Drawing on eight months of in-depth qualitative research, this thesis examines the geographical trajectories of Evangelical missionaries as they migrate to, and embed themselves in, Albania. Identifying how movement is inherent to what it means to be a missionary, I draw together and extend literature from social and cultural geography, migration studies, sociology, geopolitics and missiology to forge new insights into ‘migration with a mission’. Moving beyond largely historical accounts of missionary lives, this thesis provides a contemporary and intimate portrait of what actually goes in to being a missionary, within the context of migration. It contends that a tendency to allow class, work and economic wealth to organise research has meant that the full implications of participants’ religious identities have at times been underdeveloped within migration scholarship. The thesis argues for the importance of addressing this issue, and traces the migration trajectory, from the pre-departure decision to migrate, and the choice of mission destination, to the challenges of missionary life once in Albania. In doing so it examines how missionaries’ world-views, beliefs and imaginaries extend, as well as complicate, commonplace ideas found in literature around religion and migration, geopolitics, transnationalism and home. In addition to revealing the multiple spaces and scales of missionary life unaccounted for within current research, the thesis demonstrates that while missionaries could be considered exceptional, these deeply geographical actors should not be made exempt from greater empirical and theoretical exploration.

Drawing on qualitative research conducted in Birmingham (2009-2014), this thesis explores the role music plays in shaping and producing the urban environment via a focus on three specific processes; normalisation, marginalisation, and resistance. The contemporary city’s relationship with music has undergone substantial change in recent years within the UK, including significant growth in the live music industry and the increased targeting of musical activities within urban policy. The thesis examines the implications of these changes in the context of Birmingham. Chapter One introduces the research aims and objectives. Chapter Two positions the thesis within the current geographies of music field and grounds the thesis in an anti-essentialist approach to geography and cultural politics. Chapter Three provides an overview of the research location and methodology. Chapter Four explores ‘normalisation’ by examining the role of public bodies in shaping local musical activities. Chapter Five explores ‘marginalisation’ by examining the exclusion of local rap music from the mainstream live musicscape, and rap music’s place in shaping marginal geographies. Chapter Six explores ‘resistance’ through three in-depth examples of how different individuals use music as a tool of resistance against dominant power relations and the production of uneven urban geographies.

Urban green spaces are integral components of urban landscapes and the cultural ecosystem services afforded to human populations by these green spaces are of particular relevance to human and societal well-being. Urban green spaces provide opportunities for human interaction, physical activity and recreation, stress alleviation and mental restoration, economic opportunity, cultural activities and interactions with nature. To understand how these benefits are received by human populations it is vital to understand when and how individuals interact with urban green spaces. The rapid development and uptake of technologies such as smart phones, social networks and apps provides new opportunity to investigate the human interactions occurring in urban green spaces. Using the city of Birmingham as a case study, this thesis aims (i) to \(demonstrate\) the utility of data obtained from smart device enabled platforms (social networks and apps) in understanding socio-ecological interactions in urban areas and (ii) to \(evaluate\) the utility of these data sources for researchers and policy makers. The successful identification of a range of socio-ecological interaction suggest these data sources provide a viable method if investigating such interactions; however, there remain a number of limitations to consider to ensure they are employed appropriately in research contexts.

This thesis is part of ongoing research examining the interconnections between human geography and urban planning; simultaneously, it is part of a wider research agenda aiming to address gaps between Western and Non-Western literatures. Under the broader theme of spatial justice, understood as the manifestation of social justice in space, this thesis looks at two urban phenomena in the Middle Eastern context of Amman, Jordan: derelict and underutilised spaces known as brownfields, and; the practice aiming to revitalise vacant spaces in urban areas known as temporary urbanism. Over the past few decades, these two urban phenomena have been extensively investigated in Western contexts using methods and tools designed in and for those contexts and using Western-centric theoretical frames. As highlighted by this study, in the Middle Eastern context, there is little or no work investigating brownfields, temporary urbanism or spatial justice; as a result planning practices and frameworks fail to address them. Accordingly, this thesis seeks to establish the debate on these three central themes and the links between them in Arabic literature and Middle Eastern planning frameworks. By examining both the brownfield sites and temporary uses that perforate Amman’s urban fabric, a Lefebvrian and Lefebvrian-influenced critical spatial perspective is adopted that emphasises the social production of space and the right to the city. This thesis thereby argues that the reclamation of brownfield sites through temporary urbanism may enhance spatial justice within a wider global quest for just cities and just communities.

This thesis explores the area of urban planning practices examining the rapid urban growth in Riyadh. The research was motivated by the fact that Riyadh continues to suffer from rapid uncontrolled urban growth, with resultant problems in its infrastructure. These problems are associated with the urban planning path failures, both in terms of the discourses and the practices. As result, the urban plan did not help to control the city growth. The research firstly analyses the driving forces that influence urban planning, focusing on three issues as the main reasons for ongoing expansion: planning law, planning structure, and how planning relates to energy discourses in Saudi Arabia. Secondly, it evaluates spatial planning practices revealing four themes for developers and planners to consider: settlement patterns, urban design, land use patterns and transport. Thirdly, by revealing the mechanisms underlying the planning environment it demonstrates how the structures in place affect urban planning practices. Finally, based on the literature review and the findings of the empirical chapters and interviews with those who work in urban planning the thesis offers an understanding of planners’ practices, how they contribute to continued unsustainable growth and, offers policy recommendations for a more sustainable planned future for Riyadh and other cities in Saudi Arabia.

Indoor settled dust has been recognised as an important pathway of human exposure to brominated flame retardants (BFRs) via ingestion. The purpose of this study is to investigate the most important factors influencing human exposure assessments. A new clean-up method was optimised to determine PBDEs (BDE-28, BDE-47, BDE-99, BDE-100, BDE-153, BDE-154, BDE-183 and BDE-209) and NBFRs (PBEB, EH-TBB, BEH-TEBP, BTBPE and DBDPE) in a single sample extract via GC-MS. Substantial within-room and within-home spatial variability in BFR concentrations was apparent between two floor areas and between elevated surface and floor dust, due to the varying distances of sampled surfaces from potential BFR sources. Considerable within-room and within-home temporal variability in BFR concentrations was apparent over a nine month sampling period, that is likely attributable to changes in room contents. Seasonal variability in BFR concentrations was also observed between colder and warmer seasons. Concentrations of lower brominated compounds (tri-hexa-BDEs) and BEH-TEBP were significantly higher in the finest particle size fractions and in researcher-collected dust, comparing with the coarse particle size fractions and household vacuum dust. Our estimates of exposure to PBDEs and NBFRs via dust ingestion for the Iraqi population fall below the relevant health-based values.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Programme is forty-six years old this year, is one of UNESCO's most successful programmes, and has been at the forefront of global conservation efforts for much of that time, changing how we think about the world around us. However, there are many contradictions in the programme. In this thesis I draw attention to some of these and what work they, and the programme, does. I look at the history of the organization and how this has impacted a programme that is claimed to be for all people for all time. The League of Nations was developed as part of peace-keeping efforts following World War One and collapsed during World War Two to be replaced with UNESCO when the war ended. As such, the World Heritage Programme was a geopolitical project that developed primarily in western Europe and the USA, and drew on these cultures to imagine the world and attempt to bring peace to it. The world that was imagined was broken down into categories such as nature opposed to culture, and tangible as opposed to intangible; and administrable territories with clear borders. I argue that this has worked to maintain a hierarchical colonial world order that has shaped the concept and practice of conservation by imagining a separate, vulnerable world that needs protection, and that humans are removed from and can control. I counter this imaginary by arguing for a 'vibrant' earth that has its own trajectory, and that rather than being orderly, fixed and hierarchical, is chaotic, creative and collaborative. Here humans are one form of life on the planet rather than sitting at the pinnacle of evolution. In this world I argue rather than conservation, it is 'kinservation' that is needed in which all life is imagined as family, echoing many indigenous cultures including the Kitchwa-speaking peoples in Ecuador. I draw on the ability of artists and arts organizations to reimagine this world, and by doing so, bring it into being. The thesis begins by outlining the key ideas and concepts that inform my thesis, pivoting around the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, before turning to methodology and how this can address these imaginaries. I then introduce the field of geopolitics, and how more recent thinking has worked to pluralize the field. The empirical section of the thesis starts by exploring the history of UNESCO, and is then divided into three chapters that outline first how worlds can be congealed and stratified over time, how eruptions can break through the strata, and finally how the arts can mediate this process. The final chapter outlines how World Heritage can be re-worlded and re-worded.

No description available.

This thesis aims to provide a geographical contribution to the understanding of disease causation, primarily through the development of causal models of chronic disease mortality incorporating both the physical and social environments. The overwhelming impression of previous research in this field is one of conflicting findings. For example, studies examining the relationship between disease and water hardness have found positive relationships, negative relationships and no relationship whatsoever. It is contended that this failure to replicate results is a direct consequence of applying an unsuitable 'confirmatory' approach to the quantitative analysis of geographical data. It is argued also that it is necessary to adopt a more appropriate statistical methodology, that of 'exploratory' statistics, before progress can be made. After an exegesis of the exploratory approach, the commonly used technique of multiple regression is given an exploratory interpretation. Each of the assumptions of this technique is discussed, and attention focuses on the effects of breaking the assumptions and on methods of detecting and overcoming the resultant problems. This exposition is illustrated by the re-analysis of previous studies, and it is demonstrated that inappropriate methods have led some researchers to inferential error. Finally in this methodological part of the research, an examination of the analysis of ratios is undertaken; here too it is suggested that the inappropriate analysis of death rates has resulted in some researchers making incorrect inferences. The empirical aspects of the thesis centre on the analysis of mortality variations in England and Wales. A critical appraisal of previous studies of the relationship between disease and water hardness is undertaken, and it is concluded that quantitative techniques have been poorly applied. Exploratory data analysis is then employed to develop models accounting for geographical variations in mortality experienced by the County Boroughs of England and Wales. In contrast to previous studies that have analysed these variations, no strong relationship is found between disease and water hardness. Moreover, an examination of the mortality experiences of Boroughs whose water supply has changed substantially over time also results in the conclusion that the effects of water hardness have been overestimated. Finally, the study examines the difficult problem of drawing inferences from aggregate data. Although it is concluded that much work remains to be undertaken, it is again argued that the exploratory approach may allow progress to towards the solution of this problem and, consequently, some guidelines for further research are outlined.

This thesis is an intersectional study of forest rights of forest-dwellers in the tribal territory of Koraput, India. The thesis is developed around a piece of path-breaking legislation, the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of India 2006, under which land titles and resource use rights are being granted to many forest-dwelling households and communities. This work exclusively deals with the individual title holders of forest land under the FRA. It explores three important questions: 1) what is the history of forest-rights delineation in Koraput?, 2) how are the rights of forest-dwelling people being settled under FRA? and, 3) what are the complexities of land use in these tribal forestlands?} The thesis has used a mixed-methods approach to build and connect its three focus areas. Historical aspects of local forest rights have been explored through the lens of colonial and post-colonial forest policy analysis. The investigation of the various aspects of FRA implementation and ground realities combines cross-disciplinary approaches from political and gendered micro geography. The analysis of emerging land use on forest lands allotted under FRA is influenced by the Sen’s theory of entitlements, endowments and capabilities {Sen, 2001}. A multi-approach assessment methodology has been used by analysing a wide range of data streams including historical documents, household surveys, interviews, participatory maps, observations, group discussions and secondary data sets. Key findings that have emerged from this thesis are, 1) the consequences of the implementation of colonial and post-colonial forest policy measures on Koraput's forest-dwellers are substantial and unique geography of Koraput has produced new insights to the existing knowledge of history of forest rights in India, 2) FRA is a promising piece of legislation that has achieved significant political and bureaucratic collaboration in Koraput, but it is marred by major operational inefficiencies, and 3) the newly created FRA-lands will provide opportunities for policy makers and title owners to reconsider many existing norms including legal versus illegal occupation of forest land, forest-farming practices on FRA lands, and a need for renewed forest and land management goals for FRA territories in tribal India.