This thesis is concerned with the character of popular recreations in late pre-industrial England, their place in society, and the changes they experienced during the period 1700-1850. The first chapter presents a descriptive survey of popular recreations in the eighteenth century. It focuses on two main themes: first, the principal events of the holiday calendar - parish feasts, pleasure fairs, hiring fairs, November the 5th, Christmas, Plough Monday, Shrove Tuesday, Easter, May Day, and Whitsuntide;and second, the most significant sports and pastimes of the common people - bull-baiting, cock-fighting, throwing at cocks, football, cricket, boxing, wrestling, cudgelling, and several other diversions. The second chapter examines the relationship between popular recreation and the larger society. It looks first at the social contexts of recreation and, in particular, draws attention to (a) the independent plebeian basis of some festivities, (b) the support which was often provided by genteel patronage and assistance, and (c) the recreational role of the public house. The second section of this chapter discusses some of the functional attributes of sports and festive occasions for the common people: the emphasis here is on recreations as outlets for tensions and hostile sentiments. The last two chapters are concerned with problems of change. Chapter III discusses the various attempts to suppress traditional recreations during the century before 1850. Special attention is paid to the attacks on animal sports, feasts, fairs, and football, and consideration is given to the motives and class biases underlying these attacks. Chapter IV is concerned more generally with the decline of popular recreations between the mid seventeenth and the mid nineteenth centuries. It concentrates in particular on some of the major trends which militated against the traditional practices: Evangelicalism, the increasingly rigorous attitudes concerning labour discipline, the enclosure movement, the decline of customary rights, and the breakdown of paternalistic habits. An effort is made here to relate the decline of recreations to some of the larger processes of social Change. Throughout the thesis, and especially in chapters II to IV, persistent emphasis is placed on the social relations which entered into, and gave shape to, the conduct of recreational affairs, most notably the relations between gentlemen and the common people. Recreations are seen, not in isolation, but in the context of the culture as a whole.

The goal of this research project was to develop a methodology for designers that assists and quantifies concept design decisions so designers can; enable increase user access; widen the user demographic of interactive digital media; and improve participation and competence with technolgy through play.

Adriaan de Groot, the Dutch psychologist and chess Master, argued that “perception and memory are more important differentiators of chess expertise than the ability to look ahead in selecting a chess move” (Groot 1978). A component of expertise in chess has been attributed to the expert having knowledge of ‘chunks’ and this knowledge gives the expert the ability to focus quickly on “good moves with only moderate look-ahead search” (Gobet and Simon 1998). The effects of chunking in chess are widely reported in the literature, however papers reporting the nature of chunks are largely based on inference from psychological experimentation. This thesis reports original work resulting from extensive data mining of a large number of chessboard configurations to explore the nature of chunks within the game of chess and the associated moves played by expert chess players. The research was informed by work in the psychology of chess and explored with software engineering techniques, employing large datasets consisting of transcripts from expert players games. The thesis reports results from an analysis of chunks throughout the game of chess, explores the properties of meaningful chunks and reports effects of the application of chunk knowledge to move searching.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has adopted tourism as one of the main vehicles for promoting economic integration within Southern Africa, an approach referred to in the study as 'tourism integration '. Using a critical realist approach, the research investigates the political , economic and social context within which tourism integration has evolved and elicits stakeholder perceptions and attitudes towards the strategy. The study involved three field research visits to Southern Africa over the period 2000 to 2006, intended to find out how the strategy manifests in several areas of economic integration. The findings and recommendations are based on field research on the education and training sector and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP). The research finds that 'tourism integration' has been prompted by a combination of political, economic and social developments at international, regional and national levels and the study also shows that the strategy faces many challenges including, the large size of the region, asymmetric economies at different levels of economic development, lack of political will among the ruling elite ; limited resources and lack of widespread stakeholder participation in policy processes. From this, the research develops a framework for examining the process of tourism in general and concludes that although SADC has been highly imaginative regarding policy formulation, but this has not been matched in practice since, by the end of 2006, many of the policies had not been implemented. However, a number of factors, including a long history and noticeable successes with economic integration; and the existence of lock-in effects and widespread stakeholder support for tourism integration, make tourism integration a viable and enduring approach to economic integration. In view of this, the research makes a number of recommendations including wider stakeholder participation in policy formulation and implementation, greater resourcing of strategies and more academic research on the desirability and feasibility of using tourism as a basis for promoting wider and deeper economic integration.

The aim of the current thesis was to investigate athletes’ perceptions of coaching effectiveness in team and individual sport. The introduction reviews the literature on coaching effectiveness of direct relevance to this thesis. This chapter also identifies a number of theoretical frameworks to the investigation of coaching effectiveness in sport, and subsequently uses these to inform the empirical studies that follow. The first of these Chapter 2, investigated a number of antecedents of athletes’ perceptions of their coach’s effectiveness, finding athlete sex, sport type (i.e., individual vs. team) coaching behavior were all predictive of athletes’ perceptions of their coach’s effectiveness. Next, Chapter 3 focused on outcomes of athlete perceptions of their coach, showing such perceptions of coaching effectiveness were predictive of athlete-level outcomes representing all four of the key outcomes. This was shown in two separate samples of athletes representing a range of team and individual sports, one from the UK and one from Malaysia. Then, Chapter 4 investigated whether athletes’ perceptions of coaching effectiveness mediated longitudinal predictive effects of perceptions of coach’s transformational leadership behavior on three different athlete outcomes. This study demonstrated the longitudinal predictive effects of appropriate role model behaviour on antisocial teammate behavior and individual consideration behavior on trust were mediated by athletes’ perceptions of their coach’s effectiveness in character building and motivation, respectively. Finally the present thesis extend the coaching effectiveness literature by furthering our understanding on antecedents and outcomes of coaching effectiveness in team and individual sport, as well as the possible processes involved.

Academic literature has examined how the development of tourism destinations involves collaborative relationships between the various actors that participate in tourism policy and planning. In terms of an institutional analysis this thesis is about similar processes, yet it also explores the ways in which place- and time-specific material factors and perceptions characterize different patterns of tourism politics. Without making assumptions about the harmonious or conflicting nature of interactions among actors and the contexts surrounding them, the thesis advances the idea of a relational-evolutionary perspective on the processes of tourism policy and planning. Studying the governance of tourism development requires an assessment of the contextual coupling of different elements as both the corollary of earlier events and the precursor of future developments. In this thesis, a strategic-relational approach to tourism governance comprises the conceptual framework that provides explanatory depth into the contextual analysis of experiences and events. The case study approach is employed for the operationalization of the strategicrelational approach in the context of Athens as a tourist-historic and capital city of a highly centralised Southern-European state. The endeavour is based on the collection and analysis of data from documentary sources and semi-structured interviews. The interpretation of empirical evidence through the strategic-relational approach reveals the irony of a multifarious and multi-scalar governance context, which has not met the expectations of interest groups, especially in recent years, concerning tourism development in Athens. In other words, the thesis portrays the challenges and weaknesses that expand within and beyond the boundaries of state apparatus and hinder the enhancement of Athens as an urban tourism destination while recording the perceptions, experiences and practices of various actors.

This thesis seeks to contribute to the literature on Walter Benjamin and Jean Baudrillard, but not to merely retread old debates. It is concerned instead with a re-evaluation of the work of both thinkers in a particular context: the experience of the new cultural spaces, of twenty-first century post-industrial cities, and in relation to each other. I argue, following Benjamin, that these spaces function as contemporary ‘dreamhouses’. Deploying a constellation of Benjamin and Baudrillard’s ideas to read such spaces illuminates the experience of the contemporary cityscape around the themes of spectacle, distraction, interactivity, simulation and consumption. The thesis examines how these iconic architectural projects, the technological body of the cityscape, mediate our experiences of art, nature, personal and collective memory, and notions of public culture. I argue that we must read Benjamin again after Baudrillard in order to assess the value of both thinkers’ contribution to the understanding of contemporary cities organisation of space and culture. The contingent proximity that is uncovered when reading the theorists both together and against each other, is one which ultimately argues for the persistence of certain ‘messianic’ moments; traces or interruptions which can be uncovered against the notion of Baudrillardian ‘simulation’. This is to take seriously, rather than dispense with, Baudrillardian ideas. Both Benjamin and Baudrillard, together, are necessary to understand the experience of contemporary urban culture. Taking the form of four empirical encounters between the theoretical concepts and the cultural spaces themselves, I set out to locate these messianic possibilities. Each of the analytical chapters focuses on a different cultural space: The Lowry, Salford; The Deep, Hull, The Sage, Gateshead; and The Public, West Bromwich.

This thesis examined the regulatory role of emotion in antisocial behaviour using Bandura’s (1991) social cognitive theory of moral thought and action as a framework. In Chapter 2, moral disengagement was associated with reduced, and empathy with increased, negative affective reactions to unpleasant images depicting players hurt or mistreated. In Chapter 3, an initial study yielded a positive link between moral disengagement and antisocial behaviour which was partially mediated by anticipated guilt. In a second study, manipulating attribution of blame (mechanism of moral disengagement) led to reduced unpleasant affective reactions to images depicting aggressive content. Moreover, attribution of blame led to greater likelihood to aggress which was partly mediated by a reduction in anticipated guilt. Chapter 4 revealed that inducing empathy led to more unpleasant affective reactions to antisocial conduct as well as reduced the likelihood to aggress, which was mediated by an enhancement in anticipated guilt. In the final experiment, empathy reduced aggression following provocation during a competitive reaction time task that was partially mediated by guilt, but not anger. Collectively, these results provide support for the role of emotion in regulating antisocial behaviour, and indicate that moral disengagement may negate and empathy may enhance this self-regulatory mechanism.

Wind is fundamentally important to cyclists since it affects their performance, bicycle control, balance and road safety. The overall aim of this research is to improve the understanding of the effect of cycling position and crosswinds on the aerodynamics and performance of a cyclist. The first part of this thesis focuses on cycling position. To minimise air resistance, cyclists lower their torso to become more aerodynamic. Results show that lowering torso angle is associated with impairment of physiological functioning, which can be explained by a combination of mechanical and muscular factors. Consequently, there is a trade-off between aerodynamic gains and physiological impairment. Therefore a mathematical model has been developed predicting the optimal torso angle at different cycling speeds. The second part of this thesis aims to understand the flow mechanics around a cyclist subjected to crosswinds. Both wind tunnel experiments and computational fluid dynamics simulations of the flow around a cyclist are used to reveal the effect of crosswinds on cyclists in different cycling positions. This thesis provides a unique approach to study cycling performance and safety by jointly investigating the human physiology and aerodynamic performance.

This study examines how backpacking, an activity originating from Western societies, is perceived and practised by the post-1980s generation in China. By locating backpackers’ travel experiences within the context of the circumstances of their life and relating it to wider society, this study not only illustrates the changes and diversity of backpacker culture by providing empirical evidence from China, but also shows how the younger generation living through substantial social transformation reflect on themselves and wider society. This research employs qualitative methods, exploring Chinese backpackers’ characters and life choices, as well as the emergence of backpacking within China. There are two key questions for this study: firstly, how is backpacking perceived and practised by young Chinese people? Secondly, are there any differences among young backpackers regarding travel motivations and life attitudes? Yunnan Province is the primary fieldwork site, and two field trips were conducted there in 2014 and 2015. Thirty semi-structured in-depth interviews with backpackers were conducted in order to examine young backpackers’ travel experiences, as well as their personal life attitudes. Participant observation was also employed as a way to investigate backpackers’ interaction and travel behaviours. Six focus groups, made up of non-backpackers, offer comparative perspectives regarding backpacking from young people who share similar social circumstances and cultural context with travellers. This study reveals that the popularity of backpacking can be understood as primarily due to how the activity represents ‘freedom’ and ‘independence’ within the context of China. Backpacking is not merely a consumption-led mobility, but also widely employed as a process of reflexive awareness by young Chinese people. Four types of backpackers, namely the amateur, the dreamer, the escaper and the alternative seeker, are identified by this study, indicating the diversity of backpacking in China. The amateur and the dreamer acknowledge the vital role of home and consistent and stable employment in their lives; as a result, backpacking is adopted as a way to escape from the daily routine and find self-fulfilment through a meaningful activity. However, the escaper and the alternative seeker tend to question mainstream values and the traditional expectations and conventions; accordingly, their journeys seek to examine the self and help find a personal way to measure success and happiness in lives. Particularly, alternative seekers find life on the road more interesting than a stable life in a city. Accordingly, they extend backpacking to a way of living and develop their own individual routines. Backpacking becomes a debate amongst young people regarding the norms and values of a worthwhile life, and reflects the profound cultural and social change taking place within contemporary China. Traditional expectations and conventions, namely stages within one’s life, such as getting a job, settling down in a city, getting married and having children, are questioned and challenged. Most participants in this study are understood to possess respect for backpackers who pursue freedom and their dreams, as ‘freedom’ is perceived to represent strong individual capabilities and critical thinking. However, they also realise that anxiety consistently accompanies this freedom, particularly within an individualised society such as China’s. In general, the conflict between individual interests/desires and the family/social obligations is highlighted by participants. As a result, the term ‘staged individualism’ is coined by this study, demonstrating how the Chinese path of individualism may force the young generation to separate their lives into different stages, defining different purposes for each stage, as a way to balance individual interests/desires and family/social obligations.