Within the last few years, disabled people have become the target of government austerity measures through drastic cuts to welfare justified through the portrayal of benefit claimants as inactive, problem citizens who are wilfully unemployed. For all that is wrong with these cuts, they are one of many aspects of exclusion that disabled people face. Attitudes towards disability are deteriorating (Scope, 2011) and disabled people are devalued and negatively positioned in a myriad of ways, meaning that an understanding of the perceptions and positioning of disability and the power of disabling practices is critical. This thesis will examine how Bourdieu’s theoretical repertoire may be applied to the area of Disability Studies in order to discern how society produces oppressive and exclusionary systems of classification which structures the social position and perceptions of disability. The composite nature of disability and multiple forms of exclusion and inequality associated with it benefits from a multipronged approach which acknowledges personal, embodied and psychological aspects of disability alongside socio-political and cultural conceptualisations. Bourdieu’s approach is one in which the micro and macro aspects of social life are brought together through their meso interplay and provides a thorough analysis of the many aspects of disability.

This thesis is a diachronic study of a branch of modern Jainism that was established at the beginning of the twentieth century. It makes extensive use of ethnographic data collected during field-research in Gujarat, Mumbai (India) and London (UK). Members of this branch of Jainism follow a Jain layman from Gujarat called Srimad Rajcandra (1867 to 1901 CE). Srimad was profoundly dissatisfied with contemporary Jainism. He believed that its soteriological message had been subverted by empty rituals and groundless theorizing, and that spiritual ignorance had resulted in sectarian division, something to which he vehemently opposed. Today there are numerous ashrams and temples dedicated to Srimad. Most are in Gujarat, from where the majority of his followers originate, but some are also found in other regions of India. Srimad's following extends beyond India into diaspora Jain communities in North America and Europe, including Britain. This thesis argues that Srimad's devotees are unified by an inclusive history and ideology that is centred in the life and teachings of Srimad Rajcandra, and so can be viewed collectively as a distinct movement within modern Jainism. Two tangible factors that distinguish Srimad's followers from other Jains are their acceptance of his writings (in Gujarati) as scripture and their veneration of his image in the form of photographs and statues. Such an argument is necessary because the structure of the Srimad Rajcandra movement is fragmentary. It is a composite of various disparate, autonomous lay communities and individuals. Each community has its own local history and independent tradition, which influence its specific beliefs and practices. This thesis discusses the internal causes for the movement's organizational structure. These include Srimad's lay status and anti-sectarian values, his interpretation of self realisation as a religious experience, and his teaching about guru 'bhakti' as a means of attaining liberation.

This research is concerned with exploring the notion of 'international-mindedness' (IM), a concept that has been largely associated with international schools and explanations for their prevalence and function within a global society. Firstly, the study seeks to present a descriptive ethnographic account based on the experiences of a group of multi-ethnic children and a teacher in a grade four classroom of an international school in Kuwait. By shadowing participants for a school year, and consulting parents of the three focal students, this thesis aims to construct a detailed ethnography of the micro-politics of classroom experiences within the context of the largescale 'macro' dimensions underpinning Class 4A. Secondly, through a Bourdieusian framework, coupled with theoretical and methodological approaches to discourse analysis, this exploratory investigation constructs an understanding of IM as a three mode concept: outcome, process and relationship. This thesis presents the situated, discursive and dialectical dynamics organising IM through detailed observation of classroom interactions, and individual and group interviews. This research falls into two stages in its exploration of IM. Firstly, unstructured observation of the everyday realities of life in an international classroom and participants' accounts were depicted through the Bourdieusian theoretical lens of habitus, field and capital. This identified the school's American as opposed to international ethos. It also identified racial categorisation, 'American' and 'nonAmerican', and 'Kuwaitness' and 'Foreignness', as operative discourses in the classroom. Secondly, focused and structured observation of the teacher and three focal students' interactions in the classroom examined the nature of their cultural identities and intercultural conversations as precursors for IM. This stage also involved interviewing the young participants' parents in order to trace the constructions of their ethnic habitus. Participants were identified as social agents with potential to enact their own racialised discourses, in spite of the American hegemonic veneer of the international school. Further analysis revealed intersections and divergences that created cultural dialogues, in spite of the apparent and overbearing influences of the macro-contexts of the school and local society. In this way, this thesis arrives at an understanding of IM in Class 4A as a dialectical relationship set against a backdrop of structural effects from the singular discourses of America and Kuwait.

This research constitutes an investigation of unconscious interaction between patient and analyst in situations where psyche and soma are in relation. The literature is extensive, but not coherent, and there exists a need for an overall mapping of the field. The project aims to establish a conceptual topography, grounded in Jung’s psychoid concept, since this applies to a deeply unconscious realm that is neither physiological nor psychological but that partakes of both. A methodology based on the conceptual research of Dreher (2000) is employed, including: a historical study tracing the evolution of Jung’s ideas, from their biological origins in the work of Driesch (1903) and Bleuler (1929), through Jung’s own self-investigation in his Red Book work, to his subsequent theoretical conceptualisations, to establish a public definition for the psychoid concept; and an empirical study, based on expert interviews, to interrogate this definition. The empirical study employs a methodological instrument, developed for this research, for identifying clinicians’ private theories relating to psycho-physical experience. Such instrument comprises the process notes for a single session, in which the psychic fact and the physical fact are combined, and a set of discussion vertices, derived from Sandler (1983), Canestri (2006) and Tuckett (2008), for guiding the interview. The empirical data, constituting the transcripts of the interviews, not the process notes, is analysed using grounded theory. Comparisons from psychoanalysis are employed at all stages of both studies. The results demonstrate that the psychoid concept is valid and clinically useful. The empirical study establishes that clinicians support contrasting views of the transference, namely a symmetrical and mutual transference and an asymmetrical and hierarchical transference, the former being consistent with Jung’s psychoid concept. Unexpectedly, not only Jungians but also some psychoanalysts conceptualised a symmetrical transference, albeit employing different terminology. This adds Popperian weight to the research results.

British-Asians have often been stereotyped in the media through their cultural and linguistic practices, and these have been exacerbated by ongoing anti-Islamic international media coverage. Such associations may necessarily impact on the identity of young Pakistani-Muslims living in the West, and by implication, their sociolinguistic choices. However, no systematic study to my knowledge has attempted to uncover the role fine-grained phonetic variation might play in indexing such associations. In addition, Scottish-Pakistanis who are the largest ethnic minority group in Scotland, have been neglected in prior research on ethnic accents of English. With the increasing acknowledgement that ethnic varieties may influence mainstream Englishes as well as contribute to regional and personal identity, Scotland is a prime site for such analysis with its strong sense of national as well as local identity. Moreover, young female identity in the Muslim context is heightened, and can advance the understanding of the role of age, gender and religion in language variation. This study is a sociophonetic analysis of the Glasgow-Asian accent, specifically examining the speech of British-born adolescent Pakistani girls, aged 16-18. It uses both linguistic ethnographic and variationist methods with auditory and acoustic phonetics to ascertain how social identity and ethnicity are reflected in specific accent features of their spoken English. From long-term fieldwork in a Glasgow high school, results show that distinct Communities of Practice (CofPs) emerge in the girls according to their social practices. The consonantal variable /t/, and six unchecked monophthongal vowels /i, e, a, O, o, 0/ were examined revealing fine-grained differences in realisation according to CofP membership. CofP effects were found: for /t/ for Tongue Shape gesture and Centre of Gravity (CoG), and for vowels in interaction effects with adjacent phonetic environment for FLEECE height (F1) and BOOT front-backness (F2). Findings reveal within-ethnic and cross-ethnic differences across the variables. The girls use a system of accent variation in subtle ways to simultaneously denote ethnicity, and personal, regional and social identity. This reflects hybridity at a fine phonetic level, similar to that of ‘Brasian’ (Harris 2006), but here embodied in the concept of ‘Glaswasian’.

Service user and carer involvement in health and social care education in the UK has gained momentum over the last two decades, largely driven by consumerist and democratic ideologies. This is reinforced by the health and social care regulatory bodies such as the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). This thesis presents a series of eight peer reviewed papers that have focussed on the agency of service user and carer involvement in health and social care education. The accompanying commentary draws the papers together and locates them within an overarching theoretical framework, ‘The Ladder of involvement’. This portfolio of evidence demonstrates a coherent approach that draws on underlying philosophies and theoretical underpinnings and displays contribution to knowledge in five distinct sections: Contribution to the literature with new findings, location of the findings within the current literature, location of the findings within the theoretical framework, contribution to the refinement and development of theory and contribution to dialogue and debate. The key message from the studies undertaken as part of this portfolio of evidence is that service user and care involvement in health and social care education enhances student learning and influences their future practice. However, there must be a well-developed infrastructure within higher education institutions that recognises the complexities of user involvement for the key stakeholders. There is a pressing need for additional research to further substantiate the benefit of user involvement for all parties concerned, in order for user involvement to take its place as a core component of health and social care education.

The discourse of ‘the white man’s burden’ that originated in the nineteenth century with missionaries and colonialism still underpins much of the development ideology towards Africa today. The overwhelming assumption that rich Western countries can and should address ‘underdevelopment’ through aid only stigmatizes African reality, framing it to mirror the worldview of the international donors who fund most non-profit interventionist documentaries. In the ‘parachute filmmaking’ style that results, facilitated by financial resources and reflecting the self-serving intentions of the donors, the non-profit filmmaker functions simply as an agent of meaning rather than authentic author of the text. Challenged by limited production schedules and lacking in cultural understanding most donor-sponsored films fall back on an ethnocentric one-size-fits-all template of an ‘inferior other’ who needs to be ‘helped’. This study sets out to challenge the ‘donor gaze’ in documentary films which ‘speak about’ Africa, arguing instead for a more inclusive style of filmmaking that gives voice to its subjects by ‘speaking with’ them. The special focus is on black African women whose images are used to signify helplessness, vulnerability and ignorance, particularly in donor-funded documentaries addressing HIV/AIDS. Through case studies of four films this study asks: 1. How do documentary films reinforce the donor gaze? (how is the film speaking and why?) 2. Can the donor gaze be challenged? (should intentionality always override subjectivity of the filmed subjects?) Film studies approach the gaze psychoanalytically (e.g. Mulvey 1975) but this study focuses on the conscious gaze of filmmakers because they reinforce or challenge ‘the pictures in our heads.’ Sight is an architect of meaning. Gaze orders reality but the documentary gaze can re-order it. The study argues that in Africa, the ‘donor gaze’ constructs meaning by ‘speaking about’ reality and calls instead for a new approach for documentary to ‘speak with’ reality.

This study examines the nature and extent of CSR practices in Malaysia, a developing country located in the South-East Asia. The cause for concern highlighted in a number of studies in the field of CSR is centred on the unparalleled economic, social and political power that corporations possess in a contemporary economic environment. It has been argued that corporate large-scale operations pose considerable challenges to existing domestic and international governance institutions. In response to various pressures from civil society groups and NGOs, corporations espouse CSR commitment by producing codes of conduct and increasingly report its CSR engagement. Nevertheless, the present form of modern corporations, anchored by the ‘ideology’ of economic and legal views of the corporation offer limited insight into the practice of CSR. It has been argued that developing countries’ institutional structures are often devised to increase capital mobility and pressure to attract foreign investment in order to foster social and economic growth. This may influence the development of institutional structures for promoting social responsibility and public accountability and indeed shape social relations in a capitalist society. In the case of Malaysia, it can be observed that the powerful social elite set the agenda for maintaining social cohesion, mobilising Bumiputera hegemony in the process of capital accumulation and suppressing concerns about the tensions between capitalism and socio-economic and environmental concerns. In this context, CSR provided corporate managers and political elites with a tool, used to maintain the status quo and masked conflicting interests under the notion of ‘corporate social responsibility’. The analysis of several reports and documents of public-listed corporations in Malaysia showed gaps in the knowledge of CSR discourse and how it can be ‘operationalised’ in the best interest of the public at large. The review of documented evidence also indicated the gap between corporate pledges of CSR and what actually happened in practices.

Banking services are perhaps the largest industry that caters to -the needs of various segments of the population reflecting the diverse Diasporas of the society. Moreover perceived service quality tends to play a significant role in high involvement (high, interaction between customers and service providers) industries like banks. Also, banks often have long-term business relationships with customers. In addition, the banking sector is large enough to capture and represent almost all the critical features of the customer-perceived service quality and the critical dimensions of excellence that the management may have to encounter, in order to effectively manage a service organisation. However, there is considerable lack of literature with respect to service industry management, especially in the banking industry of developing economies. Therefore an analysis of banks in the Libya from a 'service-quality perspective' may sound interesting at this juncture. Such an investigation is vital for the bankers in order to enhance their business performance. Service quality plays an important role in the success of any organization generally but especially in the banking sector. This importance increased after a link was found between service quality and customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and financial performance. In the Libyan economy, the banking sector is one of the most important. Its significance increased after the 2003 lifting of the United Nations sanction. This was followed by entry to the sector of a number of domestic and multinational firms. Despite this increased competition, domestic banks are still widely considered to suffer from low levels of service quality. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to examine and compare expectations and perceptions from customers and bankers regarding the service quality provided by the commercial public and private banks in Libya. After an extensive review of the extant literature related to the Parasurman, Berry and Zeithaml (1985) Gap Model and the use of the SERVQUAL instrument to measure service quality, this study found that there was a gap in the literature regarding empirical research using the extended Gap Model to evaluate service quality in the banking sector. Therefore, the extended Gap Model has been used to examine service quality in Libyan commercial banks and SERVQUAL used to measure the service gaps. The resulting instrument is intended to help these banks to measure their service quality and focus on the service quality dimensions of most importance to their customers. It is also expected that this instrument, and its results, will contribute to future research into service quality. Both questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were employed to fulfil the study objectives. The questionnaire aimed to investigate the implementation of service quality in the Libyan banks sector, while, semi-structured interviews with managers aimed to gain an understanding of themes which had emerged from the questionnaire. The findings of the present study have produced some important results. Firstly, there are significant differences between the Libyan private and public banking sectors in terms of customer and bankers' standpoints of service quality. Secondly, customers' expectations of banks services were higher in the private banks than in the public banks. Thirdly, customers' perceptions of the banks services were higher in the public banks compared with the private banks. Forthly, the gap between customers' expectations and perceptions of services provided by public and private banks is generally widest in public banks in the majority of the 22 items. Fifthly, employees' perceptions of customers' expectations in both banks had high scores in the bank's service quality. Finaly, the results also show that the interviews provided another layer of information that contributed extremely well to the overall understanding of the service quality in Libyan commercial banks. The study has made an original contribution to the academic and practical knowledge of service quality. This study contributes to the understanding of service quality in terms of the Libyan banking context. The added value of this study emanates from the fact the research was conducted in Libya (a developing country with an extremely limited amount of service quality research conducted therein), and the fact it measured and assessed the service quality in both Libyan private and public banking sectors which form, along with the central bank, the entire Libyan banking system.

The social and economic environments of developing countries differ from those of liberal market economies of the developed countries, and the differences are reflected in the accounting disclosure practices. Recent years have shown an increased attention paid by accounting research to Corporate Social Responsibility and Disclosure which is recognized as having the potential to enhance the transparency of business enterprises’ social influence, enabling the wider society to hold business enterprises more accountable for their operations. Corporate Social Responsibility and Disclosure practices in most developing countries remain fairly rudimentary and relatively few studies have focused on the corporate social responsibility disclosure practices in such countries. The aim of this study is to investigate corporate social responsibility disclosure in Libyan companies’ annual reporting in the light of the country’s economic, social and political environment. In particular, it seeks to map current corporate social disclosure in annual reports and to understand various parties’ views of that practice and its possible future development. To achieve the aim and particular objectives of the study it was necessary to utilise more than one research method. Firstly, a descriptive method is used to provide an overview of accounting and its environment in a developing country, and the economic, social and political environment in Libya. Secondly, empirical evidence covering a five year period across a sample of private and public companies in Libyan environment is presented using content analysis to analyse the companies’ annual reports. Finally, an empirical survey by personally delivered and collected questionnaire of 303 participants in four groups of research participants (academic accountants, financial managers, government officials and investors) was performed to explore the views and perceptions regarding corporate social reporting in Libya. The content analysis showed that Libyan companies generally disclose some information related to social responsibility. However, the amount of information is low compared with counterparts in developed countries. Employee and community involvement are the themes that the companies disclose most information about. The findings from the questionnaire survey indicate that participants preferred social information to be disclosed in the annual report, ideally placed in a separate section. The disclosure of more social and environmental information was widely accepted and viewed as leading to some socioeconomic benefits at the macro level.