Sports stadiums have a considerable impact on the urban, environmental and social context. In particular, where several new stadiums are built within the same city for a single mega-event like the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games or Soccer World Cup the implications are significantly higher. Therefore the requirements for operation of each stadium after the mega-event are of great importance to ensure sustainable integration into the urban, environmental and social context as well as maximized utilization on a long-term basis. In the first part of this thesis a review of the subject is presented. A brief history of the development of stadium design in the Olympic context, evolving requirements for staging Olympic Summer Games, the structure of organizations involved, existing literature research and certification methods are summarized. In the second part the methodology and development of the bespoke research tool based on existing certification systems such as BREEAM, LEED and DGNB is described. Subsequently, case studies for three different stadium types (Olympic Stadium, Indoor Stadium and Football Stadium) used for the Olympic Summer Games in Sydney (2000), Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008) are analysed based on literature research, field surveys and interviews. The comparative assessment of each stadium type is conducted with an evaluation matrix in three denominations: urban category, environmental category and social category. In each category two indicators with two respective parameters are evaluated based on a five-point score system. Subsequently the general applicability of the research tool is verified with an example appraisal of Wembley Stadium which was used for the Olympic Summer Games in London (2012). Conclusions are drawn in the third part of the thesis, separately for each of the three denominations urban category, environmental category and social category. In the urban category sports stadiums built on a site previously used for sports venues or adjacent to other existing venues are rated significantly higher, because existing sites are already integrated into the urban context and located in proximity to the city centre as well as other mixed-use areas resulting in synergy effects with extended catchment areas and good connectivity. In the environmental category sports stadiums are rated higher if specific requirements for operation of the sports stadium after the Olympic Games are already considered in the design to ensure maximised adaptability and flexibility. Dismantle of the overlay (tailor-made structures/installations required for staging the event) after the Olympic Games reduces energy consumption in subsequent operation. Overlay designed for permanent usage or reuse at a different venue further increases the level of sustainability. Usage of energy efficient systems with power generation and water conservation preserves resources. In the social category sports stadiums are rated higher if a balanced proportion of sport usage and other usages is achieved. The long-term utilization of a sports stadium correlates with the level of urban integration, urban context, building type and usage mix. Sports stadiums utilized by more than one home team and integration of other usages (e.g. retail, commercial, recreation, etc.) achieve a significantly higher level of utilization. The last chapter summarizes recommendations for stadium design in the Olympic context. To ensure a long-term utilization of each sports stadium after the Olympic Games it is suggested that applicant/candidate cities carry out comprehensive feasibility studies in collaboration with an operator to develop a bespoke project brief and business plan for operation of each venue at bidding stage. In order to enhance the existing knowledge base it is further recommended to collect and compare operational data (e.g. water, energy consumption etc.) from the different venues of the hosting cities to allow an independent assessment of the level of sustainability during long-term operation. Additional data to verify indicators relating to design efficiency such as average construction area per seat as well as dead loads of spectator stands and roof structures should be compared for establishment of benchmarks to verify the efficiency of the structural elements for an even more sustainable design of sports stadiums.

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The aim of the research was, essentially, to clarify the nature and dimensionally of intrinsic motivation in competitive sport. A working definition of intrinsic motivation was established, narrowing the field of inquiry down to the feelings of subjects at the actual point of participation in a sporting event. The findings have important implications for research and practice. Firstly, it has been shown that the way in which competitive sportspeople rate their own intrinsic motivation varies according to the point in time at which they are asked about it. The in-situ questionnaire should prove to be a useful addition to the armoury of the sport psychologist in providing a means of measuring levels of intrinsic motivation in sport at the actual time of participation. Secondly, specific recommendations are provided as to the timing of questions about intrinsic motivation in a sporting context. Depending on the type of information that is being sought, asking questions at the end of an event may not provide an accurate reflection of the way subjects feel when they are actually taking part. Thirdly, the multi-dimensional model and the diagnostic IIMS will be of use in applied settings. An awareness of the motivational profiles of individual sportspeople will be invaluable in planning training and competition programmes. Finally, the research poses questions about what it is that people actually get out of sport. The findings suggest that the most important aspect of sport participation is the interaction with other people, whether they be team mates or opponents. Self-efficacy plays a less important part than was originally predicted. It is argued that this is because athletes have a particular need to have their achievements socially approved and admired.

This thesis explores how Scottish traditional music has been represented to tourist audiences, through systems of representation such as travel literature, recordings and traditional music events (including folk festivals, tourist shows and sessions). It argues that an explicit concern with the “real” has been a recurrent, although contested, discursive trope in such representations. In particular, the thesis demonstrates how paradigmatic shifts in conceptions of authenticity have wrought ideological changes on tourist-oriented depictions of Scottish folk music. The thesis identifies four generic categories of authenticity which have mediated touristic representations of Scottish traditional music, namely: authenticity of text; authenticity of performer; authenticity of context; and authenticity of locality. The first of these was of significance throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century, as folksong collectors, travel writers and guidebooks authors based their judgements of musical authenticity upon the printed text. The folk revival of the 1950s resulted in a fundamental rupture in discursive formations of authenticity, leading to assessments of the “real” being based upon performers, their backgrounds and musical upbringings. As the folk revival developed, such assessments became predicated upon the context of the musical performance, and, in particular, the extent to which events succeeded in minimising the performer-audience stratification and facilitating communal participation. Finally, the geographical scope of the musical expression has recently become particularly significant in this regard: practitioners frequently regard localised musical identities as “real”, while deriding the homogeneity and commercial connotations of transnational musical identities such as “Celtic music".

The importance of a critical understanding of space in contemporary social scientific enquiry is increasingly recognised as fundamental for the analysis of the development, enlargement and experience of modern capitalism. In particular, the concentration of forces and relations of production, circulation and consumption, of people, commodities and services, is progressively appreciated as achieved through the creation and exploitation of urban space. The thesis presents a critical examination of a variety of theories of space and spatial theories as a foundation for the analysis of urban modernity. These include the works of Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, Michel Foucault, Michel de Certeau and Georg Simmel. The syncretic adaptation of these formative theoretical analyses provides a conceptual framework for the subsequent substantive analysis of a case study of specific forms of modern urban social space. That is, an exploration of the processes by which the origins and development of what came to be integral features of the landscape of the modern city were produced, namely, the creation of the social spaces of public parks. The growth and increasing importance of the city in the 19th century had important social as well as economic and political consequences for the development and administration of the infrastructure and experience of the urban environment. The physical and mental, medical as well as moral consequences of city development led to campaigns to improve the condition of the urban population that provoked a response by the local state. One prominent aspect of this municipal commitment was the development of urban public parks as an ameliorative response. Glasgow’s experience of rapid industrialisation and urbanisation in the 19th century and the particular conditions that arose led to a specific form of municipal government that produced a network of public parks that was unrivalled by any other city. The investigation and analysis of the production of municipal public parks in the city of Glasgow in the period from the early 1850s to the late 1970s gives detailed consideration to a large number and variety of empirical sources to deliver an historical, sociological and geographic account of the complexity involved in the analysis of such commonplace everyday spaces as public parks. As such, the investigation of parks as social spaces constructed, depicted and used for leisure and recreation contributes to the understanding of the development and experience of urban modernity, as well as to contemporary socio-spatial analysis.

Between the 17th and 20th centuries, the British misunderstood African cultural practices and reported on those in derogatory terms. With other European nations they projected Africans as ‘savages’ without any cultural traditions and consistently devalued traditional African religions and dances. Those views have seeped into the psychology of the British mentality and specifically, may have negatively influenced African dance development in the UK. This thesis seeks to address those issues through a re-examination of the literature and a re-appraisal of Africa’s religions and dance forms. It will illustrate that in spite of he continuous attempts to decimate African cultural expression, Africa’s cultural practices survived and re-emerged in the Caribbean through slavery and through vibrate practice. The adaptation of the forms in their new environment, especially through adopting some aspects of Christian worship, nurtured alternative ways that later enabled the forms to find expression, as theatrical dance, in the UK. The thesis is informed by international field trips, through the use of video and Internet sources, from attendances at African and Caribbean cultural events, through a wide range of secondary sources and from interviews spanning over twelve years. It is presented in two main sections. section one includes the Introduction and chapters One and Two. The Introduction provides a backdrop of current issues in African dance development and chapters One and Two provide a framework of African cultural practice on the continent and in the Caribbean, indicating how European perceptions of the people and their practices skewed the truth. Chapters Three and Four provide a detailed account of African dance development over the past fifth years through the activities of performance companies and support agencies. Chapter Five investigates dance development in the UK, specifically focusing on the works of two London-based choreographers and exploring how their spiritually determines their practice.

The objective of the research was to explore the development of modern sport in Malaysia and to identify the socio-political and ethnic issues and other problems associated with it. The time period studied is from the year 1800 to the year 2000, which covers the periods of British colonial rule and Malaysia as an independent nation. The extended period of British administration left a paramount effect on the Malaysian society. Eight sport enthusiasts, forty schools, twelve sport associations, the Ministry of Youth and Sport of Malaysia, the Ministry of Education of Malaysia, and the Olympic Council of Malaysia were approached to gather the primary or raw data for the study. In addition, historical facts and sociological perspective on sport and physical education gathered from library research were combined to form the main ingredients and cross-analysed for discussion in the thesis. A chapter was constructed to understand the reason for British global expansion, their sport idealism and eventually the socio-political impact on Malaysia. A subsequent chapter was constructed discussing the independent government's attempt to redress the ethnic groups imbalance in economy, education and sport, as a result of the colonial legacy, in order to develop a just and harmonic society. Sport was found to be both the `enhancing' and `deterring' factors for a genuine national unity to materialise. Issues on power politics, economy, education and sport were found to be very much entangled and intertwined with the ethnic phenomenon. The research concluded that Malaysia's short history as an independent nation with very distinguished multi-ethnic and multicultural society provided an unsettled and unstable platform for a suitable environment for sport to develop successfully. Universal sport sociological theories related to the main issues investigated were compared and tested on the Malaysian sport scene to identify the `grounded theory'. Finally several `grounded theories' were presented as closure of the thesis.

Several papers reference my contribution to the critical development of Tourism Satellite Accounting techniques in nations and regions, in order to measure the economic contribution of visitor activity in a consistent and comparable manner.

Discussions of British travel to Greece in the nineteenth century have been dominated by the work of Lord Byron. Byron’s contemporary Greeks were Orientalised, while antique Greece was personified as a captive Greek woman on the brink of compromise by the Ottomans, or a cadaver. Throughout the nineteenth century this antique vista was employed by the tourist industry. This thesis offers a consideration of the visions and vistas of Greece encountered by British women who travelled to Greece in the subsequent years, especially in the light of how commercial tourism limited or constructed their access to Greece. Commercial tourist structures were in place in Athens and other major sites of antiquity, but the majority of the women considered here travelled through a terrain that went beyond a narrow and museum staged experience of Greece. Three paradigms have been established for women travelling in Greece: the professional archaeologist, the ethnographer, and the tourist. The women archaeologist combated the patriarchal domination of the classics, not only to posit a female intellectual who could master Greece, but also reveal how antique Greece was used to underwrite patriarchal British ideologies. The ethnographers in Greece are a mixed collection of semi-professional and professional ethnographers, considered alongside more conventional travel narratives, all of which offer discussions of the modern Greek psyche trapped at a series of liminal fissures (East/West, antique/modern). Concentrating on women and geography, they subtly conflate the two to read nation in gender. However, without the sexualised aspect of their male counterparts, they read Greek women through a series of diverse practices that they identify through a close contact that could only be established between women. The modern tourist in Greece offers the most enduring and lasting type of traveller in Greece. Travelling with and against guidebooks, the discussion considers the visual technologies that helped to codify the way Greece is still seen as a tourist destination. In conjunction with this, the popular discourses denigrating women’s travel are also discussed, which offers a key reason for the dismissal of their literary output.

Whilst transport has repeatedly been identified as an integral component in the tourism system, the relationship between urban public transport networks and visitor behaviour at urban destinations remains largely unexplored. Furthermore, tourist transport is rarely the subject of the same quality benchmarking techniques that are applied to other elements of the tourism product. The thesis reviews the use of service quality and customer satisfaction measures in urban tourism and urban public transport, highlighting dimensions of urban public transport quality which may be of particular relevance to overseas visitors at urban destinations. The results of a survey of overseas visitors to Greater Manchester, employing both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques, are subsequently presented, identifying factors affecting the use of public transport by overseas visitors to Greater Manchester. Attributes of public transport service quality, revealed by the research to be of importance in measuring overseas visitors’ satisfaction with urban public transport performance in Greater Manchester, are reduced by means of principal components analysis to reveal the underlying dimensions of overseas visitors’ satisfaction with Manchester’s public transport system. An ensuing regression analysis reveals the relationships between the dimensions of public transport performance, overall satisfaction with public transport and satisfaction with Manchester as a visitor destination. Additionally, an importance-performance analysis is employed to uncover the strengths and weaknesses of public transport service in Manchester from an overseas visitor perspective. The implications for destination management are discussed.