This study is a multivalent investigation of Scandinavian identity formation and cultural structures within the north Atlantic that looks specifically at the construction and maintenance of island identities circa AD800-1250. This not only includes consideration of the Norse settlers but also the effects of contact between the emerging island cultural identities and continental Europe. In order to do this zones of settlement have been defined to better compare the expansion of medieval Scandinavian populations in terms of microscale practices and interactions within family groups and the macroscale vectors of social, economic and political change. It employs a wide variety of material that makes use of aspects of both prehistoric and historic sources. The variety of enabling conditions ultimately provided for a time the circumstances necessary for the long-term success of a number of the settlements established during this period. The evidence is considered in as subjective manner as possible with the sources available also reflecting the conditions of initial region excavation and publication.

This thesis is a qualitative and interpretive exploration of continuity and change in the role of executive agencies in UK central government. Its three objectives are: (i) to test the longevity of the semi-autonomous agency model first introduced by Conservative governments after 1988; (ii) to explore the department-agency task division in the policymaking processes supposedly fragmented by this ‘agencification’; and (iii) to evaluate the paradigmatic testament of contemporary agency policy and practice in Whitehall. The thesis builds from an extended case study conducted during the 2010 Coalition Government in the Ministry of Justice and three of its agencies – the National Offender Management Service, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, and the Office of the Public Guardian. Social constructivist meta-theory and the application of narrative and discourse analysis together make for an account of interpretive transformation that is theorised by discursive institutionalism. Substantively, the thesis first describes an asymmetric departure from the ‘accountable management’ philosophy which the 1988 Next Steps agency programme originally epitomised. Agency meaning is multivocal, but contemporarily converges towards accountability and transparent corporate governance, rather than managerial empowerment, de-politicisation and decentralisation. Secondly, institutional preservation of the policy-delivery work dichotomy is registered, yet found to be a poor descriptor of both historic and contemporary policy processes. Agency staff act as policy initiators and collaborators, contrary to Next Steps’ quasi-contractual, principal-agent logic, and further evidencing the departmentalisation of the once arm’s-length agency model. Thirdly, and paradigmatically, while no unidirectional trend is found, the thesis adds to the growing literature positing some departure from the former ideological and practical predominance of ‘new public management’. In so doing, it also demonstrates the challenges faced by large-N population ecology and administrative systems analysis – the favoured methodology in much international agencification scholarship – in accounting for continuity and change in policy, practice and paradigm.

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In the early 1990s, Spain faced the risk of losing the market for low-cost manufacturing outputs to Eastern Europe, and the threat of losing control of its complex service sectors to more sophisticated competitors from Western Europe. Most industries had few alternatives other than to upgrade. By the late-2000s, Spanish firms in complex services like Banking and Telecommunications were amongst the most efficient, profitable, and sustainable in the world but most manufacturing sectors had not achieved a comparable outcome. My thesis explains these changes in the Spanish productive structure through an analysis of the institutional structure beneath them. I argue that upgrading in Spain’s complex services was enabled by Peer Coordination (PC), a non-hierarchical variant of relational coordination based on the presence of public-private interdependencies and direct business-state interactions. Under PC, firms in complex services contributed to the fulfilment of public policy objectives in exchange for sector-specific advantages. PC enabled firms in these sectors to undertake significant restructuration that enabled them to reach the efficiency frontier in their industry. Liberalisation did not unravel PC in Banking and Telecommunications because national-level interdependences remained a structural feature of the two sectors. By contrast, PC imposed constraints on capital and skill intensive manufacturing sectors that required patient capital and stable demand to develop new complex products. Firms in these types of sectors found it difficult to secure capital and stable demand on their own, and the state had limited capacity to articulate top-down industrial strategies that could facilitate access to such resources. As a result, firms in capital and skill intensive sectors struggled to upgrade. In exceptional cases, regional institutional structures, based on forms of coordination other than PC, were able to provide support for these underserved sectors. In this regard, regional institutions complemented the national ecosystem and contributed to upgrading.

Les herpétofaunes du Maastrichtien du Bassin de Hateg (Roumanie) et du Paléocène Moyen du Bassin de Mons (Belgique) ont été analysées dans le but d’étudier l’influence de la crise Crétacé/Paléogène sur ces faunes en Europe et de contribuer à élucider leur origine biogéographique. Pour ce faire, nous disposions de 228, 56 et 19 spécimens provenant respectivement des gisements roumains de Pui-Islaz, Totesti-baraj et Nãlat-Vad ainsi que de 1054 spécimens provenant du puits de Hainin. Les herpétofaunes du Bassin de Hateg se composent d’au moins un allocaudate albanerpetontidé du genre Albanerpeton, de deux anoures discoglossidés, de deux lacertiliens paramacellodidés ainsi que du premier vrai téiidé identifié jusqu’au niveau spécifique en Europe et d’un serpent madtsoiidé. Les herpétofaunes du Bassin de Mons nous indiquent quant à elles que les caudates sont représentés par 3 nouvelles espèces de salamandridés, les anoures par un nouveau genre de discoglossidé ainsi que par une nouvelle espèce de palaeobatrachidé. La présence des lacertiliens est attestée par 2 nouveaux genres de scincoïdes ainsi que par 6 autres scincomorphes indéterminés, par un nouveau genre d’amphisbène et peut-être également par un anguidé apode. Les serpents sont quant à eux représentés par le plus ancien boidé d’Europe ainsi que par le plus ancien scolécophidien découvert jusqu’ici. Ces données paléontologiques ainsi que les données lithologiques des deux localités analysées, indiquent que le climat était tempéré chaud et humide avec des étendues d’eaux stagnantes. Ce travail permet également de conclure que la crise Crétacé/Paléogène n’a pas influencé les faunes européennes de manière dramatique. Seuls les allocaudates albanerpetontidés, les lacertiliens polyglyphanodontinés et les serpents madtsoiidés disparaissent après la crise tandis que les caudates salamandridés et batrachosauroididés, les anoures discoglossidés et palaeobatrachidés, et les lacertiliens scincoïdes et amphisbènes, ne semblent pas avoir été affectés par cette crise en Europe. Par ailleurs, les herpétofaunes du Maastrichtien européen ont subi une influence nord-américaine suite à une migration ayant eu lieu durant le Crétacé Supérieur. Une vague de migration se serait également produite au Paléocène Supérieur, entre le MP1-5 et le MP6, et une autre au début de l’Eocène correspondant à celle déjà mise en évidence pour les mammifères. Cette dernière vague serait responsable de l’arrivée de nombreuses familles modernes de lacertiliens tels les agamidae, geckonidae, varanidés, helodermatidés et lacertidés.

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The development of EU cultural policy has been characterised by a high degree of continuity. The objectives underlying present-day policy actions can be traced back to historical roots that date back to the mid-1970s. Since the first cultural actions were taken, EU cultural policy has had multiple objectives. Involvement in the cultural field has been justified on the basis of economic, social, political and, to a certain extent, cultural arguments. Although there have been shifts in accents and priorities, these various justifications can be found to co-exist throughout the process. In more recent times, the contribution of cultural actions to the emergence of European citizenship has emerged as a more dominant theme. Although peaks in expansion can be seen, Community involvement in the cultural field has overall developed through a slow process of developments and adjustments through relatively small-scale actions. As the Member States have retained much of their control over this area, policy development has been restricted to a limited range of actions for which only a narrow budget has been available. Given the dominance of the subsidiarity principle in all Community actions in the cultural field, the main policy mode has by necessity been one of consensus-seeking between actors with at times conflicting interests. However, over time the main priorities of all actors have become more or less aligned, so that the continuity of policy appears to be safeguarded. Recent developments suggest that culture has gradually come to take up a more prominent role within EU policies. However, consensus will continue to dominate the general approach as far as the development of Community actions is concerned.

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