Recent epidemiological data suggests that the incidence of hamstring and ACL injuries are on the rise in football, resulting in significant financial costs to individual clubs. Research has highlighted fatigue, decreased functional strength and reduced dynamic stability as key aetiological factors common to both injuries. Previous research has considered the influence of fatigue on eccentric strength and dynamic stability discretely, but their functional synergy warrants investigation. Furthermore, the fatigue-effect should be considered beyond the acute 90 minutes of match exposure, and consider the temporal pattern of recovery. In the first experimental chapter (Chapter 4), twenty male professional soccer players (age 21.50 ± 3.09 years, height 181.98 ± 5.43cm, body mass 77.73 ± 5.06 kg), undertook a localised fatigue protocol until they exhibited a 30% reduction in eccentric hamstring peak torque. Pre fatigue measures of isokinetic eccentric strength (60°·s-1, 150°·s-1, 300°·s-1., System 3, Biodex Medical Systems, Shirley, NY, USA) and dynamic stability (OSI – Overall Stability Index, A-P – Anterior Posterior Stability, M-L – Medial Lateral Stability, Biodex Medical Systems, Shirley, NY) were taken. These were then repeated at the same time of day post, 24 hr post, 48 hr post and 72 hr post fatigue. Metrics in average peak torque and peak torque were observed to be significantly reduced (P ≤ 0.05) when compared to baseline levels at +72 hr at the two fastest testing speeds. Significance values indicated that angle of peak torque was fully recovered. Dynamic stability measures of OSI and A-P also remained significantly reduced (P ≤ 0.05) at +72 hr, whereas M-L scores showed no significance (P ≥ 0.05) at 72 hr. Quadratic regression analyses revealed unique temporal rates of recovery, requiring up to +82 hr post-exercise. These unique patterns were identified through differentiation of the quadratic regression curve, enabling calculation of the curve minima and the time at which the outcome variable returned to pre-exercise levels. A similarexperimental design was employed in Chapter 5, utilising a soccer-specific fatigue protocol. Eighteen male professional soccer players completed the present study, with a mean age of 22.94 ± 4.57 years, height 185.38 ± 4.22cm and body mass 75.91 ± 6.38 kg. Average peak torque and peak torque metrics at all speeds were significantly reduced (P ≤ 0.05) at +72 hr, with no change in angle of peak torque. As with the localised fatigue protocol, dynamic stability measures in A-P were significantly impaired at +72 hr (P ≤ 0.05) whereas M-L scores were recovered to baseline at 72 hrs. A similar predicted maximum recovery duration of +81 15 hr was observed following soccer-specific exercise, utilising the same quadratic regression analysis as in chapter 4.Fourteen male professional soccer players completed chapter 6, (mean age 24.29 ± 5.06 years, height 184.51 ± 3.91cm, and body mass 74.91 ± 4.30 kg) analysing the effects of soft tissue massage (24 hours post fatigue) on the temporal pattern of recovery post soccer specific fatigue. Sports massage techniques were applied for 20 minutes on the posterior aspect of the dominant limb, with a specific focus on effleurage and petrissage to aid recovery. Results highlighted that all measures for AvgPkTeccH, PkTeccH (60°·s-1, 150°·s-1 and 300°·s-1.) and OSI were all shown to recover within the 72 hr period. The A-P dynamic stability measures were recovered at +48 hr. Time of recovery was calculated with the same quadratic regression anlaysis completed in chapters 4 and 5. These findings indicate that an intervention of soft tissue massage at 24 hr post fatigue accelerates the recovery process. An alternate intervention was utilised in Chapter 7, where sixteen male professional soccer players completed a soccer specific fatigue protocol incorporating periods of interchange (mean age 22.64 ± 4.70 years, height 185.41 ± 4.72cm, body mass 77.62 ± 6.08 kg). The interchange strategy employed was designed to reduce total workload (to 60mins), with each player exposed to a 15 min period of rest in the middle of each half. Peak torque metrics at the two slowest speeds had failed to attain full recovery at +72 hrs, and similarly OSI was still significantly impaired relative to baseline at +72 hrs. Following completion of the same quadratic regression analysis, as completed in previous chapters (4, 5 and 6) the predicted time required for full recovery of all markers was +82 hr. The results of the study highlight that despite reducing the playing time with periods of interchange players had still not fully recovered within the 72 hr period, thus exposing players to potential injury within this time period The current thesis is aimed at the sports science and medical teams working within football involved in injury prevention strategies, specific conditioning and rehabilitation. Findings highlight the temporal pattern of recovery post-exercise with specific focus on hamstring function. Simple functional anatomy highlights any decreased function of the hamstring will have implications for potential knee injury, including the ACL. Epidemiological and aetiological research in football continues to be heavily focussed on hamstring strains. This thesis highlights the potential implications that decreased function over a 72 hr period can have on the muscle group, and associated ligamentous structures. Clinical implications of this work 16 include the periodisation of rehabilitation stages or training micro-cycles, the importance of developing fatigue resistance within players to facilitate a reduction in the occurrence of hamstring and ACL injury, and the development of a more stringent return to play criteria encompassing these biomechanical markers. Evidently, findings within the current body of work suggest that fatigue is an unalterable factor that contributes to injury, but it can be quantified with meaures of dynamic stability and eccentric strength. Quantifying fatigue between games with these biomechanical markers provides key information of a player’s readiness to play, implications for injury, key time frames to implement interventions and provide key markers to be utilised in the design of return to play protocols post injury.

This thesis is the first sociological examination of white-collar boxing in the UK; a form of the sport particular to late modernity. Given this, the first research question asked is: what is white-collar boxing in this context? Further research questions pertain to social divisions and identity. White-collar boxing originally takes its name from the high social class of its practitioners in the USA, something which is not found in this study. White-collar boxing in and through this research is identified as a practice with a highly misleading title, given that those involved are not primarily from white-collar backgrounds. Rather than signifying the social class of practitioner, white-collar boxing is understood to pertain to a form of the sport in which complete beginners participate in an eight-week boxing course, in order to compete in a publicly-held, full-contact boxing match in a glamorous location in front of a large crowd. It is, thus, a condensed reproduction of the long-term career of the professional boxer, commodified for consumption by others. These courses are understood by those involved to be free in monetary terms, and undertaken to raise money for charity. As is evidenced in this research, neither is straightforwardly the case, and white-collar boxing can, instead, be understood as a philanthrocapitalist arrangement. The study involves ethnographic observation and interviews at a boxing club in the Midlands, as well as public weigh-ins and fight nights, to explore the complex interrelationships amongst class, gender and ethnicity to reveal the negotiation of identity in late modernity.

This thesis focuses on cultural narratives and representations of Mexico, Mexicans, and Mexican culture prevalent in US travel books, tourist discourse, and Mexican tourist scapes. It examines US tourism to Mexico through the lens of the imaginative geographies it is informed by and serves to mobilize. After exploring the context onto which contemporary tourism and US tourism discourse to Mexico unfolds, this thesis traces the evolution of contemporary ideas of Mexico and Mexican culture found in popular tourist narratives by looking at US travel books from the nineteenth century to the contemporary period. It then draws from empirical research data gathered through multisited ethnographic fieldwork conducted at three of Mexico’s most popular tourist destinations: San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, and Cancun/Mayan Riviera. Here, I examine the way in which particular tourist spaces – ranging from hotels, tours, expeditions, cultural courses and attractions – interweave elements of local culture into their surrounding, on-site exhibitions, and/or events programming. In addition to examining these spaces, I also consider the voices of individuals from the US who, at the time of my fieldwork, were visiting or living in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, or Cancun/Mayan Riviera. By triangulating the discursive tropes and conceptual frameworks mobilized by tourist books, tourist discourse, and tourist scapes, this thesis illustrates how culturalist readings and imaginative geographies premised on nationalist modes of understanding continue to be mobilized in the context of much of the discourse through which tourism operates.

During its first decade, Game Studies debate mainly revolved around the juxtaposition between two perspectives: the one of ludology and the one of narratology, each positing a primary quality of video games against the other. The study of the relationship between cinema and video games got somehow caught in the crossfire between these two fields. In this work, I investigate the extent to which representation in video games is connected to cinema and its representational codes. A number of authors before challenged this assumption, theorising models that only partially connect the cinematic form to video games. Such investigations have always started from the ludologically educated assumption that video games are different from cinema and, therefore, for the premises of this comparison to be considered “vitiated”, only tangentially useful due to the irreconcilably different nature of the two media. The adjective “cinematic” is a concept constantly evoked in cultural discourses concerning video games. Magazines, reviewers, critics, but also designers, artists, users and commentators (even scholars) often summon the idea of cinematic games in the attempt of describing some peculiar features that share affinities with films and suggesting that video games possess the aura of the big screen. Cinematic games are born at the crossroads between interactive movies and video games, for which the cinematic expression is retained by means of audiovisual representation while keeping the action in the hands of the player. Due to the vast scale of the subject, my work focuses on relatively recent developments in game design which have yet to be fully investigated, and seeks to extend existing attempts to apply the tools of film theory to Game Studies. A secondary value of this work is an annotation on the disengagement of moving image scholars with video games, and it partly serves as an invocation for this to change.

This study investigates the forces that shape and determine the attitudes and choices that Chinese women have made and continue to make in regard to their sport engagement at a non-elite level. It argues that the constructs of gender and class are so deeply ingrained within Chinese society that they still play their essential roles in women’s decision making processes of their sport participation. A theoretical framework that utilizes the concepts of Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu and Raewyn Connell is significant in explaining how gender and class affect the women cited in this study. Life history interviews and auto-ethnography were employed in this investigation in order to uncover more detailed and qualitative insights as to how gender and class are discursively defined and how women conform or negotiate these discourses about gender and class.

The Meeting, Incentive, Convention and Exhibition (MICE) industry, including conferences and trade shows, is a large and rapidly growing industry over the recent decade. Its growth not only brings benefits for the tourism sector, but also delivers many other potential benefits to host nations. In Thailand, the tourism and MICE industry is a major economic factor as it generates a huge amount of revenue. However, the Thai MICE industry is subject to market fluctuations and sustainable growth is difficult to maintain. Hence, this research examines the factors which influence the decisions of delegates to participate in international conventions as well as factors or criteria influencing organising committees and planners take into consideration when holding international conventions, along with an investigation to the potential of Thailand as a MICE destination, and the positioning of Thailand as a hub for the international conference and convention industry in Asia. The research also aims to identify any factors which limit the potential growth of Thailand as an international hub for the MICE industry through a Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis. The guidelines for a best practice and specifically implemented development policies including marketing strategies are developed, as well as recommendations to help Thailand become a sustainable hub for the international convention industry in Asia. A mixed-methods was employed to collate both the qualitative and quantitative data obtained from the delegates, convention organising committees and planners. The methods entailed interviews, a focus group, and responses of open-ended questions from questionnaire surveys to collate qualitative data, and a questionnaire survey was employed to collect the quantitative data. The data obtained through the qualitative and quantitative methods was triangulated in order to complement the weaknesses of one approach with the strengths of another. The result of the questionnaire survey revealed that 86 percent of the respondents agreed that Thailand has the potential to become a major MICE destination and a hub for the international convention industry in Asia, due to the advantages that Thailand offers as a destination, such as service quality; affordability and value for money; tourism activities; the attractiveness of destination; intervening opportunities; destination image factor; safety and security issues; the standardisation of hotels and accommodation; the quality of the facilities, and standardisation of the conference venue; and the quality and sufficiency of food and beverages. However, the weaknesses of Thailand as a MICE destination include other opportunities; long haul flights or travelling distances and political instability. Following triangulation with the qualitative results, it was recommended that Thailand needs to create its own events particular relevant to agriculture which Thailand does best with help from MPs, CVBs, service providers, as well as employing a diversity of strategies, including the marketing mix beyond 8Ps.

A number of policies for the provision of open space for informal recreation and sport have been developed by the Greater London Council, and other agencies including the Regional Council for Sport and Recreation and the Docklands Development Organisation. The study evaluates the extent to which these policies have been correctly formulated and are realistic, in the light of surveys of the supply of open space and the recreational use made of it by residents in south east London. The degree of success with which these policies have been adopted and implemented by executive authorities, given their existing legislative and financial powers, is also examined. In this way deficiencies in policies are identified and a number of opportunities and alternatives are suggested. The evaluation of both the formulation and implementation of open space policies for Greater London has not hitherto been carried out. Individual Borough Councils have produced topic reports or policy statements adapting strategic policies to local needs, but these do not look at their broader implications for the metropolitan area. Also the strategic open space policies contained in the Greater London Development Plan, the structure plan for London approved in 1976, have not been reviewed subsequently. Finally, although some research has been carried out in Britain and the United States on the general application of open space standards, there has been no detailed work specific to London.

This study investigates the internal and external environmental factors that affect destination marketing in Jordan and the use of the destination marketing concept by tourism companies in Jordan. Furthermore, special emphasis is placed on investigating and identifying the existing relationship between the internal and external factors in destination marketing by pinpointing the factors being used by tourism companies and those factors that contribute to the attraction of tourists to Jordan. The empirical research to support the study uses survey methods to develop and test the critical factors of a destination marketing success model that can be used to market and promote Jordan, regionally and globally, as a preferred tourism destination area. A number of hypotheses were formulated to realise the objectives of the study. In the formulation of the research hypotheses, the researcher was guided by a deductive method regarding the groups of tourist destination attitudes and practices of marketing with consistency of questionnaire responses in comparison with available literature on the subject. Eight hypotheses covered the following aspects: tourists’ satisfaction, quality, product, accessibility, people, price, promotion and physical evidence. The results were quantitatively analysed by using SPSS. Review of previous research on critical factors of success, tactical management, destination tactical management and destination competitiveness models was undertaken in an endeavour to find a framework for the development of critical factors of the destination marketing success model that can be used for the identification and integration of critical factors of success. The findings indicate that respondents rated all the factors of service quality listed as critical. Most of the respondents felt that, in order to please the global tourists, the experience must be safe, secure, comfortable and relaxing. Also, the quality of capability, accommodation, access to natural areas, tour guides, tourist information, transportation, financial and communication institutions were factors regarded as contributors to tourist satisfaction. It was also revealed that the most critical factors of product of destination marketing development were improving the tourism products, identifying and exploring new opportunities and upgrading visitor services and facilities. The proposed destination marketing model was developed and tested in the Jordan context and proved to be operational. A number of recommendations were made in terms of safety and security management, destination product marketing development, accessibility systems, people development and dependable management. This study contributes to the field of tourism through testing a destination marketing success model that can be applied to global destinations.

This thesis presents an empirical investigation of individual and team contests using both lab experiments and field data. The thesis is comprised of five chap- ters. Chapter 1 introduces the overarching theme of this thesis and the common methodological tool, which is a novel real effort task used in the lab experiments. Chapter 2 discusses this real effort task in more detail and shows its usefulness in studying behavioural responses to incentives by presenting a series of experiments, including individual production with piece-rate incentives, team production, gift exchange, and tournament, using the task. All of the results are closely in line with theoretical predictions and, where applicable, the stylised facts from experiments using purely induced values. Chapter 3 experimentally examines the role of interpersonal comparisons in an individual contest. The experiment follows Gill and Prowse (2012) and is designed to investigate the source of disappointment aversion, that is, whether it is purely an asocial concept, akin to loss aversion, or fuelled by interpersonal comparisons. The new evidence however rejects predictions of the disappointment aversion model, both when interpersonal comparisons are possible and when they are not. Chapter 4 empirically examines strategic behaviour of contestants in a dynamic “best-of-three” team contest. I find evidence of “strategic neutrality” in both field data from high-stakes professional squash team tournaments and lab data from an experiment: the outcomes of previous battles do not affect the current battle. The lab data however reveal that the neutrality prediction does not perfectly hold at the level of individual efforts. Chapter 5 concludes the thesis by summarising all findings in previous chapters, discussing the limitations, and pointing to directions for future research.

One public health approach to increase lifestyle physical activity is increasing choice to climb stairs instead of using the escalator or lift. Nonetheless, pedestrians in the built environment tend to avoid it. Proffitt’s economy of action model explained that pedestrian locomotor choices might influenced by perception. The first study (n=870) revisited Shaffer and Flint (2011) by asking participants to estimate the angle of an escalator. Participants reported an escalator that was moving upwards as less steep than a stationary one or one moving downwards. The second study (n=849), conducted in Indonesia, assessed the potential effects of temperature and humidity on a) speed of climbing an outdoor staircase and b) estimates of the angle. Chosen speed is an index of the allocation of resources. As temperature increased, speed of climbing reduced. For perception, both temperature and humidity influenced the explicit estimate of the angle; as climatic variables increased, perceptions became more exaggerated. Study three (n=730) and four (n=307), in the UK, are a concomitant study that investigated pedestrians’ behaviour approaching the choice-point and examined the relationship between behaviour choice and perceived steepness of a staircase. Results revealed that individuals who climbed the stairs walked faster than those who avoided them. Unlike a previous study, exaggeration of perceived steepness of the stairs did not affect pedestrians’ choice behaviour. Collectively, these findings suggest that availability energetic resources influence the overestimation of perceived steepness. In addition, natural variation in climate not only affects explicit perceptions but also directly influence both walking and climbing behaviour.