Despite widespread recognition of the need to decarbonise existing housing stocks, there remain limitations in the way this problem is theorised and addressed. Practice theory has sought to move away from the individualism and assumptions of rational-choice that have underpinned previous studies, but has still relied on comparisons of accounts of practices between individuals. Furthermore, these practice-based studies have encountered their own challenges with regards to adequately conceptualising 'large' phenomena such as retrofit, as well as addressing issues of variations in practitioner competence, and tractability. Drawing on 31 in-depth interviews and walk-through tours with affluent owner-occupiers who were currently, or had recently undertaken home improvement projects, this thesis examines why, and how some of these projects incorporated low carbon retrofit measures, while others did not. The relationships between the components of practice, both within and between practices are examined to identify how they connect to the wider nexus of practices that extends beyond the home. Particular attention is given to understanding the connective power of teleological influences on home improvements (RQ1); the connections between these teleological influences, home improvement measures and competences (RQ2); and the implications of this enhanced understanding for encouraging higher rates of retrofit (RQ3). Furthermore, the thesis employs a methodology that facilitates adoption of the home improvement measure as the unit of analysis, rather than the individual. It is proposed that this is not only more appropriate to the ontological assumptions underpinning practice theory, but also to specialisations within the construction industry. In conclusion, this thesis proposes a series of teleological constellations (i.e. structures of practices connected by shared goals) that provide a theoretical tool to further our empirical understanding of how low carbon home improvements fit within the wider nexus of practices. These connections, in turn, have implications for the way in which policy seeks to induce higher levels of low carbon retrofit in order to help meet national CO2 reduction targets and contribute to addressing global climate change.

This research explores the (re)production and circulation of geographical knowledge about the conjectured Great Southern Continent – one of the most enduring geographical ideas in the western world despite the fact that it did not exist, other than in books, maps and the human mind. The study examines how the fantastic Continent managed to survive - and even thrive – as an imaginary in Britain despite the absence of any hard evidence. The selected timeframe 1760-1777 covers a period of considerable flux in terms of cultural, imperial and global identities, witnessing a rapid expansion in geographical knowledge, provided in part by the voyages of Captain James Cook and the unprecedented rise of the British popular press who deliver this ‘news’ to the public. Using the twin archives of The Gentleman’s Magazine and daily, tri-weekly and weekly newspapers, this study critically examines the ways in which the landscapes of the Continent were variously imagined, represented and understood by the British public over the final seventeen years of the its ‘life’, ‘death’ and ‘re-birth’ as the Antarctic. Specifically, it interrogates the mechanisms used by the press to (re)produce a public imaginary for the emerging South, and the roles played by the Continent in mid-to-late eighteenth century polite society. The thesis shows how the Continent’s status as an enduring geographical myth renders it an important touchstone in an imaginative global cartography held by the eighteenth century British public. It illustrates how external spaces are powerful constructs for internal identities and epistemologies. The ultimate revelation that this provincea aurea was a barren wilderness of sea and ice triggered arguably one the most important cultural shifts in the Western geographical and imperial imagination since the discovery of the Americas – and, the thesis contends, provided an important proving ground in the battle between traditional scholarly speculation and the empiricism characterising the new scientific method.

An investigation was made into the factors governing plant distribution in two areas containing lead-zinc and in one case, copper, mineralisation in Northern Australia. The distribution of the major units within the savanna vegetation of the study-areas appears to be largely controlled by edaphic and drainage factors. Distinct plant assemblages are developed over the oredeposits. Although the assemblages are restricted to these environments, the individual species also occur in regions apparently devoid of mineralisation. In the area containing both lead-zinc and copper deposits, the same assemblage occurs on both types of mineralisation. The assemblage species are apparently better adapted to withstand higher concentrations of ore-metal in the substrate, and to absorb greater quantities of these metals, than the more widespread plants. Zinc, copper and lead occur in decreasing order of abundance in plants from un-mineralised localities. Plants growing over the ore-deposits can absorb large quantities of all three metals, but the distribution of metal within the aerial parts varies. In some species, an increased rate of absorption of lead and copper occurs when the plants are growing on soils rich in these metals compared with their rate of absorption elsewhere. This may be related to intra-specific variations within the plants.

This thesis is based on research that utilises social innovation theory to examine the role and potential of community gardens and community supported agriculture (CSA) in transitioning toward more sustainable food systems, with a geographical focus on Wales. The research originates from the rationale that there is an urgent need for transforming the current food systems into more sustainable ones, and that community-based socially innovative initiatives may become drivers for such a transformation. The main objective is to demonstrate what is the socially innovative role of community gardens and community supported agriculture in Wales and what is their potential for making a societal change toward food sustainability, thus aiming to contribute to the wider debates on the role of the social economy and its potential for socio-economic transformation. The empirical approach applied is qualitative case studies based on 38 semi-structured interviews and participant observation in four community gardens and four community supported agriculture initiatives. The data is analysed by using ALMOLIN (Alternative Model for Local Innovations) as an innovative analytical tool mapping the dynamics of social innovation and processes of social initiatives. The research intends to contribute to the literature of community gardens and community supported agriculture by examining these initiatives from the social innovation perspective. In addition, it intends to contribute to the social innovation literature with the case of community food growing. A final contribution is addressing the geographical gap in the community food growing literature by focusing on Wales as an under-researched area and using large number of case studies to allow a comparison between its different regions and types of initiatives. The study further makes a range of theoretical and policy recommendations.

In Riyadh City, as an effort to reduce the excess dependency on private vehicles, in 2012 city’s authorities have approved the construction of a public transport system and travel demand management strategies. On this basis, this study question is “what are the procedures and approaches that have to be undertaken to ensure public transport uptake in Riyadh City?” To answer the study question, a relevant literature has been reviewed in order to identify major successes of public transport services around the world. In addition, two empirical studies were conducted in Riyadh during the study course include a series of semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders and a web-based-general-public survey. The study findings were consolidated and discussed to provide concrete answers to the study question. The study found considerable support by stakeholders and the general-public for introducing public transport services and reshaping the existing travel strategies. It was also found that the future planning of the public transport system in Riyadh City has to pay considerable attention to social and cultural perspectives of its citizens; for safety and separate family carriages. The study also found that improving infrastructure to enhance accessibility to and from transit stations, selecting appropriate TOD sites, parking charges are effective strategies. Finding from a stated preference experiment showed that the likelihood of shifting people from private cars to public transport in Riyadh City would increase by a reduction in public transport cost, number of changes, and increase in the service frequency. Most importantly, there are cultural aspects involving perceptions towards public transport that play an important role in people’s intention to use public transport. For example, it found that highly qualified individuals were more likely to perceive public transport as a 'taking a step down into the World' and this is a point in which public transport authorities need to focus in order to ease this perception. Finally, this is the first time to derive estimates of the value of travel time savings for Riyadh City.

This thesis aims to examine the relationships between health, place, and animals, within the context of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms. The conceptual framework of ‘therapeutic landscapes’ has been used by geographers to understand the dynamic interrelations between health and place. To more critically unpack the heterogeneity of ‘therapeutic landscapes’ and engage with their more-than-human constitutive elements, I mobilise a relational approach, informed by post-structuralist thinking, examining how ‘therapeutic spaces’ emerge relationally, co-constituted by a variety of heterogeneous agencies. Aiming to show how therapeutic affect can emerge in everyday spaces, I locate my research within CSA, an alternative system of food production. My interest in a more-than-human approach has particular relevance when considering CSAs as the place of animals in such systems is neglected within existing research. I mobilise qualitative research, exploring why animals come to be present within these alternative food networks. Animals are implicated within CSAs for diverse reasons, with the farms acting as spaces for human-animal encounters. I discuss the generative potential of situated relationships between humans and animals in leading to the production of new bodily capacities or the closing down of existing ones, affecting how people understand and experience health. I also consider non-humans’ experiences of these relationships, exploring who ‘therapeutic spaces’ are ‘therapeutic’ for. I discuss the ways in which animals can become entangled in ‘therapeutic’ relationships based around anthropocentric and parasitic notions of health. However, equally, human-animal relationships can emerge as mutually beneficial, producing new bodily capacities for heterogeneous actants in a mutual ‘becoming therapeutic together’. Overall, this thesis contributes new understandings to human geography, recognising animals as lively and dynamic co-constituents in the co-production of therapeutic geographies and community based food systems. Human-animal relations can define, enable, and enact what different actants may become, shaping their capacities to affect and be affected.

It is critical to motivate tourists to behave environmentally friendly for the sustainable development of tourism. The concept of pro-environmental tourist behaviour has been the subject of many research studies. However, only a few studies have focused on the effectiveness of using informational strategies to promote pro-environmental tourist behaviour, and these studies indicate that current strategies are not so effective in achieving behavioural change. Although it is widely accepted that personal norms are the dominant determinant of pro-environmental tourist behaviour, there have been limited studies in the tourism field related to activating pro-environmental personal norms. Therefore, this research topic needs to be enriched. The emergence of social media has drawn increasing research attention and its significance for tourism industry has been highlighted. Viewing social media as a channel of interpersonal influence, this research aims to investigate the influence of social media on pro-environmental tourist behaviour by activating personal norms. A conceptual model is built in this research to investigate the way people internalise travel user generated content (UGC) to salient pro-environmental personal norms. The influence of social media is viewed from the informational and normative aspects in the conceptual model. Adopting a mixed research design, this research conducted a study of netnography to understand the research topic and build the measurements for survey research in the second phase. The data about 140 most frequently read Chinese travel blogs confirms that it is possible to use social media as a channel to provide rich environmental information by public participation and collaboration. 1787 sample observations were used to test the relationship developed in the conceptual framework. After validating the developed scales by factor analysis, both the measurements and structural models were tested using a structural equation model (SEM) with partial least square approach (PLS-SEM). The results generally confirm the original conceptualisations. Both the informational and normative influence of social media positively impacts the activation of pro-environmental personal norms. The hypotheses on the moderating effects of prior knowledge and social media engagement are partially supported. The results indicate that social media is an effective tool in promoting pro-environmental tourist behaviour by activating personal norms. Findings of this research may be of interest to social marketers and environmental activists who intend to be opinion leaders. This study also is helpful for the relevant Chinese government institutions in working out effective information to encourage sustainable tourism since they have a huge control over the Chinese internet. Meanwhile, Chinese travel website managers who want to contribute to sustainable tourist behaviour promotion may also use the findings of this research.

This study assesses the dynamics of soil loss rates of the Nqoe River Catchment. The assessment is made by numerical modeling of the stream water levels and flow, as well as the suspended and bed-load sediment. Literature states that accelerated soil erosion is a problem in the catchment, resulting in high rates of sedimentation of the 'Muela Reservoir. This erosion is blamed on the over-stocking of rangelands which leads to overgrazing and development of bare soil cover. As part of literature review, to better understand existing methods for estimation of soil erosion and stream sediment transport, thirteen (13) overland soil erosion equations and forty-two (42) channel erosion and sediment transport equations were coded in over eighteen thousand (18,000) lines of code. Analysis of these models informed the runoff model developed using the Gridded Surface Subsurface Hydrologic Analysis model (GSSHA). The model was calibrated and validated for the Nqoe catchment, and its capability to adequately simulate in this data-sparse geographic region was assessed. It was found that the GSSHA model is robust in its simulations of both stream hydrographs and catchment soil loss. The value of the global gridded satellite rainfall data from the NASA GES DISC proved to be useful and accurate in running the GSSHA model for the data-sparse Nqoe catchment in Lesotho. This data was particularly useful while running land management scenarios for assessment of management activities (reforestation, urbanisation, cropland fallowing and rangeland stocking density) that could best serve to reduce soil erosion in the Nqoe catchment. It was found that reforestation and crop-land fallowing could be some of the most beneficial management strategies for reduction of catchment soil loss.

This thesis considers food insecurity in Bristol through an analysis of taste. Using a bricolage of ethnographic methods designed to bring the sensory elements of food practices to the fore, I worked with three projects in the city to examine the socio-materialities of food insecurity as they are felt within people’s daily lives. Working with an Emergency Food Aid (EFA) charity, a community bus scheme and a cookery course for socially isolated people, I contribute to geographical understandings of food insecurity by looking in places and attuning to senses, feelings and affects that are otherwise invisible. Inspired by material-semiotics – where nonhumans matter – and including ideas of affect, I move away from a static definition of food insecurity as ‘access to a good diet’ and instead develop ideas of taste, which I define as capacity for eating well. I use capacity to ground a critical analysis of inequality within the social and material relations of embodied life. I use eating well to bring the more-than-human collectivities into the frame, accounting for the care-full socio-materialities at play in food encounters. Importantly, I move beyond an ontology of individual rational agents and a focus on empowered choice as a solution to insecurity. The empirical material shows that practices of good taste are contingent and fragile, shaped by the material-affective conditions of food encounters; that interdependencies rather than individual empowerment enable us to eat well; and that precarious living conditions produce affects that can be decisive factors in whether we eat well or go hungry. Ultimately, this taste-full approach places a critical analysis of food insecurity within the messy entanglements of food practices and opens up new spaces for understanding and tackling the issue.

UK universities attract increasing attention from policy-makers searching for regional solutions to economic development challenges. Consequently, university spinout companies have featured prominently in UK policy-making, as they embody a transfer of knowledge of the most complex and comprehensive character. However, whilst the positive contribution of spinout companies to regional economies is widely accepted, little is known of how to ensure high quality outcomes from such knowledge commercialisation activities. This thesis aims to improve the understanding of this problem by examining the elements that contribute to the success of academic spinouts in the UK context. It investigates dual meaning of success: spinout formation and survival, conceptualised here as embedded in university networks composed of multiple actors. It is set within a post-positivistic paradigm and employs an explanatory sequential mixed methods research design. The quantitative part identifies the elements contributing to the success of spinout companies using data on 870 spinout companies extracted from university websites and supplemented with financial, economic and educational databases; and leads to the qualitative part, explaining differential performance of spinout companies across UK regions with data collected through semi-structured interviews conducted at four illustrative university networks. It is found that the success of spinout companies depends on networks, investment, and management teams. However, the formation and survival of spinout companies differs across a number of elements: technology transfer offices, business incubators, other actors, and geography; suggesting bi-dimensional complexity across space and success measures. The variable spatial performance of university networks determining spinout company outcomes is explained by connectedness, filtration and time: successful spinout companies originate from university networks that have capability to build and exploit network capital. It is suggested that regional innovation systems require designs oriented towards these diverse spinout success outcomes, formation and survival-based, with strong local adaptations.