This thesis aims to explore the representation of football in art from its origins in Ancient Greece to the present day, although the main focus of the analysis will be upon representations of football in English art from the late Victorian period up to 2010. In general terms, with minor but notable exceptions, the analysis will centre on the work of fine artists working in 2D, whose work has length and width much like a football pitch. The thesis will look at how artists have approached the game be it action on the pitch, a focus upon spectators or the location of the football stadium. The thesis will also assess the work of artists have who explored societal issues such as gender, identity, race as well as violence in society using football as visual content to explore these issues. The aim throughout will be to place the artwork in a social and historical context, to provide a social analysis of football through art, to demonstrate that art ‘is always a social servant and historically utilitarian.’It could be argued that an historical approach to art may well impact upon aesthetic appreciation, but knowledge of when and how a piece of art was produced also helps to place the work in context. In other words, aesthetic appreciation is linked to historical relevance. What is also clear is that visual images, in themselves, cannot provide the sports historian with a history of football. They can, however, provide an invaluable resource that can be used by social historians. The key source material for this thesis is first and foremost the artwork itself, a significant body of which is located at the National Football Museum. However, other sources such as press and art magazine articles, exhibition catalogues, the art archives at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Manchester Art Gallery as well as the substantial Football Association archive at National Football Museum, have also been of crucial importance. Also, a number of interviews with contemporary artists have provided invaluable primary source material: these artists have also allowed me to view their work and provided me with copies to facilitate the study of their work. The major findings arising from the research are that the representation of football in art was not, once again with notable exceptions, prevalent until the foundation of the Premier League in 1992. These exceptions include popular art depictions of football in the Edwardian period, work commissioned by Frank Pick on behalf of London Transport and the milestone Football and the Fine Arts exhibition of 1953. Overall analysis of the artwork has shown that art is a useful source for historians and that focus upon a particular art genre, in this instance football art, can provide different insights into a significant cultural practice.

D. H. Lawrence left one of the most diverse collections of literary works ever contributed to the literature of the English language; the Lawrence canon contains a body of material which includes novels, short fiction, poetry, drama, literary criticism, travel essays, and philosophical writings. Since Lawrence is generally considered a novelist, the problem arises concerning the relationship between his novels and his other writings. In this case the concentration will be upon Lawrence's philosophical writings or what Lawrence called his pseudo-philosophy--his "pollyanalytics."

The thesis of this paper is that Mencken was a better critic than he is credited with being, that he was unusually discerning in his judgment of the fiction of his time, and that his criteria are clearly stated in various of his writings. It is conceded, however, that his taste in poetry was limited and that his contribution to dramatic criticism was not? greatly significant.

The research operationalizes the Darwinian meta-principle Selection by Consequences to conduct an empirical investigation. The project originates from a concern to understand the distal reasons why many of the marketing practices adopted by Wall’s appear to have persisted relatively unchanged for several decades and to have consistently conferred advantage to allow this manufacturer to dominate the UK ice cream market since before WWII. Central to Selection by Consequences is the claim that socio-cultural practices evolve through a process similar to biological natural selection and analogous to operant conditioning. The aim of the research is to assess and evaluate the empirical validity of this latter claim. A review of the literature suggests three pressing obstacles immediately barring the project, namely, relative incompleteness of the natural selection-operant conditioning analogy, methodological issues when applying operant principles (uncovered scientifically within experimental laboratories) to frame corporate market practices in the real world, and, insufficiency of these principles to account for the idiosyncrasies of the economic behaviour of organisations. The Marketing Firm provides the theoretical underpinning of this research because it begins to tackle the latter problems. After addressing these issues, the research interprets qualitative evidence narrating a 1979 investigation into the strategic practices of Wall’s conducted by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. The inquiry is designed as a qualitative longitudinal case study. Generally, the evidence upholds the operant conditioning characterisation. However, several theoretical elaborations and empirically grounded refinements must be taken into account. Future research is directed towards further clarification and testing the analogy to destruction. As its primary original contribution, the research generates the first empirical study wherein Selection by Consequences is operationalized to produce an operant account of the evolutionary selection of marketing practices. The study also contributes by suggesting means to demonstrate, albeit qualitatively, processes typically identified through experimental methods and quantitative data.

Identity and self are complex and fragmented concepts. There are various theories, but narrative is a useful framework for understanding and investigating them. Narrative theory and social constructionism, which have similar ontological foundations but differ somewhat in other ways, are combined in this thesis to investigate how adults with dyslexia construct their identities. A new concept, ‘storyworld’, is presented and used to demonstrate how the narrative construction of lived time shapes identity construction. The stories adults tell about their lived experience of disability allow a glimpse into the impact of disability on identity and selfhood. Dyslexia, as a specific disability characterised by difficulties with literacy, has the potential to be a moral issue with which sufferers have to contend in everyday life. This study presents findings from narrative life interviews with 14 adults who identify as dyslexic. First, the adults’ discursive constructions of dyslexia are presented. Decisions about disclosure and concealment are important and have impacts on lived-lives and future plans. They bring up identity issues such as change and difference. Change and difference vis-à-vis a label of dyslexia, perceptions of self, thoughts about people’s perceptions and new ways one can deal with difficulties related to dyslexia, were expressed through the participants’ narratives. The life narratives of two women are then presented as case studies, with specific reference to disclosure and their journeys from initial suspicions of dyslexia to current difficulties and identity struggles. The concept of ‘storyworld’ is used to shape the analyses, focusing on how the lived life is framed within the told story and how the participants narratively construct their lives. Finally, the narrative structures, plots and timelines of the participants’ stories are analysed. In terms of identity, the temporal complexity of the stories, exposed through a storyworld analysis, indicates the self-significance of the lived-events that are told.

This thesis contends that the NEET category obscures the significant impact of the accomplishments of those who operate in the informal creative economy. Grime music, a black Atlantic creative expression, is used as a lens through which to explore and analyse the nature of entrepreneurship within this sector. East London, a site of poverty, movement and migration is the geographical starting point for the project. Over a five-year period from 2007 – 2012, ethnographic field research was carried out in London and Ayia Napa, Cyprus. Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants in the sector. In addition, participant observation was undertaken in various settings including pirate radio stations, nightclubs and music video shoots. The global reach of those who operate within the urban music sector is highly visible and this sector has a significant socio-economic impact. Practitioners utilise advances in technology as well as innovative business practice to create opportunities for self-employment on a local, national and international scale. Grime music and its related enterprise culture is a mechanism for social and economic mobility particularly for those from ethnically stigmatised communities. The findings disrupt existing strategies to deal with youth unemployment. Suggestions are made for a more differentiated approach to support the reduction of youth unemployment and the development of business start-up and self- employment. Finally, further research areas are identified including a more in depth study into the global economy for UK urban music and an exploration of the process and practice of business start-up.

Production and consumption of text, image and video content about both diabetes and common mental health disorders (CMHDs), by individuals and organisations, has become commonplace since the widespread adoption of social media. Despite the increasing importance of these online spaces for health-related discussion few studies have fully explored people’s experiences of drawing on social media content around either diabetes or CMHDs. The aim of this study was to explore the multiple ways young adults engage with health-related content online and develop an understanding of how social media are used for health information and communication. A further aim was to explore the areas of convergence and divergence between professional producers’ perspectives on online resources about diabetes and CMHDs and prospective users’ perspectives. To explore these issues, a qualitative study was developed. Forty young adults, aged between 18 and 30 years, and six professional producers took part in semi-structured interviews. The key findings of the study reflect the increasing prominence of health-related user-generated content online. While continued reliance on search-engines for locating relevant content was evident, some participants discussed accessing health-related content as part of their everyday social media activity. Further, participants’ perceptions and experiences of support from family, friends and formal health services appeared to relate to their online practices: those who described least supportive resources offline discussed engaging most actively in production and consumption of health-related user-generated content. Participants also discussed what limited their production of health-related content, suggesting that production of content related to diabetes or CMHDs could compromise their presentation of self online. Disjunctures were evident between the perspectives of producers and potential users, with producers prioritising dissemination of generic information and young adults emphasising the consumption of tailored content. The findings of the study suggest key opportunities for exploiting the potential of social media to engage with users but highlight potential barriers to some individuals’ engagement.

This study presents an innovative analysis of the policing of petty offending and the work the police in Cumbria: it problematizes conceptions of policing and its history. This study uses the neglected minutiae of police and court records to deconstruct the role of the police, discretionary policing by men on the beat, public expectations of the police, and the growth of police bureaucracy, which then calls into question the idea of a ‘golden age’ of policing. These are the issues that dominate the contemporary discourses on policing, though this study makes clear that assumptions are made today that are not supported by the history. The themes of this study are as relevant today as they were 150 years ago, for this work is interdisciplinary, situated in the social sciences, particularly criminology and history. This study examines the police’s role at a time of social, economic and bureaucratic change. It links the development of police expertise and professionalism with the process of state formation. The historiography and nature of Victorian policing are tested by this study of Cumbria, a remote and unique region which was culturally, economically and agriculturally quite atypical of Victorian England.

As many changes in society, such as increased geographic mobility and improved technological advances, have led to generations frequently becoming segregated from one another, the development of intergenerational shared sites (IGSS) presents a unique opportunity for exchange and interaction between the generations. This study ‘tells the story’ of the development of the UK’s first IGSS – a purpose-built intergenerational centre (the Centre).

The focus of this thesis is upon the Adoption Support Plan (ASP), one of the documents constructed for new adoptions of children in the UK. The Adoption and Children Act, 2002, made provision for support in adoption through the right to request an assessment of support. The recognition of support for adoption has emerged as the nature of adoption has changed with fewer children being relinquished at birth. Children adopted from social care are generally older and more likely to have experienced trauma and broken attachments. The ‘closed’ nature of the adoption of babies has become more ‘open’ with arrangements such as contact with birth families and access to birth records (Lowe, 1999). It is now understood that adoption is associated with life-long periods of adjustment which can require different levels of support. However little is known about how support is assessed and introduced for new adoptions. A documentary analysis method explored the ways in which the ASP operated within the wider adoption context. Qualitative interviews were also undertaken. The findings highlight that the ASP focused mainly on the matching arrangements concerning the child’s past and present needs, with little consideration of potential future support that might be required. Adopters were largely unaware of the existence and purpose of the ASP to support the adoptive family and their future. Two proposals are made to raise the status and visibility of the ASP during the arrangements for adoption. Firstly, the document should be redesigned and it should be ‘co-produced’ following the placement, allowing the Review to agree the negotiated support requirements. Secondly, a strategic interagency commitment to space for adoption support within mainstream family support services should be established, requiring a programme of information for the public and training for all providers regarding the normative aspects of adoption and the value of support.