The resource based view of firms suggests that they should invest into intangible assets such as absorptive capacity, R&D, networks, human capital and internationalisation. In particular, SMEs require more investment in knowledge based assets (e.g., R&D, networks) for higher labour productivity growth. The aim of this study is to identify and analyse the drivers of firm growth and their impact on firm labour productivity growth. Previous studies were limited in scope in terms of analysis (i.e., at firm level) of the software industry. For data collection, owner-managers of software firms were face-to-face interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The data were collected from two regions of Pakistan, Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Information was gathered on variables such as firm size, age, firm innovation activities, business and management factors, exporting, inward/outward FDI and so forth. Prior estimation factor analysis is used to extract core information from Likert scale variables. Lastly, stepwise multiple regression analysis is used to examine the relationship between drivers of firm growth and labour productivity growth. The regression analysis examined firm size, access to finance, internationalisation (exporting and outward FDI), business improvement methods and knowledge management have a positive impact on firm labour productivity growth. In comparison, R&D, absorptive capacity, shortage of skills generally have negative relationship to firm labour productivity growth. In summary, empirical findings emphasise the importance of knowledge based assets for higher firm labour productivity growth as a low level of R&D, lack of access to finance, poor absorptive capacity, high sunk costs (non recoverable) and skills shortage reduced the labour productivity growth of software firms.

Greater life expectancy has resulted in older adults becoming more vulnerable to social isolation, with increasing numbers of British older adults reporting loneliness in recent years. This trend is of concern as it has been documented that feeling a connection to others is a fundamental need for psychological well-being. It is therefore important to support older adults to maintain connections with others, in order to help increase, and prevent deterioration of, their well-being. The social presence theory asserts that visual presence during conversations can enhance the quality of communications between individuals and thus strengthen relationships. The use of video-communication by older adults may therefore lend itself as a tool to enhance communications with others and consequently increase their psychological well-being. This research utilised a mixed-methods quasi-experimental design to explore the impact of video-communication on the psychological well-being of older adults. Participants in the intervention condition received video-communication training sessions to help them communicate with their friends or relatives remotely via video. Participants in the control conditions received either email or basic computer skills training. Self-report measures were used to investigate the effectiveness of the video-communication in enhancing psychological well-being. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with the participants in the intervention condition in order to capture the participants’ experiences with using the video-communication and to corroborate the quantitative data. The quantitative data was subjected to statistical and clinically significant change tests, while the qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis. Triangulation of the quantitative and qualitative data revealed that the video-communication increased some older adults’ psychological well-being and the social support they received. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research. The clinical implications of the findings and directions for future research are also discussed.

Aims: To explore female secure forensic mental health (FMH) patients’ therapeutic relationship (TR) quality; the impact of witnessed, or perpetrated, violence upon psychological wellbeing and TRs; and perceived beneficial support following exposure to violence within the units. Background: Female FMH patients possess unique vulnerabilities, psychological and offending profiles; have commonly experienced early childhood trauma, attracted Borderline Personality Disorder diagnoses, and by definition appear highly likely to witness or perpetrate violence. In other settings, strong TRs are consistently associated with positive outcomes, their significance is highlighted within FMH literature yet it is unknown how female FMH patients experience TRs with their clinical teams, or how witnessing or perpetrating violence affects these relationships. Methodology: Qualitative methodology was employed within an interpretivist paradigm. 8 females were recruited through purposive homogenous sampling, across low and medium secure units. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted. Data was analysed by means of thematic analysis. Results: Twenty themes, and accompanying subthemes, were extracted from participants' data. TRs are experienced as challenging, complex, multi-faceted; and impact upon wellbeing and recovery. Violence is perceived as ‘normal’, however incidents have a profoundly negative psychological impact, and affect journeys of recovery. Managing exposure to violence involves the need for patients to take care of themselves. Staff were perceived as trying their best but often getting it wrong, participants expressed the need for pro-active staff involvement. Participants perceived the damage caused to TRs by incidents, as predominantly due to negative changes in staff behaviours. Conclusions: TRs serve a variety of important functions for female secure FMH patients. Witnessing or perpetrating violence negatively impacts upon TRs, wellbeing and recovery. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research, psychodynamic and systemic theories. Implications are discussed regarding: the development and maintenance of TRs, improving psychological containment, FMH workforce development, and the broader management of violence.

This thesis conducts a conceptual analysis of the proportionality of non-consensual adoptions in England and Wales. It does so by examining the English legislation and case law on adoption and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). This thesis considers and applies rights from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to determine when non-consensual adoption may be regarded as a necessary and proportionate interference with children’s and parents’ rights. The proportionality principle requires the domestic courts and the ECtHR to strike a balance between the various rights and interests of children and parents while taking into account children’s welfare. The final strand of the proportionality principle identifies whether the State measure is the least restrictive measure available to satisfy the State’s objective. This strand is not applied in all non-consensual adoption cases heard by the domestic courts or the ECtHR. However, this thesis argues it is essential to identify whether less restrictive alternatives exist as these measures may prove equally effective in protecting children’s welfare when compared with adoption, and may also protect children’s and parents’ rights. This thesis makes a conceptual contribution to the academic scholarship on non-consensual adoption law by identifying how the UNCRC, the ECHR, the best interests principle and ECtHR jurisprudence can be applied so as to provide optimal protection for children’s and parents’ rights in adoption cases. This thesis concludes that judicial reasoning in the courts should routinely consider UNCRC rights and the effectiveness of less restrictive alternatives. Furthermore, it argues that there is a positive obligation under ECHR Article 8 to provide State assistance in circumstances where children can safely be raised by their parents, which is not yet recognised in English case law.

In light of a severe, changing and globally implicative New Food Equation marked perhaps above all else by the dynamics of a new, bimodal food insecurity and the simultaneous rising importance of cities, new approaches to address food security at urban scales suggest promise. But as such efforts are relatively new, the discourses and activities of urban actors are understood to only a limited extent. Moreover, while attention to food security per se is robust and growing, attention to the discursive and narrative dimensions that ultimately construct both the real nutritional achievements and the real experiential implications of such policy is not. In this research, I apply analytical methods informed by the interpretive, critical and ethnographic traditions to understand (some of) the cultural, ideological and philosophical particularities of these new dynamics and contexts, examining the cases of two large cities in the North and South, New York City and Bogotá. Tandem to the empirical work, I explore the philosophical tenets that ground food security efforts in the two studied cities and more generally, and I finally settle upon the purposefully normative appeal for motion towards a new concept: dignified food security.

This thesis aims to explore the socio-spatial control mechanisms, termed as Informal land controls – used by informal power intermediaries termed informal structures to produce space to claim public resources in Karachi-Pakistan. Such informal structures include but are not limited to: political parties, bonds of tribe and kinship, religious authorities, neighbourhood committees, gangs and other criminals. The concept of informal land controls is integrally embedded within the processes of informality and production of space in Karachi and is used to examine political conflicts, social divisions and the spiral of violence evident in Karachi, especially from mid-2000 onwards. The study introduces the concept of informal land controls to address the gap in the literature, both on informality and production of space, which currently remains focussed on the state, market and the poor, and thus, neglects the role of power intermediaries. Such informal processes of production of space that are neither ‘from above’ i.e. state and market driven, nor ‘from below’, but ‘from between’. The research is based on four case study areas in Karachi – North Nazimabad, Lyari, PIB Colony and Scheme 33 – which demonstrate how multiple and overlapping informal structures initiate and maintain informal land controls, and how these are linked with the failure of formal government and prevailing informality in planning decisions. A wide range of licit and illicit measures are used – including political domination; religious discourse; cultural practice; tribal identity; property control; barriers, flags and wall-chalking; harassment; extortion; violence, street control and homicides. The result is a complex network of socio-spatial divisions that form ‘no-go’ areas of varying degrees, which have exacerbated social divisions and violence in the city. The research argues that understanding such processes is essential to underpin interventions to reduce violence and extortion, and ensure more equitable access to urban resources.

The recent increase in the availability of data sources for research has put significant strain on existing data management work-flows, especially in the field of statistical disclosure control. New statistical methods for disclosure control are frequently set out in the literature, however, few of these methods become functional implementations for data owners to utilise. Current workflows often provide inconsistent results dependent on ad hoc approaches, and bottlenecks can form around statistical disclosure control checks which prevent research from progressing. These problems contribute to a lack of trust between researchers and data owners and contribute to the under utilisation of data sources. This research is an interdisciplinary exploration of the existing methods. It hypothesises that algorithms which invoke a range of statistical disclosure control methods (recoding, suppression, noise addition and synthetic data generation) in a semi-automatic way will enable data owners to release data with a higher level of data utility without any increase in disclosure risk when compared to existing methods. These semi-automatic techniques will be applied in the context of secure data-linkage in the e-Health sphere through projects such as DAMES and SHIP. This thesis sets out a theoretical framework for statistical disclosure control and draws on qualitative data from data owners, researchers, and analysts. With these contextual frames in place, the existing literature and methods were reviewed, and a tool set for implementing k-anonymity and a range of disclosure control methods was created. This tool-set is demonstrated in a standard workflow and it is shown how it could be integrated into existing e-Science projects and governmental settings. Comparing this approach with existing workflows within the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland, it allows data owners to process queries from data users in a semi-automatic way and thus provides for an enhanced user experience. This utility is drawn from the consistency and replicability of the approach combined with the increase in the speed of query processing.

Low-intensity parenting programmes play a key role in a public health approach to parenting support and are designed to be a cost-effective intervention for child conduct problems. Several studies that have evaluated a single topic-specific Triple P–Positive Parenting Program Discussion Group, an example of a low-intensity parenting programme, have found promising results for improving child and parent outcomes among parents with young children. This thesis aimed to examine ways to enhance the intervention outcomes of low-intensity topic-specific parenting groups for parents with young children. In study one, the effects of generalisation promotion strategies, such as teaching multiple exemplars, were examined. As a single training exemplar may not be sufficient for parents to effectively generalise parenting skills, multiple exemplars may assist parents to flexibly apply skills across a range of behaviours and settings leading to greater change in child behaviour, parenting practices, and parenting self-efficacy. This study also sought to extend the literature by examining the effects of low-intensity parenting groups with parents of primary school aged children using topics relevant to this development phase and investigating outcomes for mothers and fathers separately. A two arm randomised control trial design was used to compare the two conditions (single exemplar vs. multiple exemplar). Participants were 75 mothers and 58 fathers with a 5-8 year old child displaying at least a mild level of conduct problems. They represented 78 families: 66 two-parent families and 12 single parent families. Among two-parent families, there were 55 mother-father pairs, nine mothers who participated alone, and two fathers who participated alone. The majority of the single parent families were mothers (n = 11). Self-report measures of child behaviour, parenting practices, parenting self-efficacy, parent’s perceptions of their parenting role experience, parental mental health, inter-parental conflict, partner support, and partner relationship satisfaction were completed by parents at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 6-month follow-up. Satisfaction with each intervention condition and the individual sessions was also examined. Low-intensity topic-specific parenting groups led to improvements on a range of child and parent outcomes for both mothers and fathers of primary school aged children. Receiving multiple exemplars resulted in more robust change in mother- and father-rated child behaviour, mothers’ parenting practices, and mothers’ behavioural parenting self-efficacy at post-intervention. For mothers in the multiple exemplar condition, superior improvements in child behaviour, parenting practices, and behavioural parenting self-efficacy were maintained at 6-month follow-up. Greater improvements in mothers’ setting parenting self-efficacy, mental health, and perceptions of partner support were also found at 6-month follow-up among the multiple exemplar condition. The second study in this thesis added to the literature on low-intensity parenting programmes by exploring whether addressing parental mental health, in addition to parenting, was beneficial for parents with young children. As poor parental mental health is linked with child conduct problems, negative parenting practices, and can negatively impact the effects of parenting programmes for families, simultaneously addressing parental mental health when delivering low-intensity parenting programmes may be advantageous. A mixed-method quasi-experimental evaluation of a combined low-intensity parenting and mental health programme was conducted. Thirteen families with a 3-8 year old child took part in the study. Self-report symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress and ineffective parenting practices were obtained at pre-intervention, mid-intervention, post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up. Parents also completed self-report measures of child behaviour, parenting self-efficacy, parent’s perceptions of their parenting role experience, family relationships, and positive mental health at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up. Post-intervention semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 parents and explored parents’ experiences of taking part in the programme, their perceived impact of the programme, and their implementation of strategies. The combined intervention produced promising changes in parenting practices and parental mental health. Parents perceived some positive impacts after attending the programme and generally the combined programme was acceptable to participating parents. Collectively, the findings from the two studies suggest that low-intensity topic-specific group parenting programmes have positive effects for young children and parents. Delivering multiple exemplars leads to added benefits and addressing parental mental health simultaneously has positive effects for families.

We need to stop being afraid and realise that as individuals we have power and that power is the ability to use your own reason and just try and look beyond this. (Saif, 27, male, academic activist) This thesis presents findings from an ESRC-funded doctoral study on the cultural politics of young adult Muslims who participate in political and civic activism within British civil society. Based on ethnographic research in the Midlands area, it offers an empirically informed understanding of how these forms of activism relate to themes of political participation, citizenship, security and governance in Britain today. The thesis argues that the diverse mobilisations examined by the research collectively constitute a social movement to resist the marginalisation and stigmatisation of Muslim identities in a post 9/11 context. The war on terror, in response to the international crisis of militant Islam, has placed Muslim citizenship in many Western liberal democracies under fierce scrutiny, prompting uneasy and hard to resolve questions around issues of security, diversity, cohesion and national identity. In Britain, as in Europe, political and public responses to these questions have precipitated a climate of fear and suspicion around Muslims, rendering their citizenship contingent and precarious and undermining their ability to identify with the nation and participate in its political processes. This thesis reveals how young Muslim activists negotiate these challenges by engaging in a range of activities typical of social movements, not only in terms of distinctive modes of action but also with respect to their transformative social and political visions and imaginaries. Muslim activists engage in cultural politics to demand a more inclusive and post-national notion of citizenship, by seeking to turn negative Muslim differences into positive ones. Participants’ engagement in democratic processes through political repertoires commonly adopted by other progressive social movements challenges the moral panic engendered by the exceptionalism ascribed to Muslim identity politics. This thesis argues that these cultural politics constitute a British Muslim social movement to contest Islamophobia through resistance to two dominant forms of power in contemporary Western societies. Firstly, this movement is a response to the multiple technologies of power articulated by Foucault’s concept of ‘governmentality’, which are difficult to distinguish and confront due to their imperceptible and socially dispersed nature. Secondly, cultural politics is necessitated by direct threats of force that Foucault described as a ‘relationship of violence’ and which are discernible in the rise of the securitisation of citizenship in the wake of 9/11. The nature of resistance from Muslim activists suggests that their cultural politics are not only a strategic but also a less risky political response to both these prevailing forms of power. Foucault’s argument that the nature of power can be deciphered from the forms of resistance it provokes suggests responsive rather than reactive political strategies by young Muslims. The thesis concludes that these cultural politics represent forms of active citizenship premised on a more equal, participatory and radically democratic social contract than nationalist and neoliberal forms of governance presently concede.

This is a case study on PIFRA (Project to Improve Financial Reporting and Auditing) in the public sector of Pakistan. It investigates the process of implementation of New Accounting Model (NAM) and SAP as a reform imitative to overhaul the century old archaic financial management system. This study has three dimensions: implementation of SAP as an integrated system for budgeting and accounting offices at all levels of Government; introduction of modified cash basis of accounting; and the World Bank as a meaningful force for change. New institutional sociology (NIS) and institutional logic have been employed to analyse the process of change at macro as well as micro level. The concepts of isomorphisms in general and cognitive-cultural in particular, legitimacy, decoupling, and agency have been used to understand and assess the extent of institutionalization. The analysis has been divided into three areas: SAP implementation, organizational change, and training. In SAP implementation, separation of audit and accounts, duality of control and role of the World Bank have been analysed to comprehend the issues and their implications for institutionalization. In organizational change, change management as a component of the project, role of the PricewaterhouseCoopers as an architect of NAM and as a supervisory consultant, technical staffing, core team and resistance have been evaluated through NIS. In training, multiple perspectives of training and its distinct relation with institutionalization have been investigated. It is a qualitative study with interpretive approach. Data has been collected through semi-structured interviews, project documents and reports generated by the World Bank and the project management team. The thesis seeks to contribute in terms of its three dimensions and the use of NIS and institutional logic to have a broader picture of the change. Moreover, the identification of training as a driving factor in institutionalization and the role of accountants in post-SAP implementation scenarios also make a contribution to the accounting literature. Contributions towards policy and practice have been made in terms of advice for the World Bank, Government and practitioners when undertaking such projects in future.