Siting the Olympics in the Lower Lea Valley has been widely represented as a means to improve quality of life for the ethnically diverse, deprived communities living there, in part through the creation of a new ‘community parkland’, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Ethnic minorities however, are under-represented as users of parks and other green spaces across the UK, at a far greater level than can be explained by income alone. Little has been done to investigate this phenomenon, despite its implications for social justice and public health. Limited research has found examples of ethnic variations in normative cultural practices, racist and territorial behaviour in the public realm at large, and structural discrimination with less greenspace in the areas where ethnic minorities live. Aiming to address a gap in the existing research literature, this case study investigates the relationship between the cultural inscription of park spaces, spatial practices of park making by the primarily ‘Anglo’ groups designing this new city space, and the experiences, preferences and values of the ethnically diverse communities who currently live around the London Olympic site. Using a mixed methods approach, the empirical research finds that while seeking inclusion, exclusionary values are unintentionally embedded in production and management of UK parks. This thesis evidences the cultural values embedded in UK spatial practices, their exclusionary nature, along class and ethnic dimensions, and reflects on the importance of cultural consciousness in spatial design in our increasingly multicultural cities.

There are two million single parents in the UK, more than nine out of ten of whom are mothers. Despite greater family fluidity and diversity, lone mothers remain materially disadvantaged and subject to derogatory stereotyping. Media representations, public policy and existing research have tended to focus on young mothers or lone mothers in deprived areas. This study therefore responds to a gap in knowledge by taking a comparative approach in investigating subjective experiences of stigma among lone mothers in a more diverse range of circumstances. This thesis documents qualitative research involving 26 lone mothers in two locations in the North of England, which have contrasting socio-economic profiles. It considers the relative significance of agential and structural factors, particularly social class, in their subjective perceptions of, and responses to, stigma. Theoretically, this study draws on feminist critiques of normative family and citizenship models, a critical realist perspective on agency/structure interplay and a feminist Bourdieusian approach to class analysis. These theoretical influences are brought together in a bespoke conceptual framework that seeks to explore stigmatisation of lone motherhood in terms of women's subjective mediation of gendered and classed de-legitimation. This thesis thus introduces the notion of 'subjective social legitimacy' (SSL) as an analytical tool. Importantly, SSL aims to examine women's accounts in a holistic way that recognises degrees of stigma, rather than assuming or reinforcing stigma. Analysis of data from semi-structured interviews revealed the principal factors affecting women's SSL to be: their age; their personal relationship history; whether they were employed or on benefits; reproductive norms in their local area; their level of extended family support; and social connections with people in the 'same situation'. Some women were positioned more favourably than others to mitigate stigma through their access to cultural, economic and social capital. The women's accounts demonstrate agential behaviour in negotiating stigma as well as responding to practical challenges. Analysis of case dynamics identified 'modes' of SSL among participants which could be deemed 'negative', 'positive', 'defensive', 'performative' or 'transformative'. Women in what might be objectively considered the most stigmatised situations did not automatically display 'negative' SSL. The theme of 'judgement' emerged inductively from interviews and using SSL helped understand women's agential response to stigma in terms of 'what matters' to them personally. This thesis includes case studies which illustrate how a process of 'judgement of judgement' can be pivotal to participants' rejection, resistance or absorption of stigma. This research offers an empirical contribution to knowledge through its comparative approach involving mothers in a deprived and a more affluent location; a conceptual contribution through development of SSL; and a methodological contribution through exposition of evaluative judgement as a mechanism in agential mediation of stigma.

The threat of terrorism, and in particular the threat of terrorists using biological weapons, has grown since the early 1990s, over the decade the assessment and perception of threat escalated despite an absence of biological weapons use. This research explores policy responses to the threat from bioterrorism in the UK between 1990 and 2005. A case study approach is used to examine the emergence and rise of the bioterrorism threat, and the institutional arrangement in place to confront that threat. The dissertation further investigates the construction of the threat narrative. The policy area of bioterrorism is obscured by secrecy. Therefore, this dissertation looks towards policy responses to pandemic influenza, and uses responses to pandemic influenza as a heuristic device to illustrate the difficulties of risk assessment and the accompanying institutional complexity. The study posits that traditional, academic risk assessment methodologies do not appear to have as large an influence as the narratives. Furthermore, the prevailing conceptualisation of the bioterrorism threat is the product of the confluence of three threat narratives. These narratives have become entangled and subsequently embedded in the institutional response. Moreover, a number of events have influenced and shaped the threat narrative of bioterrorism. First, a change in perception (sarin, 1995); then a jolt to the political and institutional structures (September 11, 2001); and finally, further bombings and plots have augmented the threat narrative (Madrid & London). This study is positioned at the intersection of policy studies and risk assessment, contributing to an understanding of the formation of institutional threat perceptions.

The promotion of a ‘home-owning democracy’ in Britain was bolstered by the Thatcher government’s Right-to-Buy policy and from this point onwards a chasm opened up between housing tenures. This broadly speaking resulted in the categorization of owner-occupation as the tenure of choice and the social rented sector as the ‘tenure of last resort’ (Daly et al., 2005, p. 328). When New Labour came to power in 1997 the creation of mixed tenure communities was regarded as a key policy tool for tackling the interconnected problems or social exclusion manifest in the most disadvantaged and residualized mono-tenure, social rented housing estates. The thesis is concentrated on New Labour’s mixed community policies from 1997 until 2007. The study drew on the policy and academic literatures (area-effects, social exclusion and sustainability) which inform the concept of mixed communities and on health and place literatures (health inequalities, relative deprivation) to develop an analytical framework. The over-arching aim of the thesis was to explore the ways in which features of neighbourhood may impact upon health and well-being in the context of mixed communities. The research concludes that with regards to the bigger policy picture the mixed community policy agenda has put communities and especially disadvantaged communities at the heart of urban regeneration, social inclusion and housing policy. However, although this is to be welcomed the danger is that tenure diversification is seen as the ‘silver bullet’ which can be used to combat all of the problems which are often manifest in disadvantaged social rented housing estates.

The urban renaissance seems to present a win-win scenario for social policy, promising greater social inclusion along with lower levels of car ownership and use. This thesis aims to evaluate the extent to which an urban renaissance might reduce levels of car ownership without inhibiting social inclusion and assess the potential for de-coupling rising family incomes from increasing levels of car ownership and use. A sequential mixed-methods research design is used to investigate the relationships between social inclusion and mobility within an urban context from two perspectives: the first phase of the research uses bivariate analysis and multiple logistic regression to test the relative importance of social inclusion, demographic determinants and spatial factors as a means of understanding household car ownership; the results of these analyses inform the second phase of the research, which adopts a case study approach in order to understand the role of social inclusion and urban form in modulating driver behaviour. A hybrid narrative/semi-structured interview technique allows longitudinal insights into the perspectives of residents from four urban areas, varying by density and centrality. Quantitative analysis, sampling the general population of Great Britain, indicates that inclusion on the dimensions of civic and social interaction is independent of level of car ownership. Furthermore it is shown that the impact of household income on levels of car ownership is mediated by urbanisation on three spatial tiers: settlement, neighbourhood and property levels. The qualitative phase confirms different patterns of car use as well as of car ownership across different urban areas, demonstrating that radical (and unplanned) changes in modal choice can follow relocation to more dense and central urban environments. The size and perceived quality of residential properties, along with the presence of greenspace and local shops, can build place attachment to relatively dense urban environments; increased levels of walking and consequent familiarity with other local residents were found to be core components of this process.

This PhD thesis is an ethnographic investigation into the drinking practices of young people undertaken in the Canterbury (Kent, United Kingdom) night-time economy. This research took place across a series of fieldwork sites, including: pubs, night-clubs, the street, and young people’s houses across the city. The research included an in-depth ethnography which took place in a city-centre pub where I was working as a bartender, which adapted the methodological approach of the Chicago School of Sociology to urban studies in a contemporary context. Specific examples from the research included a case study with two young men in the pub who were drinking after work, and a wide-range of other ethnographic examples taken from scenarios arising through my position at the pub resulting from bar conversations and informal interviews. These were selected from a number of literally thousands of young people who I encountered across the two years of fieldwork in the pub. The licensee of the pub, Andrew, acted as a gatekeeper for the research, as his approach to the pub business corresponded to interaction and the possibility of building ethnographic relationships with young people. Other ethnographic data examples were also taken from the wider Canterbury night-time economy, away from the pub at the centre of the in-depth ethnography. The variety of data sets included participant observation, conversation, informal interviews and the field diary. Drawing from the accounts of participants in the fieldwork and emergent themes in the ethnography, the thesis argues that young people are the subject of a normalization of extreme drinking practices in the night-time economy. This is explored through the adaptation of the model of drug normalization theory, where young people’s experiences of alcohol and extreme drinking practices are examined in relation to specific dimensions of drinking. The media stereotyping of extreme drinking practices by young people is also subject to critique, where it will be argued that the term “binge” drinking is an imprecise and moralistic view of young people’s activities in the night-time economy.

The thesis aims to understand: what constitutes urban collaboration and its relationship with policy outcomes? The research develops a conceptual understanding of the public value (PV) (Bardach, 1998; Moore, 1995, Smith, 2004) of Urban Local Authority Collaboration (ULAC) as economic development policy, relative to three theoretical domains in the literature: economic collaboration (i.e. new/old institutional economics: Ostrom 1990, 2016; Williamson, 2000); spatial collaboration (i.e. institutional economic geography: Ostrom, 2010; Gerber, 2015; Tarko and Aligica, 2012), and governance collaboration (i.e. collective action theory: Hulst and van Monfort, 2012; Feiock, 2008, 2013). Theoretically, the ‘institution’ (Amin, 2001; Jessop, 2001; Williamson, 2000; Aligica and Boettke, 2009; Gertler, 2010) is a distinct conceptual dimension connecting the theoretical literature, bridging scholarly boundaries across compatible ontological insights (Bathelt and Gluckler, 2003; and Hay, 2011). A conceptual framework is developed to help understand: a) what ULAC looks like; b) how ULAC creates PV and, c) why institutions explain the PV of ULAC. A purposeful single case study of ULAC (i.e. the Scottish Cities Alliance (SCA): a formalised institutional policy network involving seven Urban Local Authorities (ULAs) and the Scottish Government) involved collecting data using semi-structured interviews, secondary data, policy documentation and non-participant observation. The emergence of the SCA as economic development policy in Scotland – conducive to an institutionally sensitive theoretical approach – presents a valuable opportunity to contribute towards an empirical and theoretical understanding of ULAC. Using template analysis, findings emerged through process-tracing, sense-making and thick narrative descriptions to reveal aggregate dimensions and second-order themes and first-order concepts. The thesis responds to calls for in-depth case study research of the way local government collaboration operates and performs (Hulst and Montfort, 2012), engaging with the ‘fuzzy’(Markhusen, 2003) concepts and processes of ‘urban collaboration’, ‘policy outcomes’ and ‘institutions’ to reveal a lack of empirical and conceptual understanding of how ULAC operates: particularly the role of ‘urban’ institutional context as a ‘key actor attribute’ (Hulst and van Monfort, 2012: 139). Using a critical realist ontology (Jessop, 2005), the research is best suited to Stake’s (2005) interpretive methodological approach to contextualised theorising, using the SCA in Scotland to investigate the ‘contextualised’ Institutional context, to help inductively conceptualise the PV of ULAC as economic development policy. Whilst conscious of the risks of methodological and conceptual ‘stretching’ (Stubbs, 2005: 71) , the research uses Scotland as a case study to conceptualise the more generic, abstract features of ULAC as a ‘theoretically vague’ term that may ‘travel’ (Stubbs, 2005: 71). The results validate a realist perspective of the theoretical role of formal and informal institutions shaping the contextual path dependant nature of the PV of ULAC. The methodological contribution of the thesis highlights how a new evolving model of economic and spatial governance in Scotland, presents potential challenges for the future delivery of urban policy and practice in Scotland, before closing with a discussion of research limitations and recommendations for areas of future academic research.

In September 2011, over 2000 people set up a protest camp in Zuccotti Park, New York, to contest the increasing inequality and social injustices, they argued to have been brought about by the few, at the expense of the many. This camp along with thousands of other camps worldwide, that would emerge thereafter, would come to be known as the Occupy movement. This thesis offers an examination of the Occupy movement by way of considering this phenomenon through a neo-Marxist framework, concerning, in particular the matter of class struggle. The research contained within, offers a series of elucidations regarding key theoretical and conceptual concerns, pertaining to matters of state power, in the context of the war of position in the advanced capitalist state and the neoliberal conjuncture. Presented within this specific depiction of the convoluted process that is class struggle, there is also a consideration of potential strategies for alliance. These strategies for alliance are by way of seeking to realise the making of a social class force of 'the people', on the terms of the exploited classes, that would bring with it, a material change within the state, and to that end, greater forms of equality and social justice.

This study examines how aspects of performance appraisal fairness influence job satisfaction, trust in management and organisational commitment, and their links to organizational citizenship behaviour. Specifically, the study proposes that job satisfaction, trust in management and organisational commitment mediate the influence of performance appraisal fairness on organisational citizenship behaviour. Social exchange theory and the norm of reciprocity are used to provide a theoretical understanding of the linkages between performance appraisal fairness and work outcomes. Data were collected at three separate times to yield 369 responses from employees in public sector banks in Iraqi Kurdistan. The results show that the procedural and informational fairness of performance appraisal have a low to moderate relationship with job satisfaction, trust in management, affective and normative commitment and that distributive fairness has an insignificant effect on affective and normative commitment. These four attitudes have a positive relationship with organisational citizenship behaviour. The findings indicate that job satisfaction, trust in management and the two dimensions of organisational commitment play a role in mediating the relationship between procedural and informational fairness of performance appraisal and organisational citizenship behaviour. Job satisfaction and trust in management also played a significant role in mediating the relationship between distributive fairness of performance appraisal and organisational citizenship behaviour. Affective and normative commitment do not mediate the relationship between distributive fairness of performance appraisal and organisational citizenship behaviour. Performance appraisal characterised as fair and equitable is important to deliver desirable employee attitudes and behaviours and to reinforce employee motivation to serve banking activities and facilitate the achievement of organisational goals. The results underpin the importance of conducting performance appraisals in ways that employees see as fair. Although studies of this kind are common in the West, this is the first study in the Kurdish culture and working context. Suggestions for further research are offered.

The study examined whether a popular music artist can be considered as a brand, and whether the interpretation of this brand helps understand how popular music artists exploit the consumer-driven market demand and value to bolster their music artist identity. Past studies on people brands or personal branding had notably considered entrepreneurs, artists, celebrities, CEOs, visual artists and female music artists. However, there is no conceptual and theoretical framework informed by specific research into popular music artists as a brand. The main aim of this study is to fill this gap and in so doing make an original contribution to knowledge. The study adopted a biographical research approach within an interpretive ethnographic research methodology. It employed thick description of qualitative textual narrative, providing a thorough and rigorous insight into the existing career of Craig David, a popular UK music artist, spanning four decades. The study, based on biographical research, integrated the brand management constructs of brand identity, brand value and brand community. These constructs are seen as relevant and pertinent in understanding people's brands and the way popular music artists exploit market demand for their creative proposition of value. A major finding, which emerged from the study, was a conceptual framework identifying popular music artists as possessing a brand identity, emanating from their physical, private and professional identities. These identities cumulatively form the popular music artist's persona, which possesses brand value, which an artist projects, to form a relationship with the publics. This enables the individual artist to derive a portfolio of revenue or return directly proportional to the reputation assigned by their publics. The findings of the study make an original contribution to the literature on people branding or personal branding. The thesis discusses the implications for the practice of brand management and identifies the study's limitations; it also points to a number of areas for further research.