Context HIV/AIDS continues to be a global problem; by 2013, there were 35.3 million people infected globally. Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) continues to be disproportionately affected with 70 percent of all cases, 73 percent all deaths, and 70 percent of all new infections. Although some progress has been made in the response to the epidemic, major challenges remain. For example, even though new infections have been declining in some countries, these are being offset by increases in others. Uganda is one of the countries where HIV infection rates have been increasing in the last 15 years, from 6.2 percent in 2000 to 6.4 percent in 2005 to 7.3 percent in 2012. Much as SSA is disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, the region has received considerable research attention, including the association between HIV/AIDS and socioeconomic status (SES) and sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). However, there continues to be controversy surrounding the effect of SES and SGBV on the vulnerability of individuals to the risk of HIV infection. Aims and research questions To contribute to the above debates, this research utilises Bourdieu’s Socio-Structural Theory of Practice (STOP) which argues that individuals are born into a field, which structures their habitus or world view but the field in turn is structured by habitus. To operationalize this theory, this research answers the following broad question, what is the influence of social factors on vulnerability and risk to HIV infection in Uganda? And the following specific questions: (1) what is the effect of SES (wealth status & educational attainment) on people’s vulnerability to the risk of HIV infection in Uganda? (2) What is the effect of SGBV on vulnerability to the risk of HIV infection in Uganda? And, (3) what are the effects of social and structural factors on vulnerability to the risk of HIV infection in Uganda? Data and methods This research was based on a nationally representative sample of 22,979 women and 18,418 men of reproductive age from 20,869 households with 33,692 rural and 7,705 urban respondents in Uganda. The analyses were based on the application of Multilevel Logistic regression models to 2004-05 and 2011 Uganda AIDS Indicator Surveys, fitted in MLwiN. Chapter 5 about the influence of SES on HIV infection and Chapter 6 on the influence of community factors on HIV infection are based on pooled data of 2004–05 and 2011 surveys but Chapter 7 on the influence of SGBV on HIV infection is based on only the 2011 data. Key findings The results provide little evidence of a significant overall association between household wealth and HIV infection. However, there is some indication of increased risk among those in wealthier households that is explained by sexual behavior factors. The increased vulnerability of individuals in wealthier households is particularly apparent for women and rural residents. On the other hand, individuals with higher educational attainment have reduced odds of HIV infection. Those with secondary or higher educational attainment have 37 percent lower odds of being HIV-positive compared to those with no education in the general population when other socio-economic, socio-demographic, and socio-sexual factors are controlled for, and secondary or higher education is more effective in reducing vulnerability in urban than rural areas, and in 2011 than 2004–05. However, incomplete or complete primary educational attainment is associated with increased odds of being HIV-positive in both 2004/5 and 2011 and among rural residents, when important socio-demographic and sexual behavior factors are controlled for. Sexual and gender based violence is associated with increased vulnerability to HIV infection by 34 percent at the individual-level. Besides individual-level effects, community-level SES and SGBV are also important determinants of HIV vulnerability. When both community and individual-level factors were controlled for, living in a community with a higher proportion of wealthy households was associated with increased likelihood of being infected with HIV compared to living in communities with a lower proportion of wealthy households. For social factors, living in an area with higher proportions of: formerly married people, and people who were drunk with alcohol before unsafe sex was also associated with an increased likelihood of being infected with HIV compared to living in areas with lower proportions of people with these practices who had similar other characteristics. However, living in communities with a higher proportion of polygamous men was associated with a lower likelihood of being infected with HIV compared to living in communities with a lower proportion of polygamous men. Overall, community factors account for 10 percent of total variation in HIV prevalence. Conclusions and policy implications Individual-level and societal factors are both important in creating vulnerability to the risk of HIV infection in Uganda. These conclusions are largely consistent with Bourdieu’s theoretical and methodological principles and have broad implications for the HIV/AIDS response that presently pays less attention to societal determinants of HIV vulnerability. To effectively prevent HIV infections, HIV/AIDS policies need to recognize the micro, macro, and complex nature of the AIDS epidemic in Uganda. Attention needs to be paid to how household and community wealth, educational attainment and SGBV influence vulnerability to the risk of HIV infection in Uganda and perhaps, similar settings elsewhere.

This study focuses on how the social networks of entrepreneurs shape the business strategies adopted by the Chinese private enterprises and the role of social networks in sustaining competitive advantage. Using data collected from 418 surveys and 53 interviews with private entrepreneurs in Guangdong Province in 2013, this study investigates how entrepreneurs embedded in different business-to-business (B2B) networks and business-to-government (B2G) networks perceive the role of social networks in the design and implementation of business strategies. This study also explores the types of political participation private entrepreneurs use to overcome discrimination that undermines their legitimacy and constrains access to resources. The findings from logistic regression and analysis of interviews indicate that private entrepreneurs perceive that B2B networks enable their firms to access accurate information to seize business opportunities, and strengthen long-term oriented buyer-supplier relationships. B2G networks help private firms to overcome the administrative obstacles and access state controlled resources. Private entrepreneurs also employ various political strategies to advance their interests. They usually value more highly membership of the People’s Congress (PC) or People’s Political Consultative Conference (PPCC) over membership of the Communist Party in strengthening B2G connections and establishing firm legitimacy. Overall, this study of Guangdong entrepreneurs contributes to the business literature in seeking to integrate theories about social networks and business strategy. It provides empirical data on how the private enterprises in China use their social networks in business. The results extend the understanding of social network in business strategy and contribute to the studies on social network theory and strategic management in transition countries. A deeper understanding of the role of the social networks in the business environment in China helps managers to choose a more suitable strategy to compete in the market.

Although there is now accumulating evidence on the experiences and outcomes for internationally adopted adults, and recent findings suggest an association between outcomes and individuals’ views of their own adoption, there has been little systematic examination of the adoption appraisal process beyond childhood. This study focuses on adopted women’s perceptions of how being internationally adopted in early childhood has affected their subsequent lives. 68 women of Chinese ethnicity in their 40s and 50s, adopted as young girls in the 1960s from orphanages in Hong Kong to the UK, participated in face-to-face interviews. Based on a phenomenological analysis of the resulting data, I argue that appraisal of adoption (including adjustment to adoption-related losses and gains) is a multi-faceted and dynamic process that continues long beyond childhood and adolescence. Particular attention is paid to how women describe talking about adoption to strangers and loved ones and how they frame their responses in the context of the research interview. Out of this work emerges a clearer picture of the importance of understanding individual perceptions of what constitutes a ‘positive’ adoption outcome. By adding to and extending the (mainly US-based) emerging body of literature on internationally adopted adults, the results of this study provide a starting point for thinking about the future development of a model of understanding adoption appraisal in adulthood: one that builds on, but is distinct from, models of children’s adoption appraisal.

This thesis explores how life history interviews I conducted with ten UK residents from Zimbabwe in 2011 were a site for discursive construction of subjects, places and relationships to place in an occasioned way. Drawing on insights from positioning theory (Davies and Harre 1990; Davies and Harre 1999) and the synthetic approach to discourse analysis (Potter and Wetherell 1987; Potter et al 1990; Wetherell and Potter 1992; Wetherell 1998; Wetherell and Edley 1999), I argue that while discourses determine what it is possible to think, say and be within a particular historical juncture (Foucault 1972), the way in which people construct phenomena and position themselves as subjects in talk is shaped by the interactional context (Wetherell 1998; Wetherell and Edley 1999; Davies and Harre 1990; Davies and Harre 1999). Building on work which has explored the discursive construction of identities, I demonstrate that during the process of talking about their lives, the men and women I interviewed recapitulated established narrative forms (Elliot 2005); were fabricated into the social order because it is virtually impossible to speak out of discourses (Foucault 1979); and engaged in a dynamic process of positioning themselves, positioning me, and rejecting, ignoring, and accepting the positions made available to them (Davies and Harre 1990; Davies and Harre 1999). My exploration of the construction of places within the interviews focuses on interviewees' talk about Zimbabwe as a country in crisis and Britain as a place where racism is/is not a significant problem. My analysis takes inspiration from two bodies of work relating to the discursive construction of places: work which explores the process in which representations of places invest those places with meaning by appropriating other representations (see Daniels 1992; McGreevy 1992), and research which attends to the way in which constructions of places may be orientated to the achievement of interactional and social goals (see Durrheim and Dixon 2001; Wallwork and Dixon 2004; Garner 2013; Di Masso et al 2011). I explore how interviewees' utterances concerning Zimbabwe and Britain were filled with the echoes and reverberations of preceding utterances (Bakhtin 1986). The action-orientation of these constructions of Zimbabwe and Britain is also explored; I discuss instances in which the men and women I interviewed produced representations of Zimbabwe which explicitly or implicitly attributed blame for the country's economic decline, and constructed accounts of racism in Britain which were orientated to maintaining a positive self-identity and minimising the significance of racism as a problem. Finally, this thesis demonstrates that the interview I conducted with UK residents from Zimbabwe were an occasion for interviewees to construct, rather than provide an insight into, the nature of their relationships with current or former places of residence. Focusing on the accounts of four interviewees, I explore how speakers reproduced tropes and narratives which naturalise the relationship between particular people and places (see Malkki 1992; Taylor 2005b), and negotiated the politics of belonging (Yuval-Davis 2011) relating to past or present places of residence. I also discuss how talking about place attachments was an occasion for identity work (Taylor 2003).

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International networks of non-governmental organisations have assumed increasing importance in global politics over the past two decades. Attention to issues of environment and sustainable development in particular present a strong rationale for their engagement as active participants at every level of decision-making. Over the same period, significant advances in communication technology have changed the nature of global dialogue, and made it possible for organisations to interact globally in new ways. However, many International Relations theorists consider Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) as significant actors principally to the extent that they influence inter-governmental deliberations. This ignores a wealth of material which illustrates the diversity of objectives NGOs prioritise in the global polity. In particular, the functions and principles evident in the work of international NGO networks suggest much more complex and diverse goals and ways of working. This thesis presents a novel consideration of ways in which interaction between NGOs collaborating internationally is significant. It explores the different functions international NGO networks exist to perform, and the ways in which these challenge established understandings of the role of nongovernmental actors in global governance. Attention is also given to the distinctions between issue specific networks, established to enhance collaboration in particular policy areas, and broader networks which attempt to transcend these divisions. Problems and tensions which can arise within international NGO networks are also addresse& The thesis includes a detailed study of international NGO networking before, during and after the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992. It draws on an extensive array of primary material from the UNCED process and subsequently which has not previously been widely available, and considers ways in which 'sustainable development' has been interpreted by organisations which exist to challenge prevailing economic and social norms.

The thesis is grounded in Heideggerian phenomenology. It examines the existentiale of meaning in Heidegger's ontology of Dasein of the 1920s and proposes that the concept of narrative can clarify our understanding of meaning in human life. Narrative theory in turn is critically examined and the importance of the difference between the spoken and written word is elucidated. It is demonstrated that the theoretical understanding of narrative has been distorted by the acceptance of literary narrative as paradigmatic. The primordial form of narrative is shown to be oral. A commentary on Heidegger's analysis of boredom is undertaken and it is shown that the essential structure of narrative is given by the ecstatic temporality of Dasein that is not bored. The event of non-boring oral storytelling is analysed in detail and shown to be a particular existentiell modification of Dasein as being-with. In this event Dasein is called to its own authenticity and transposed into the Da of the story. In the final chapter links are made to the theory and practice of psychotherapy and of performance. The existentiell transformation of Dasein in a well-told oral storytelling event is shown to be the therapeutic essence of psychotherapeutic dialogue. Insight on its own is not curative; psychotherapeutic change is dependent on the way in which a patient is able to tell their story. Only by taking up authentic possibilities is the client's authentic future freed. Similarly in public performances of theatre or storytelling the mysterious phenomena of audiences being transported, uplifted and unified are revealed to be instances of the same existentiell transformation. We conclude by indicating the significance of our findings for philosophy and narrative theory and highlighting the importance of the untranscribable meaning of oral discourse.

The purpose of the thesis is to examine the current state of regulation of television advertising in the UK, chiefly in the light of its historical background. A number of general theories of regulation are also used to analyse both developments in regulation policy and some of the events and processeisn the practical activity of regulation. The thesis seeks to demonstrate that the present structures have not simply arisen haphazardly, nor do they represent anything especially new, but are the result of a long process of evolution during which continuity rather than change has been the dominant theme. Broadcasting in the UK has enjoyed a much longer period of stable independent development than most countries of continental Europe, which has enabled it to establish strong and effective regulatory traditions. The advantage of a historical perspective is that it shows how these traditions were built up, who was responsible for the primary regulatory structures and what motivated them, and what were the causes of change in the system. It has an important explanatory value for an understanding of the present. My argument is that television advertising regulation cannot be divorced from broadcasting regulation as a whole, and although advertising has only been part of the broadcasting system since the inauguration of commercial television in 1955, the form and methods of its regulation cannot be divorced from their roots in television and radio's noncommercial past. The fact that broadcasting started as a private enterprise subject, in the words of one government minister, to "drastic" regulation, was soon reconstituted as a non-commercial public corporation acting as trustee for the national interest, and that business and advertising interests were only permitted a role in the broadcasting system after thirty years of operation, under similarly drastic regulation, has an important bearing on how advertising regulation is done today. Political, social and cultural influences on broadcasting and broadcast advertising regulation policy and its implementation are traced by looking at the Committee system of policymaking, and by examining numerous published and unpublished (confidential) reports and documents dealing with a variety of aspects of broadcasting and television advertising regulation. The extent to which public interest theory and other theories of regulation are relevant to broadcasting is also assessed. I have therefore sought to explain the present in terms of the past and with reference to several wider theoretical frameworks.

The rapid social and political transformation of post- Communist Europe has necessitated a re-examination of the question of political identity, particularly in relation to democracy and the nation-state. Laclau and Mouffe's post-Marxist notion of 'radical democracy', incorporating a non-essentialist conception of hegemony, promises much in this regard. Their work on the contingent nature of political identity and their understanding of the range and importance of the political and social changes in contemporary Europe is especially valuable. Although their work is a significant contribution in this area their project is ultimately more applicable to post-industrial Western Europe before the collapse of Communism than it is to post-'89 Europe. Laclau and Mouffe's work can be divided into 'early' and 'later' periods. Their 'early' work includes their Marxist and post-Marxist formulations, while their 'later' period, influenced by post-Communist events, is characterised by a growing liberalisation of their thought. As a result of the epochal changes stemming from the fall of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe the question of Europe becomes crucially important in this 'later' period. Mouffe holds to a notion of Europe that is constituted through its democratic heritage. It is argued that this constitutes an exclusive identity and that European identity should not be dependant upon such a narrowly defined sense of tradition. Laclau and Mouffe place great emphasis on the constitutive role of antagonism in the construction of both identity and democracy. Throughout their work it is possible to identify a tendency towards a politics of 'us and them'. An emphasis on the role of exclusion in identity formation is particularly marked in their 'later' work. The case of nationalism highlights a problem with Laclau and Mouffe's approach to conceptualising collective identity. This stems from their reliance upon democratic political identity as the sine qua non of democracy. Against this it is argued that the construction of national and ethnic identity cannot be understood in this way. The nation-state has been the single biggest factor in shaping European political identities in the post-war period. Challenges to the primacy of the nation-state from regional or ethnic separatism are having a similarly important influence in the contemporary context.

ABSTRACT This thesis examines the prolonged industrial conflict between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN). This thesis provides a historical and sociological account of the origins, development, primary causes, and effects of this industrial conflict in Nigerian universities. Data was sourced from both primary and secondary (documentary) sources and analysed using comparative historical analysis, theoretical analysis and secondary analysis. The thesis concludes that the ongoing industrial conflict between ASUU and the FGN can be understood as having the features of a class dispute and that it entails both economic and political factors. Besides domestic factors directly affecting the disputes (e.g. low wages and conditions of service, poor and erratic funding, rising student population and weak institutional autonomy), this study revealed that external factors (particularly the effects of Nigeria’s macroeconomic policies) contributed to the intensity of the disputes. Moreover, it is argued that historical antecedents, especially the colonial legacies of ethnicity, regionalism, weak legitimacy, corruption and autocracy have helped to shape the growth and development of the higher education system in Nigeria, and therefore of these disputes. Regarding the effects of the crisis, findings reveal that the poor emolument of academic staff coupled with the deterioration in teaching and learning facilities have contributed to the ‘brain drain’ from Nigerian universities, that is, the migration of staff, students and other professionals from the country in search of better opportunities abroad. Consequently, this thesis concludes that the factors affecting the industrial disputes between the ASUU and the FGN have been largely propelled by historical, economic and political factors which have become institutionalised and embedded in the Nigerian polity so that the disputes will continue to be difficult to resolve.