiculturalists, and migrants. By drawing on the analysis of these interviews and other complementary sources (historical documents, white papers, media reports, and anti-multiculturalists’ online communities), the thesis particularly focuses on the following three aspects of the Korean application of multiculturalism. Firstly, how multiculturalism works as a euphemism for race – emblematic in the employment of the term ‘multicultural’ as a pseudo-racial category – and how this euphemistic development works reciprocally with the disavowal of racism. Secondly, it reflects on how ‘culture’, in this tendency of multicultural politics, is utilised in constructing differences, constituting the dynamics of in/exclusion, and accumulating individual and national capital. Lastly, the thesis demonstrates the fragility and contradictions of celebratory multicultural discourses, imbricated with neoliberal subjectivity and strongly inflected by a social Darwinist ethos. In conceptualising multiculturalism as the politics of hush in South Korea, this project not only carves out a new research space for the critical analysis of ‘race’ and racism in Korean academia but also contributes to expanding our understanding of the politics of multiculturalism particularly in relation to the global discourse of ‘post-racial’ society.

Two broad communities can be distinguished in marine systems, those attached to amorphous aggregate material dispersed throughout the water column and those that are freely suspended in the water column (planktonic). It has been suggested that two distinct microbial populations are associated with each habitat due to phenotypic adaptation to the different conditions in aggregates and the surrounding water. The aim of this study was to investigate the diversity of aggregate-associated and planktonic marine ammonia oxidisers (AOBs - the organisms responsible for the rate limiting step in nitrification) in both natural environments and laboratory-reared systems and to determine whether aggregate material selected for particular groups of AOBs. Detection of AOBs relied heavily on the use of molecular analysis of extracted DNA. Thus, a preliminary study was performed to assess whether preferential lysis occurred when representatives of both genera within the B-subgroup AOBs {Nitrosospira multiformis and Nitrosomonas europaea) were exposed to lysis procedures commonly applied to marine samples. Minimal bias existed, with Nitrosomonas europaea proving to be less susceptible to lysis only when the lytic agents (sodium dodecyl sulphate and lysozyme) were absent or at concentrations 100-fold less than those applied in routine environmental extraction. Environmental populations of aggregate-associated and planktonic AOBs in the NW Mediterranean Sea were assessed in summer and winter at stations both within and beyond regions of fresh water inflow (the plume). Molecular analysis involved amplification, by the polymerase chain reaction, of 16S rRNA genes from extracted DNA using AOB-specific primers. Analysis of 16S rDNA sequences coupled with DGGE and specific probing revealed temporal and spatial effects in community structure of AOBs. In the summer, genus level selection of AOBs was observed with Nitrosospira dominating in the aggregate population and Nitrosomonas dominating in the planktonic phase. This was found in the surface waters of geographically distant sites within and outside the plume. Between-site differences were evident in the deeper waters with Nitrosospira-like sequences more abundant in plume diluted waters and Nitrosomonas like sequences more abundant outside this zone, while genus level selection between aggregate-associated and planktonic communities was not detected. In winter, a uniform pattern of AOB distribution emerged with an even distribution of two Nitrosospira sequences at each site on all aggregate and planktonic samples. The AOB community structure of sediment samples was not wholly resolved by application of direct molecular techniques and the culturable diversity was later examined by an enrichment-based approach. A laboratory-reared aggregate system was developed to assess the distribution and selection of inoculated pure and enrichment cultures of AOBs and to assess the effect of sampling technique on the observed community structure. Enclosed vessels containing North Sea water were rotated until aggregation of autochthonous particulate material formed discrete aggregates. No genus level selection of AOBs was observed in aggregate-associated and planktonic communities in North Sea water yet differences in the distribution of closely related sequences within cluster 1 Nitrosospira were observed between the two communities. Observed aggregate and planktonic community structure was affected by the method used to separate the two fractions. Active bacterial production was not necessary for aggregate formation if a pooled suspension of aggregates was sterilised and added to a medium of cell-free filtered sea water. Thus, the successful inoculation and retrieval of an N. multiformis culture within the cell free system suggested that it was appropriate for investigation of the colonisation dynamics of inoculated AOBs.

This study is research into practice, concerned with locating a critical perspective into the possibilities of drama in achieving sustainable development within communities. This qualitative research approach draws on action-research paradigms, ethnographic techniques and drama methodologies to create in depth analysis of the facilitation and action of community drama within case study contexts. The case study contexts were drawn from the field of mental health provision and the context of self-advocacy for people with learning difficulties. Drama and video workshops were facilitated within these groups between periods of 9 - 18 months. Participants were involved from three groups including a women's group and a male orientated group within mental health provision, and a group for young adults with learning difficulties within a self advocacy project. This thesis contributes to knowledge in the field of Theatre for Development and UK community based drama in the following ways: The thesis suggests that previous assumptions and claims as to the 'success' of community drama projects need closer, critical interrogation. Analysis of the field work reveals that 'visions' of theatre and development face conflict when positioned in context, as both the nature and action of community is itself contested and ambivalent. The relationship of the facilitator role to other involved parties is given specific interrogation. The role and persona of the facilitator as a key player is identified, and demonstrated as such throughout the thesis through adoption of self-reflexive strategies of writing. It becomes clear that the radical, pedagogic intent of the drama process to foster collective ownership through the critical addressing and the representation of issues pertinent to a group's social reality, is questioned by those involved at various levels in the process. In exploring the nature of drama and video representations as resistance and intervention, sites of personal resistance and 'counter' interventions are illuminated. However, the reality of resistance is also bound up within the complexity of identity politics where the consequences of 'coming out' and accepting a label can become both a liberatory and oppressive experience. In chapter eight the continual difficulty of sustainability is examined and critiqued in the light of key issues identified within the previous chapters. Finally, the thesis assesses the substantive issues in relation to current discourses in cultural theory. By resisting opportunities to prescribe models and techniques thus reproducing the discourses critiqued this study culminates with optimism. Developing creative frameworks, that genuinely engage with contradiction and the complicated politics of context, are deemed as critical conditions for practices.

This thesis investigates the motivations and underpinnings of Irish immigration controls in the early twentieth century. The broader empirical and theoretical literature suggest that states develop immigration controls for particular domestic needs - the protection of the national population from the intrusion of outsiders. The thesis establishes that the controls introduced in the Irish Free State in 1935 were unusual in that they appear not to have addressed a specific need for to manage immigration to the Free State. They instead replicated other controls previously introduced in the United Kingdom, a state with rather different national circumstances, and from which the Irish Free State had seceded in 1922. The research approach developed for this study is an interdisciplinary methodology of historical sociology. Because of the necessary focus on the roles of structure and agency in the process of shaping Irish immigration controls, realist social theory is adopted as the macro-level social theory used to make historical particulars generalizable. Through a narrative case study method shaped by this methodology, the thesis examines the development of Irish immigration controls. It finds that the interaction between the particular political, economic and cultural contexts of the Irish Free State shaped the process of developing immigration controls. Nationalist politics undoubtedly played a role in their evolution, but in a very different way than suggested by the empirical theoretical literature. Immigration controls are not always about immigration.