This research responds to gaps in the literature about the evolution of physiotherapy practice and to uncertainties emerging from within physiotherapy about its professionalism and practice. It aimed to generate a theoretically informed understanding of the tensions present in contemporary physiotherapy practice by producing an embodied account of the process of becoming a practice profession. The research aim was achieved by a genealogical study of existing literature, documentary data from physiotherapy’s qualifying curricula and oral accounts of practice generated by depth interviews with physiotherapists who qualified during the 1940/60s. These data were subject to a Foucauldian discourse analysis and a phenomenological analysis to explore the events, discourses and actions shaping physiotherapy practice over time. Unlike existing historic accounts that trace the evolution of physiotherapy’s professional identity, this research prioritises the bodies doing physiotherapy over time so offers a fresh perspective on physiotherapy as a practice and as a profession. From a ‘doing’ perspective, professionalism ceases to be an acquisition that is externally bestowed and becomes a dynamic process of experiencing/producing autonomous problem-solving in practice. Physiotherapy’s professional practice can be traced back to the 1945 curriculum. It was enacted through the integration of physiotherapy movement/touch and by the discipline of movement, which generated autonomous problem-solving practices that cut across ward/disease boundaries established by medicine from the 1950s onwards. While still subject to medical supervision, physiotherapy’s movement/touch crossed the division of labour to develop capacity to produce diagnosis-inference-treatment once its technical autonomy was recognised in 1977. Once free of medicine, physiotherapy’s professional practices multiplied to provide moving/touching solutions for an increasing variety of movement disorders. My research complements the existing (disembodied) critical histories of physiotherapy as a profession and demonstrates the value of embodiment as a lens for tracing movement in physiotherapy’s professional identities and practices over time. It adds to sociological understanding of the organisation of healthcare occupations and practices by offering an account of a body that is a moving part of a division of labour organised around the dominant profession of medicine.

The 12 Step programme of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA, 2001) is a set of principles that provides a way of life for those that follow it and is based upon a ‘spiritual awakening’ (AA, 2001 pp59-60). The thesis is the first to examine how managers who follow this spiritual programme apply it in their organisational role through general management competencies (New, 1996). This mixed method, phenomenology-led research is placed within a social constructionist setting. A comprehensive and wide ranging literature review was conducted. The data was generated using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 1996), the Integrated Spiritual Intelligence Scale (Amram and Dyer, 2007) and Workplace Observation (Lucia and Lepsinger, 1999). The findings explain psychological antecedents, mechanisms and pathways that inform the sample of AA managers in their work role. The discussion identifies relationships with existing efficacious management styles and concepts. Areas of heuristic value for future research are identified. These areas include exploring the 12 Steps specifically as antecedents to emotional intelligence (Payne, 1985) and strengthening the statistical validity of instruments to measure humility and honesty in context of spirituality. Limitations of this research are also identified and discussed and important reservations about the concept and constructs of spiritual intelligence (Zohar, 1997) are raised. In conclusion, the 12 Step spiritual programme was found to be the primary influence in how the sample conduct their organisational management function. The research calls for human resource processes to re-consider how those who have adopted successful recovery techniques to overcome personal crises such as dependency issues are viewed and argues that they should be more highly valued by organisations as such experiences help develop management competencies.

This thesis aims to extend current understandings of the production of organisational space, with particular attention paid to its embodied characteristics. Empirically, this thesis explores the everyday lived experience and understanding of organisational space of employees and volunteers at St Edmundsbury Cathedral in England. Current empirical studies exploring the phenomenon of organisational space do so primarily from the perspective of space and the body, separating the body from space and viewing the body as being in space as opposed to of space. This perspective provides only a limited view of the lived experience of organisational space, for it does not consider that space and the body are intertwined, with the body shaping space and space shaping the body. To address this research gap, the thesis draws on the work of Lefebvre's (1974/1991; 1992/2004) theorisation of space. Data is collected through the methods of shadowing, photo-elicitation and hermeneutic conversations. Underpinning all of the stages of the data collection and interpretation is a Gadamerian approach to hermeneutics, which requires a joint interpretation of the data between myself and the research participants. The three main findings of the thesis extend existing conceptualisations of the lived experience of organisational space. The findings show that first, artefacts play a role in contesting the conceived spaces (Lefebvre, 1974/1991) of the organisation, producing spaces to dwell. A second key finding is the role that gestures play in understanding the lived experience while the third key finding highlights the role of the imaginary, in particular memory, death and nostalgia to spatial understandings. The latter are especially considered hitherto underexplored areas of the lived experience of organisational space. The final chapter of the thesis presents the overall conclusions, establishing how the conceptual contributions provide alternative ways of exploring and understanding the lived dimension of organisational space.

The main contribution of this work is the proposal of a conceptual framework that integrates internal (to the firm) conditions with external influences at two geographical proximity levels, local and non-local, with respect to four types of innovation performance: product innovation, process innovation, managerial/organisational innovation and marketing innovation. This is quantitatively evaluated in a sample of 186 coffee farmers from Latin America. Following the Resource-Based View of the Firm (RBV), the internal conditions include two firm capabilities: technological capabilities and marketing capabilities. The external influences incorporates the evaluation of horizontal and vertical linkages with purposes of innovation at the local level (cluster geographical context) and non-local level (extra-cluster geographical context). The tests are controlled by the variable country of origin, which is not much relevant in these evaluations, as well as the variable for size, which is mostly significant although with a negative impact. The results suggest that internal conditions seem to be the most relevant factors related to innovation performance in this sample, whilst extra-cluster linkages are the external conditions with the highest relative importance in the explored models. This last outcome suggests the predominance of global value chains and its dynamics in relation to the innovative results of companies located in primary industries from developing countries. This seem to be the case even in the case of highly clustered activities within a region, such as the agricultural coffee production in Latin America.

Since its instigation by patrons supporting struggling artists centuries ago, the relationship between arts and business has been marked by dilemmas of who benefits from the value created. The perceived self-interested regard that blighted the magnanimous acts of the pioneers of arts philanthropy has transformed into outright scepticism with the move towards "selfish capitalism" in the 1970s. Despite the financial assistance, ubiquitous in society is the perception that business exploits the arts for window dressing purposes. The thesis studies value creation through transactional collaboration, focusing on the arts context. The contradictions in the phenomenon are examined to construct an understanding of how the organisations working together can lead to societal betterment . Utilising a multi method interpretive strategy, the thesis presents a conceptual framework of the principles, manifestations and functions of the business partner in societal value creation through transactional arts and business collaboration. The thesis argues that transactional collaboration can and does generate value that can contribute to societal betterment. The stipulations relate to transactional hybrids and collaboration portfolios at the organisational level, and a co-creative response to the process of value creation of beneficiaries. Transient value and cumulative value are two distinct value modes. Cumulative value can induce sustainable societal betterment when business assumes the role of a benefits provider. Human factor and organisational learning condition cumulative societal value creation in transactional collaboration. The Thesis contributes to the literature on cross-sector collaboration. The thesis contributes to the literature on cross-sector collaboration by highlighting the importance hybrid relationships and relationship portfolios in creating societal value in transactional collaboration. It also demonstrates the beneficiary-centric standpoint is a salient factor when developing a holistic understanding of how collaboration contributes to societal betterment. As such, contributions are made to the value creation literature by showing the salience of the co-creative response of the beneficiary to the process of value creation in relational contexts. Managerial and policy implications, and future research avenues are also proposed.

Recent UK policy rhetoric has emphasised the need for wider society to recognise their shared responsibility for the well-being and safety of young people. This thesis explores the ways in which communities can have an impact upon the welfare of local children and young people in a particular, non-deprived commuter suburb. Government policies in England and Wales have asserted that children’s well-being is ‘everybody’s business’. Similarly, political rhetoric in England about the ‘big society’ and neighbourhood based programmes in Wales have echoed this shift in responsibility for improving children’s lives from central government to local communities, although both are ambiguous about how this should be done. Drawing on primary, qualitative research, this thesis explores how communities facilitate the well-being of children in a non-deprived, modern suburban neighbourhood in South Wales. The ethnographically driven study included interviews with 35 residents and over 200 hours of observation in a variety of community settings. The findings suggest that in Newtown Common there are a number of ways in which community can be conceptualised as influencing the well-being of children and young people in its midst. These include the role of: the social and environmental hazards in the neighbourhood, in the built environment; the ensuring of children’s safety and access to facilities by community organisations and those that work in the area; and the value of local informal networks of support for children and families. The thesis concludes by reflecting on the methodological, sociological and policy implications of these messages.

Co-production has attracted increasing interest from the public and voluntary sectors. It is an approach that repositions users and community members as more central to the design and delivery of public services, a practice that Bovaird (2007: 846) has described as ‘revolutionary’. A growing movement aims to embody the principles of co-production in practice is time banking (Cahn 2000a). Time banking is a community currency that operates on the reciprocal exchange of skills and services. This thesis reports on a multi-method, qualitative case study into the implementation of a time bank in a Welsh secondary school. It explores the extent to which time banking can be used as a mechanism for facilitating co-productive relationships between young people, community members and the school. Drawing on empirical data gained from ethnographic methods and a participatory approach with young people, the research follows the time bank unfolding in practice. It explores the ‘who, how and why’ of youth participation in time banking and charts the development and implementation of the time bank in question. Importantly, the thesis gives voice to young people, exploring their experiences of participation. This research makes an original contribution to generating understanding of the complexity and difficulty of undertaking youth-based time banking in institutional settings. In doing so it shows how these initiatives may benefit young people, in such a way as to extend their entitlements (Welsh Assembly Government 2002), but also how barriers are faced that may ultimately impact on potentially positive outcomes for young people. It augments current debates concerning the position of young people in society and how perceptions of young people can influence the impact of a policy. The thesis problematises the theory and practice of co-production and questions whether, in its current form, it is achievable or, indeed, desirable with young people.

This thesis explores the nature and extent of convergence and divergence in cannabis control in England & Wales and the Netherlands through an examination of the policy-making process. Over the past couple of decades a number of sociological theories of crime control have pointed towards converging tendencies in the growth of ‘punitiveness’ across advanced Western countries. One of the most influential accounts put forth has been David Garland’s The Culture of Control which suggests that the transition to late-modernity has brought with it new and reconstructed risks and threats, and ambivalent strategies of responding to issues of crime and security. However, despite the usefulness of such bodies of work which attempted to map the ‘master patterns’ of crime control, there is a need to empirically examine how a culture of control unfolds across different national and subnational spheres. An under-examined area of criminological research is the very nature of policy development and negotiation, with tendencies to read off policy outcomes without a deeper exploration of how such responses come into being and unfold across different national and subnational spaces. The area of drugs policy, and specifically regarding cannabis, provided an interesting focus in which to test and build upon The Culture of Control, and particularly so in England & Wales and the Netherlands who have traditionally exhibited differences in their approaches to cannabis policy. Recent policy changes regarding cannabis suggest a toughening of approaches in both jurisdictions, with the reclassification from Class C to Class B in England & Wales in 2009, and the modifications to the ‘coffeeshop’ gedoogbeleid (‘tolerance policy’) in the Netherlands in 2012/13. A thematic analysis was conducted on empirical data from ‘elite’ semi-structured interviews (n=62) as well as key policy documents. The findings suggest that there have been convergent patterns in the way in which problems and policy alternatives have been constructed and molded to fit particular political agendas which shifted policy in a more repressive direction; but there are crucial differences in institutional and political cultures which still generate significant points of divergence across and within these jurisdictions. Consequentially, although ‘contrasts in tolerance’ may not be as marked as once described before (Downes 1988), there are still key components of the policy process in the Netherlands which more readily enable resistance against overly punitive policy movements, and foster the potential for a more pragmatic approach towards cannabis control.

The subject of this study is that of bomb threat risk communication; a ‘sensitive’ topic because of its association with counter-terrorism policy. It is also a subject that has not generated extensive empirical research but is, nevertheless, affected by strongly-held and competing worldviews. The majority of bomb threats are identified, ultimately, as the work of ‘cranks’, ‘pranksters’ or ‘jokers’ (FBI, 2012; CPNI, 2010) but a smaller number have resulted in the adverse event that was threatened - although not always within the temporal or spatial parameters specified by the threat actor (MI5, 2005: 30). Risk management advice intended to inform a decision-making process is located in the collective views of subject matter experts and within this ‘orthodoxy’ the dominant view is that, under conditions of uncertainty, when “vital binary decisions need to be made” (Blackett Review, 2011), the ‘safest’ option is to assume the validity of the terrorist threat. Available evidence suggests that this position is disproportionate and risk averse; specifically, that the assessment of risk fails to take sufficient account of deliberate deception on the part of the threat actor or potential misinterpretation of the message communicated. Research presented here considers the extent to which the literature on the subject supports the orthodoxy. It identifies the risk management response as one founded on a principle of precaution and which has become symptomatic of a “wicked problem” (Rittel and Webber, 1973) - where some elements are addressed in great detail whilst others, integral to risk management decision-making, are circumvented or excluded. This research addresses the absence of published data concerning bomb threats as a tactic of terrorists and expands upon the findings of the very small number of studies concerned exclusively with ‘hoaxing’. It analyses a unique dataset collected by the author comprising of a total sample of 7595 threat events directed at Britain’s railway network and spanning almost a quarter of a century; and uses qualitative data from secondary sources to contextualise the incidents (hoax and real) located. The study also analyses a second sample drawn from 328 ‘newsworthy’ incidents: all of which were hoaxes. By considering hoax and valid threat events within the same study, the findings raise a substantial challenge to the tenets of the bomb threat orthodoxy; particularly the worldview within which to “brave the bomb threat” (HSE, 1992: 27) is characterised as a risk ‘not worth taking’.

Bovine Tuberculosis (bTb) continues to cause turmoil for farmers and their businesses where farmers have endured the impact of the disease for extensive periods of time such is the longevity of the problem. Connections between animal disease and its social impact on humans were recognised widely during the outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in 2001. However, despite the apparent impact of bTB on farmers and the rural community, there are few studies that seek to explore and measure these social impacts. The aim of this study is to investigate problems associated with the social impacts of bTB on farmers where levels of personal well-being and farmer’s productivity are measured to establish their quality of life and its relationship with bTB. A conceptual framework was drawn up to capture the themes rising from the literature review considered as vital in establishing the social effects of bTB. This framework was used as the basis in developing a mixed methods structure to the research. This approach combined qualitative interviews and participant observation over a longitudinal time frame of eighteen months with farmers and a quantitative postal survey of a sample of farmers across Wales. The qualitative interviews were undertaken with farmers on sixteen farms within four high risk disease areas in Wales. Its aim was to understand the meaning of well-being to farmers and to identify key factors which influence it and their quality of life. The effects of bTB testing on farmers is observed alongside establishing how farmers have managed with bTB and what coping strategies they have adopted both personally and as part of their working lives. A key aim of the quantitative methodology was to establish levels of personal well-being and productivity amongst farmers using recognised scales, to explore what significant pressures affect farmers on their farms and acquire their attitudes to bTB. In qualitative interviews, farmers identified health, happiness, having a sense of worth with respect from others, and having the freedom to farm in their own right as central components to their well-being. Negative influences on well-being were recognised as the weather, red tape and bureaucracy, financial and aspects which causes pressures relative to farm management. In qualitative interviews, farmers linked the impacts of bTB with perceived poor well-being and described various coping strategies to avoid the consequences of bTB. However, survey data found that farmers with bTB were not statistically significantly more likely to have lower well-being than farmers without bTB. Farmers’ well-being appears to be connected to their trust in the Welsh Government; farmers’ perceived ability to control bTB; and their trust in others (such as vets) to help them avoid bTB. The research therefore presents a new perspective of the extent of the social impacts arising from bTB. Where other studies have indicated a relationship between the well-being of farmers and bTB, the results in this research question the extent to which these impacts exist.