This thesis investigates the institution-centred and society-centred perspectives on generalized trust. Using advanced statistical techniques, I first assess some central implications of the two approaches employing observational data. In particular, I begin by suggesting that the scarcity of different goods in a region (lack of personal security and jobs) negatively affects our propensity to trust strangers, as we are less likely to believe that the state will fulfil its obligations. A Multilevel Structural Equation analysis of data from the European Social Survey 2010 and EUROSTAT confirms hypotheses put forward, suggesting that institutional trust has indeed a strong intervening function. Subsequently, moving to the society-centred perspective, I consider two main theoretical mechanisms (namely, the Bridging and Spillover effects) to explain why we consistently observe that interactions with people we know lead us to trust people we do not know. Using the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey 2000, I find support for the Spillover effect. However, findings are less convincing in respect to the Bridging mechanism. Finally, I focus on the Spillover effect and propose a novel design to accurately evaluate its causal validity. In this sense, I conduct an experiment where subjects play a series of Trust Games with anonymous others and are able to report their games’ experience to their social links. Changing the average number of links among subjects, I check if in communities characterized by a higher overall density of social ties, network-based reputation systems foster trusting behaviours with strangers. Evidence supports the validity of the Spillover effect, encouraging further research on the topic.

This thesis provides an investigation of the production, transfer and application of the knowledge associated with counter-kidnap. I examine the processes and contexts that shape transnational knowledge transfer and its application. As far as I am aware, this qualitative research is the first one adding an empirical detail to our understanding of these processes with respect to kidnappings for ransom. The first two parts of the thesis provide a breakdown of the information provided by formal counter-kidnap documents, other ways of transferring high-security knowledge, and their barriers. A number of formal institutions and processes exist for transferring knowledge and practices around mitigating serious crime and I explain in detail in which respects they can be problematic. The third part identifies an implementation gap, since local practices and processes impede transnational initiatives. I discuss the effects of the specific police sub-culture which hinders the transfer and application of the relevant knowledge. In the final part I review the so-called risk management companies, which represent a fairly new private field responding to kidnapping risks, both preventatively and reactively. I suggest that the emergence of these companies results from the high prices of knowledge transfer and inter-institutional barriers to that transfer, as well as the poor outcomes of the responses to kidnappings by the public sector. The overall picture emerging is that the transfer of high-security information is not as fluid as we might think. There are informal processes and practices that influence the transfer and application of knowledge and my data demonstrate the detail and complexity around the type of knowledge work police engage in.

Previous research has identified that there is a body of research on flowers. There is rather little regarding the interrelations between flowers and interaction, and the role of flowers in weddings and funerals. It is this gap in the research that this research addresses. This study applies a sociological perspective to explore on a micro level the role of flowers in social interaction within ritual spaces, whilst also examining the management of identity involved. The research uses an ethnographic approach, applying case-study methods deriving from an interpretivist standpoint that focuses on the uniqueness of an individual’s experience. Through choice and decision making, people utilise flowers as institutionalised props that assist in the presentation of selves during ritual practices. When Goffman’s dramaturgical framework (1959) is applied alongside Hochschild’s concept of emotion work (1979) and Gordon’s (1981) definition of sentiment, they can be identified as multifaceted institutionalised props, with interchangeable meaning, assisting in the management of a positive sentiment identity. Flowers also reaffirm intergenerational connections with others, enhancing a sense of belonging in community.

This thesis focuses on the role of social networks, trust, and bonding during the transit of Central American migrants in Mexico. It has two main research questions: first, do existing social networks of Central American transit migrants in Mexico help them overcome the journey through this country? And second, can and do new social bonds, trust, and cooperation emerge in this context of extreme scarcity, stress, and violence? It draws on over five months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork on the southern border of Mexico in Tenosique and Palenque; in the northern border in Saltillo and Nogales, and in Tucson in the United States. The dissertation finds that most migrants do not receive emotional help or resources from their kinship ties while in Mexico. It is possible to form social ties with strangers that yield solidarity during volatile contexts, in contrast to what most authors have observed. Migrants on the road form what I call a “transient community of migrantes,” an accidental community that gives everyone a migrante collective identity, a common narrative, and a sense of belonging. This shared understanding favours solidarity, even when migrants do not trust each other. Male migrants react to the violence and stress by forming closer groups that I call familias del camino, road families. These familias quickly create trust and deep bonds and provide practical support for each other. These ties are solid and enable cooperation but are also temporary. These bonds had not been defined previously by the literature. While most authors had assumed that kin or kin-like ties are most useful while migrating, I show that during transit, social networks with non-family members become more relevant. Migrants who travel with their families react to the violence by attempting to reproduce a safe domestic sphere while migrating. In the reproduction of power dynamics that defines the realm of the public and the private, patriarchal gender identities are also reproduced and through those, men are depicted as protectors of the family and women as vulnerable.

The thesis sets out to critically analyse the national responses to child trafficking in Nepal. This has been approached by exploring: (1) the changing dimensions of child trafficking in Nepal and the reasons for the perpetuation of trafficking vulnerabilities; (2) the development of legislative approaches to child trafficking; and (3) the limits encountered in anti-trafficking interventions. The thesis situates the national responses to child trafficking within the existing debates on ‘children’s rights’, the universal notion of ‘childhood’, and ‘cultural relativism’. This facilitates an investigation into the applicability of the international human rights framework to the reality of specific socio-economic situations. Despite deploying a human rights standard in legislations and policies, there is very little evidence to suggest that the international human rights approach has been effectively applied in practice in Nepal. There are several persistent challenges for comprehensive responses to child trafficking in the country. The simultaneous use of two frameworks – the ‘victimhood’ and ‘agency’ approaches – has resulted in conflicting conceptualisations of trafficking vulnerabilities and variations in practices. The thesis suggests that it is crucial to rethink the child trafficking phenomenon and the approaches to interventions in Nepal. Trafficking of children is linked to broader problems facing the protection of children—such as child migration, children living in institutional care, livelihood opportunities for children, and working children, among others. It is argued that, in order to protect the rights of all vulnerable children, the focus cannot be restricted to anti-trafficking interventions. Unless the policies and programmes are integrated within broader issues of child protection, children will continue to become victims of trafficking and other forms of exploitation. The research calls for an alternative way of embedding interventions within communities so as to protect children from discrimination, abuse, and exploitation.

Based on 6 months of fieldwork and conducting 9 sets of observation in Ghana, this thesis explores the effects of the different corruption experiences upon confidence in the police as well as police legitimacy. Since Tyler published his seminal work Why People Obey the Law, legitimacy and confidence in the criminal justice system has become an important concept in criminological analysis. Various studies have sought to clarify the meaning of legitimacy and to examine the factors that influence public perceptions of police legitimacy and confidence. Studies have emphasized the importance of procedural justice, distributive justice, and effectiveness of legal institutions. What remains under-researched in criminological discourse however, is the effects of police corruption upon public confidence and police legitimacy. An important exception is Tankebe’s (2010a) and Asif, Bradford and Zakar’s (2014) study. Yet both construct their study on a simple distinction between direct and indirect experiences of public corruption with the police. This overlooks the fact that there could be different types of direct and vicarious experiences (e.g. negative and positive experiences), with different effects on confidence and legitimacy. This study addresses these issues by examining the effects of both perceptions and different experiences of public-police corruption in Ghana. The research is focused on the experiences of corruption at the street level. Data was obtained from the police and retired police officers, commercial drivers, and private entrepreneurs (market traders). These actors encounter the police more often than any other, and that their expectations in corrupt encounters are conflicting. For example, while some members of the public condemn police corruption at police checkpoints, others, or the same people, in turn criticise and get infuriated at commercial drivers for failing to pay bribes to the police resulting in, for instance, unnecessary journey delays. The impact of these experiences on citizens’ perceptions of police legitimacy and confidence in the Ghanaian police are discussed.

Collaborations between corporate actors and environmental NGOs are an increasingly common means for agri-food companies to enact sustainability objectives. Taking a comparative case study approach, this research examines two such initiatives from the soy industry, the Roundtable for Responsible Soy (RTRS) and the Soy Moratorium. Previous literature has assessed both in terms of their success in reducing land use change in the Brazilian Amazon. This thesis takes a different stance, analysing how their design and implementation relate to the agricultural production of soy and its associated consumption patterns. Based on documentary analysis and qualitative interviews with key stakeholders, the thesis finds that NGO conservation campaigns against soy in the Amazon were the main driver of both case studies, leading them to focus on developing biodiversity protection programmes. However, as this research shows, the consensus amongst stakeholders on this issue is currently challenged on two fronts. Firstly, by splits between actors who advocate greater state involvement and those supportive of continued private interventions, and secondly, between actors who wish to expand biodiversity protection to the Cerrado savannahs and those who favour limiting it to the Amazon. In these evolving dynamics, the proliferation of 'zero- deforestation' agreements are revealed as particularly important to the direction of policymaking. From these findings, the challenges faced by both alliances are shown to indicate wider sustainability problems that each initiative has failed to address. Employing Thomas Princen's concept of 'distancing', this research argues that a biodiversity bias in their design means that soy is primarily problematised only as a conservation issue, while its other environmental impacts (particularly its consumption through livestock feedstock) are marginalised. It concludes by reflecting on the limitations of non-state actors, often constrained by supply chain approaches, in tackling the multi-dimensional ecological risks posed by soy production and consumption.

This thesis is a sociological investigation into partnership between the criminal justice system and women’s organisations, and its impact on survivors of domestic violence. To examine this, the criminal justice initiatives of the charity Standing Together Against Domestic Violence were researched – Hammersmith and Westminster Specialist Domestic Violence Courts and the Impact Project in Hammersmith Police Station. These initiatives have placed domestic violence specialists inside the police station or courts to reform they way domestic violence is investigated and prosecuted, and how survivors are supported through the process. Qualitative research was conducted which included semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, and observations of the domestic violence court’s while they were in session. The data yielded was analysed using intersectionality based policy analysis, and focused on the power dynamics between the criminal justice system, women’s organisations and its impact on marginalised survivors. The emergent themes of this research focus on how these initiatives have influenced the safety of survivors; how they impact on survivor freedom in terms of self-determination and survivor criminalisation and; how they impact on police and perpetrator accountability. Taking an intersectional approach to criminal justice policy on domestic violence, this thesis offers a unique contribution by examining how survivors from a range of social locations experience the police and courts. My findings indicate that while increased specialism in the criminal justice system has increased the safety for some survivors, it has increased the vulnerability of others.

With the popularity of the internet and mobile intelligent terminals, more and more people are becoming social media users across the globe. China is no exception in this case, Chinese youth in particular. Social media could turn distant others into our virtual neighbours. These mediated interactions are carried out in mediapolis: a moral space where the audiences connect with the otherwise invisible others during the process of mediation. After being integrated into users’ daily lives, social media could create new ways of living and new kinds of social relationships, among which is the users’ acknowledgement of distant suffering. Media witnessing and media remembering are two media practices employed to explore how audiences talk about distant suffering and position themselves with regard to it in this thesis. Through focus group discussions among Chinese university students, the empirical data showed how Chinese young people witness and remember distant suffering through social media. Young social media users position themselves as witnesses of news of distant suffering in a detached way: there is a rationalised detachment from the suffering events; they showed no scepticism towards online distant suffering reports and their hospitality towards the distant sufferer is conditional on the immediacy between them. The investigation of media remembering demonstrates the construction of a moral hierarchy in the way in which young social media users remember distant suffering: some incidents of suffering are banal, some are iconic, and some others are meaningful in their memories. Young social media users’ actions towards distant suffering including reposting, discussion and donation. While for their inactions, they have varied justifications, which involve their mistrust about online information and charitable organisations, their powerlessness as students, and compassion fatigue as a result of seeing too many similar events, and the existence of the national disaster-relief mechanism. Their opinions towards whether to accept the concept of cosmopolitanism are various. There are several new features in the mediation of distant suffering through social media compared with traditional mass media. This study contributes to the growing research on the mediation of distant suffering. It extends the range of studies on the mediation of distant suffering from the West to the East, it broadens the research area from mass communication media to social media, and it answers the empirical question about the ways of the social media users’ engagement with distant suffering.

This thesis interrogates the relationship between the researcher and immersive media ecology through developing an immersive-participatory method which builds on autoethnography and makes central the researcher's experience. It theorises immersion during gameplay as an affective, embodied state, which is both active and passive, and achieved via visual engagement, projective identification, and haptic communication with the player character and game world. Deploying a mode of qualitative content analysis alongside this immersive method, this project makes visible and utilises the relationship between the researcher and the object of study. As such, it attains critical purchase on the affective and embodied experience of narrative, immersive and mechanic game elements. Three overarching themes have emerged from this research: the affective and persuasive elements of immersive engagement; the players’ ability to agentfully negotiate the freedoms and constraints of the gameworld; and the ideological positioning of the player within certain subjectivities. In order to examine these themes, I interrogate three narrative and mechanical branches which are common to the games studied. Firstly, how trauma, vulnerability and spectacle are deployed within game narratives and structures, and how they serve to attach the player and motivate them to overcome and master. Secondly, the way (bio)dystopian game worlds and mechanical incentivisation of accumulation work at cross purposes to both express anxieties about late-capitalist ideologies whilst also structuring player desire along neoliberal lines. And finally, the evocation of ethical response through ‘moral’ game mechanics and the space for players to interpret, negotiate, and play with ethical acts. In following these lines of analysis, this thesis reveals broader cultural tensions surrounding identification, immersion, and knowledge specifically regarding questions of affect, desire, and ethical decision-making.