The main focus of this PhD project is the development and validation of a psychometric instrument for the measurement of individual dispositions towards rules and principles. Literature review and focus groups were used to generate insights into the reasons why individuals prefer rules and principles. On the basis of that review, an initial item pool was created covering the conceptual space of dispositions towards rules and principles. The final instrument consists of 10 items, 5 items each for the rules and principles subscales. The psychometric analysis suggested that it is valid and reliable. The instrument has sound predictive power and was able to significantly predict individuals’ behavioral intentions in relation to rules and principles across contexts. I found there were gender and ethnic differences in the relationship between dispositions towards rules and principles scores and behavioural intentions. This PhD is relevant to an emerging literature in behavioural accounting research that examines how practitioners’ personal characteristics and styles affect financial reporting practice.

Background: Low socioeconomic position throughout the life course is associated with a number of adverse health outcomes in older people. However, whether life course socioeconomic position influences subjective outcomes in early old age, such as quality of life, is not well known. There is a lack of life course research that considers the wider structural determinants of health. In particular, it is not well understood if the association between life course socioeconomic position and quality of life is the same across European societies that have differing welfare state arrangements. This thesis addressed two key aims: (1) Investigate whether, and how, life course socioeconomic position influences the quality of life of Europeans in early old age. (2) Examine differences in this relationship by welfare regime. Methods: Two methodological approaches were taken to address the research objectives: (1) A systematic review of quantitative studies examining the influence of life course socioeconomic position on quality of life was conducted, with a narrative synthesis. (2) An empirical analysis was carried out examining the influence of life course socioeconomic position on the quality of life of individuals in early old age, as measured by CASP-12 and life satisfaction. This used secondary data from 13 European countries (representing Southern, Scandinavian, Post-communist, and Bismarckian welfare regimes) that were part of Wave 2 of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and SHARELIFE, which collected retrospective life histories of respondents. Two statistical techniques were used to analyse the data: multilevel modelling and path analysis. Slope indices of inequality were calculated to enable measures of socioeconomic position to be compared. Results: The systematic review identified 12 relevant studies, which varied in terms of the outcomes examined, study quality, and populations. No studies were identified from Bismarckian or Post-communist welfare regimes, with most containing populations from the Scandinavian or Liberal regime types. Some supportive evidence was found for a latent effect of low childhood socioeconomic position on quality of life among women. Social mobility models were generally not supported. High quality studies addressing inter-generational mobility were lacking and few studies examined cumulative and pathway effects. Results from the analysis using SHARE suggested that the most proximal measures of socioeconomic position were the strongest predictors of quality of life. In most welfare regimes, inequalities in quality of life were largest by current wealth, but among women in the Southern and Post-communist regimes inequalities by education level were particularly large. In the Scandinavian regime there were very small differences in quality of life between the least and most educated. Generally, there was little difference in the magnitude of socioeconomic inequalities in quality of life between Scandinavian and Bismarckian regimes. Support for a latent effect on quality of life was lacking, using most measures of childhood socioeconomic position. The findings from both the multilevel models and path analysis supported the pathway theory whereby childhood socioeconomic position chiefly influenced quality of life through later socioeconomic experiences. However, the number of books in childhood exhibited a weak association with quality of life even when taking into account current measures of socioeconomic position, suggesting a small latent effect for this measure. When stratifying by welfare regime, the potential direct effect from the number of books in childhood was specific to particular welfare regimes and genders. A greater number of socioeconomically advantaged positions over the life course was associated with higher quality of life in early old age, but the results suggested this was mainly due to the influence of socioeconomic advantage during adulthood. The association between life course socioeconomic position (as measured by a cumulative socioeconomic advantage score) and quality of life was weaker in the Scandinavian regime and stronger in Southern and Post-communist regimes. Including a measure of current financial distress greatly attenuated these associations. There was generally a lack of supportive evidence for an effect of social mobility on quality of life. Conclusions: Socioeconomic inequalities in quality of life were apparent in all welfare regimes and were largest by more proximal measures of socioeconomic position. Overall, Scandinavian and Bismarckian welfare regimes exhibited both higher quality of life and narrower inequalities in quality of life, compared to Southern and Post-communist regimes. Interventions to reduce socioeconomic inequalities across the life course are needed, but those which buffer the effect of financial distress in early old age may be particularly beneficial for improving quality of life and producing a more equitable distribution.

This dissertation addresses critically the role that land tenure plays in housing the poor in rapidly urbanising medium–sized cities in the Global South and in particular, Aguascalientes, Mexico, a city with one of the highest growth rates in the country. Urban sprawl, industrial development, and the increasing impoverished population in these sorts of cities are key variables that demand the attention of scholars and policy makers who have traditionally focused on the largest Mexican cities, i.e., Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara. The urban poor struggle to achieve consolidated housing by means of creative agency strategies operating within restrictive environments, or structures. Thus, this study engages with the implications of poverty, informality, and security of tenure as the starting points to understand the problems of housing the poor. Their experiences and voice were incorporated by following a behavioural approach and contesting the arguments that assert the need for a Western–like legal land and housing system as the only path for such cities to overcome poverty as promoted by influential international bodies. In order to gain the in–depth knowledge required for this research, a qualitative case study methodology was employed, interviewing formal and informal poor settlers, policy makers, and experts. The results showed that more questions are raised by the structure than by the agency strategies utilised by the urban poor, as the latter proved to be more part of the solution than of the problem. Besides the evident overlapping of formal and informal housing mechanisms, institutions must learn from their experiences. Approaching the role played by land tenure in home choices from a behavioural approach enriched this research by assessing it from the perspectives of the main actors involved in the process. It helped understand the problem from a perspective that is rich in experience as settlers provided an honest insight into their problems within the sampled areas by incorporating their voice into the housing equation. Yet, there was still an evident mismatch between the settlers’ and public bodies’ approaches to housing that will probably endure for some time.

Although, electronic human resources management (e-HRM) and social media technologies appear to be increasingly used by companies to design and deliver their human resources management (HRM) practices in order to face the demands of knowledge based economies, there is little empirical evidence concerning whether the absorption of these technologies leads to HRM innovation. To address this gap, this thesis examines the relationships between the absorptive capacity (ACAP) of organisations, e-HRM and social media technologies, and HRM innovation. Drawing mainly on the ACAP theory when paralleled with the innovation diffusion theory, a conceptual model was created from which a range of research hypotheses were deductively developed. These hypotheses were tested by surveying a sample of two hundred large companies that operate in Greece using varied statistical techniques such as parallel analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), mediation analysis with bootstrapping, moderation analysis and Pearson’s correlation. To examine the reasons and the ways firms have absorbed e-HRM and social media in Greece, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the human resources (HR) directors of eight companies that had participated in the survey and had demonstrated high information communication technology (ICT) adoption. The results suggested that the ACAP of firms for e-HRM and social media has a significant effect on HRM innovation. The factors that determine ACAP and HRM innovation are: (1) the e-HRM and social media technologies, (2) the characteristics of these technologies, (3) prior knowledge and experience of firms, and (4) national culture. The adoption reasons included improvements in: data management, information security, confidentiality of data, HR service delivery, organisational culture, institutional isomorphism, and environmentally friendly e-HRM. In the case of multinational companies (MNCs): need for control by the headquarters, transparency and standardisation. Based on these findings, this thesis contributes a new framework of HRM innovation from organisational ACAP for e-HRM and social media and an alternative operationalisation of ACAP for technological knowledge around HRM. Implications for HRM, e-HRM and ACAP academics as well as HR practitioners and their companies are concluded along with the limitations of this thesis and future research suggestions.

Background: Children who enter foster care are known to show high rates of problems across a number of different areas, including their mental health, relationships and development, with difficulties often continuing into adulthood. There are indications that some of these baseline characteristics have an effect on a child’s outcome from foster care, but this evidence is limited due to an overwhelming reliance on administrative data for the analysis of potential links. In order to explore this more fully, face-to-face assessments with these children need to be conducted. There are known difficulties, including choosing reliable informants for the child, and deciding when is the best time to perform assessments. In this study, the aim was to explore some of the relevant issues while assessing, in the primary research question, how different child characteristics were associated with the quality of the relationship that the child had with their carer. Method: Seventy children aged between 6 and 60 months were examined between one and two months after they entered foster care. They were assessed as regards their mental health, language, cognition and relationships, and the results were compared with normative population data whenever possible (research question 1). The data were also explored to investigate to what extent the children had overlapping problems across the areas studied (research question 2). There is a lack of research on the mental health of very young children in care, and so a control group of 40 children aged 12-24 months were recruited from the general population, against whom they could be compared. This sample was age- and gender-matched with 20 children aged 12-24 months in the foster care sample (research question 3). It was possible to access the birth records of 38 of the sample with a view to assess whether the children had shown signs of being ‘at risk’ at birth (research question 4). The quality of the relationship between the child and their carer was assessed using a structured observation, the Parent-Infant Relationship Global Assessment Scale (PIRGAS). Regression analyses were conducted to analyse how the child characteristics of age,gender, mental wellbeing, cognition and language were associated with PIRGAS score (research question 5). In addition, the carer’s levels of commitment and experience were explored as potential contributors to the quality of this relationship (research question 6). The reliability of foster carers was assessed by investigating whether their level of worry related to the degree of problem that the child had. The child’s level of engagement in the cognitive assessment was measured and compared with the score they attained in the assessment, while the change in scores over time was also calculated (research question 7). Results: Research question 1. The results showed that, in line with previous research in the area, children who enter foster care are likely to be experiencing more problems with mental health, language, cognition and relationships than children in the general population, already at the time of entering care. Research questions 2 and 3. There was some indication that this difference between them and the general population may not be very pronounced in children under the age of 2. Children over the age of 30 months, on the other hand, were likely to have complex and overlapping problems. Research question 4. An examination of routine birth data showed that children who later came into foster care were already different from the general population at birth in having lower mean birth weight and higher likelihood of prenatal exposure to drugs. Research question 5. An examination of the primary research question showed that the child characteristics of age, gender, mental wellbeing, cognition and language together predicted 17% of the variance in the quality of the relationship between the child and their foster carer as measured by the PIRGAS. Some additional analyses revealed that mental wellbeing appeared to be the single most influential of the child characteristics. Research question 6. A complex interplay between the child’s wellbeing, carer commitment and relationship quality was also revealed with associations between all the factors. Research question 7. In some instances, the carers did not appear to be the most reliable informants for children in their care, sometimes reporting a lack of worry even when the child showed concerning symptoms or behaviours, as observed by the research team. There was a strong association between how engaged a child was in the task and how they performed on the task, and this has implications for how meaningful the score is as a predictor of ability. It was also possible to follow up a small number of the sample a year later. It was found that the cognitive percentile scores achieved when a child first entered care were not significantly different to those that they achieved a year later, suggesting that, despite the concerns about the validity of the assessments, these measures can be useful for predicting later performance. A much more mixed picture for language was found, in that scores achieved when a child first entered care showed little relationship to how the child performed a year later. Discussion: Overall, the results lend support to the notion of the importance of early intervention, with children over the age of 2 showing a greater number of problems as well as more complex problems than those under the age of 2. Mental wellbeing in the child, as measured by the presence of positive prosocial behaviours, showed associations with the quality of the relationship with the carer, as well as with the commitment of the carer. Carers did not report being worried about the youngest children who were not displaying these prosocial behaviours; thus it may be that foster carers are underestimating their importance, or are reluctant to report on such behaviours. The observations made over so many assessments and the work carried out to explore potential issues with the assessments guide recommendations for future work in this area. It is clear that there is a need to repeat measures to assess change, and to conduct holistic assessments, so that findings might be clinically interpreted in a meaningful way. Despite difficulties in assessing children who enter foster care, the findings underscore the importance of early assessment. The study findings confirmed that this is a vulnerable group, with very complex needs. Even though all children are likely to be negatively affected by the disruption that is entailed in entering foster care, only a thorough assessment will be able to identify which children also have underlying problems that will require support and intervention in addition to the safe and nurturing foster care that they all require.

This project suggests that the exclusion of children from social discourse has been naturalized, and remains largely unchallenged in the West (Salisbury and Styles, 2012, p. 113). While some didactic picturebooks and pedagogies construct and perpetuate this exclusion, I will explore the potential of critical picturebooks and critical pedagogy to counter it. Critical picturebooks and critical pedagogy, I propose, can help to build and support the critical consciousness of readers, transforming their social relations. Specifically, this project is concerned with the exclusion of children from discourse on colonialism in Canada, and it highlights the need for critical consciousness in this area. I suggest that critical picturebooks can play a role in unsettling settler relations, or shifting Canada-Aboriginal relations towards more ethical ones. I therefore offer an anti-colonial pedagogy for picturebooks to facilitate these aims. This pedagogy is generated through putting theory on picturebooks, critical pedagogy, Indigenous methods, as well as local pedagogy in Alert Bay into an interdisciplinary conversation. I begin by asking ‘how can picturebooks function as transformative texts?’ Drawing on picturebook theory, I present five elements of critical picturebooks that make them conducive to transformative social discourse: 1) flexibility of the form (enabling complex, cross-genre narratives); 2) accessibility of composite texts (allowing for multiliteracies); 3) textual gaps in composite texts; 4) their dialogical nature (often being read and analyzed aloud); and, 5) their ability to address content silenced in many educational settings. I hold that “the plasticity of mind” which Margaret Mackey suggests is engendered by the picturebook’s flexible form (explicated by these five elements) also fosters a plasticity of mind in terms of the reader navigating social issues or complex problems presented in its content (as cited in Salisbury and Styles, 2012, p. 91). This dual plasticity positions the picturebook as a valuable and empowering discursive or dialogical tool. If, as Paulo Freire asserts, “it is in speaking their word that people, by naming the world, transform it, dialogue imposes itself as the way by which they achieve significance as human beings”, then it is crucial that children are included in social dialogue that has been typically reserved for adults (Freire, 2000, p. 69). I then discuss the ways in which my participatory action research (PAR) in the community of Alert Bay, British Columbia, illustrates the transformative potentials of picturebooks, and helped to form an anti-colonial pedagogy for picturebooks. Workshops with local children, young adults and adults examined the unique form and content of picturebook narratives. In following with Freire, the aim was not only to explore the pedagogical promise of existing texts, but also to co-develop tools with which participants generate their own self-representations. We focused on developing narratives on food, an important generative theme that connects many facets of life including experiences of colonialism. Through additional conversations and embodied learning activities, I was introduced to local anti-colonial pedagogical methods. I put these experiences into conversation with theories of critical pedagogy put forth by Freire, Ivan Illich, bell hooks and Henry Giroux and a discussion of Indigenous research and pedagogical methods offered by Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Sandy Grande, Leanne Simpson, Lynn Gehl, and curricular resources. This research culminated in making Grease, a picturebook on the importance of oolichan oil to Alert Bay, told from a visitor’s perspective. In creating Grease, I have aimed to practically apply my proposed pedagogy, and make my work available to both Alert Bay and (in the future) to readers farther afield. This is an effort to address the dearth of anti-colonial literature and education available to children in Canada and elsewhere. The final chapter of my thesis serves as an annotative guide to be read alongside Grease. The pedagogy and picturebook combined present tenable ways in which picturebooks can engage children in critical discussions of colonialism and function as transformative texts.

In modern capitalist societies such as Britain work performed by children outside school hours is invariably officially portrayed (and, indeed, widely perceived) as a harmless, and even educational activity. However, in recent years research has shown that this ‘idealistic’ conception of employment alongside learning is not necessarily accurate. In relation to the employment of school children, since the early 1970s a host of studies have been published, which suggest that the paid labour activities performed by children in Western European nations are frequently very demanding, arduous and sometimes dangerous. In relation to the employment of undergraduate students, both Conservative and Labour governments have presided over changes to the funding the regime that have generated a significant increase in the employment of undergraduate students. Discussions about child employment have long centred on its supposed ‘beneficial’ aspects, with advocates claiming that it has the potential to enhance pupils’ learning experiences. Since the cuts to student funding have been implemented, similar claims have been made about the ‘educational potential’ of work for undergraduate students. As with child employment, the evidence points to a far more nuanced picture regarding the impact of employment on the studies of undergraduate students, and this non-problematic conception of undergraduate employment has been challenged. Research suggests that students rarely undertake employment of any relevance to chosen studies, and that part-time work frequently appears to have a deleterious, rather than a positive impact upon academic performance. The aim of this thesis is, using a historical perspective, to assess the competing claims that have been made about the educational utility of ‘labour’. It will show, with regards to both child employment and the employment of undergraduate students, the recent fashionable emphasis placed upon the ‘beneficial’ aspects of ‘work experience’ alongside learning is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, it will be shown that this is a recurring, if unproven, theme throughout the history of debates about education reform and child employment. Likewise, that the notion that children (and indeed students) ‘enjoy’ working is not new. Nor is the insistence that employment teaches children and young people about rewards for hard work, value for money and the disciplines of getting up for work particularly novel. As will become evident, whenever further restrictions on school children’s employment have been contemplated in major inquiries into the phenomenon, these same claims have been in defence of a deregulatory approach. Hence, throughout this thesis it will be shown that the arguments today to defend child employment in Britain, and indeed the employment of undergraduate students, have a long historical pedigree. A particular focus in the thesis will be upon those interests that have traditionally defended the ‘right’ of children and young people to work, and their claims about the ‘educationally beneficial’ aspects of employment will be tested by reference to historical evidence.

This thesis investigates seafarers’ experiences of ill-treatment onboard ships. A sociological approach to ill-treatment is adopted, with a focus on characteristics of the work environment onboard which affect seafarers’ experiences of and responses to ill-treatment. A qualitative approach was employed to understand seafarers’ perceptions of ill-treatment. Semi-structured interviews based on the Negative Acts Questionnaire were conducted with seafarers and managerial personnel from one multinational and one Indian company. The seafarers were drawn from all ranks. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that seafarers’ perceptions, experiences and responses to ill-treatment were heavily influenced by characteristics of the work environment, including industry and company norms such as short-term contracts, the hierarchy, onboard, distance management and HR policies and training. Seafarers encountering ill-treatment can choose to exit their situation, raise their voice or remain silent. The findings showed that while support structures such as grievance procedures and union membership existed for seafarers experiencing ill-treatment, the majority of seafarers chose to remain silent because of complex interactions between a variety of workplace features. Fears included job insecurity, concern for career advancement, fear of blacklisting and personal financial concerns. Those seafarers that did choose to escape their situations found that there could be repercussions on their finances and their career ambitions, or that exercising their voice resulted in a reshuffle of seafarers but nothing of import changed. The professional socialisation process and culture onboard the ship are very important in influencing seafarers’ perceptions of ill-treatment, and play a role in the occurrence of preventative behaviour and use of coping mechanisms. In addition, the industry norms of short-term contracts, the purported manning crisis and a race to the bottom mentality force seafarers to be highly insecure in their jobs and encourage them to accept their situation until they can escape it.

This dissertation is the outcome of a 25-month long narrative inquiry-based study on experiences of living with motor neurone disease (MND). MND is an adult onset, incurable, neurodegenerative condition that is characterised by loss of voluntary muscle movement as a result of destruction of motor neurones, leading gradually to partial or complete paralysis and eventually to death. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of people living with MND. Following a narrative inquiry methodology the focus of the study was to explore how specific people live in their local contexts. Data were collected through the use of multiple semi-structured interviews with people with MND and some of their partners. The findings illustrate the unique ways in which people with MND experience the disease and make sense of their life. The seven people who participated in this study were trying to construct a notion of normality in their everyday life, in the midst of what were sometimes perceived as difficult or even abnormal circumstances. Through seeking and trying out different solutions to the challenges they were facing, participants were trying to create a life they could describe as good. The findings highlight the intersubjective nature of illness experiences. For the three couples who participated in the study the experience of being in a long-term relationship was a vital part of who they were, and how they experienced MND. The findings also underline the importance of exploring the experiential knowledge that people living with MND develop through managing the disease and incorporating it in various ways in their daily life. This knowledge can help create a kind of life that people living with MND feel is worth living.

This study employs a sociocultural lens to explore differential academic achievement at the institution, classroom and individual plane of analysis within an ‘underachieving’ locale in Wales. Sociocultural approaches to learning view cognitive processes as being embedded within social events and mediated by cultural activity, best understood in its historical context. This study investigates why some children succeed academically in school and others do not in an underachieving locale. Attention is paid to the context of the school, the classroom and individuals’ understanding of tasks. The sample comprises 213 children from four schools, specifically chosen to represent higher achieving and lower achieving institutions, with eight classes across two year groups (Year 6 and Year 2). Within each classroom ‘central’ and ‘peripheral’ learners were identified. Multiple methods, including standardised national SATs assessments, questionnaires, interviews and specifically designed research instruments were used to investigate children’s academic performance and their broader social and cultural views and experiences of learning. Findings suggest that classroom culture influences pupils’ motivation to learn and their potential educational achievement. In comparison to ‘peripheral’ learners, the children identified as ‘central’ participants were able to identify problems according to school-related abstract concepts. Schools and teachers can indeed make a difference.