The fertility transition in nineteenth century Europe is one of economic history’s greatest puzzles. There is no consensus in the literature on the causes of this ‘fertility revolution’. Following a critical review of the empirical and theoretical literature, this thesis re-examines the economic correlates of the fertility decline through the analysis of two new datasets from England and France. For the first time, the relationship between wealth and fertility can be studied over the period of the fertility transition. Clear patterns are discovered, namely a strong positive relationship pre-transition which switches to a strongly negative relationship during the onset of the transition. Family limitation is initiated by the richest segments of society. I then introduce a simple model which links fertility and social mobility to levels of economic inequality. I argue that parents are motivated by relative status concerns and the fertility transition is a response to changes in the environment for social mobility, where increased mobility becomes obtainable through fertility limitation. This hypothesis is tested with the new micro data in England and France. Fertility decline is strongly associated with decreased levels of inequality and increased levels of social mobility. The analysis finds strong support for the role of changes in inequality and the environment for social mobility as central factors in our understandings of Europe’s fertility transition.

This thesis explores young women's relationship with feminism, contributing to an enhanced understanding of feminist dis-identification. Feminist research offers various explanations for young women's repudiation of feminism; this study adds a further dimension to current debates by adopting a performative approach which explores how difference, and particularly sexuality, mediates young women's responses to feminism. Employing and developing the broader theoretical frameworks of postfeminism, individualisation, neoliberalism, and difference, this thesis intervenes in current debates by highlighting the role of heteronormativity in negotiations of feminism. The study is based on forty, semi-structured qualitative in-depth interviews with a diverse group of German and British women, aged 18-35. A discursive analysis of the interviews provides an insight into young women's talk, thoughts, and feelings about feminism. Exemplifying a postfeminist logic, two broad patterns were discernable in the research participants' talk: feminism was either considered as valuable, but anachronistic and therefore irrelevant to the present, or fiercely repudiated as extreme and dogmatic. While most research participants reported they would not call themselves a feminist, their stance towards feminism shifted depending on the cultural resources they drew on to discuss feminist politics. Reflecting the broader cultural currents of neoliberalism and individualisation, the respondents frequently rejected the need for a collective movement by positioning themselves as individuals who were capable of negotiating structural constraints autonomously. The research participants were aware of persistent gender inequalities, but located them predominantly in the public sphere and/or 'other' parts of the world, claiming they had not personally experienced gender discrimination. Feminists were overwhelmingly portrayed and constructed as unfeminine, man-hating, and lesbian. Although the respondents could not name any concrete examples of feminists who corresponded to this stereotype, the construction of 'the feminist' haunted their accounts. As the performative approach illustrates, discussions of feminism gave rise to complex negotiations and performative citations of normative femininity. Performances of femininity were racialized and classed, intersecting with feminist dis-identification in multiple ways. The perception of feminism as inclusive or exclusive figured as an important theme in the interviews. This thesis adds to our understanding of feminist dis-identification by employing various theoretical tools, drawing on empirical accounts, and by revealing the structuring role of heteronormativity in negotiations of feminism.

Over the last twenty years, the analysis of social networks has become an increasingly significant tool for sociologists, anthropologists and historians alike. Network analysis has not yet, however, been adopted extensively by historians of ducal Normandy or the Anglo-Norman realm. Although there has been some useful work on specific families or political groups, these have tended to artificially isolate networks from one another and from their broader social milieux. It has become clear that these problems can only be addressed by both inter and intra network analysis over a broader time frame, and that those networks themselves must also be conceived in broad terms. This thesis therefore considers three aristocratic kin-groups of significant contemporary and subsequent importance; the Clares, Giffards, and Tosnys, and includes both their cadet branches and their in-laws. All three groups are examined in terms of their kinship structures, their roles as lords and vassals, and their relationships to the church. While much of the material is Anglo-Norman, the chronological range extends from c.940 to c.1200. The aim has been to produce a fuller picture of how all three great family enterprises were constituted, developed, interacted with one another and were embedded within society, and to acknowledge that no man, and indeed, no kin-group, is an island entire of itself.

This thesis consists of three papers that explore variation in individual fertility and fertility preference. The setting for all three papers is the contemporary UK, though the conclusions have utility for a general understanding of human fertility. All three papers are motivated by theories arising from evolutionary biology, principally inclusive fitness theory and life history theory. The first two papers investigate actualised fertility and whether patterns of fertility in contemporary Britain are consistent with inclusive fitness theory. Both papers conduct secondary data analysis of the British Household Panel Study. Inclusive fitness theory predicts that because relatives share genes an individual may obtain fitness benefits by increasing the reproduction of a relative. Results support this hypothesis showing that for contemporary British women kin having more opportunities to influence reproductive decision-making is associated with pro-fitness fertility outcomes. In the first paper I find kin accelerate the transition to first birth, and the second paper shows kin also accelerate the transition to second birth. The final paper tests a different hypothesis derived from evolutionary theory. Life history theory predicts that reproductive strategy should have ‘plasticity’ and be liable to alter as perceived environmental risk changes. This paper uses primary data collected from University students using an internet experiment and finds that priming respondents using preceding questions on mortality does alter reported fertility preferences, though the effects depend upon the priming, fertility preference measure and the sex of the respondent. The paper also has methodological relevance as it demonstrates the potential for ‘context effects’ from preceding questions to influence the reporting of fertility preferences. All three papers present evidence that the incorporation of theories from evolutionary biology have utility in the understanding of contemporary fertility patterns and processes.

This study explores the `gendered' process of international migration in Asia. It proposes that gender is one of the principal analytical factors for theoretical conceptualisation in the study of international migration. The study examines the case of Korea, which has been transformed into one of the major labour receiving countries in Asia since the early 1990s, but which has received less attention in the English literature on migration. The aim of the study is to examine the process of international migration in the historical, social and political contexts of Korea, by way of the integration of theoretical analyses with a critical gendered lens. A theoretical framework for this study is based on the observation that theorising the multifaceted process of international migration - which takes place with various interrelated variables - requires multidisciplinary and multidimensional approaches. The study therefore analyses the social formation of the `gendered' process of international migration by looking closely at the three different migratory stages of women migrants: the migratory journey; employment; and settlement in the country of destination. The primary empirical data used in the study were collected during a six-month period of field research - between April and September 2005. Qualitative data were derived from in-depth interviews with 31 migrant women, as well as employers, government officials and NGO workers. Based on a feminist standpoint of the outsider-within, the study locates the lives of migrant women from the margin to centre of the analysis. The empirical study shows that migrant women are `outsiders' who exist `within' the very core of international migration system in which they are, nevertheless, marginalised and silenced. The study suggests that the ostensibly gender-neutral process of migration is gender specific, resulting in different migration experiences between women and men. Gendered and racialised social relationships of power are pervasive in the structure of international migration and state institutions. At the same time, the differently `sedimented' practices of women and men - who strategically draw on institutional rules and resources to facilitate migration - become institutionalised in a gendered way. This, in turn, influences the gendered process of international migration that is reproduced and transformed over time.

This study provides a case study of women’s political representation in the National Parliament of Pakistan, where a particular form of the quota approach has been adapted in a highly gendered political context. By examining the experiences of Pakistani women parliamentarians, this thesis contributes to key academic literature on gender quotas and political representation that has received a considerable attention from feminist scholars. The aim of this thesis is to explore the extent to which women’s formal representation is translated into substantive change for women. This is an empirical case study, primarily based on qualitative analyses of face-to-face in-depth semi-structured interviews of 20 women parliamentarians (out of 76) and proceedings of the parliament of the last three years (2008-11). By adapting Anne Phillips’s (1995) The Politics of Presence in entirely new and novel way, one of the major contributions this study claims to make to the theoretical literature is to analytically examine the effects of quotas from various aspects of political representation: descriptive, substantive and symbolic representation and from a broader perspectives than has hitherto been seen. It also addresses a major gap in the literature on the reasons why some quota women act more often than others in legislatures, and what factors contribute to the silence and suppression of Pakistani women leaders. It is argued that women’s presence in the political spheres is important, but that it is vital to take the particular context into account when judging whether women can and do act for women. This thesis shows that representation depends on various factors which can positively or negatively contribute towards substantive change. It also demonstrates that quotas may challenge existing gender dynamics and have various effects on women’s representation within and outside parliament. However, some gender and human rights issues may be difficult to tackle, especially those challenging the powerful feudal and tribal political elite (mainly men).

Islamic practices have led to exhaustive debate in academia ranging from the traditional battlefield of gender related issues to the relatively new decisiveness surrounding the war on terror. In most of the debates regarding Islam, when one legitimises or delegitimises his/her stance, the divine is invoked as the main point of reference. The divine thus turns into the source of vice and virtue simultaneously through these competing opinions. In this game of "authenticity", we often ignore the aspect that, in our religious zealousness, the divine itself is victimised. This is because, while referring to the divine as the main architect of our opinions, we sideline those non-divine factors in the process of constructing "authenticities" which help shape our reading of the divine. The divine is simply a part of our constructed "authenticity" but not its exclusive constituent. We need to realise that the divine is not read in a vacuum and by those who do not have materiality; its readings are always carried out by those who are a product of their own circumstances and their understandings are routed through their particular contexts. The present study is an effort to analyse those non-divine factors which help shape our reading of the divine, and are not any less important in the process of constructing "authenticity" than the divine with reference to the gender discourse of Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan. This study proposes that there is always a need to maintain a gap between our understanding of the divine and "the divine"; because of the fact that the former is constructed, while the latter believed by Muslims as eternal, hence immutable. In addition to carrying out problematization of "authenticity" of the JI discourse, the study underscores the fact that problematization ought to be an integral part of our exercise of ascertainment of "authenticity" so that we may maintain the gap referred to above.

How best to approach the successful rehabilitation of sexual offenders remains a very complex and highly debated issue. This is particularly the case for sexual offenders with learning disabilities. Although research findings have supported the efficacy of sexual offender treatment programmes in reducing recidivism, it is important to note that not all sexual offenders successfully engage in treatment and achieve positive change. Models of sexual offender rehabilitation rooted in positive and humanistic psychology view the development of self-worth as having a vital role in engaging sexual offenders in the difficult process of changing their lives. The following thesis aimed to extend on all of these ideas, as summarised below. Chapter 1 details a meta-analytic review on self-esteem in sexual offending. The paper offers strong support for the notion that sexual offenders are characterised by low self-esteem. It recommends that developing sexual offenders' sense of self-worth should form a vital component of sexual offender rehabilitation programmes. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of viewing sexual offenders as a heterogeneous group and encourages services to work flexibly with this complex population in order to meet their individual therapeutic needs. Chapter 2 details a qualitative research study that explored the experiences of six sexual offenders with learning disabilities of a group rehabilitation programme. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, it provides an in-depth and nuanced account of the subjective impact of the group. Recommendations are made for clinical practice, including the importance of considering group processes in sexual offender rehabilitation. Issues surrounding shame and identity are also discussed. Chapter 3 provides a reflective account of engaging sexual offenders with learning disabilities in qualitative research. It addresses the importance of subjectivity and how the researchers' position may have impacted on the research process.

This practice as research contributes a ‘queer-place dramaturgy’ to knowledge about playwriting by creating an intersection of writing queer site specific performance and conventional dramatic theatre practice. It follows the recent shift of focus from queer theorizing of sexuality as a constructed identity, to thinking about what queer use of time and space might be. This shift proposes queerness that is detached, but not completely separated from, sexual identity. This shift also produces a range of kinds of queerness that can be described as odd, imaginative, strange, eccentric, dangerous, threatening wonder-full and abject. I use key works by Sara Ahmed, Jon Binnie, Judith Butler, Michael Foucault and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick to theoretically contextualise these kinds of queer times and places. I materially investigate the theory that there is such a thing as queer time and place through an exercise of writing on a public bench for a prolonged period of time, called the ‘civic couch’ exercise. I found that this small resistance to the apparently politically neutral temporal use of a place could (re) author ‘me’ as queer beyond sexual identity. It also began to (re) author ‘identity’ itself, so that ‘I’ became more and more identified by where I was. This led to a queer practice of co-writing self and place with each time and place. When that text was dramatized the audience were invited to co-author each local place through the play and outside after the performance. This series investigates, through a spiraling structure of research the relationship between direct resistance to homophobia and heterosexism through representation of queer lives, bodies, times and places and an indirect formal resistance to a (hetero) normative construction of ‘reality’. Asking finally the question: How queer can queer writing for conventional theatre practice be in the UK today? This project aimed to bring queer theory into practical contact with playwriting to see what it could change in the form of dramatic theatre. I found that I could (re) shape and guide dramaturgical principles but not fundamentally change or break them. I define what ‘dramaturgical principles’ are in relation to the critical work of Sue-Ellen Case, Elin Diamond, Peggy Phelan and José Esteban Muñoz and argue that ancient concepts of ‘dramaturgical principles’ continue to circulate in postmodern, queer and feminist theorizing about form in theatre and performance. I propose that the lineage of queer writing for theatre maps a negotiation between challenging form and content, which changes significantly from the early twentieth century (and the work of Gertrude Stein and Lillian Hellman) to the emergence of the gay liberation movement in the late 1960s, (and the work of Gay Sweatshop, 1974 -1997), to Performance Art, Live Art and mainstream theatre in the 1990s (and work by Mark Ravenhill, Sarah Kane and Split Britches). I also contextualize this research as practice with contemporary site-specific performance interventions into (hetero) normative uses of public, outdoor places, particularly through the public bench.

This is a study of social and legal change among the Kuria people of Tanzania. It examines the transformation of the Kuria ideas and practices concerning marriage, children and property rights. The study covers a period following the colonial rule in Tanzania beginning about the turn of this century to the present. The aim of the study is to show the relationship between the integration of the Kuria economy into a world economic system and the transformation of extant social relations. Although we recognise that social change is an unceasing process in any society, this study argues that forces associated with capitalist penetration accelerated this process. Thus, for example, the authority and power of the elders who had for many generations dominated the Kuria society was undermined. There was radical transformation of kinship and property relations and elders were no longer influential in matters relating to production. There was progressive individualisation of property rights as sUbsistence production was transformed to serve the needs of the capitalist sector. The role of the law and state is also discussed. We argue that both the colonial and the post-colonial states were instrumental in this process of change even if some of their policies appear to have been aimed at conserving certain forms of traditional relations. Within this context of change the responses of the Kuria people to economic change is examined. The study argues that rather than being passive objects of capitalist penetration the Kuria tried to influence events even though their options were highly circumscribed. For the elders change represented an opportunity to utilise their traditional positions to secure resources from the non-traditional economic sector while for the younger generation and the women, change· opened up the means for them to extricate themselves from relations of subordination.