This thesis focuses on Teaching Assistants (TAs) as members of the school workforce ‘remodelled’ and ‘modernised’ through the policies such as the ‘National Agreement’ (DfES, 2003c; ATL et al., 2003). Findings suggest that: - schools are not monolithic institutions; there is variety and inconsistency between local practices and relations, including within individual schools - TAs and teachers instrumentalise pupils to labour to produce the ‘measurable’ outcomes of schools; the three parties operate in asymmetric power relations - ‘place’ within schools reinforces asymmetric power relations between TAs and teachers - the texts that circulate in schools reinforce and undermine the asymmetric power relations - TAs undertook an increasing number of traditional teacher tasks - drawing on various aspects of their work and policy, the TAs defined themselves as teachers, other than teachers and more than teachers, - drawing on the social and material resources circulating in their environments, the TAs ideologised their being and doing. Adopting a broadly relativist, post-structuralist, and constructivist paradigm, using qualitative methods based on critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2001; Potter and Wetherell, 1987), this thesis uses the words of the TAs who participated in this project to explore their experiences of working in primary and secondary schools in England. The participants’ words come from their participation in focus groups, interviews and from written work they produced as students on a Foundation Degree programme. Ideas from Actor-Network Theory (Latour, 1997; 2005) were used to explore the location of the participants in relation to their workplaces, colleagues and pupils and to establish the categories for subsequent critical analysis of their discourses, broadly following Fairclough’s (2001) stages of ‘description, interpretation and explanation’. Ideas on meaning making (notably Bruner, 1990, 1991, in Bakhurst and Sypnowich 1995) and ideologisation (notably Eagleton, 1991; Billig et al., 1988; Billig, 1995; Abercrombie et al., 1980) support the critical analysis of their discourses to explore how the participants make sense of their situations.

Creating adoptive families for 'looked after children' requires the continuous recruitment of prospective adoptive parents. The British government's demand for an increase in the number of children adopted led to the extension of legalised constructs of who can become an adoptive parent. However, our understanding of prospective adopters' remains anchored to a pronatalist ideology that perpetuates a hegemonic view of motherhood and fatherhood. These socio-political dynamics interweave placing pressure on social workers, prospective adopters and children to replace the biological promise of perfect pronatalism with an idealised expectation of legally permanent familial solutions. In this thesis, I employed a social constructionist methodology to undertake two studies, the first of which thematically analysed discourses in the 2012-2013 National adoption week campaigns. The analysis found pronatalism rhetoric dominated the repertoires and notable by its absence was the non-construction of British, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) adoptive families. Other emotive discourses construct adoptive parents as 'selfless' with critical undertones for those who were too 'nervous' to take on the responsibility. The second study examined the lived experiences of 21 adults who self-identified as prospective adopters. Three emerging themes illuminated the complexity of adoption as a route to parenthood. Participants' experience of negotiating pronatalist dominant views of adoption influenced how they made sense of adoption as a choice and determined their sense of readiness. Contemplating adoption with their friends and families identified the complex socio-familial factors that influenced their motivations to adopt. Finally, their experiences led them to reconstitute their sense of self as they prepared for a future that may or may not include becoming an adoptive parent.

This qualitative research explores the lived experience of nineteen bisexual women from all across the UK who are in monogamous relationships or who are single but desire a future monogamous relationship. The research has three broad aims 1) To explore the lived experience of bisexual women who identify as monogamous. 2) To understand the ways in which women who identify as bisexual and monogamous maintain their identity. 3) To explore the ways in which bisexual women in 'same-gender' and 'different-gender' relationships construct their identity. The research was carried out in three phases with each stage using a different data collection technique. The first stage required participants to keep a written diary for a period of four consecutive weeks, detailing thoughts and events that were related to their sexual identity. In the second stage participants took part in a semi-structured telephone interview. The interview used participants’ diary entries as a starting point to explore the research questions. The final stage involved a subset of participants taking part in a photo-assisted telephone interview. Participants in this stage were supplied with disposable cameras and were asked to take up to twelve photographs of places, objects and people who were significant in relation to their sexuality. Five participants completed this stage and took part in a photo-assisted telephone interview where they discussed the photographs they had taken. The research as a whole and the approach to analysing data was underpinned by the hermeneutic phenomenology of Ricoeur. Two different but complementary approaches were taken in the analysis of the data. Firstly, Template Analysis (King, 2004) was used to analyse the data from diaries and telephone interviews. This approach provides an opportunity to explore the data as a whole and identify themes and sub-themes relevant to the research questions. In order to complement this cross-case approach the photo-assisted interviews were analysed using a within-case approach (Hermeneutic Phenomenological Analysis) developed specifically for this research. Some of the findings support existing research which demonstrated that some bisexuals do experience ‘invisibility’ and misappropriation in relation to their sexual identity (Monro, 2015; Hayfield, Clarke & Halliwell, 2014; Savin-Williams, 2005; Blackwood, 2000; Angelides, 2001). Other findings point to aspects of bisexual monogamous women’s experience that appear to have been neglected by researchers. In particular, the gender of a participant’s partner seems to present different challenges in relation to their sexual identity. Participants in different-gender relationships appear to utilise more strategies related to displaying their same-gender attractions and keeping their bisexuality alive than those in same-gender relationships. Participants in same-gender relationships choose feminine appearance markers that are more likely to signify a heterosexual identity in contrast to participants in different-gender relationships who choose ‘traditional’ lesbian appearance markers. Women in different-gender relationships articulated a sense of longing or reminiscence for relationships or sex with women. Women in same-gender relationships did not express the same sentiment for sex and relationships with men. Identifying a community which provided support for their bisexual identity was of particular importance to all participants. The LGBT+ community seemed to be important in the early stages of participants’ struggles with the development of their sexual identity. However, over time participants experienced various forms of hostility from the LGBT+ community and one of the ways they coped with this was to disengage from it and turn to smaller network of friends.

Purpose - to investigate the phenomenon of sustainable social (enterprise) entrepreneurship from both organisational and individual/personal identity perspectives. Two research questions ask: (RQ1) what are the key organisational identity (OI) and governance issues associated with sustainable social enterprises (SEs) and social entrepreneurship?, and; (RQ2) who are the social enterprise (SE) leaders/entrepreneurs (and why are they important from an identity perspective)? Design/methodology/approach – A stage 1 interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) employed 30 semi-structured interviews of social entrepreneurs in the (UK) South East; a macro-level conceptualisation of social enterprise (organisational) identity, sustainability and governance issues being the key deliverable. This was followed by a stage 2 social constructionist and social entrepreneurial identity study; whereby, 16 in-depth interviews, with 3 case study social enterprise leaders were conducted over a period of three years. Stage 3 involved 2 employee and volunteer focus groups to help triangulate data from the previous stages. Finally, stage 4 follow-up interviews with 4 selected informants helped evaluate the impact of the Brexit vote on my thesis arguments. Various third sector and government policy documents were consulted throughout the study. Findings – Firstly, I argue that understanding who organisations are, as well as, what they do, are important for understanding the sustainability of social enterprises, and the third sector. A new conceptual social enterprise grid (SEG) is developed to distinguish who social enterprises are; relative to other third and public-sector organisations. Secondly, a Ricoeurian narrative analysis helps demonstrate the agentic role of social entrepreneurs; how social enterprise sustainability is motivated by personal beliefs, social values and an idem (i.e. almost permanent) sense of identity. Similarly, results demonstrate how social enterprise sustainability could be at least part-attributed, to the lifetime agentic function of social entrepreneurs. Originality/value – This PhD thesis addresses fundamental definitional and theory gaps in the social enterprise and third sector identity literatures. It contributes by offering fresh perspectives on the complex and inter-related issues of (organisational and socio-entrepreneurial) identity, governance and sustainability.

Managing vertical relationships within diversified organizations is crucial to the attainment of overall organizational goals, yet it can also present a significant challenge. Vertical relationships can be characterised by intensified political games and incompatible interests. It is thus a contested relationship of conflicting interests; yet both parties to the relationship are motivated to maintain the relationship because they assume that its long–term benefits outweigh the costs. Whilst most of the literature focuses on managerial issues that are likely to emerge in vertical relationships, it does not appear to focus on the needs of vertically–related units and the development of such needs, particularly as the lower level unit develops. Therefore, the consequences that are likely to occur if these needs are not met have not been explored. One way to address this gap is by focusing on vertical inter–unit relationship quality; positioning relationship quality as a social resource in a power–dependence relationship (the vertical dyad). This thesis therefore aims to explore the meaning and the concomitants of relationship quality between vertically–related units in the context of diversified organisations. This is expected to contribute to the understanding of vertical inter–unit relationships by shedding light on the underlying meaning of relationship quality and the attributes that are likely to be attached to it from the perspectives of the parties to the relationship. In turn, this enables an exploration of the factors impacting on that quality as well as its consequences.

Performance measurement was introduced and, many would argue, imposed on the social housing sector but now there is a growing interest in its intrinsic benefits to public organisations themselves, not only for internal regulation but also as a means of demonstrating social accountability. This thesis is about performance measurement in practice but it sets this within the framework of various theoretical approaches to the subject. The thesis proposes four research questions: why do housing associations measure performance; how is performance information used - by whom and for what purposes; what factors influence the development of performance measurement; and what has the performance measurement approach changed in the housing association sector? Through a discussion of the literature on performance measurement in the context of performance management and practical case studies, the thesis answers the four research questions. The central conclusion of the thesis is that performance measurement is a significant driver of the use of performance information in social housing management, in particular for decision-making on the delivery of housing services. The thesis reveals the hybrid nature of performance measurement, where managerial and social values currently prevail, in contrast to the traditional assumption of a dominant ‘political control’ role.

This thesis analyses the European Union’s approach to conflict resolution in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Kosovo. It identifies the nature of the Union’s policies in the three countries, as well as explaining these policy preferences and how they are legitimised. In doing so, it contributes to a debate in the literature on the EU’s role in conflict resolution, between those who suggest that the Union’s influence is oriented towards the transformation of conflict parties’ identities, and those who argue instead that its policies have encouraged the recognition and accommodation of existing identities. The thesis employs a constructivist institutionalist framework with which to understand EU actors’ policy preferences. Applying this through discourse analysis of policy documents and official speeches as well as interviews with key policy-makers, I offer support to the view that the EU’s approach is one of conflict regulation rather than transformation. This approach is underpinned by a paradigm that sees conflicts as driven by a fundamental incompatibility between the interests and identities of different ethnic groups. Such an approach has been legitimised not by reference to norms with a basis in EU law, but rather to practice in specific member states and to the nature of the Union itself, which EU actors view as having brought peace and stability to Europe through the accommodation of national identities.

Introduction: Adherence to prescribed medication is crucial to effective treatment in many chronic conditions, and particularly for individuals diagnosed with psychosis. Health Psychology has traditionally provided robust models that have been employed to explore adherence in numerous chronic conditions. However, research using these models to explore adherence to anti-psychotic medication is scarce. This study looked to implement the science and evidence base of Health Psychology while exploring determinants of adherence to anti-psychotic medication. Method: In this longitudinal questionnaire study, data was collected at two-time points, six months apart. One hundred and ten individuals participated in the baseline stage. Adherence to antipsychotic medication was measured using the Medication Adherence Rating Scale. Social support, illness perceptions, illicit drug use and side effects were assessed using the Duke Functional Social Support Questionnaire, The Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, The Drug Abuse Screening Test and The Glasgow Anti-Psychotic Side Effect Scale Questionnaires respectively. Analysis of Variance and Correlation analyses were conducted to explore associations between these factors and adherence, while the potential predictive capacity of these factors was examined through Multiple Regressions. Results: Social Support, Treatment Control and Personal Control were significantly associated with adherence, while Treatment Control (β=.407 [.405-.095], p=.000) and Social Support (β=.282 [.682-.214], p=.002) were demonstrated to be a significant determinant of adherence to anti-psychotic medication. Conclusion: Adherence to anti-psychotic medication presents with a unique set of challenges and is a complex phenomenon influenced by a number of parameters. Levels of social support and treatment control are significant determinants of adherence to anti-psychotic medication. Efforts to enhance social support and personal control can be employed in future interventions designed to increase adherence. Treatment Control is an important factor and the Self Regulation Model has the aptitude to be employed in future research. There is potential for prospective research to apply Health Psychology theories, frameworks and principles to not only scrutinise adherence within mental health settings but also develop behaviour change interventions that target identified risk factors for non-adherence.

Food security has long been a component of the global development project. Over time, extensive definitions and conceptual frameworks for food security have emerged. This thesis explores food security policy discourse in middle income, non-crisis contexts in the Global South. Taking as its research site the Southeast Asian state of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), the thesis explores how food security is defined as a policy problem, and what solutions are proposed. Using an interpretive analytical approach, the research analyzes authored policy documents and constructed policy texts drawn from interviews conducted between 2011-2013 with 25 international experts to identify narratives emerging from the praxis of formal policy documents, institutional mandates and policy-in practice. The role of international expertise in shaping the national level discourse is explored in detail. Four policy narratives are identified: food security as modernization/economic growth, the smallholder narrative, the nutrition narrative, and food security as development. Particular attention is paid to the totemic status of rice in the discourse. For each narrative, a matrix of problem statements, proposed solutions, key indicators, and supporting institutions is presented. A metanarrative analysis of how these narratives intersect suggests that one of the characteristics of food security conceptually is its inclusiveness, giving it a remit across a range of sectors. This research presents food security as a valence issue, which, by virtue of its expansiveness, provides a platform on which multiple, divergent policy agenda coexist. Despite recognition among experts of serious shortcomings in both the conceptual framework and applied use in policy, this fluidity ensures that food security remains in consistent use, as both a component of national policy and as an artefact of global development discourse at the national level. Because of its continued focus on undernutrition in rural areas, the omission of issues such as overnutrition, urban food systems, and environmental degradation from the discourse, narratives in food security policy are presented as hewing to pre-existing problem statements and solutions. This renders food security an incomplete fit within the policy context of rapidly developing nations in 21st Century Southeast Asia.

Quantitative research has shown that individuals who report intrusive memories of traumatic events often experience psychological distress. There is a need for qualitatively focused research, which would allow for an understanding of how therapists construct and make sense of their clients' intrusive trauma memories in the context of the clients' psychological distress. The research involved face to face semi-structured interview with nine qualified psychologists about their experience of working with trauma clients. The data were analysed using constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006). The research study facilitated nuanced understanding of clients' trauma memories from the perspective of therapists. It explored the process of the therapists looking within to make sense of the impact of their clients' trauma experiences on them. It also allowed the researcher to examine how the therapist changes as a result of their engagement with trauma clients. Grounded theory analysis demonstrated that therapists constructed some important categories. These include; trauma memories as threat to sense of self, appraisal processes of trauma memories, discovering survival strategies, therapists' process in therapy with clients, therapists changing and reflecting as a result of trauma work and therapist discovering coping strategies. The findings indicate that trauma work also brings some rewards and privileges in the form of strength, growth, and empowerment. The research findings have important implications for policy and practice, service quality, and the well-being of therapists and their clients.