The objective of the research was to explore the development of modern sport in Malaysia and to identify the socio-political and ethnic issues and other problems associated with it. The time period studied is from the year 1800 to the year 2000, which covers the periods of British colonial rule and Malaysia as an independent nation. The extended period of British administration left a paramount effect on the Malaysian society. Eight sport enthusiasts, forty schools, twelve sport associations, the Ministry of Youth and Sport of Malaysia, the Ministry of Education of Malaysia, and the Olympic Council of Malaysia were approached to gather the primary or raw data for the study. In addition, historical facts and sociological perspective on sport and physical education gathered from library research were combined to form the main ingredients and cross-analysed for discussion in the thesis. A chapter was constructed to understand the reason for British global expansion, their sport idealism and eventually the socio-political impact on Malaysia. A subsequent chapter was constructed discussing the independent government's attempt to redress the ethnic groups imbalance in economy, education and sport, as a result of the colonial legacy, in order to develop a just and harmonic society. Sport was found to be both the `enhancing' and `deterring' factors for a genuine national unity to materialise. Issues on power politics, economy, education and sport were found to be very much entangled and intertwined with the ethnic phenomenon. The research concluded that Malaysia's short history as an independent nation with very distinguished multi-ethnic and multicultural society provided an unsettled and unstable platform for a suitable environment for sport to develop successfully. Universal sport sociological theories related to the main issues investigated were compared and tested on the Malaysian sport scene to identify the `grounded theory'. Finally several `grounded theories' were presented as closure of the thesis.

This thesis argues that democratisation affected environmental governance in Indonesia in two aspects: the development of environmental NGOs (ENGOs) and their involvement in policy networks. The former is analysed from three perspectives of social movement theories: `political opportunities', `framing' and `resource mobilisation'. The perspectives on the latter are derived from theories of the policy process: the `policy network' and Kingdon's `multiple streams'. Indonesian ENGOs developed significantly after the late 1980s, together with the democratisation movement. Democratic ideas `re-framed' environmental issues, which stimulated and politicised ENGO activities, while increasing `political opportunities' by shifting the values of government officials. They also enhanced ENGOs' accountability and their embedding in local communities. The democratisation of formal institutions after the late 1990s facilitated ENGO activities, but it was not the decisive factor for their development. Neither was economic growth: the impacts of economic changes were not straightforward. The case studies of the pulp-rayon company Indorayon and the policy-making process of participatory forestry in Wonosobo District show that the spread of democratic ideas resulted in the incorporation of ENGOs in policy networks, which had previously been a `politico-business oligarchy' in the authoritarian Suharto period, by increasing their resources, particularly `legitimacy'. Also, ENGOs significantly facilitated the inclusion of other actors in the networks. On the other hand, conventional informal institutions still remained and they constrained actors. This helped conventionally strong actors (e. g. the state and large businesses) to preserve their political leverage. The spread of democratic ideas influenced agenda-setting and policy formulation. It is suggested that utilitarian arguments for democratisation (i. e. democratisation for better ecological consequences) could produce policies that neglected the social aspect of sustainable development, which in turn negatively influenced their ecological and economic impacts. `Rights-based' arguments (e. g. participation is a right) seem more conducive to the efforts for sustainable development in the South.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional alliance grouping the six oil- and gas-rich Arabian states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain, was founded in 1981 with the purported aim of "effect[ing] coordination, integration and inter-connection between Member States in all fields in order to achieve unity between them" (GCC Charter: Article 4). Most political observers, nevertheless, insist that this alliance was born out of a common concern among these rich but sparsely populated and militarily vulnerable states for their security and political stability within a politically volatile region, and the need for a regional alliance with sufficient capability to safeguard their interests, sovereignty and political stability. This study was undertaken with a set of interacting aims in mind; besides the subsidiary aim of examining the structure and operation of the GCC from the perspective of competing theoretical approaches to federalism with a view to exploring their viability vis-à-vis the case of integration which the GCC represents, this study primarily aims at evaluating the GCC, as well as the political and social basis of cooperation, among its member states in the light of attitudes and perceptions within Gulf society. With regard to the former concern, the aim is to consider how useful theories of federalism are in understanding and interpreting the GCC. With regard to the latter concern, the study aims, to explore Gulf social perception of the factors underlying the emergence of the GCC, its institutions, objectives, policies and problems confronting it with a view to determining the extent and nature of both the attitudinal similarities, and discrepancies existing between different social Gulf groups as well as identifying the complex network of historical, socio-cultural and institutional affinities operating across state boundaries within the GCC. To explore perceptions of the policies and aspects of cooperation which the GCC considers central to its efforts to bring about greater unity among its member states, two surveys were undertaken among two contrasting groups: one based on a sample of top-ranking officials at the GCC Secretariat General and another based on the sample of students at Kuwait and Qatar universities.

The main aim of this thesis is to examine urban movements in Istanbul, Turkey. More specifically, the research has two principal objectives: first, to expand the existing conceptual framework of urban movement studies by critically examining the present literature on urban movements and considering people’s experiences in the cities of global South; and second, to make an empirical contribution to the literature on urban movements in general and the developing literature on urban movements in Turkey, in particular by analysing political mobilisation surrounding contested urban regeneration projects in Istanbul, Turkey. The thesis argues that the research framework of current urban movements’ literature is too static and limited to be able to develop a dynamic, relational and comparative approach to the analysis of mobilisation in urban space in different geographies. The case materials presented demonstrate that the political and social relations established between actors of urban politics are enmeshed in a dynamic political process, and that the motivations that inform the development of urban movements can change over time. In addition, the issues causing conflicts and political mobilisation are perceived and experienced differently under different conditions, which results in a diversification of the ways in which mobilisation is pursued. As such, a-priori assumptions about the emergence and goals of political mobilisation in urban space – for example, assumptions that urban movements necessarily are progressive and a part of a wider political agenda – is shown to be inadequate for examining the dynamics of mobilisation in different settings. In developing these theoretical arguments, the research constructs a dynamic relational framework to the analysis of political mobilisation in urban space, contributing in turn to the existing conceptual framework of urban movement and political mobilisation studies. Empirically, these issues were explored through case studies of two urban renewal areas in the historical neighbourhoods of Istanbul, Turkey, using a qualitative Critical Realist methodology. Like many other megacities, Istanbul has experienced an immense process of socio-economic and spatial restructuring in which the state has played a fundamental role. Moreover, in these new urbanisation dynamics, urban renewal projects have become conspicuously contested, leading to mobilisation at a variety of spatial and governmental scales. This thesis focuses on the different responses of local people in two urban renewal areas in order to examine the factors that enable and inhibit mobilisation. Specifically, the research is framed around two contrasting cases: the Fener-Balat-Ayvansaray renewal area, which is taken as a case of political action, and the Suleymaniye renewal area, which is taken as the case of inaction. The research findings show that the intervention of the state is not the only factor causing mobilisation in the localities. Other factors include: the condition of the built environment and the formation of spatial relations in the localities; the condition of the property market and how property owners value their assets in terms of its exchange and use values; the political relations between the state and the residents; social relations within the localities; and the implementation process of the urban renewal projects. These factors are derived from the empirical findings of the research and combined into a dynamic conceptual framework that contributes to reconfiguring existing analyses of urban movements. As such, by its critical relationship to existing urban social movement theory and through its novel methodology, the thesis aims to make significant contributions both to the conceptualisation and empirical analysis of contentious politics in urban space.

This research uses discourse analysis to examine Japan's UN security policy after the Cold War period using three cases: the Gulf Crisis, the Cambodian peace process and the promotion of the human security policy. The key argument is that there is a need for a new IR theory-based approach that could explain foreign or security policy decision-making process and could also provide the analysis at both the domestic and the international level simultaneously. This research therefore adopts Wendt's Constructivism, along with the use of 'identity' as the key analytical platform, from which the 'recursive Constructivist model' is developed. Unlike popular literature, this research suggests that 'identity transformation' and the level of conformity between the identities projected internationally (international -role identities) and those embraced domestically (domestic-type identities) are the key factors determining Japan's foreign and security policy preferences. On the interpretation of Japan's post-Cold War security development, this research argues that it could be understood via the UN framework, and not only from the traditional perspective of the Japan-US alliance. Apart from the fact that it could be understood via the process of 'identity transformation', this research provides strong evidence and suggestions that Japan's assertive foreign and security pursuits in the post-Cold War era are the result of the nation's changing sets of ideas and beliefs on the link between 'national' and 'international' security. The original contributions of this research are two-fold. The theoretical contribution is a modification of Wendt's original framework of identity transformation into the so-called 'recursive process of identity transformation. ' The application of 'identity' and the 'recursive Constructivist model' to Japan's UN security policy in this research is significant because it is the first example among research in the field of Japanese studies to use a different analytical framework and tool in examining Japan's foreign and security policy. The model's ability to capture the intertwined process of social interactions at both the domestic and the international level is also important as it contributes to further IR theoretical development and a better understanding on Japan's foreign policy decision-making process. Also, the value-added benefit of the examination of human security policy is another vital substantive contribution, as this is the first exploration of this issue within the context of Japan's UN security policy.

This thesis is composed by three essays and applies econometric methods to analyse different economic research questions. The first essay (chapter 1) studies the effect of Turkish public television on the voting behaviour of people in the early years of television broadcasting in Turkey. The second essay (chapter 2) analyses the intergovernmental grant allocation in Turkey to shed light discussion whether political motivations play role while central government transfers money to municipalities. The third essay (chapter 3) investigates the phenomenon of flypaper effect and its relation to the local tax effort, by using a new panel data set which consists of all province and district municipalities in Turkey. The first essay estimates the effect of television broadcasting on the vote shares of main political parties and voter turnout in 1970s. We particularly focus on main left wing party (Republican Peoples’ Party, RPP) and right wing party (Justice Party, JP) in 1969 and 1977 elections. Our main hypothesis is that television news content was biased in favour of the incumbent party in government due to the law which allows government to appoint general-director of the Turkish State Television Company (TRT). Hence Left ideological director-generals were appointed to the Turkish State Television Company in the first years of broadcasting. As a result of this, a left wing party, RPP, enjoyed this fact by increasing their vote shares in the elections in 1977; however the main right-wing party, JP, witnessed the vote shares to decrease in the same elections. Therefore we find that television reception influences the voting behaviour of the citizens. An estimation result also shows that voter turnout decreases with the introduction of television. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first one which explores this fact and use very detailed election data in Turkey. The second essay (chapter 2) is related to the public finance literature which studies the transfers of intergovernmental grants from central government to municipalities. In Turkey, intergovernmental grants are transferred to the municipalities based on per capita rule only. This chapter explores whether there was a political motivation of revenue sharing system in Turkey using unique and new dataset. We employ Regression-Discontinuity Design to test this argument to get rid of possible endogeneity between grants and vote shares. We find that politically aligned municipalities to the party in central government enjoy about extra 7 Turkish Liras per capita in grants on average. This effect is stronger in municipalities where the elections were more competitive, i.e. the margin between vote shares of two main parties was very low. Moreover, we do find no evidence of alignment effect on municipal revenues and expenditures. In the third chapter, we investigate the phenomenon of flypaper effect by using a panel data set that consist of all province and district municipalities between 1997 and 2005 in Turkey. We benefit from dynamic panel data specific Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) estimator to identify flypaper effect. Estimation results show that the flypaper does exist for the Turkish municipalities. This result is controlled by various econometric specifications where we consider endogeneity between fiscal variables. Coefficient estimates also reveal that Turkish municipalities experience substitution effect of unconditional grants on the revenue collection efforts of localities which means that grants substitute local revenues causing lesser local tax effort.

Since 1949 China has been politically divided into two: the People's Republic (PRC) on the mainland, and the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan, the offshore islands of Quemoy and Matsu, and the Pescadores. Each regime claims to be the sole legitimate government of the whole of China, and this continuing struggle has posed for both of them serious problems of international recognition as well as of domestic political legitimacy. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the evolution of the foreign policy strategies of the ROC in coping with this national crisis. It is a historical account of the foreign policies and external relations of the ROC between 1949 and the end of 1979. Chapter One reviews the historical background to the division of China in 1949 and which led to the survival crisis of the ROC. Chapter Two describes the state ideology of the ROC and its place in the ROC's foreign policy formulation. Chapter Three, dealing with the strategy of military counterattack, dating from the end of 1949 until the end of 1958, describes the ROC's dependence upon the United States. Chapter Four, dealing with the strategy of political counterattack, dating from the end of 1958 until October 1971, discusses the ROC's other foreign policy options, such as the Russian option, and the ROC's efforts to achieve close relations with neighbouring countries. Chapter Five focuses on the ROC's agricultural assistance programme directed towards the newly independent countries in Africa, from 1960 to October 1971. Chapter Six analyzes the ROC's post-UN foreign policy strategy of economics- and trade- first diplomacy, from October 1971 until the end of 1979. Finally, a conclusion will be presented which summarizes the evolution of the ROC's post-1949 foreign policy strategies for the purpose of national survival. It also pays particular attention to some of the reasons for the limited success of these strategies.

This thesis engages in a sympathetic critique of the critical (dialogical) dimension of cosmopolitan democracy and its idealisation of a specific form of global civil society (GCS) to contest the exclusionary practices of contemporary global governance. Drawing upon the work of Jürgen Habermas, the critical approach assumes civil society as a communicative (local) vehicle that draws from the lifeworld, to steer the systemic neoliberal modes of global governance. The thesis in contrast, describes a scenario resulting in the reversal of this logic; global neoliberal modes of rationality can actually colonise the communicative spaces of (local) civil society. To highlight this claim, a specific neoliberal global democratic project is examined to reveal two new roles for global civil society; professional service providers, and democratic watchdogs. These roles re-inscribe a new identity for civil society akin to the neoliberal form of systemic rationality. An empirical case study of these roles within Cambodian civil society is then undertaken to demonstrate how endogenous communicative spaces can be marginalised through exogenous neoliberal interventions. The thesis suggests that the critical cosmopolitan democratic project must reject its de-contextualised communicative assumptions of global civil society in order to retain its inclusionary ideal.

This is a case study of two mainstream primary schools in one city in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in order to investigate the educational provision for students with SpLD. The aim of the study was to identify the provision for students with SpLD with the aim to contribute to policy development with regard to special educational needs (SEN). Nineteen participants were selected using purposive sampling, comprising regular and SEN teachers, parents, students with SpLD and one officer from the Ministry of Education (MoE). Data was collected through interviews, observation and document analysis. The emerging themes from the data were coded and analysed with the use of constructivist approach together with Frith (1995) as a theoretical framework. The data from this study suggested that although the Saudi Government has initiated programmes for the support of students with SpLD, these programmes were only used in a few selected schools and could only cater for limited number of students with SpLD. The study further suggested that students with SpLD were marginalised due to other factors such as negative attitudes towards including them in the mainstream classrooms.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Adult Interactive Style Intervention (AISI) for facilitating spontaneous communication by five children aged 5 to 7 with an autism spectrum diagnosis, in an autism-specialist school in Saudi Arabia. The study drew upon the transactional model of child development (Wetherby and Prizant, 2000) and the social model of disability (Rieser and Mason, 1990; Tregaskis, 2002), as well as the concept of intersubjectivity theory. During a six-month action research process, the researcher and staff designed, implemented and measured the results of the AISI intervention on the children’s frequency of initiating spontaneous communication and the functions and methods of their spontaneous communication bids. The staff’s ability to change their interactive communication style was also investigated. Discussions between participants (staff) and the researcher began the study, and existing educational practice was videotaped and coded for pre-intervention use of AISI principles and children’s attempts at spontaneous communication. This was followed by an intervention during which staff were trained to use AISI principles. Post-training educational practice was videotaped and coded for use of AISI principles and children’s attempts at spontaneous communication during three school activities (1:1 work, breakfast and unstructured free play). Post-intervention, staff were again interviewed about their experiences. The research produced both qualitative and quantitative data, and resulted in a case study. Interview results were thematically analysed; quantitative data was analysed for significant change as indicated by Cohen’s d effect size. Staff increased their use of AISI principles after the training intervention, and these changes significantly impacted children’s spontaneous communication. This research indicates that AISI can be effective with older children from a non-English-speaking background.