The sites and settings of structured youth work have been a neglected sphere of study in contemporary human geography. This thesis addresses this silence through an examination of The Boys’ Brigade – a voluntary Christian uniformed youth work movement. Limited in geographic scope to Scotland, the thesis draws upon a multiple-methods research strategy comprising: a mail-based questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and a period of participant observation, incorporating participatory approaches with boys. Resting upon Foucouldian theoretical foundations, and written with audiences both within and without academia in mind, the thesis argues that a failure to appreciate the spatialities of structured youth work settings invariably results in partial accounts of both the motives underpinning their voluntary provision by adults’ and boys’ participation in them. More specifically, it suggests that the spaces of structured youth work are realised through small-scale processes of negotiation between boys and adults that stabilise a shared spatio-temporal regime – a structure – through which youth work is conducted by both adults and boys. It contends that it is space itself, and particularly its purposive ordering, that is both enlisted and resisted to achieve this fleeting stabilisation with its attendant disciplinary and developmental ends. In so doing the thesis delivers an analytical framework through which other spaces of structured youth work can be read that, by remaining alert to the interweaving of the geographies of voluntary provision and participation, neither overplays adults’ nor downplays young people’s agency in their creation.

This study is a mixed-method analysis of church participation as a direct intercultural encounter in the experiences of non-Christian Chinese international students in the UK. Its setting in a religious context makes the whole research unique among research on the topic of international students’ cross-cultural experience. The study aims to address the overarching research question: What is the role of Christian churches in the intercultural experiences of Chinese international students in the UK? There are five sub-questions further developed from both student and church perspectives to comprehensively explore the main issue: 1) Why do non-Christian Chinese students choose to go to churches after they arrive in the UK? 2) Do Christian churches serve as a medium of intercultural encounter for Chinese international students? 3) What is the institutional motivation of the Christian community for attracting international students, especially Chinese students? 4) What are the Christian churches’ strategies in working with Chinese international students? 5) What is more important for students, religious or intercultural experience? The study employs survey, semi-structured in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis as research methods to provide an analysis on international students’ church experiences. In the context of the non-Christian Chinese students’ international mobility and Christianity in China and UK, it investigates the intentions behind and purposes of the intercultural engagement between churches and students. What underpins the interaction between Chinese students and the international Christian community is the interplay between educational, religious, socio-cultural, and psychological factors. The study also presents the western culture, Christianity, as well as the cultural/religious background of Chinese students, and highlights Christian ambitions and missionary strategies (working model) towards non-Christian international students. The findings indicate that social connections with the host environment and the nature of organisation play a significant role in the cross-cultural adaptation and individual development of international students. Besides offering an explanation for the mechanism behind the students’ church participation, the findings also demonstrate that it is Christian churches, rather than universities in the experience of Chinese international students in the UK to facilitate intercultural encounters. The study recommends that universities be encouraged to undertake relevant interventions to facilitate meaningful intercultural engagement among students in the multicultural campus environment.

The principal aim of the thesis is to re-vision what I am calling ‘the business domain’ by showing how different archetypal energies of the collective unconscious operate in it and how they structure the domain’s creative dynamics. In this task, I am drawing on a range of Jungian theories. While the psychoanalytic organisational approach, with its focus on the personal/group unconscious, is well developed, the Jungian organisational approach is in its infancy with the result that little is said in the relevant literature to date about collective unconscious dominants, the archetypes. The introduction of this perspective involves arguing against the prevailing psychoanalytic emphasis on the pathological aspects of the business domain. The key value of the archetypal approach is that it exposes the inherent tensions within business life. In addition, it adds a much-needed catalyst for bringing insight into creativity and innovation as they manifest in the business domain. Jungian psychology, as I argue, offers a perspective that is instructive for grasping the complexities of creativity in business, which differs from manifestations of creativity in other domains such as the arts and sciences. Jungian psychology could thus make a valuable contribution to the analysis of business dynamics. I will also demonstrate how the archetypal approach can be helpful in containing the unconscious projected contents (both personal and collective) inherent in the business domain. As a first step in delineating the value and scope of an archetypal understanding of the dynamics in the business domain, this thesis invites further consideration of the question about how this approach can be used to construct a theoretical framework for analysing the business domain and what this framework could look like.

This socio-legal thesis has explored the factors responsible for explaining whether and how redress mechanisms control bureaucratic decision-making. The research considered the three principal institutions of administrative justice: courts, tribunals, and ombudsman schemes. The field setting was the local authority education area and the thesis examined bureaucratic decision-making about admissions to school, home-to-school transport, and Special Educational Needs (SEN). The thesis adopted a qualitative approach, using interviews and documentary research, within a multiple embedded case study design. The intellectual foundations of the research were inter-disciplinary, cutting across law, socio-legal studies, public administration, organization studies, and social policy. The thesis drew on these scholarly fields to explore the nature of bureaucratic decision-making, the extent to which it can be controlled and the way that learning occurs in bureaucracies and, finally, the extent to which redress mechanisms might exercise control. The concept of control was studied across all its dimensions – in relation both to ex post control in specific cases and the more challenging notion of ex ante or structuring control. The aim of the thesis was not to measure the prevalence of bureaucratic control by redress mechanisms, but to understand the factors that might explain its presence or absence in a particular area. The findings of the research have allowed for a number of analytical refinements and extensions to be made to existing theoretical and empirical understandings. 14 factors, along with 87 supporting propositions, have been set out with the aim of making empirically derived suggestions which can be followed up in future research. In terms of the thesis’ contribution to existing knowledge, its comparative focus and its emphasis on the broad notion of control offered the potential for new insights to be developed. Overall, the thesis claims to have made three contributions to the conceptual framework for understanding the exercise of control by redress mechanisms: it emphasizes the importance of ‘feedback’ in relation to the nature of the cases referred to redress mechanisms; it calls attention to the structure of bureaucratic decision-making as well as its normative character; and it discusses how the operational modes of redress mechanisms relate to their control functions.

This study advances the concept of organizational hybridity (OH). By doing so, it takes into account the individual level of analysis often neglected in organizational theory. More specifically, it aims to understand the implications of organizational hybridity for employees’ trust in contemporary commercial organizations. Informed and guided by current literature, this study argues that the current literature on organizational hybridity fails to adequately address the consequences of hybridity for employees' behaviour. The empirical study was conducted in 2014 using data collected via semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The study was based on a comparison of two case studies in Nigeria: Alter Securities Limited and Barak Petroleum Limited. A total of forty (40) interviews were conducted; twenty (20) from each organization. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The main findings are that organizational hybridity in this study produced tensions that resulted in negative behavioural responses and employees’ distrust in the commercial hybrid organizations. However, employees’ identification with non-market orientated institutional logics such as family, philanthropic and religious logics is seen to facilitate their commitment, honesty, and trust in the organizations. Nevertheless, caution is required here as religious logics may also lead to an acceptance of unethical behaviour by employees. Overall, this study contributes to the literature on organizational hybridity by extending on Battilana and Lee’s (2014) framework, which highlights governance, leadership, organizational culture and intra-organizational relationships as core organizational attributes in the context of which issues may arise in commercial hybrid organizations. Furthermore, it addresses a gap in Besharov and Smith’s (2014) hybrid typology framework by providing an alternative line of argument focused on understanding how tensions manifest within commercial hybrid organizations. The key recommendations of this research underscore the need for commercial hybrid organizations to invest in mechanisms for improving employees’ trust so as to reap the benefits associated with trust. This could be achieved by involving employees in the decision-making process and clearly communicating the organizations’ values, so as to minimise the misinterpretation of the embodied institutional logics by employees.

Pets are an important part of our society as they have become ‘part of the family’. However, one of the most important problems regarding the pet dog population is the great number of strays and their management. The annual stray survey conducted on behalf of Dogs Trust, one of the leading dog welfare organizations in the UK, has revealed that each year there are more than 100,000 stray dogs in the UK. To date, their management remains a problem only addressed by Local Authorities. This thesis’ objectiveis to undertake an economic analysis of the pet dog overpopulation problem in the United Kingdom. It aims to further the existing literature on the pet dog overpopulation problem in the UK and to become a stepping stone on which further research could be based. Given the limited data available, primary data was collected to investigate the following areas: The fate of stray dogs that entered an animal welfare organization for rehoming; the current Local Authority management of stray dogs; and lastly, people’s attitude towards the issue of stray and unwanted dogs and their willingness to pay to provide a humane management. The methodologies used in pursuing these investigations included advanced econometric models such as the Logistic Regression Model with Multiple Imputation, and the Multinomial Logistic Regression Model and its extensions (i.e. the Latent Class Model). In addition, in order to elicit people’s willingness to pay, the survey based technique of the Choice Experiment Method was employed. The survey revealed that people are willing to pay both under a voluntary regime and a mandatory regime. The estimated amount was in the range of £2 to £12. This range concurs with the range of donations that animal welfare organisations are advertising in order to raise funds. This study is the first in the UK literature to conduct an economic examination of the pet dog overpopulation problem. The outcomes derived could be viewed as an initial examination of the UK stray dog population management on which further research could be based.

This work investigatest he factors that have led to Poland and Romania's different evolutionaryp aths during the process of accession to the EU, placing an emphasis on security concerns, foreign direct investment and the interplay between the two. We identify two sets of determinants of the accession process, one in the political sphere and one in the economic sphere. Each set of determinants, be it in the political or economic sphere, has the potential to constitute a vicious or a virtuous circle which includes the prospect of EU membership itself. Furthermore, each of these circles is self reinforcing and can reinforce the corresponding circle in the other sphere. Finally, political and economic elements of the circles considered here can constitutes ecurity concerns for each of the countries analysed, while FDI represents a main element of the economic circle. We find that until 1996 Romania has been trapped in a combination of two vicious circles in both the political and economic spheres, while Poland has benefited from a combination of two virtuous circles since 1993. We test the hypothesis that, by changing perceptions of security and enhancing FDI, the prospect of EU membership can break the vicious economic circle of high perceptions of insecurity, low FDI, slow reforms, poor prospects for EU integration and hence high perceptions of insecurity in which Romania has been trapped. This is achieved firstly by a qualitative comparative analysis between Poland and Romania with regard to the determinants of FDI and the nature of their security concerns. Secondly, an econometric model assesses the determinants of FDI in ten transition countries candidates for EU membership and in particular the role of security and European integration variables. Our results support the hypothesis that, by creating positive perceptions of security of the candidate countries (especially of poor reformers), the prospect of EU membership may enhance FDI, thus speeding up economic reforms, leading to full membership of the Union and hence positive perceptions of security.It also appears that the prospect of EU membership can lead to a virtuous circle in the economic sphere through providing motivation for economic reforms and through financial aid and its impact on foreign direct investment and economic reforms.

The roles of deputy and pro vice chancellors (DPVCs) are changing and so is the way they are being appointed. This study examines (i) why many pre-1992 English universities are moving from an internal, fixed-term secondment model of DPVC appointment to one incorporating external open competition; and (ii) what the implications of change are for individual careers and management capacity building. At a theoretical level, it explores the extent to which DPVC appointment practice is symptomatic of ideal-type managerialism and subjects the prevailing academic narrative - that the power of academics has declined in relation to that of managers - to critical examination in the light of the findings. The research, which uses a mixed-methods design incorporating a census, online survey and 73 semi-structured interviews, has generated some unexpected findings. Notably, the opening up of DPVC posts to external open competition has resulted in a narrowing, rather than a diversification, of the gender and professional profile of successful candidates. Therefore, although this change to DPVC recruitment practice was motivated by a meritocratic “quest for the best,” it cannot be said to have improved management capacity in the sense of increasing the likelihood that the best candidates are attracted and appointed from the widest possible talent pool. On the contrary, the findings are suggestive of conservatism, homosociability and social closure, whereby academic managers maintain their privileged status by ring-fencing DPVC posts to the exclusion of other occupational groups. DPVCs are also expanding their professional jurisdiction by colonising the university’s management space. Far from declining, academics’ power is thus being consolidated, albeit by a few elite career track academic managers. Moreover, although there is some evidence of a managerial ideology with respect to the DPVC appointment model, it is a context-specific ‘academic-managerialism’ rather than a generic ideal type.

The idea of evidence-based policy has gained increasing prominence. Much research exists on the subject, particularly tackling the evidence-based policy turn and, subsequently, its critique. A plethora of studies have identified the shortcomings of the evidence-based policy ideal and challenged its supposed linearity. This project aims to provide an understanding of the way in which evidence is utilized in policy, and contribute to this debate by enacting an innovative research design. I am proposing a 2x2 comparative approach, which looks at the use of evidence across two domains, drug and prostitution policy, across two countries, Australia and the UK. A case-based qualitative comparative approach has the potential to offer a certain depth while at the same time providing the opportunity for analytic generalisation. I argue that evidence can be a prime focus for analysis of the policy process, and that through its lenses one can appraise deeper theoretical and epistemological questions about the state in late modern capitalism, the relationship between knowledge and ideology, science and politics, science and values, reason and emotion. The labelling of prostitution and drug policy as morality policies exposes the nature of these domains as morally and politically antagonistic, whilst providing opportunity to reflect on the role of morality in filtering understandings of evidence and shaping policy positions.

In recent years, Malawi has received global attention as a global hotspot for human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity since the arrest of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza for holding a wedding ceremony in 2009. The violations are a result of negative attitudes against ‘homosexuality’, and the application of anti-gay provisions of the Penal Code and the Marriages Divorce and Family Relations Act, which outlaw consensual adult same-sex relationships and non-conforming gender identities. Malawi’s failure to protect queer persons amounts to the violation of its domestic and international human rights obligations. Paradoxically, the Malawian Constitution and international human rights obligations (to which Malawi subscribes), guarantee equal and effective protection against discrimination, which I have argued that it includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. This interdisciplinary study explores the life stories of 44 queer Malawians examining how the lack of human rights protection affects their daily lives. I have found that the majority of queer Malawians are unlikely to come out due to fear of stigma and discrimination. As a result, they are unable to claim the full status necessary to enable them to formally assert their identity, citizenship and relationship rights. Drawing from social construction theories, this study will show that local meanings regarding human rights and sexuality include a misinterpretation of SOGI-based human rights as ‘the right to conduct mathanyula’, which is locally (mis)understood to imply permission to engage in sexual activities between men and young boys. I have recommended a radical shift in the articulation of SOGI-based human rights so that it is understood as the equal entitlement to protections in accordance with Malawi’s domestic and international human rights obligations. If understood as the latter, Malawians are likely to endorse human rights protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity.