The notion of empowerment has become a Western ‘buzzword’ within the development lexicon over recent decades, especially in relation to improving the socioeconomic and political status of women in the developing world. By exploring narratives of Cañari indigenous women in the Ecuadorian Andes, this thesis considers the meaning of empowerment, as evolved and theorised by the West, in relation to an indigenous context. It employs an exploratory, interpretevist and phenomenological approach to understanding the everyday lived experience of individuals and how they engage with the world around them. It seeks to understand the processes that indigenous women might go through in order to become empowered, considers any potential factors that might influence processes of empowerment for indigenous women, in addition to observing the possible outcomes of empowerment in both their individual lives and for the wider community. It draws attention to the idea of collective empowerment, or power with, as a dominant feature of empowerment in Cañari women’s lives, reflecting the significance of both the family and community in indigenous culture. Focusing on the individualism that pervades Western notions of empowerment does not always fit the meaning of empowerment in non-Western societies. This thesis seeks to demonstrate how.

British imperial culture and indigenous patriarchy both work to subjugate women. There is very little room for resistance. Madness as protest is a dominant theme in Victorian literature as well as late twentieth-century postcolonial writing by women. This thesis refashions our understanding of the madwoman trope by investigating writers’ use of it to capture the diverse experiences of ‘other’ madwomen. Instead of a strictly Eurocentric approach to female protagonists’ experiences of madness, the thesis places British imperial literary culture in the nineteenth century alongside postcolonial writing by women, whether in the Caribbean (Dominica), South Asia (India) or the Middle East and North Africa (Jordan and Egypt). Jeans Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt and Miral Al-Tahawy’s The Tent are placed alongside Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. A transnational approach is necessary to establish commonality between Eastern and Western women’s literary experiences of madness. Such commonality persistently emerges, once one is alert to its possibility, despite the often obvious differences between literary madwomen’s experiences in a transnational frame. The relationship between madness and empire, madness and patriarchy, and madwomen as agents of resistance is exemplified throughout the thesis by closely analysing each literary text.

This thesis examines the effect of parental marital status and family form on experiences of childhood in twentieth century Scotland, c. 1920 to 1970. During the twenty-first century there has been increasing scrutiny placed of the family in response to a perceived increase in family breakdown since the 1990s. However, existing research has shown that the family has a rich and diverse history and that Scotland in particular has a strong cultural tradition of varying family forms. As such, this thesis examines the experience of childhood in nuclear families, ‘broken’ families, lone parent families, and stepfamilies in a historical context. In doing so, this thesis reveals the meanings of family for both society and individuals during the period of review, problematises the nuclear ideal and the experience of life in the nuclear family, and questions the boundaries of family as it is both lived and understood. This analysis is based on the personal testimonies, both oral history and the memoir, of those who experienced childhood in Scotland between 1920 and 1970, coupled with extensive archival sources including the records of organisations such as the Royal Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and mother and baby homes in central Scotland. The first chapter of this thesis introduces the location of study with an essential overview of the distinct aspect of Scotland’s housing, education and welfare structures throughout the twentieth century. Discussion of these environmental circumstances and contexts of childhood is crucial to framing the following analysis of remembered experiences of childhood. This framework is then followed by the first of four analysis chapters, the first of which examines the nuclear family. This formative chapter is shaped by the original oral histories carried out for this research. Interviewee testimonies revealed the importance of housing, community, parental and intrafamilial relationships on the experience of childhood. Recurring themes of alcohol abuse, poverty, and family dysfunction were all revealed as influential in the shaping of memories and narratives of childhood. Building on the themes in chapter two, the first analytic chapter, the third chapter focuses on the transitionary phase of the ‘breaking’ of the family and looks at the impact of parental separation, death, and divorce on experiences of childhood. In doing so, this chapter also includes an experience of childhood outwith the family and examines institutional childhood. In focusing on the ‘breaking’ of the family, this chapter highlights the transient nature of this process and highlights the importance of the coping mechanisms and survival strategies adopted by families during this period. Following this, chapters four and five each examine a subsequent family form, namely the lone parent family and the stepfamily. The examination of childhood within a lone parent family brings a gendered focus to the analysis with a concentration on the impact of lone motherhood on experiences of childhood. Whilst the themes from the previous chapters recur here, the impact of external support networks and the influence of the welfare state are explicitly interrogated for the first time, as well as the continued influence on external institutions and agencies in the shaping of family. Finally, analysis concludes with a consideration of life within a stepfamily. In doing so the chapters of the thesis echo the potential path of the family, from nuclear through to broken and lone parent, to stepfamily. This final chapter questions the ‘return to normality’ of the stepfamily and contrasts the experience of stepfamily life with that of the nuclear, further questioning the idealisation of this ‘traditional model’. Discussions of stepfamily life build on the role of emotions in experiences and definitions of family as well as including a discussion of the changing conceptions of child abuse. Throughout both final chapters the individual complexity of family life and experience is examined.

This thesis examines the social history of female urban prostitution in the final years of the Russian empire (1900-1917). During this period, the tsarist authorities legally tolerated prostitution under a system named regulation (reglemantatsiia) or the medical-police supervision of prostitution (vrachebno-politseiskii nadzor za prostitutsiei). The stated aim of regulation was to reduce levels of venereal disease, yet in practice the system functioned rather to control the movement and settlement of prostitutes by making them known to the authorities. This thesis focuses on the different groups that the rules of regulation directly affected, including prostitutes, their clients, their managers, and wider urban communities. It examines specific urban spaces, the state-licensed brothel, and the lives of registered prostitutes and their clients. This approach allows an exploration of how the system operated in practice and how the regulation of prostitution fitted within wider attempts by the imperial state to monitor lower-class people. In doing so, this thesis contributes to the growing literature on sexuality, on the intersections of gender and class, and on the experiences of lower-class people in late imperial Russia. To illuminate the diversity of both state practice and social experience, this thesis draws on a wide range of correspondence from ‘above’ and ‘below’, including letters between central and provincial government institutions and petitions written by lower-class people to those in authority. This research moves away from focusing solely on the capital of St Petersburg to examine how the regulation of prostitution functioned at a local level, drawing on archival material from Arkhangel’sk, Riga, and Tartu. It argues that responses to the regulation system were rooted in the specific social, environmental and economic circumstances of a particular place and strongly influenced by the socio-economic transformations of the final decades of tsarist rule. In light of this, the thesis maps official and unofficial reactions to regulation onto the shifting social and economic landscape of modernising Russia. It explores how early twentieth-century urbanisation, industrialisation and transportation developments posed further challenges to the ambitions of the tsarist authorities to ‘know’ and monitor all the women who sold sex.

Background In 2014, 27.0% of births in England and Wales were to mothers born outside of the UK. Compared to their white British peers, minority ethnic and migrant women are at a significantly higher risk of maternal and perinatal mortality, along with lower maternity care satisfaction. Although existing literature highlights the importance of midwife-woman relationships in care satisfaction and pregnancy outcomes health professionals report difficulty in providing services to minority ethnic and migrant women. However little research has explored the factors contributing to the midwife-woman relationship for migrant and minority ethnic women. Research Aims To explore relationships between migrant Pakistani women and midwives in South Wales; focusing on the factors contributing to these relationships, and the ways in which these factors might affect women’s experiences of care. Method A focused ethnography in South Wales; semi-structured interviews with 10 migrant Pakistani participants (eight pregnant women, one husband and one mother) and 11 practising midwives, fieldwork in the local migrant Pakistani community and local maternity services, observations of antenatal booking appointments, and longitudinal reviewing of relevant media outputs, such as UK news reports of issues relating to migrant people. Data were analysed concurrently with collection using thematic analysis. Findings The midwife-woman relationship was important for participants’ experiences of care. A number of social and ecological factors influenced this relationship; including family relationships, culture and religion, differing healthcare systems, authoritative knowledge, and communication of information. However, differences were seen between midwives and women in the perceived importance of these themes. Findings therefore suggest that in order to understand how midwife-woman relationships are created and maintained, more needs to be done to recognise and address these differences. Due to the complexity of the relationships between themes a social ecological model of relationships is forwarded as a means of visually capturing the complexity of the findings, as well as potentially shaping midwifery education and clinical midwifery practices. Conclusions and Implications Findings from this study provide new theoretical insights into the complex social and ecological factors at play during maternity care for migrant Pakistani women. These findings can therefore be used to create meaningful dialogue between women and midwives, encourage collaborative learning and knowledge production, and facilitate future midwifery education and research.

This professional doctorate in psychoanalytic psychotherapy considers the role of psychoanalytic thinking in contemporary child protection social work particularly in relation to communication with adult clients . The dual mandate of social workers to care and control creates conflict in the role which is well recognised. Less well understood is how such conflict affects communication between social workers and clients in subtle and often unconscious ways. This study uses psychoanalytically informed observations and interviews to investigate an area of defensiveness which may be evident in the ‘micro-process’ of conversations where difficult matters are being discussed. The study asks whether identifiable ‘moments of avoidance’ occur during these conversations at points of heightened tension between care and control. Results suggest that despite good communication skills, there is evidence of practitioner anxiety within the psychodynamic process of interviews; this can lead to transitory avoidance which can affect engagement and throw practitioners off course. These diversions are discussed with reference to Kleinian theories of enactment and projective identification with an emphasis on the internal pressures that initiate defensive manoeuvres of this kind. This is a timely and detailed study which illuminates the nuances of real practice and hopes to contribute to training initiatives for frontline, family social workers.

Throughout the United Kingdom it is likely that 'out of hours', the smallest number of social workers is covering the largest geographical areas, the highest proportion of referrals, the most hours per week with the least support and in some of the most dangerous situations. For nearly thirty years, the majority of the working week has been staffed by out of hours social workers, and yet no systematic research has ever been undertaken into any aspects of this social work service. The focus of this research then is local authority emergency duty team (EDT) social work. From a variety of perspectives and using a range of methods the researcher examines the past, present and potential future nature of out of hours social work. As an EDT worker and researcher simultaneously, the author highlights the types and variability of his own assessments and those made by colleagues locally and nationally. Having established that EDT social work deals with significant occurrences after hours, this research questions whether conventional expectations of social work assessment are applicable 10 circumstances that are radically different from day-time work. Employing statistical surveys, questionnaires, interviews and autobiographical commentary, this research collates and analyses EDT social work practice issues seeking to establish an assessment framework that can be applied to the generic, urgent and statutory demands that EDT and daytime social workers frequently face. The framework combines the qualitative and the quantitative, academic with practitioner, the personal and the political and reflects the nature of EDT social work. Addressing a research void, this study clarifies and attempts to improve out of hours social work practice, including that of the researcher. This research presents a systematic analysis of the risk assessments, the decision-making processes and the crisis work undertaken by the most experienced group of social workers in Britain. The findings of this research should be of interest to those involved in out of hours social work, but may also have relevance to (social) workers undertaking (risk) assessments of service users.

True to its manifesto pledge, New Labour arrived in power in 1997 pledging to fundamentally reform the U.K. welfare system. Premised upon the notion of too many rights and too few responsibilities, New Labour sought about restructuring both the benefits system itself, and perhaps more importantly, the underlying assumption of what benefits entail. In so doing it was hoped, the "something for nothing culture" may be challenged and cycles of dependency broken. Manifest in the generic New Deal programme, groups within society seen as having particular difficulty finding work were to be offered advice and support in finding work, education or training, and were to be bound to accept such offers under threat of sanction. One group seen as having these difficulties were lone parents and in October 1997 the New Deal for Lone Parents (NDLP) was launched. The flagging of NDLP however assumes an economic rationality on the part of lone parents in that if more money is available through work, lone parents will make a rational decision and indeed go to work. However, as suggested elsewhere (Evason and Robinson 1998), lone parents remain sceptical over such initiatives, often putting parenting preferences over and above the opportunity to access employment. This research therefore examines what those preferences may be and what are the latent influences that may persuade or dissuade lone parents to leave the home for paid employment. The thesis further describes some of the consequences of those decisions. Qualitative and qualitative evidence is provided that demonstrates lone parent's decisions are taken that reflect interpretations of socially prescribed norms and values and that to presume an economic rationality drives this group is to underestimate the complexities of the situation they may be in. This thesis concludes that such interventions can work for some, but for many the choice to stay at home is often reflective of the style of parenting the lone parents and society considers most appropriate.

The role of outdoor adventure programmes as a recognised approach for the effective treatment of psychological issues has, in recent years, reflected the growing interest in the development of adventure therapy. Although there has been an increased awareness of the possibilities of such a therapeutic approach there is limited practice, and thus very little instruction for how to implement such approaches, especially from a UK perspective. The aim of this study was to develop adventure therapy practice in the UK by specifically developing an intervention for women with eating disorders. Given that this specific approach for working with eating disorders didn't exist at the time of this study, this thesis is based on the principles of action research -a key aspect of the research process was the development of adventure therapy practice itself. Given the gender considerations of working in an outdoor adventure setting and the fact that eating disorders are largely a female phenomenon this study also took a feminist approach to ensure that disordered eating was in fact not reinforced by any adventure therapy approach developed. The thesis itself describes in detail the processes of developing the adventure therapy intervention and the associated experience of the six women who were recruited and took part in the intervention. The dilemmas and decisions made with regard to a number of issues in implementing an adventure therapy approach are examined, for example, facilitating therapeutic processes in an outdoor setting, identifying issues related to eating disorders that might arise in an outdoor adventure context, and examining feminist principles in action (e. g. reflexivity). As well as the six women's experiences of the different aspects of the adventure therapy intervention, the overall impact of the intervention for each woman is also examined. Data collected from a range of tools completed by the women, including personal information sheets, the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI), personal journals, individual interviews and a final focus group indicate changes in most, but not all of the women. The results suggests that for the women with less chronic eating disorder symptoms positive change across a range of clinical symptoms were evident, including reduced troubled eating behaviours, improved body image, and motivation for change, albeit to different degrees for each woman. And for the one woman with the most chronic symptoms, although the intervention was a positive experience there was no evidence to suggest the intervention had any sustained impact. Although, the results from this study are not representative of a large clinical population of women, there is an indication that the intervention did initiate therapeutic change for some of the women and thus suggests that adventure therapy has the potential to be an effective therapeutic treatment for eating disorders and is, therefore, worthy of further investigation. Inevitably, in continuing to develop work in this area many questions and issues are raised as result of the action research process and the thesis concludes with a consideration of some of the needs of developing future adventure therapy research and practice in the UK.

The number of babies that require care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit continues to rise in the UK and parents who have a baby who is born sick or prematurely find themselves adapting to this stressful and often unexpected event whilst also trying to establish their role as a new parent. With no current large British studies, this study explores the experiences of both mothers and fathers in the NICU in relation to adaptation and parental role development and how their experience changes over time. In total 76 parents were interviewed using semi structured interviews 7-10 days following the birth to capture their early experiences of the NICU and then again beyond 28 days to explore any changes in their views and feelings over time. Interviews were tape recorded, transcribed verbatim into the written word and imported into WINMAX PRO. Data analysis revealed nine major sections. These are preparation prior to birth, labour and delivery, first sight of infant, support from the partner, family, friends and other parents, support from and communication with staff, adaptation to the NICU experience, development of the parental role, changes with time and the experiences of fathers. Findings show differences in what mothers and fathers find stressful about their NICU experience, how they adapt to the birth of a sick or premature infant and in their development of the parental role. With the passage of time the events surrounding the birth became less significant as parents start to look to the future. Their role as a parent continued to develop with feelings that their baby needed and recognised them, but many parents felt that they were unable to influence what happened to their baby in the NICU. Recommendations are made for further research and for changes to NICU practice.