As the game of England and empire, cricket is a significant colonial and postcolonial cultural practice which has proven as important to anti colonial modes of resistance, opposition and independence as its image of Englishness was to the hegemonizing project of British imperialism. Although the game has an immense literature of its own, little critical attention has been paid to its place in the field of literary studies. Consequently, taking its title and starting point from the interwoven questioning of Rudyard Kipling and C. L. R. James, this thesis explores cricket's repeated presence in English and Caribbean literature as a symbol of interconnected national and imperial identities under constant renegotiation, concentrating specifically on the construction and problematization of the male cricket hero - real and/or fictional - from Tom Brown to Brian Lara. Organized around the territorial metaphor of the crease, Part One, `English Literature at the Imperial Crease 1850s-1950s', offers two chapters which examine the place of cricket in the creation, imperial contextualization and post war decline of the English cricketing gentleman as a hero of the nation. Part Two, `Caribbean Heroes at the Literary Crease after 1950', engages with cricket's relation to the masculine quest for independence in Trinidadian literature as well as a range of poetic representations of the Caribbean's substantial investment in cricket heroes. Finally, Part Three, `The Straight White Line', re-evokes the crease as line and territory to read the trans-gendered British Caribbean cricketing body of Neil Jordan's The Crying Game (1992). The thesis argues that while cricket has been a valuable vehicle for the postcolonial expression of freedom in the Caribbean and elsewhere it has also remained tied to an over investment in individual male heroes which continues to pose substantial problems to projects of collective emancipation.

The aim of the research is to analyze the ways in which the cultural meanings of professional sport associated with gender, ethnicity, and age are changing in the U.K. and the U.S. in the context of international social processes. This study contributes to the examination of mediated sport, and therefore, wider sporting and social processes, in several ways. It assesses mediated sport discourses as reproducing existing power relations as arranged around the social categories of gender and ethnicity. It acknowledges hegemonic masculinity remains as a useful concept for understanding the construction of gender, specifically within mediated sport. Elements of hegemonic, and therefore subordinate, masculinity are demonstrating nuanced changes. Discourses relating to media coverage of large-scale sporting events further emphasize the divisions and are implicated as resources for difference making between individuals and groups based on ethnic, ‘racialized,’ and national identities. Finally, this study offers an initial exploration of mediated sport and age. Here mediated sport discourses build a system of values and definitions related to cultural understandings of the body, social interaction, and behavioural convention; this establishes what the researcher has termed an ‘age complex’ derived from mediated sport discourses.

In order to examine the possible health implications of outdoor play areas, this PhD used a multi-methods approach to examine socio-economic variations in the provision, quality and perceptions of publicly available outdoor play areas in Glasgow, with the underpinning philosophy that play areas may be used as a locale for children to engage in physically active play. The locations of play areas were mapped using GIS software and spatial variations were examined by deprivation. A sample (n=100) of play areas in the highest, middle and lowest quintiles of deprivation were visited and an objective quality audit was undertaken assessing their safety and aesthetics. Pupils in P6 (mean age=9.9 years) were recruited from a school in a highly deprived area and a school in an area of low social deprivation. Sixty two “Draw-and-write” activities and four focus groups were conducted with children to investigate preferences for play and benefits and barriers for visiting play areas. Interviews were also conducted with seven play area maintenance men and two mothers to investigate their views on local play provision. Whilst there was greater provision of play areas in deprived areas of Glasgow, some aspects of their quality were poorer. Children and adults spoke about safety from injury and strangers, and a lack of suitable facilities as barriers to using play areas. Vandalism, misuse and youth disorder were also strong themes in all qualitative research. The barriers for play for children from a deprived area were of a more serious nature compared to children from a less deprived area and those aspects of safety and incivilities which were objectively measured as worse in deprived areas, were also ones that acted as barriers for parents and children. Thus, it is those children who may be in greatest need for free access to safe and healthy play spaces that face more (and often more serious) barriers to play. Although play areas might provide children with opportunity to be physically active, access to facilities alone may not always mean they are used. Further research evaluating refurbishments to play areas may help to determine whether improvements made to play areas would impact upon their use and physical activity levels of users.

This thesis examines the state-supported system for elite-level sport in Scotland and considers whether or not that system is effective in terms of delivery to athletes and coaches and assesses the extent to which it was fair and equitable in terms of outcomes. The study is set within a feminist cultural studies framework that is enriched by qualitative study and based on the distinctively Scottish cultural and historical experience of the nature of sport. The thesis comprises of two major studies and the findings are based on original material collected from three main research methodologies: documentary evidence, quantitative and qualitative analyses. Study one sets the historical and policy context in which the main focus of the research can be understood. An historical account of state involvement in the elite sport sector is followed by a critical evaluation of elite sport policy agenda during the first session of the Scottish Parliament (1999-2003). The aim of this study was to identify and review the institutional and financial frameworks set up to guide the decision-making process for the delivery of the Scottish elite sport agenda. Study two was designed to gather demographic and socio-economic information on Scotland’s elite athletes and to measure the level of athlete satisfaction with the administration, effectiveness and equity of the Lottery-funded Talented Athlete Programme (TAP). The first, predominately quantitative, phase of the study, was conducted by means of a postal questionnaire. Significant issues raised during this phase were followed-up and explored in more depth in the second, qualitative phase. Information from athletes was enhanced by the data gathered from interviews with officials, coaches and administrators who are vital to the implementation and success of the elite sport programmes currently in place in Scotland and at the UK level. Where appropriate, interview data is put into some context by with data collected by the researcher from various sources, including TAP press releases, annual reports and official documents. The key findings of this research suggest that there are too many gaps in the present system of support for talented and elite athletes to be able to claim that Scotland is “a country where sporting talent is recognised and nurtured” (Scottish Sports Council, 1998b, pp.7). Clearly, there is much still to be done it this vision is to be realised for all Scotland’s talented athletes, irrespective of their gender, cultural or socio-economic background. Only then, can Scottish sport genuinely claim that “nothing is left to chance” and Scotland can be considered “a country achieving and sustaining world class performances in sport” (Scottish Sports Council, 1998b, pp.7).

This thesis explores the under-theorised and under-mapped area of labour supply within the field of artistic production. It agrees with cultural economists that the neoclassical economic theoretical models used to analyse the behaviour of artistic labour supply are inadequate - hampered by a lack of differentiated understanding of the employment modes, transactional roles and internal market relationships of artistic production. This thesis argues that generating a more powerful dynamic model for artistic labour behaviour depends on factoring in variables associated with work mode and functional role. There is evidence to suggest that artists and in particular, actors and dancers who are the subject of this study, mix a variety of functional roles in a mixed portfolio of entrepreneurial and employed work and the "mix" may change at different points in the career. Moreover, artists make apparently "irrational" work choices which cannot be explained by neo-classical economic theory. The thesis uses an empirical study of the working lives of eight performing artists to investigate the ways in which they act and inter-act within the artistic labour market. It finds that rational work choices are made which balance opportunities for accumulating reputation, investing in expertise, creative engagement and the minimising of financial risk.

This qualitative study examines the relationship between migration, foodways, ethnic identities and gender through a case study of a West African community in the UK, Ghanaians in London. The study is grounded in qualitative and theoretical research on meals. The micro-level analysis of food habits within households is set in a wider context by exploring the development of the food culture in the community as a whole. The main research questions are: 1) How are foodways maintained, transformed, and renewed by migrants and their descendants at both household and community levels? 2) What is the relationship between ethnic identity and foodways amongst migrant groups? 3) What is the role of gender in maintaining foodways and identities? At the household level, the focus is on the structure of food and eating in the past and present, and on food habits as symbolic expressions of ethnicities and gender. The study employs ethnographic methods of investigation in studying Ghanaian households, functions, restaurants and food stores. The thesis highlights the role of substitutes in maintaining meal formats and the identity of the food despite changes in its nutritional content. Transformation of food habits occurs through improved access to formerly unavailable foods or meals, enabling migrants to express hybrid identities. Transformation also occurs in the second generation due to shifting identities and the acceptance of other food cultures. Functions can form an arena for the renewal of commensal relationships among migrants. At the community and household levels, the role of gender is important in the maintenance of foodways and ethnic identities. Among first generation migrants it is possible to observe a shift in emphasis from ‘tribal’, or ‘regional’, to ‘national’ food, and among the second generation, a further shift away from ‘national’ or ‘continental’ food to food with a more comprehensive reach. These shifts express symbolically changing identities and ideas of difference.

This thesis aims to explore the concept of developing a brand identity for Libya as a tourism destination. The author adopts a model proposed by Iliachenko (2005) to do this. The model is based upon a destination’s culture, history and nature in creating a destination brand identity. The author recognises that this model was proposed as an exploratory tool so he seeks to further explore its usefulness in the destination brand identity development process. Data collection for this thesis adopted a qualitative approach. This involved conducting semi-structured interviews with internal stakeholders in the Libyan tourism sector (Tourism Authority, tourism companies, academic staff, hotel company, Committee for the Preparation of Tourism Master Plan); this was complemented with document analysis. The results of the empirical study identify that the Iliachenko model was reviewed with great satisfaction by the respondents and they identified how Libya might be defined as a destination brand. They also saw a lot of merit in urgently adopting the model in developing a destination brand identity for Libya. The author, however, in analysing the findings, considers the Iliachenko model to be incomplete as a tool to enable a destination brand identity to be developed. To cover these deficiencies the author argues there is a need to add two new elements to the Iliachenko model to represent Libyan tourist destination brand identity, these are: people; and safety and security. In addition, for the model to be useful it must be applied within a political context, defined by processes of governance, economic structure the process of applying the model. In so doing a new model is thus proposed: The Alghalli destination brand identity pentagon (see figure 9.2). This thesis concludes that a tourist destination brand identity for Libya must include a ‘vision’ that promotes ‘Libya as a tourist destination that is safe, secure and also hospitable’. From this a destination brand identity can emerge that captures the personality elements of the destination of Libya as being ‘beautiful, quiet, safe and honest, welcoming and culturally diverse and of great age’. The contribution of this thesis is both practical and theoretical, and it finishes with the identification of areas of further research while the application of the new model in Libya and in different destination contexts.

The focus of many marketing studies is to understand the needs and anticipations of consumers and how they can be provided with positive experiences. In their efforts to understand the consumer, consumer behaviour researchers generally adopt a cognitive perspective, which propagates a rational, information processing approach to consumer behaviour (O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy, 2003). However, a unitary theory of consumption behaviour is undesirable because this restricts the way in which consumption behaviour can be studied (Foxall, 1990). As such, researchers need to use alternative theories in order to widen the scope of knowledge on consumer behaviour. Furthermore, within the field of consumer behaviour, emotional experience of consumers has become a prominent field of investigation. Richins (1997) concluded that the importance of emotions in consumer behaviour is well established. The question then is how researchers can attempt to understand the emotional experiences of consumers. This research is an attempt to understand consumption emotions of consumers with specific relevance to sports consumption. It uses an alternative psychological theory, personal construct theory, with which to understand and measure consumption emotions. Mixed methods research design is used comprising of repertory grid interviews and a quantitative survey to identify and understand the relevant emotions with regards to domestic one-day cricket spectators. The findings here show that six emotions are relevant in the cricket spectating context with most of these emotions having a strong relationship with both game experience and return intentions. This study contributes to existing knowledge on consumption emotions by demonstrating the use of an alternative approach to both measure and study consumption emotions. By using personal construct theory, the research has helped overcome some prevalent issues within consumption emotions literature. It has shown that emotions need to be understood at an individual level. Furthermore, it has demonstrated that rationality and emotions are part of the same process and provide support for conceptualising satisfaction as an emotion.

The detrimental nature of movement variability has recently been reconsidered with suggestions that it has a functional role to play in performance. Movements in golf can be attributed to the organismic, task and environmental constraints from which they emerge with these swing movements affecting shot outcomes. A three-dimensional analysis of address position variability revealed that higher skilled golfers present reduced alignment variability in angular relationships between the shoulders and stance compared to less skilled counterparts. Whilst there were no group differences in impact variability, both points in the swing displayed reducing variability from proximal to distal aspects of the kinetic chain. With the popularity of strength and conditioning growing within the golfing world it has become important for coaches to be able to assess golfers’ physical constraints. Two-dimensional analysis, representative of that used in coaching environments, assessed the relationship between the overhead squat and deterioration of posture in the golf swing. Results showed small but significant relationships between this test and golf swing postural kinematics. An 8-week intervention to address overhead squat physical constraints resulted in no change in 3D swing kinematics. Strength and conditioning as a stand-alone intervention provides no benefits to postural kinematics suggesting the need for coaching.

Sport coaching is a complex phenomenon in need of greater conceptual and grounded understandings. Since Heidegger’s influential text; Being and Time (1927/2005), the phenomenological question of what it means to ‘be’ has aided understanding in areas such as nursing and teaching. It is logical then, that this thesis sought to identify what it means to ‘be’ a youth performance coach. The phenomenological tenet that those best placed to elucidate a phenomenon are those that experience it, guided the thesis to explore the lived experiences of four case study coaches. Findings revealed three constituent ‘essences’ of youth performance coaching; (i) care; (ii) a commitment to educate athletes authentically for corporeal challenges to come; (iii) working with others to achieve a specialised corporeal excellence. These findings redirect coaches, researchers and educators ‘back to the thing itself’. The thesis also includes further novel contributions: 1) Phenomenological philosophy and methodology are introduced to coaching research. 2) The essential constituents of youth performance coaching are humanised by describing the incidental experiences and lifeworld of four case study coaches. 3) Fresh concepts (e.g. forms of care), sources (e.g. Sartre, 1943/1984), and areas for future research (e.g. coaching imagination) extend extant sport coaching literature.