‘Honour’-based violence (HBV) is defined as a form of crime, predominantly against women, committed by the agnates of the victim, often in collaboration, which are justified by the victims’ perceived violation of social norms, particularly those around sexuality and gender roles. While HBV is often considered as a cultural phenomenon, I argue that the cross-cultural distribution of crimes fitting this definition prohibits a purely cultural explanation. I advance an alternate explanation for HBV through a deployment of the cultural materialist strategy and the anthropological theories of Pierre Bourdieu, Claude Lévi-Strauss (as interpreted by Gayle Rubin) and Eric Wolf. I argue that HBV is an epiphenomenon of the ‘exchange of women’ model of marriage transactions occurring within the patrilinear kinship structures typical of Central Eurasia, and that this is particularly marked amongst peoples with a history of agrarian and pastoral modes of production, in which kinship underwrites relations of resource and labour sharing. Within these scenarios, marriage is an aspect of the political economy of the group, since it extends or consolidates kinship networks. In post-agrarian neopatrimonial states, kinship relations remain salient to social status through nepotism and the intensification of subgroup identification. I argue that women’s embodiment of the standards of marriageability — their ‘honour’ — within their communities is a form of symbolic capital which inflects the status of their families, and their ability to participate in strategic marital exchanges. This theory is investigated through an extensive and historicised survey of kinship and marriage in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and through original survey data on marriage forms and attitudes and experiences of HBV in the region, suggesting that HBV and understandings of gender, marriage and kinship are intrinsically linked. Thus, this thesis argues that while HBV may appear to be enculturated, its aetiology may be material in nature. Efforts to reduce HBV in the Middle East should encompass reform of personal status laws which posit the patrilinear, patricentric family as the ideal model, and that campaigns to reduce forced and child marriage should be considered as part of the process to reduce HBV.

This thesis examines the process of street trader displacements through the views of street traders and other urban actors, and through the lens of the Right to the City concept, reviewing the ways in which public space is viewed and regulated and the interplay of rights in urban public space within the context of Lagos, Nigeria. The Right to the City concept is also critiqued in this particular African context through the case study of trader displacements in Oshodi Market, Lagos, in 2009. This investigation was conducted through a case-study and mixed-method approach using interviews, documentary analysis and observation. The displacement of street traders from public spaces is a common government policy in developing world cities despite widespread arguments that displacements lead to marginalisation of street traders. The spread of global capitalism has escalated tensions as street trade and neoliberal urban development fundamentally depend on public space, but street traders are often relegated, with urban public space perhaps the clearest physical domain in which exclusion is manifest. The Right to the City has been used to question competing claims to the city and has gained wide acclaim globally, it has however been criticised as lacking adequate contextual grounding. The research reveals wide-ranging negative impacts of displacements on street traders and other urban groups, and significant lapses in urban management in Lagos. It was found that the Right to the City did not feature in the experience of street traders in Oshodi as traders do not possess any rights in public space. In addition key context specific challenges of implementing the Right to the City are identified. The thesis establishes a rights-based framework for urban governance based on the Right to the City which can be implemented in Lagos and similar contexts.

The modern public sector equality duties (PSEDs) have been described as positive duties, ground-breaking and transformative. Described in these terms because the pseds partly addressed limitations in anti-discrimination laws by placing designated public bodies, and others exercising public functions, under a legal obligation to proactively consider various equality aims. The duties were introduced in England, Scotland and Wales between 2001 and 2011. This thesis investigates the Race Equality Duty, the Disability Equality Duty and related provisions in the Public Sector Equality Duty. It provides an interdisciplinary, socio-legal analysis of these pseds by investigating two interrelated research questions: 1) Have the race and disability equality duties been effective positive legal duties and legal public accountability tools? 2) Does Scheingold’s theory of the Politics of Rights add to our understanding of the constraints on the potential impact of positive legal duties in advancing equality? This study makes a unique contribution to the literature by analysing: the justiciability of the pseds and their effectiveness as legal tools to hold public bodies to account; the outcomes of substantive race and disability public sector equality duties (pseds) judicial review judgments; and the significance of the roles played by cause lawyers, community activism and legal empowerment in extending the race and disability pseds’ reach and impact. The unique contribution made to the literature is augmented by the inclusion in this thesis of a socio-political analysis of the impact on these pseds of major changes in the UK’s anti-discrimination framework, equality laws and developments in relation to immigration, community cohesion, integration and austerity over the last fifty years.

Considerable attention has been given over to the politicisation of life within the 21st century: the threat of new disease and the promise of new drugs; the advancement of technology capable of transforming live anew; and the recasting of biological citizenship. This thesis, however, responds to the growing calls, made by the likes of Kearns and Reid-Henry (2007), to consider the other side of our contemporary biopolitical regime and the avoidable suffering that is played out against this backdrop of possibilities. Utilising malaria as the disease specific entry point, the thesis aims to disclose the way in which health is mediated by (biological) events within the body as well as (political) events outside of the body and explore the dialogue that takes place across the body’s fleshy barrier. In doing so, I aim to interrogate the injustice and reveal the structural violence anonymously enacted through systems but personally embodied by certain individuals. Thus, the thesis contributes to, and moves forward, the on going work on the critical geographies of global health by traversing scales, bringing the critical conversations that have been predominantly focused at the all-too-impersonal global level down to those ‘at the sharp end’ (Dixon and Marston 2011, 445), ensuring such voices join the conversation and speak back to the global narrative. In doing so I provide a more geographically and personally attuned account of the ‘epidemiology of inequality’ (Sparke and Anguelov 2012) currently being sketched out within the discipline. By embedding personal experiences of (ill)health within a national and international context, I work to ensure that such episodes of illness are not framed as sad, unfortunate, biologically inevitable, or bad luck, but unequivocally as episodes of violence (after Craddock 2009). The thesis does so through a series of distinct chapters, each offering different perspectives yet threaded together with the themes of (structural) violence and the valuation and management of life today. From an initial focus on the (de)valuation of life implicit in an economic conceptualisation of the disease burden within the global health arena, the thesis goes on to focus on the politics of life from the perspectives of individuals themselves. Drawing on conversations with women in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the thesis seeks to recover the journeys travelled to and through the health system, pausing to reflect on the situations that influence the contours of this journey as well as the biological consequence of them.

The social and environmental responsibility of corporations is a subject that continues to ignite public passions. No wonder, given the regular reminders of the kinds of trouble that irresponsible business practice can get society in! The persistence of corporate social responsibility in this context has proved controversial. A strategy for managing the social and environmental responsibility of business that relies on self-regulation, CSR is a concept that strikes an uncomfortable chord with the already high levels of corporate autonomy. Yet, there seems to be no shifting from CSR. The activist shopping, of which it boasts, has ingratiated itself with democratic politics and, as such, seems set to remain. Everyone today agrees on the need for business to be more responsible. CSR is an important part of how this responsibility is managed and organised today. This thesis analyses this entrenchment of CSR in terms of what it describes as ‘the double play.’ Markets first make demands on people, time and resources, in order to secure productivity and profitability. They then make a second play to service the social and environmental fall-out of this first drive for marketisation. CSR takes place on this second play, deploying market incentives and techniques to the remedy of market generated problems. Corporations participate, drawn to the security accorded their autonomy. They see in CSR a chance to right wrongs created in earlier cycles of exchange, without the risks created by external interference. The public engage where, as the ultimate source of economic demand, they feel the responsibility for everything that goes on in the market. They try to ‘shop better’ on the second wave, to instil recovery and prevent the rematerialisation of harm. This thesis problematises CSR and the double play. It does so in a series of critical provocations directed at CSR informed by the philosophy of Jean Baudrillard. It discusses CSR’s capacity to politically disempower public participants, by drawing their energies into a perpetual cycle of economic imperialism and exchange. It discusses the difficulty CSR creates, in terms of raising conflict with business actors, and the tendency for the system to leave inert, or exposed and abandoned, those that try. Finally, the thesis pushes up against an ultimatum in CSR – ‘buy, or people perish!’ – through which the market is able to indefinitely extend and regenerate itself. The thesis argues for the disengagement of this ultimatum. For only when social and environmental concern is not held hostage to the market can the political ambition, which is somewhere present in all of this, be realised.

There is a wealth of literature suggesting that breastfeeding for 6 months offers the ideal balance of nutrients for complete infant growth, and that all infants should be: “exclusively breastfed from birth to six months of age” (WHO 2003). However, although 98 percent of new mothers are capable of breastfeeding, only a minority of infants continue to be breastfed at six months following birth. In addition, breastfeeding rates are socially patterned whereby women living in the most affluent neighbourhoods are three times more likely to breastfeed their infants than women living in the least affluent areas (Bolling et al 2007). This thesis set out to address a range of research questions in relation to women’s lived experiences of breastfeeding in private and public spaces throughout the first 6 months of motherhood within a sample of mothers from the most and least affluent neighbourhoods. Given that breastfeeding is an embodied health behaviour, the epistemology adopted a position of interpretivism as a means of capturing the meaning and lived experiences of women’s breastfeeding. Breastfeeding women were recruited at 2 days following birth from the most and least affluent areas of Glasgow south and 41 in-depth interviews were conducted over 3 time periods following birth: 4 weeks (n18), 10 weeks (n12) and 26 weeks (n11). The results from this public policy health service research study suggest that breastfeeding is a learnt skill and women work hard to develop their skills and confidence in order to breastfeed comfortably and discreetly in private and public spaces. Breastfeeding is commonly discussed as a private domestic activity, and home is generally considered the most appropriate place for breastfeeding to take place. However, with the constant flow of visitors a new baby attracts, the boundaries between what are considered private and public space breaks down. As a result, women develop an awareness of appropriate and inappropriate spaces for breastfeeding both at home and outside the home. Women suggest, at times, they feel a greater degree of privacy breastfeeding within public spaces than they do in the private space of their own home.

This thesis considers the aspirations of a group of pupils in a post-industrial community in the South Wales Valleys. Using a mixed methods approach, I explore and consider a range of social, economic and cultural issues to understand how educational and occupational aspirations are influenced and shaped. The recommendations made will hopefully help develop the role of personal tutor, as set out in the Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification and help others within the education sector understand the complex, multifaceted nature of pupils’ hopes and dreams for the future. The ideas on the formation of aspirations which are developed by the economist Ray (2002, 2006) and the anthropologist Appadurai (2004) act as a strong reference point in this thesis. These works, coupled with the theory of circumscription and compromise which has been developed by Gottfredson (1981) provide a conceptual framework with which to facilitate a better understanding of the ways in which the educational and occupational aspirations of young people could be affected. I suggest that aspirations should be considered from a socio-cultural perspective. Such is the dynamic nature of aspirations that pupils’ dreams about the future begin to grow and be affected from a young age. For this reason, schools should consider a range of interventions to challenge gender stereotypes and ensure that sufficient guidance is provided from a young age about the many different academic and occupational pathways that pupils can choose in life. Throughout the thesis, I argue that for a group of young men and women in a community of social and economic deprivation, aspirations and transitions to adulthood are framed through geographically, familial and historically shaped class and gender codes.

The primary purpose of this thesis is to investigate, describe, and thus understand, the phenomenon of the strategy-creation process, the process, content, and context in senior Welsh rugby clubs, 1990 - 2000. The inspiration for the research arose during a monumental decade of transformation to the Game of Rugby Union Football. The research questions concern evaluating the clubs’ strategy-creation process, and the reactions to the introduction of National Leagues and Professionalism. The process pursued was centred on a purposive sample of three nonprofit rugby clubs. In addition to an in-depth analysis of the general strategy management literature, reviews were conducted within the themes of small business, nonprofits and sporting organizations. A lack of prior research in the strategy action-outcomes in the nonprofits, sporting sector, particularly the rugby union environment, was a cause for concern. The general literature revealed clear differences of opinion between researchers about the relationship between organizational strategy, strategy-creation and outcomes. An interpretive approach was adopted, employing the validated theoretical framework by Bailey et al (2000), to collect, and analyse, ‘insider’ data from different levels of club respondents, and also from various club stakeholders. The content (outcomes) found that rugby clubs employed operational planning regularly during the playing season. Strategic planning had been used, but only on a few necessary occasions. The decision-making processes were found to have strong political and enforced choice dimensions, both pre- and post- 1995. The Introduction of Professionalism had caused the need for clubs to manage conflicting rugby and business objectives, and to re-appraise the influence of culture on decisions. However, it did not change the clubs’ long established priority of placing playing performance before financial performance. The context of the clubs’ turbulent external environment, coupled with the uncertainty and unpredictability of the Game, ensured an annual, seasonal struggle for survival for clubs operating in a niche market. These distinctive operating conditions strongly influence a rugby club’s strategy-creation. This thesis concludes by considering the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings arising from the study of non-profit rugby clubs.

This thesis analyses poor law administration in Wigan Union from 1880-1900. The late-nineteenth century is fertile territory for poor law historians, and this study intends to further enhance our understanding of the period. Local studies are vital given that the weakness of central authority ensured a wide variety of practice amongst unions, and are essential to the development of a better informed national picture. With that purpose, the thesis focuses on the important Lancashire industrial town of Wigan. Analysis addresses selected themes that require greater attention from historians in order to facilitate a more developed understanding of the poor law. Chapter one analyses politics in relation to guardians’ elections before and after the democratisation of the boards in 1894. Chapter two explores the role of boards of guardians, both individually and collaboratively, as active political agencies and defenders of the public interest in relation to removal of Irish paupers and in battles over rating with canal and railway companies. Chapters three and four focus on what was arguably the greatest poor law controversy of the period – the ‘Crusade’ against outdoor relief, initiated nationally in 1870. Wigan Union was an apparent supporter of this ‘reform’ movement, but appearances were deceptive. Chapter five addresses the problem of the ‘casual poor’, another major national concern of the period. Analysis illustrates the detail of local practice and the nature of central-local relations between the guardians and the LGB. Chapter six examines the themes of dismissal of union officers and superannuation for those deemed to have given good public service, further illustrating conceptions of professionalism and central-local relations. From this analysis, the Wigan board emerges as a politically engaged institution; financially cautious but with a paternalistic sense of obligation to the poor and pragmatic rather than ideologically driven in its policy and practice. Strong local conceptions of identity, professionalism and public service are evident within a nuanced context of central-local relations.

There has been a considerable growth in research in recent years into the history of both journalism and sport, two hugely influential areas of popular culture. The two fields cover a wide spectrum of interests and there is much ground that is common to both. However, studies of journalism and the growth of the newspaper industry have largely ignored the role of the sports journalist and the place of sport within a developing press. Moreover, studies of the expansion of commercial sport and the games-playing habit, whilst touching on the place of the press in their development, and utilising newspapers as primary source material, have paid little or no attention to the place of the sports reporter in the promotion and recording of the sporting sub-culture. This thesis aims to address the shortcoming in current research with a study centring on the growth of the occupation of sports reporting from the mid-Victorian era to the inter-war years. The thesis notes the adoption of sport as a circulation aid by the popular press, considers the type of recruit attracted to sports reporting, the job's practical aspects, the position of the sports journalist within the editorial hierarchy, and the acceptance of sports reporting as a legitimate specialism within a widening editorial agenda. The career of journalist James Catton is introduced to the study to examine in detail the manner in which occupational trends impacted upon the individual reporter, and in order to trace the manner in which sports reporting could be said to have adopted a 'professional' outlook during the period of this study. The thesis reveals the uncertain standing of the sports journalist within the newspaper industry, the part-time nature of much sports reporting, with sport regarded as an occupational rite of passage for the young and the trainee, and the struggle to rid the occupation of a reputation sullied by a perception of hackneyed journalism. The biographical section of the thesis introduces a contemporary voice, that of James Catton, to let it speak to an experience that might otherwise prove difficult to capture. Catton's working life highlights the possibilities and the demands of a career in sports journalism, and the success that the adoption of a 'professional' approach to the work could secure.