This thesis explores the attitudes, beliefs and opinions of members of the cultural elite in Wales. This term is used to mean people who hold prominent, high profile and prestigious positions within the culture sector in Wales, specifically located around the capital city of Cardiff. Through the analysis of data collected from in-depth semi-structured interviews with twenty key informants I examine how they construct their biographies and make sense of the social world which they inhabit. I address two main research questions, firstly whether they see themselves as belonging to a closed, restricted and self-referencing network. Secondly, how do they try to justify their positions of power and privilege in society? Using themes from the literature I also consider to what extent the different sectors (culture, business and political) overlap, how the network is constructed in terms of a core and a periphery, what purpose this serves, and how the network is at once generally cohesive but also not without some internal divisions. This is all done in a specifically Welsh context and I argue that their national identity has a very important role to play in how they define and experience culture, and that this directly impacts on how they explain their reasons and motivations for their involvement. I use Bourdieu’s notions of cultural and social capital and demonstrate how these are exchangeable commodities. While members of the cultural elite are in possession of large amounts of cultural capital, success in the network depends on them being able to demonstrate this, and this in turn increases their social capital. The act of networking is fundamental for sustaining the network and this is a performance on their part. How the interviewees performed for me, the interviewer, lies at the heart of the discussion.

The incidence of mental illness is both a widespread and growing; and yet studies show that employers are reluctant to hire people with mental health conditions (MHCs). Despite often having an excellent set of qualifications and skills, backed up with a sound employment record, the stigma surrounding mental illness means that people with MHCs struggle to gain and maintain employment. This study explores the experiences of people with MHCs in work. The research focuses on how these individuals manage their condition while maintaining a legitimate identity at work in the context of widespread stigma over mental illness. Taking a critical poststructuralist approach to identity, and drawing on semi-structured interviews with people with MHCs, the research highlights a complex set of factors facilitating the construction of a pejorative mental illness subject position that prevails in contemporary society and in the workplace. The study also illustrates how individuals act upon this subject position and the effects this has on their working lives. Finally, the study considers the agential practices of self-management that are illustrative of the process of resistance and the negotiation of a legitimised identity. The study considers the effectiveness of these struggles over seeing, being and doing for the long term prospects of mental health at work. The study offers contributions to knowledge in three areas: to critical identities literature by including the experiences of mental health in the study of marginalised identities at work; to the literature on invisible and stigmatised identities, by providing a better understanding on the processes of identification; and to theorising on resistance and resistant identities as practices of self-care (Foucault, 1986). In doing so, the research not only critically analyses the concerns of a marginalised group at work but also offers broader implications to understanding mental health of all workers, and for society at large.

Volunteer tourism is an increasingly popular practice that provides tourists with the opportunity to contribute to community development or environmental projects, usually in Third World countries. This research explores the potential of volunteer tourism to develop cross-cultural understanding, transform tourists into more charitable, ethical subjects and foster more reciprocal relations between tourists and visited communities. The research uses a longitudinal methodology to follow ten young people from the UK through time and space as they embark on a journey to Kenya with a commercial volunteer tourism provider. Using a combination of repeated in-depth interviews and participant observation, I show how volunteer tourists produce understandings, or ‘imaginaries’, of poverty, authenticity and care that simultaneously enable and constrain their ability to act ethically. I argue that the complexities of the volunteer tourism encounter can only be understood through a psychosocial account of subjectivity that articulates the point of suture between the social and the psychological. Drawing on Lacanian psychoanalytic theory to interpret the volunteer tourists’ narratives, I show that it is possible to approach the psychological in tourism studies in a non-reductive and culturally engaged way. This psychoanalytic reading provides insight into how volunteer tourists’ perceptions are refracted through cultural fantasies of the non-Western Other, how they are confronted by the demands of contradictory ideological injunctions and how their investment in consumer identities presents a barrier to ethical transformation. The thesis concludes that in order to harness volunteer tourism’s potential as a means of achieving social transformation, greater attention must be paid to subjectivity and the psychosocial as a way of understanding the social demands, desire and investments experienced by volunteer tourists.

This thesis explores the risky sexual behaviours and relationships of seafarers in the context of commercial sex relations with sex workers in ports. This study is designed to shed light on why seafarers engage in these risky activities while away from home working on board ships. The study was conceived in the context of the increased vulnerability of seafarers to STIs including HIV. The study draws upon data collected from a qualitative study conducted in the city of Santos, Brazil. This location was chosen, as it is the largest port in Latin America and has a popular red light district to seafarers. In-depth interviews were conducted with sixty seafarers and non-seafarers. Ethnographic observations were carried out in the red light district and other places frequented by the seafarers such as the port, the seamen’s mission and parts of the city. This study shows how risk is represented, perceived, negotiated and experienced by seafarers through their behaviours and within their relationships with sex workers. The socio-cultural structures they are embedded in inform and contribute to their risk perception and predicaments. A major contributing element is a gendered maritime industry that perpetuates a hegemonic heterosexual masculine regime. The way seafarers negotiate risk is shown by the way they locate and reposition the body, sex and sexuality within various forms of commercial sex transactions including the practice of condom use.

The rise to prominence of digitised networks and platforms of wireless communication brings with it an increased focus on immaterial labour and production and the transformative effect that it has on economic, political and social relations, both within and across online and offline spheres. The creative industries of the UK are a particularly important sector in this respect, particularly the music industry, whose trajectory from pre-digital to digital modes of consumption and production has been swift and all-encompassing. This study sought to go beyond the traditional mainstream debates over the possibilities and the pitfalls of digitisation (i.e. online piracy and the vilification of those who engage in such practices), and understand both the economic and social bases of change as they were perceived by independent promoters, musicians and audiences within Cardiff’s indie music milieu. This research adopted a multi-method qualitative interpretivist approach comprising semi-structured interviews with musicians and promoters, ethnographic interviews with audiences and participant observation at live music events. It uncovered not only the evolving attitudes to ‘piracy’ within independent operations, but also the manner in which sharing of music and the associated promotion and communication which operates within the Cardiff milieu transforms not only the circulation and sharing of the music itself, but facilitates new forms of social relations across online and offline spaces. The de-commodification of music in its physical form, and its subsequent re-commodification across online and offline modes has resulted in dramatic shifts for the way music is promoted. This also raises important issues of ‘prosumption’ and the extent to which this is present, the changing economic and social value of music, authenticity and music in the digital age and the evolving position of physical forms of recorded music. Singular economic issues, such as piracy, cannot be addressed in isolation from the multitude of other implications arising from digitisation. A much wider understanding of these issues and their impact on musical enterprises, mainstream and independent, is required in order to address the full extent of changes afoot for both business and social interaction.

Truancy is a phenomenon that has captured considerable attention within the UK and in countries throughout the world. Participation in education is regarded as a key mechanism of inclusion, and as such young people who truant from school are claimed to be at a higher risk of social exclusion. Truancy is presented within the current political discourse as a social and educational concern, affecting the truanting young people themselves, the wider community and the economy. Truancy has been politically and socially constructed as an act of ‘deviance’ participated in by ‘pathological’ and ‘delinquent’, ‘anti-school’ youths, commonly of lower socio-economic status. This thesis presents a sociological inquiry into the everyday reality of school truancy as enacted by the young people themselves. The study reports on a year long qualitative multi-methods study of year 9 pupils (13-14 year olds), initially drawn from three schools in Cardiff, South Wales. A range of methods were utilised, specifically selected and/or designed to appeal to the young people involved. These include: focus groups, technology-mediated communication, photo elicitation projects and observation. Retrospective, situational and prospective views and experiences relating to truancy are presented. By accessing the social worlds of the young people, data have been generated on what truancy is, who ‘truants’ are, why pupils truant, how pupils truant, what pupils do when they are truanting and some of the consequences and implications resulting from this truancy. This thesis suggests that truancy might be a widespread phenomenon. That is that large amounts of young people might engage in truanting behaviours, rather than a ‘maladjusted’ minority. Truancy is a complex, multifaceted and multi-layered activity that is undertaken by pupils from a diverse range of backgrounds and abilities. Truancy is not engaged in, only, by males, young people from lower socio-economic groups, academic ‘underachievers’ or pupils of anti-school orientation. For the majority of pupils, their behaviour when truanting is not particularly extraordinary nor anti-social or delinquent. Their truanting behaviours are often purposely and strategically ‘hidden’ from the public and institutional gaze, performed in a covert manner. The two most dominant locations where truanting behaviours took place are in the home and within the school itself. A range of sophisticated evasion and deceptive strategies are commonly deployed in order to receive authorisation for absence or to avoid detection completely. The young people articulate both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors when discussing their reasons for choosing to truant from school but the ‘push’ factors far outweigh the ‘pull factors’, heavily implicating the institution of the school. Truancy is seen as a way for the young people to gain a sense of agency and autonomy in relation to the institution. However, the majority of pupils can be seen to embrace the institution as well as resist it. Truancy, for the majority of young people, does not therefore seem to represent full detachment or full opposition from the school. This thesis highlights how the majority of the young people in this study self-manage their truanting behaviours and educational careers, as well as make efforts to maintain a positive identity as ‘ordinary’ pupils in the eyes of others, thus minimizing the risks associated with their truanting behaviours. However, for a minority of pupils identified as ‘truants’, their truancy is more problematic. A series of factors are presented that might be seen to contribute to the tipping point that leads to this more problematic truancy and it is argued that the punitive processes that schools put in place to manage truancy might be self-defeating, intensifying the practice.

Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to explore the dimensions of supply chain collaboration and examine its impact on firm performance and its mediating variables. Methodology: A theoretical model was developed from a systematic review of relevant literature and theories. This was then revised by academics and practitioners. The model was empirically tested with survey data of 853 responses of tourism firms in Thailand using Structural Equation Modeling. Findings: Results indicate that supply chain collaboration improves firm performance. This impact is mediated by trust, commitment, transaction costs and sustained competitive advantage. A multiple group analysis supports the research model across four groups, however there are differences in the coefficients in some of the paths. In goodsbased transactions suppliers emphasises on collaboration to build relationships and to reduce transaction costs through developing commitment, while buyers focus on trust building. In the service-based transactions, service providers also tend to focus on trust as a key factor than service intermediaries who emphasises on developing commitment. Theoretical contribution: This thesis synthesised six theories to explain how supply chain collaboration affects firm performance. The constructs of supply chain collaboration and transaction costs are also improved. Managerial insight: The results inform managers about how different types of supply chain collaboration can improve the performance of their organisations. It also emphases the different mechanisms (i.e., trust and commitment) in supply chain relationships between goods-based and service-based transactions. Keywords: Supply Chain Management, Tourism supply chains, Sustained Competitive Advantage, Structural Equation Models, Thailand. JEL Classification 1 : C42, D2, L22, L25. 1Classification system by the Journal of Economic Literature, available at: http://www.aeaweb.org/jel/guide/

Bullying research has provided a wealth of information and a depth of understanding that has led to the development of intervention strategies in schools. However, despite this extensive research, bullying continues to be a significant problem. It has been suggested that working with children or with schools may not be enough to solve the problem and that it may be necessary to include parents as part of the solution, especially if the antecedents originate and are consistently reinforced at home. Research that has considered factors relating to family functioning and the relationship between the caregivers and their children provide support for this argument, but research in this area is scarce. The main aim of the present research was to investigate family backgrounds, parenting styles and the personal characteristics of parents and children involved in bullying situations in order to identify effective routes for intervention. More specifically, it focused children's attachment styles and the roles they adopted in bullying situations at school. A longitudinal design with mixed methods was adopted involving 28 pre-school children and theft caregivers. The children were 'new starters' at one of three schools and at the start of the investigation they were aged 4 years - 4 years and 11 months and their primary caregiver's ages ranged between 29 and 53 years. Primary caregivers participated in interviews and exercises about themselves and theft families and observations of the children occurred in different settings at school during their first year. It was predicted that a link between the childrens' attachment type and the roles they adopted in bullying situations would be found. However, no evidence was found to suggest a link between childrens' attachment style and bullying. Despite this, interesting trends were found. These are considered and the difficulties and limitations of the investigation are discussed.

This thesis is an examination of how significant features of context are linked to process in children’s participation in evaluation, using case study research. The cases vary in political and cultural contexts, institutional setting, timeframe and my own positionality in the evaluations. The rights-based evaluations revisited include: DFID funded Rights through Evaluation research in Nawalparasi in Nepal; evaluation of Phase 1 of the Saying Power scheme, run by Save the Children across the UK; and evaluation of the Croydon Children’s Fund in London. In addition to issues of context and timeframe, the cases were chosen for the author’s intimate knowledge of the evaluations, and access to participants who had been involved at different levels and roles. Issues of bias are therefore specifically addressed in the revisits and a dual approach of reflexivity and critical inquiry taken. The initial reflection builds on theoretical perspectives in children’s participation and historical perspectives of rightsbased approaches, providing a personal perspective that forms the basis of the questions for the critical inquiry. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with children and young people, project workers/ staff, and managers/ commissioners, all of whom previously participated in the evaluations. The critical inquiry was conducted in order to find out under what conditions participatory evaluation with children resulted in positive outcomes for children and transformational change. Critical realism, realist revisits and socio- and cultural ecological theories form the basis of a framework or model called ‘Change-scape’ that helped to explain the links between process and context in this thesis. How decision makers responded to children’s evidence depended on the context. Stratifications of context suggested in this analysis arose from realist revisits that incorporated external drivers, such as the political economy and dominant cultural practices, and internal drivers including the commitment and capacity of stakeholders in the evaluation process. Mechanisms of communication and collaboration were identified that helped to translate actions identified in the evaluations into outcomes for children and young people. Dimensions of power were also examined in terms of how they related to different aspects of the structure put forward. A final discussion reviews the progression from an emphasis on rights and individual behaviour change and action, to how context has to be taken into account to achieve more relational objectives that are incorporated in achieving improvements in children and young people’s wellbeing.

This research examines relationships between people and place at three community gardens in Wales by studying processes of place making. Ethnographic methods explored gardeners’ feelings, doings, and interactions with nonhumans to bring a critical perspective to the study of community gardens which better reflects their complexity and vitality. By expanding the range of gardens researched I show that urban and rural community gardens are not categorically distinct, challenging the narrative that city dwellers seek community gardens to reconnect with people and nature. The opportunity to feel good motivates participation but achieving this depends on the degree of control available to gardeners which varies with how a garden is made. I contribute to relational theories of place an empirically grounded discussion which brings them into dialogue with notions of community, arguing that places are not wholly unpredictable as spatial processes can be deliberately directed and interact with feelings. Where Massey suggests places thrown together (2005) I propose a theory of place making as bringing movements together, guided by skill and feelings as we work to achieve goals and pull towards those we have affinity with. I demonstrate how a more dynamic sense of place can be conceived through attention to qualities of motion as the appreciation of a place’s particular constellation of movements and feeling comfortable moving with these rhythms. The case studies show that people find comfort in feeling they belong somewhere but this is a dynamic sense of belonging as moving with others. Garden communities are not determined in place but form through making place, sharing experiences through which gardeners feel at home together. Finally, I question whether new relationships formed through gardening extend across time and space, suggesting that participation in garden life will not necessarily cultivate an ethic of care for others.