Interlinking vital aspects of the legal, economic, political and social competencies of its participating member states the European Union as it is presently constituted represents a unique experiment in the development of a new type of supranational political system. Driven by the accelerating processes of globalisation and actioned through a variety of formal and informal mechanisms European integration is slowly shifting the centre of political authority to a new supranational European level. The challenge for the European Union is to reconcile these developments and create an institutional framework that provides democratic legitimacy promotes equality, social inclusion and social justice and creates a political system that can recognise and accommodate the differences inherent in an increasingly multi-cultural society. Recognising the close inter-relationship between the effects of integration and the exercise of meaningful political participation, the European Commission has explicitly identified European citizenship as the mechanism to legitimise continued integration. The purpose of this research is to analyse the implications of this decision and to explore whether over time European citizenship has the potential to create and foster a distinct European identity which can promote a genuine and meaningful form of participatory post-national citizenship based outside the nation state. Drawing together both integration and citizenship theory into a new synthesis, the research is seeking to develop a new syncretic model of integration that can satisfactorily explain both the complexity and sophistication of the European Union and explain the forces which are currently driving forward the momentum of integration towards an "ever closer" political Union.

This study added to the limited research on positive aspects of the human condition. It highlighted the perspective that women in western society recognise that there are wider health benefits to be taken from exercise than science suggests. Whilst this study acknowledged the customary fragmentary view, it took a holistic approach to exploring the nature and meaning of regular participation in exercise from the perspective of 41 women aged 30 to 50 years. This qualitative study included the views of regular participants in facility based and non-facility based exercise, along with the views of exercise instructors and the researcher. The study was contextualised within the traditional theories of related disciplines, namely health, women's studies, and exercise science. Also it was founded on the fitness industry's perspective on its service provision and its instructor training. Theory was compared with the experiences of a sector of the female population who, despite all the accepted calls on their time and energy, consistently maintained regular involvement in exercise. The study provided a holistic perspective on the nature, meaning and benefits of regular participation in exercise. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were utilised in the data gathering process. In each case, the process consisted of a series of questions designed to explore a subjective perception of experience in accordance with the Neuro-Logical Levels process, a model from within the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (Dilts, 1990; Dilts, Hallbom and Smith, 1990; O'Connor and Seymour, 1995). This model acknowledges that behaviours and actions, witnessed on a surface level, are driven by internal systems, including personal beliefs and identity structures. It was utilised as an exploratory technique to identify unconscious triggers for behaviour. The use of this process in the interviews facilitated individual exploration of the research topic at increasingly deep levels of awareness. Focus groups demonstrated a consensus on, as well as further individual differences in, the beliefs, attitudes, experiences and feelings of the participants as they arose from the interactive context. The heuristic methodology utilised in the analysis and presentation of the data offered a holistic, person-centred and reflective perspective on the nature, meaning and benefits of exercise (Moustakas, 1990). Individual and exemplary portraits depicted the experience and personal meaning of exercise as it emerged from the data. Composite depictions conveyed the nature of exercise participation from the perspectives of participants and instructors. The researcher's involvement in the complete study facilitated the emergence of a creative synthesis of the essence of exercise. Exercise provided emotional and spiritual gains that extended beyond the traditional lifestyle benefits. Individuals indicated a range of 'special' qualities in exercise, along with benefits to the mind. They noted unique personal benefits and enhanced interpersonal relationships in all spheres of life. Regular participation in exercise greatly enhanced the lives of those involved and contributed to an individual and collective evolutionary process. Effective exercise delivery consisted of interactional and motivational elements beyond the scientific and mechanistic topics traditionally recognised in instructor training programmes and was founded on empathy, facilitation, passion, love and positive energy.

Jack the Ripper has been described as the 'archetypal rapist' (Frayling 1986), a killer who committed what seemed like 'the ultimate rape' (Marriner 1992), yet he raped no-one. The mutilation and disembowelment of his victims is analogised as rape. This violence was murder, not any legally defined form of sexual assault. This is an aspect to these crimes that is given little, if any attention. Rape is a real social problem and the high attrition rate this offence attracts is the subject of much concern and research interest. A key problem highlighted in previous research has been the skewed public and criminal justice perception of what constitutes a 'real rape' (Kelly et al. 2005). To analogise disembowelment as rape creates or indicates a very skewed perception of the offence. This research proposes that the offences of rape and murder, when they are committed against women by men, have in some contexts become culturally conflated. The key aims are to examine to what extent the discourse of sexual murder produces a conflation, whether the meaning made of the violence in the discourse is used to rationalise other forms of violence against women by men and what the effect of a conflation could be for women and for the criminal justice system. Multiple methods were used, to extract data across three key institutional sites, under three headings - cultural representation, news reporting and police operational practice and include data obtained from examination of news reports of the rape and/or murder of women, Jack the Ripper film/TV and interviews with police from a serious crime team. All data was analysed using the unifying theoretical framework of Foucauldian discourse analysis. It was found that in some contexts the conflation exists and has real effect. There are five key findings: firstly that perceptions of what constitutes a 'real rape' are more closely aligned to a potential sexual murder than a legally defined or aggravated rape; secondly it was found that murders of women are routinely gendered and sexualised by both the media and the police which powerfully links fatal or potentially fatal violence with sexual assault and vice versa; thirdly it was found that because of the symbolic value of rape, murders of women can be and are considered, in some circumstances to be 'virtual rapes', which links closely to the fourth observation that indicates that instead of understanding rape as a form of violence, we can understand violence against women as a form of rape; finally, it was found that fear of rape could realistically be associated with fear of death because of the meaning made of rape in sexual murder discourse and this could have significant repercussions for those women experiencing a rape assault, those women who fear rape assaults, those who deal with victims of rape and the prosecution of rape and murder in the criminal justice system.

This thesis explores the practice of complying with environmental regulations in the global shipping industry and examines the impact on workers. Using a case study example of a large and reputable ship management company, I discuss the understandings that onshore and sea-going staff at the company have of policies and practices in relation to environmental protection. The case study approach used here involves ethnographic fieldwork aboard two container ships and at the company premises. Three research techniques are employed: semi-structured interviews, observations and documentary analysis. Specifically, and based on the operation of five key components of the company’s environmental programmes on board the ship: garbage; sewage; ballast water; oily wastes; and atmospheric emissions, the research examines seafarers’ practices of implementing the programmes and whether ship staff and their shore-based managers perceive the practices as damaging. Two significant findings emerge: that while environmental compliance has increased the workload on board, ship staff do not consider this change to affect the quality of their work and life on board the ship; and that seafarers are more likely to suffer from stress when complying with environmental regulations but are disinclined to worry about the potential for occupational exposures. The study also found a correlation in the understandings of both managers and seafarers at the company about the relevance of environmental requirements in general and of the company environmental management system in particular, which played a critical role in terms of how these requirements were operationalized aboard the ship. This study contributes to current understandings of the practice and impact of corporate compliance with environmental regulations.

The present study utilises the activity-based approach to investigate the nature and determinants of travel behaviour, and to reach a better understanding of travel complexity within households in an Islamic cultural environment. The main objectives of this study are, firstly to describe and explain the variation of behaviour between a sample of Saudi households and, secondly, to identify the likely response to specific transport policies. Results suggest that household head attributes (occupation, education and income), household socio-economic characteristics (car ownership, availability of a chauffeur, number of female students, number of females in employment and household size), and neighbourhood characteristics (density, accessibility to work) significantly influenced the choice of work tour type. The usefulness of applying tour-based analysis and its strength in showing interactions between household members' activities were confirmed in this study. Tour-based models revealed that Saudi households' travel activities were highly dependent on the household head, who is mainly responsible for serving household members' travel needs. In-depth interviews showed concerns about children's safety and security, lack of public and, in particular, school transport, ignorance of female travel needs, and car oriented neighbourhood design were main reasons for the high dependency on the car and its role as the dominant travel mode within Saudi cities. Interviewees were presented with five transport related policies to investigate their likely impact on households' travel behaviour. Interviewees agreed that the proposed policies would decrease car dependency and increase the travel independence of household members. Change in travel behaviour, in response to proposed policies, as identified by interviewees included decreased travel complexity (simpler tours), change in tour mode (more walking and public transport tours), and change in tour time. The study estimated a reduction in car trips generated by households as a result of introducing policies aimed to shift dependent groups (i.e. children and females) towards independence through walking and use of public transport

This study focuses on nightclub dancers. This includes freestyle podium dancers, choreographed stage dancers and pole performers that are paid to provide entertainment in nightclubs. The aim of this thesis is to answer the following main research question: how do individuals learn to become successful nightclub dancers? This can be broken into two constituent research questions: 1) what skills and attributes do individuals require in order to become successful nightclub dancers and 2) how do nightclub dancers learn to be successful and professional in their occupation. These questions are addressed through the analysis of data collected through semi-structured interviews with nightclub dancers, nightclub managers, events entertainment managers and dance teachers. The data suggested that in order to be successful, nightclub dancers need to be proficient in three types of labour that comprise their work: physical dance labour, aesthetic labour and emotional labour. Drawing on theories of workplace learning, it is argued that nightclub dancers learn the various skills required for dance labour through a range of different types of pre-job and on-the-job, formal and non-formal learning. Their learning of aesthetic and emotional labour is mainly characterised by non-formal on-the-job learning from other dancers.

Macroeconomics move fast. This thesis adopts a Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK) perspective to explain why. In only twenty five years three different orthodox positions on the relationship between unemployment and inflation, known as the Phillips Curve, cam to dominate the profession, only to decline subsequently. This research explores the role of politics in this rapid cycle of contest and closure. The research illustrates how empirical and theoretical work in the Phillips Curve debate were configured to conform to the expectations of the analyst. Examination of several clusters of papers within the debate make explicit the dynamics by which regressions and theories were shaped to provide the results required of them. Macroeconomics is shown to respond to the need of economic policy making circles. A nuance of the relationship between macroeconomists and policy making, rooted in the role of objectivity in lending legitimacy to Liberal Democracy, means macroeconomists lack the autonomy to define and contest the problems their discipline addresses. This holds heavy implications when economic policy decision-makers experience heightened political pressure. In these instances the faster temporality of the political sphere is imported into macroeconomics, and, in the three cases examined here, the prevailing orthodoxy subsequently fell. Drawing upon a literature survey and interviews with macroeconomists, including four Nobel Laureates, this research provides valuable insight into the social construction of macroeconomic knowledge

This thesis looks at international labour migration from the point of view of those who are left behind‘. It focuses on the experiences of Filipino women married to Filipino seamen and specifically examines the spatiality and temporality of their gender identity, agency and subjectivity. Through the concept of social imaginary, it reconceptualises the role of these women in migration and considers them to play a more active role in migration processes than is suggested by the label ‗left behind‘. How the women were constrained by and creatively responded to their material and social relations not least those obtaining in the alternating absence and presence of their husbands is approached from a generative theory of subject formation. The spatiotemporality of these women‘s gender identity, subjectivity and agency is elaborated through critical analyses of aspects of their experiences and lives: on being on their own‘, routine and the temporal organization of family life, imagined communion‘ and intimacy, and autonomy. These analyses show the embeddedness of the women in material and social contexts including ties of reciprocity and indebtedness. They demonstrate the mutual implication of space and time, show their navigation of the spatial and temporal dimensions of their lives, as well as link the women‘s subjective and personal experiences to wider social and political narratives. The thesis concludes with a synthesis of and further reflection on the implications of the main arguments of the study. This includes a discussion of some specific strategies employed by the women to negotiate their spatiotemporal locations: waiting game‘, mental choreography‘ and gender negotiation‘. Finally, it reflects on the study‘s theoretical, empirical, methodological and policy contributions.

Two broad themes emerge from the study. The first relates to the character of 'independent' schools and raises some questions about their supposed autonomy. The second theme concerns the notion of 'new public management' and whether it is a concept appropriate for analysing change in practice in purported private sector institutions and whether private sector bodies can ever by subject to NPM measures.

The last ten years have seen major changes in the organisation and delivery of primary healthcare services in the England and Wales and this has had considerable implications for consumers of these services in rural parts of the country. This thesis seeks to explore the effects of these structural changes in the delivery mechanisms of primary healthcare services in relation to rural areas of Wales within a context of concomitant restructuring of rural society and restructuring and re-organisation of service delivery in the health sector which draws on 'theories of the firm' literature, for example the development of vertical integration of various primary healthcare services. A key element of primary healthcare service delivery in a rural context is related to the levels of accessibility to such services experienced by the individuals, or 'consumers' of healthcare. This thesis adopts a largely positivist approach to the analysis of spatial and temporal patterns of healthcare delivery in Wales over the last decade, although echoes of the structuralist approach emerge in relation to particular aspects of the analysis. In operationalising this theoretical context a Geographical Information Systems approach is employed to visualise and analyse the spatial organisation and temporal variation of primary healthcare delivery across rural Wales through a longitudinal study of primary healthcare services in Wales 1996 and 2004. Depth is added to this national level analysis of rural Wales by developing a case study of one Unitary Authority in rural Wales, Gwynedd, which acts as focus for more in-depth analysis of the spatial and temporal changes in rural primary healthcare over the study period