This dissertation deals with the provincial hunger riots and the metropolitan industrial riots of the first decade of George III's reign. By focussing both on the immediate causes of these disturbances and on the underlying social tensions which determined their form and direction, it seeks to explain why this was the worst period of disorder in the century, although in other decades the deprivations of the poor were greater. Early studies of the riots of the 1760's which have not dealt exclusively with political disturbances have treated the riots as part of the history of trade unions or of the story of the rural labourer's degradation. As a result, the interrelationship of these two expressions of social discontent has been ignored by most historians of popular movements. More recent studies have presented the hunger and industrial disorders primarily in terms of the discontents of the rioters. By focussing closely upon the "faces in the crowd" scholars have corrected the misconception that eighteenth-century mobs were chiefly composed of the most depraved elements in society. But in the process of this legitimate attempt to rehabilitate the historical crowd, such students have been rather reluctant to concede its manipulation by those standing over and apart from the mob. This is particularly true when rioters clearly acted according to socially appropriate goals, as was usually the case with rural hunger mobs and industrial strikers. This results in the undervaluing of the role of other interests, and stresses immediate at the expense of secondary causation. This work sets the rioters of the 1760's in their social context and presents the riots as the product of an interaction of the poor, the landowners, the industrialists, the local authorities, and the national government. All of these interests contributed to disorder in some fashion: by suggesting the poor regulate markets for themselves, the gentry encouraged them to take actions for which many later were tried by special assize; by failing to suppress the initial disorders, the magistrates appeared to sanction the acts of the mobs; by blaming middlemen for high prices of food, clothiers and other industrialists in the distressed cloth counties of Southern England diverted their underpaid workers towards bunting mills and local markets; by proclaiming the old anti-middlemen statutes against forestalling, engrossing, and regrating instead of ending grain exports, the Ministry confirmed that the food shortage was artificial and encouraged further attacks upon middlemen and farmers; by blaming coal-undertakers and then failing to enforce existing legislation against these middlemen of the coal trade, the government encouraged coalheavers to act in their own defence. While the timing of the disorders of the 1760's was determined by such factors as sudden fluctuations in the prices of provisions, attempts to reduce wages or employment opportunities for the poor, or grain movements in times of anticipated famine, the form and direction were the result of the expectations of various interests. The significance of expectations is apparent in the important role played by veterans of the Seven Years' War and the equivocal reaction to the initial hunger riots of the ruling orders. The responses of the poor and the privileged alike can only be explained with reference to important social changes, which resulted after the mid-century from agricultural and industrial developments. The effects of these social changes was aggravated by war and by the progressive abandonment of the principles and practices of the old "moral economy." / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Masculinity is a set of meanings, and also an aspect of male identity. Understanding masculinity in history, therefore, requires attention to culture and psychology. The concept of a "crisis of masculinity" cannot address these dimensions sufficiently and is of little use to the historian. / This analysis of evidence from late medieval England begins with the social world. Legal records show men defending, and therefore defining, masculine identity through interaction among male peers and with women. Defamation suits suggest a fifteenth-century identification of masculinity with "trueness": an uncomplicated, open honesty. A "true man," in late medieval England, was not just an honest man, but a real man. / Social masculinity constituted honest fairness, permitting stable social relations between men. Transparent honesty, good management of the household ("husbandry"), and self-command preserved males' social substance, their metaphoric embodiment represented tangibly by money and property. Lawsuits and personal letters show how masculine social identity took shape through competition and cooperation with other men. "Power," "dominance" and self-fulfilment were less important than sustaining this network of relations. / Men's relations with women are best understood within this homosocial dynamic. Men's adultery trespassed on other males' substance, while women's adultery indicated poor management of one's own. Sexual slander against men could injure their social identity, but was unlikely to demolish it, as it would for a woman. The celibate minority of men shared these concerns. / Medical texts, late medieval men's clothing, satirical poems, and courtesy texts prescribing self-control show that the male body provided important meanings (phallic and otherwise), through failure, inadequacy or excess as often as not. Sexual activity, and other uses of the body, might be managed differently as self-restraining or self-indulgent discourses of masculinity demanded. / A psychoanalytic reading of medieval romances reveals fantasized solutions to the problem of males' desire for feminine and masculine objects. Romance literature displays a narcissistic subjectivity created in defensive fantasies of disconnection. Such features derive from a culture demanding incessant social self-presentation of its men, which permitted very little in daily life to be kept from the scrutiny of others.

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The focus of this study is faith and peacebuilding in UK community cohesion since 2001. The central feature is a presentation of action research findings set in a collaborative relationship between the researcher and an inter-faith community dialogue project established to address divisive right wing extremism in the fieldwork locality of South Yorkshire. A decade of New Labour governance has seen community cohesion policy evolve from initial concerns regarding urban unrest to mainstream strategies targeted on violent religious extremism. Dialogue between ethnically diverse and white mono-cultural communities has been seen as the best way of helping people to get on better with each other. However community cohesion policy can be criticised for a significant failure to address issues of inequality and exclusion that are relevant to inter-community tensions. Since 2001, faith has been an increasingly prominent, albeit ambivalent, presence in UK society. Protagonists, arguing faith should have little or no role in public life, contest bitter disputes with those who perceive that an encroaching tide of secularism is attacking their faith beliefs and identity. Against this background right wing extremists have made astute use of faith identity, embedding their presence in some communities by utilising extremist discourses of Islamophobia that frame Muslims as a threat to the indigenous culture and resources of white communities. However some writers have identified the positive contribution that faith can make to public life. A commitment to social justice and addressing exclusion are examples of the resources faith can bring to addressing societal issues. Peacebuilding methodologies are similarly concerned with such issues. Processes for addressing protracted4 social conflict provide a framework within which faith and secular perspectives can cooperate to address these complex issues. The study’s action research found a strong relationship in the field work locality between electoral support of the extreme right wing BNP party and high levels of deprivation in white mono-cultural communities. Anger and resentment arising from industrial conflict and decline, and perceptions of being ignored by mainstream political parties, have been exploited by the BNP, opening a portal to hostile discourses of racism and Islamophobia. However the study’s research found that faith and faith values can bring rich and positive resources to inter-faith activity that aims to challenge divisive extremism that targets ethnic minority communities in general and Muslims in particular. In such circumstances it is usual practice to reduce hostile perceptions by arranging programmes of community interaction. However this study found that in communities where this strategy is not feasible, implementation of an intra-community dialogue framework may be effective in reducing hostile prejudice and stereotyping on which extremism feeds.

Although economic growth has brought significant improvements in the standard of living in the UK over recent decades, there are still individuals living in poverty. Furthermore poverty in the UK is expected to rise. Although monetary poverty has wide ranging impacts such as poor health, low educational attainment and employability and reduced life expectancy, it does not (in the form of a poverty line at 60% of the median equivalised household income) appear to have an impact on wellbeing when the threshold was tested. Instead, multidimensional poverty – that purported by the Capabilities Approach – is a more individually relevant measure of poverty. Using a list, developed by Nussbaum, of core capabilities seen as essential for human life, capability measures were taken from the British Household Panel Survey. In analysis, some are found to be significant determinants of wellbeing, individually and in sum. Furthermore, individuals within the dataset experience loss aversion to capabilities. This thesis concludes that poverty measurement should be meaningful at the individual level, and to that aim, the Capabilities Approach provides a richer and more relevant evaluation of what poverty really means.

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published_or_final_version / toc / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This study is a cross-examination of the theory of revolution and the historical view of English society and politics in the late eighteenth century. Historical research focused upon the most respected (if not the most recent) works containing theory and information about the effects of the French Revolution on English society and politics. Research into the theory of revolution was basically a selection process whereby a few of the most extensive and reasonable theories were chosen for use.The cross-study of the two fields revealed that, although historians view it as politically conservative and generally complacent, English society, fettered by antiquated political institutions and keenly aware of the recent French Revolution, contained all the elements conducive to rebellion listed by the theorists of revolution. In the final analysis, research indicated revolution did not occur in England because of the confluence of political, military and social events in England and France. / Department of History