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To what extent does a Soviet legacy shape the experiences of former Soviet (FS) immigrants living in the U.S.? This historically grounded question is relevant in a post-Soviet reality as the number of immigrants from FS republics living in the U.S. has increased by almost 200% since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Using semi-structured interviews, surveys and a snowball/quota sampling technique, I inquired among adults of multiple ethnicities and multiple countries of origin within the former Soviet Union who were living in two communities in the United States: Nashville, Tennessee (survey n=46; interview n=10) and Brooklyn, New York (survey n=131; interview n=16). The main foci of research were hypothesis testing about three organizing categories of immigrant status (refugee, titularity, and ethnicity) and theory exploration (social capital and migration theories). In general, I discovered that titularity (a match between ethnicity and country of origin) matters and should be considered in any migration research. To continue to call all persons from former Soviet republics Russian despite their ethnicity and/or country of origin is problematic. More specifically, I found that non-refugees were not likely to engage formal (e.g. government, non-profit) institutions for financial or other forms of help. Non-titular immigrants were more likely than titular immigrants to report experiences of discrimination as a reason for leaving their countries of origin. Titular immigrants were more likely to be temporary immigrants, intending to return home to live. Titular immigrants were more likely to send remittances to their countries of origin and more frequently did so. Central Asian and European non-Jewish ethnic groups were more likely to experience discrimination in Nashville than in Brooklyn. Central Asian and Transcaucasian ethnic groups were more likely to consider their countries of origin as home. I offer an ecology of immigration model as a helpful tool to better understand the immigrant experience. Limitations, implications, and future research ideas are also discussed.

Environmental conditions, biotic interactions, dispersal and history have been suggested to be important processes influencing the spatial distribution of organisms and thus to affect community assembly. Understanding how these processes influence community assembly is important, particularly because community diversity and composition are suggested to be relevant for ecosystem functioning. Moreover, bacteria are strongly contributing to nutrient and carbon cycle. Bacteria are highly abundant and ubiquitous, and thus it is relevant to study how they are assembled. This thesis aims to gain insight on the role of these processes on aquatic bacterial community assembly, diversity and functioning. The studies included in this thesis involve transplant and microcosm experiments performed in the lab as well as manipulation experiments and field surveys in a natural rock pool systems. Bacterial community composition was addressed by analysis of 16S rRNA gene and community functioning by measuring bacterial production, community respiration and the ability to use different carbon substrates. This thesis highlights that species sorting is a very important assembly mechanism for bacterial communities, but also finds that other processes such as dispersal and history contribute to the patterns observed. Dispersal caused rescuing effects compensating for losses of diversity; at the same time it increased the similarity between communities. Moreover, bacteria have shown a high level of functional plasticity when colonizing a new locality. Interestingly, past environmental conditions explained the structure of bacterial communities better than present-day environmental conditions. Disturbances and biotic interactions are also important in the assembly of communities. Disturbance caused temporary shifts in bacterial function and changes in composition, the magnitude of which depended on the intensity and the frequency of the disturbance. However, natural aquatic bacterial communities showed quite high resilience capacities. Competition can shift the proportion of generalists and specialists species whereas predation or trophic interactions have been found to decrease diversity and to modify the importance of stochasticity. Both caused alterations of community functioning. Finally, this thesis shows that the diversity-functioning relationship is context dependent. Further research should be directed to understanding the intensity and direction of changes in composition and how this affects the functionality of bacterial communities

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Does community archaeology work? Worldwide over the last decade, there has been a boom in projects utilising the popular phrase ‘community archaeology’. These projects take many different forms, stretching from the public-face of research and developer-funded programmes to projects run by museums, archaeological units, universities and archaeological societies. Many of these projects are driven by the desire for archaeology to meet a range of perceived educational and social values in bringing about knowledge and awareness of the past in the present. They are also motivated by the desire to secure adequate funding for archaeological research. However, appropriate criteria and methodologies for evaluating the effectiveness of these projects have yet to be designed. This thesis sets out a methodology based on self-reflexivity and ethnology. It focuses on community excavations, in a range of contexts both in the UK and US. It assesses the values these projects produce for communities and evaluates what community archaeology actually does. It concludes that community archaeology frequently fails to balance the desired outcomes of its stakeholders. It suffers from its short-term funding and, therefore, often lacks sustainability, which hampers its ability to produce and maintain values. Evaluation of projects should be qualitative as well as quantitative in establishing the cost effectiveness of projects. Subsequently, recommendations are made for future community archaeology project designs.

This study is about surfing subculture in the South West of England, within small communities of surfers that live within the South East Cornwall area. Specifically the focus is on the Local Surfer, a surfing type emerging from a typology of surfers observed in the South West of England during my previous study (Beaumont, 2007) and developed through the use of ideal types, a concept taken from Weber (1949). The Interpretive paradigm was adopted for this study in order to conduct research into the social world of surfing subculture that produced richly descriptive data. Within this approach qualitative ethnographic methods were used including participant observation, field notes and semi-structured interviews to generate data on the two key themes surrounding the Local Surfer in the study; identity and community. In terms of identity, data reveals a list of the ideal typical characteristics for the Wannabe, the Professional Surfer, the Soul Surfer and the Local Surfer types the last of which highlights significant gender differences within the type itself. Donnelly and Young’s (1999) symbolic interactionist model of identity construction and confirmation was applied to analyse the Local Surfer and did help illuminate some stages in Local Surfer identity construction. However, this analysis also revealed limitations of this theories applicability to pursuits rather than sports (which is how surfing is classified to the Local Surfer). Goffman’s (1969) concept of career was also used to provide an opportunity to present the career of the Local Surfer and in particular provides information on the years after identity construction and the process of ageing within a subculture and a community. The Local Surfer career is seen as various distinctive stages which the Local Surfer typically progressed through in a linear manner: the “nurturing” stage; the traveller stage; the responsible stage; and the legends stage. Finally in terms of community, many of the issues associated with community are addressed by focusing on the elements which make up a definition of community established in the early stages of the study. Current issues for the Local Surfer are also discussed including their fratriachial qualities, the exclusion of women and the phenomenon of localism.

Traditionally, the historical study of the Catholic community in the Archdiocese of Glasgow has centred on the building of the Catholic community and the implications of its ethnic background. Little or no attention has been made to the intellectual contribution of Catholics to the questions of identity, Catholic politics and devotional trends. Similarly, the previous study of Catholicism in Scotland has been based on local issues with little or no reference to the place of Scottish Catholicism in the mainstream of European developments in the Roman Catholic Church. This work seeks to redress the balance through a comprehensive examination of four themes. Firstly, the impact of Catholic social teaching on the senior Catholic lay organisation, the Catholic Union of the Archdiocese of Glasgow. Secondly, an examination of the distinctive contribution of Catholics in the Archdiocese to piety and devotion, focussing on the Lourdes Grotto at Carfm and the Legion of Mary. The third theme i s an assessment of the role played by the Glasgow Circle of the Newman Association, in the post Second World War years, in the mobilisation of the Catholic intelligentsia, through the development of a devolved Scottish Council of the Newman Association and the promotion of reform within the Catholic Church leading up to the Second Vatican Council in 1962. The fourth theme is a discussion of the writing of Scottish history and the contributions made by Catholic scholars to a revision of the orthodoxies on the role of Catholicism in Scotland. Through the examination of these themes, this work argues that there was a coherent attempt to remake the image and character of Catholicism in the Archdiocese of Glasgow, which had implications for the overall standing of Catholicism in Scotland. It is argued that, far from being divorced from trends in Catholicism in continental Europe, developments in Scottish Catholicism, though distinctive, must be seen in the light of changes in Catholic thinking in Europe.

Attending and graduating from college has become an essential tool for social mobility over the last several decades. However, despite efforts to expand opportunities to increase college access for all students, there is ongoing evidence of meaningful disparities in the rates of postsecondary enrollment among students from traditionally underserved college-going populations, including low income, minority, and first generation college-going students. The present dissertation examines the core assumptions of college for all, which may inadvertently replicate inequality. The dissertation is presented in three parts. The first paper examines the foundational theoretical literature that frames college access scholarship and identifies the strengths and limitations of existing theoretical frameworks used to investigate college access. I rely upon the empirical literature to develop an alternative model: The Ecological Model of College Access. The second paper, draws on data from 54 interviews with college-going seniors from two college for all high schools. It examines how students leverage relationships within and across settings (e.g., home, school, and community) to access multiple dimensions of support throughout the college access process. The results highlight studentsâ ecological experience of support, as well as the scaffolded experiences with support. For example, findings suggest, during the aspiration and expectations phases, emotional, motivational, and informational support emerge as the most critical dimensions; in contrast, during the dual search, emotional, motivational, and instrumental support manifest most powerfully. Additionally, the data highlight characteristics of relationships students leveraged strategically for support. Finally, the third paper employs Tseng and Seidmanâs (2007) theoretical framework of settings to explore how setting-level factors mediate studentsâ experiences. An in-depth assessment of the social processes germane to college access reveals key similarities and differences between the two schools. The findings highlight a number of settings-level factors (e.g., relationships, participation, and norms) that dictated the quality of studentsâ experiences throughout the college access process. Cumulatively, these three papers highlight the complexity of the college access process and the requisite sources of support required to ensure that studentsâ experiences are provided in a way that maximizes their potential for successful enrollment in a postsecondary institution matched to their social, academic, and financial needs.