This study is original in that it draws upon postmodern theories on the perception and representation of reality to investigate the relationship between the perception of quality of life and counterurbanisation in rural Scotland. Repertory grid analysis and a postal questionnaire were used in the research to determine the perceived importance of factors in the quality of life of various social and migrational groups in eight rural study areas. The research revealed that counterurbanisation in all its forms is widespread in the areas investigated, and that a significnt component in this process is migration to seek a perceived rural idyll, a form of migration which is unconnected to any economic component, or any changes in the location of industry. Postmodern theories regarding the perception of reality in rural and urban areas were used to explain people's perceptions of what was important in their choice of where to live. The study area of the respondents, their migrational histories, socio-occupational class, housing tenure, and most significantly their age group, were all predictive in determining how important many quality of life factors were perceived as being. However, the main conclusion from the study was the similarity that existed between the perceptions of all groups. Factors reflecting stereotyped images of the rural idyll and those of the problems of urban life, conditioned into the collective consciousness by the way in which these environments are portrayed on television, in the mass media, in literature, and in advertising, dominated in respondents' perceptions, along with other topical environmental concerns over factors which reflected more 'traditional' problems and concerns of rural life.

Community food organisations are part of a growing interest in local and alternative forms of food, which have widely been understood as a response to the failings of the dominant food system. Despite significant academic interest, few studies have sought to understand these alternatives from the perspective of well-being, although they are grounded in claims for a better food system. In this thesis I address this gap. In order to do so I draw on Marx’s concept of alienation as the basis for understanding how well-being is constituted in four community food organisations in the East of England. In using a Marxist approach to well-being I seek to overcome the limitations of narrow, individualised conceptions of well-being that have predominated a resurgent discourse around well-being. Renewed interest in well-being and alternative food systems can be seen as reactions to the dominant logic of capital, which has prioritised economic growth and profit at the expense of human and planetary well-being. However, these potentially critical discourses have proved vulnerable to re-absorption by capital. I use Marx’s concept of alienation to bring together critique of capitalism with an understanding of community food organisations as alternative spaces of production, which enhance well-being. Both classical and recent Marxian approaches have tended to emphasize critique, with little attention to the subjective experience of capitalism or alternatives to it. Drawing on alienation to inform a Marxian approach to well-being I unite structural critique with subjective experience. I use ethnographic and qualitative methods to document participation in community food organisations as an alternative, de-alienated experience. The data generated points to the important role these spaces can play in supporting well-being. It underlines how they facilitate social interaction, an active relationship with nature, and provide an opportunity for participants to realise a sense of agency and engage in meaningful work.

The city centre has diminished in importance as a retail and leisure destination due to increased competition, especially from out-of-town developments. It suffers from the disadvantages of inaccessibility and less competitive pricing. Additional to this, it is possible that the city centre is being avoided due to a fear of crime. This thesis recognises that a fear of criminal victimisation, along with a fear of intimidation has a detrimental influence on the vitality, and consequent viability of the city centre. The research takes the form of a broad contextual review of the problem. To date, this has not been undertaken for a U. K. city. The city of Swansea provides the main focus of an applied geographical study. A comparison is developed between the actual incidence of crime, as recorded by the Police, and the fear of crime within the city centre. Consequently, the survey takes on two distinct forms. Firstly, an analysis of crime records is undertaken, identifying vehicle crime, and theft from shops as principal concerns. Additionally, violent crime is recognised as a problem of the evening economy. The second part of the study takes the form of a household questionnaire survey. This identifies the use of the city centre, and the extent to which fear of crime is recognised as an issue. A geography of perceived anxiety, regarding personal safety and car crime, is constructed for both the daytime and night environments. 'Hot spots' of fear are identified at the retail periphery and at pedestrian subways. During the evening, anxieties are accentuated at concentrations of public house and night club activity. The findings of both parts of the survey are drawn together, with implications considered in terms of planning and design. As the thesis is a review of the problem, areas of possible further research are also identified.

Change associated with late modernity is argued to have diminished collective identification, particularly in relation to locality, as an approach to and resource for, navigating life paths. Young peoples‟ creation of a life course has been understood as particularly responsive, or alternatively vulnerable, to such influences. Contrasting research asserts, however, that collective identification with and through particular appreciations and understandings of locality continue to provide ontological security within the circumstances of modern change. Local collective identification can be carried out via its participants‟ shared investment in symbolic interpretations of culture and space. This identification is asserted through claims to affinity with, or competency in, these socio-spatial systems and practices and the building of symbolic boundaries that contrast identities not possessing such claims. This perspective renews the significance of academic explorations of young peoples‟ choice of collective identification with locality as a tactic in managing their biography and its negotiation as an influential social, cultural and spatial context in their lives. This thesis explores the ways in which young people negotiate the spaces and resources of local collective identification, in the context of late modernity. It employs a qualitative analysis of a community participation project – the Millennium Green Scheme - to access such issues. The participation of adult active citizens and inclusion/exclusion of young people within this scheme are understood to reflect some of the dimensions of collective identification with locality, at three case study sites. At each case study - two rural and one urban - the research takes an unusual intergenerational approach, exploring both adults‟ and young peoples‟ understandings of locality, collective identification and young peoples‟ relationship to these. The findings suggest that young peoples‟ access to the spaces and resources of collective identification, with and through locality, are negotiated within adult defined social and cultural contexts. Further, adults mobilise cultural representations of young people that regulate this access, in relation to the symbolic resources and boundaries of local collective identification. This regulation is influenced by adult reactions to wider pressures upon collective identification associated with modernity. The research finds that although modernity may influence young peoples‟ recourse to local collective identification, it is also central in shaping adults‟ inclusion/exclusion of young people from accessing this means of navigating the life course. Adults‟ geographies of locality are central symbolic material to their collective identification with locality. They are also found to dictate the logic of adult inclusions of young people within the spaces and resources of local collectivity. Adults at the case studies associated many young people within cultural affiliations and competencies they understood to belong to the late modern context, resulting in representations of „dislocated‟ childhood. At rural case studies these were perceived as inappropriate to local socio-spatial norms and rendered young people outside the symbolic boundaries of collective identification and endeavour. In the urban research, young people were perceived to require reinstatement into local collective identification through education about and encouragement into, its spaces and resources. Both understandings reflected broader adult reactions to late modern change. Young people took up the tactic of collective identification with locality or rejected it, in context dependent strategies. However their perceptions of opportunities to share identification with locality were significantly influenced by adult attempts to shape their inclusion/exclusion from spaces of collective identification. In addition, young people interpreted these inclusions/exclusions as broad comment upon their local socio-cultural and spatial status. This research finds that locality and local collective social contexts continue to be of significance in young peoples‟ lives. It adds texture to understandings of the way in which the influence of modernity upon young peoples‟ biographical choices is experienced and negotiated from within local social and cultural relations and spaces.