This study explored how and why some young people are considered “at-risk” of school exclusion, focusing on the implications for a cohort in the latter stages of compulsory education in two large urban secondary schools in the Midlands. Interviews, undertaken with students at four points during one academic year and with staff, alongside detailed data from records and files, were analysed with the interpretivist techniques of Constructivism and Document Analysis to identify the characteristics that influenced the students’ status, their schools’ provision and policy response processes and their experiences in the school environment and wider. A review of existing literature showed that whilst those “at-risk” share common characteristics, especially low socioeconomic status, the combination, extent and even timing of their influence is difficult to assess, such that response and intervention panaceas are unlikely to be found. This research showed that whilst the cohort completed their compulsory schooling, they were, perhaps, less successful in core academic outcomes and were also subject to variability and inconsistency in school responses and interventions, related to the influences of interpretation and dispositions on staff roles and policy implementation. The study concludes that deeper understanding of needs, staff training, a more relevant curriculum and greater involvement of young people “at-risk” and their parents/carers, in school life and decisions directly affecting them, could improve outcomes. The ramifications are potentially significant, suggesting that schools and policymakers can and should do more to avoid marginalising young people, with improvements that need not involve structural change, new schools, or extensive costs. The suggestions also implicitly challenge the mantra of recent national policy and developments in secondary education, that raising young peoples’ aspirations and diversifying provision are preconditions for improved social mobility.

This ethnographic study explores the ways in which a group of social actors participate in the everyday life of a woodland nature reserve, the relationships they establish with each other, the way they engage with the nonhuman materiality of the woodland and how they are affected by this engagement. An autoethnographic approach was taken which was based on the researcher’s immersion in the research setting. This made possible a deep understanding of the affective experiences of the research participants and facilitated an appreciation of the meanings of the woodland materiality for informants which were often ‘beyond words’. The study focussed on a group of staff and volunteers and the everyday practical tasks that they engaged in which were mainly coppicing the reserve’s ancient woodland and ecological surveying and monitoring of its woodland and wildlife. These activities are central to the everyday life of the reserve and take place in the context of the environment and wildlife conservation cultural fields. They are conceptualised as core activities and generate fulfilment for those who engage in them. The analytical framework used brings together the concepts of habitus (Bourdieu, 1997), dwelling (Ingold, 1993), and ‘becoming with’ (Despret, 2004; Haraway, 2008) and allows an understanding of how informants’ habitus (both general and specific) derived from the cultural fields they experienced during childhood and in employment, shape not only their participation in the everyday life of the reserve but also how this participation is experienced and their ways of being-in-the-woodland. These last are analysed as occupying a spectrum from an instrumental relationship, through becoming with and dwelling fleetingly to dwelling. Dwelling is associated with a woodland habitus. One of my key findings is that involvement in the practices of wildlife conservation immerses social actors in a nonhuman woodland world that for most transforms their way of being-in-the-world.

This doctoral research contributes to three main fields: the Sociology of Health and Illness (SHI), specifically in the way it speaks to Coeliac Disease; and the field of Big Social Data and Health in general. Research in SHI, has typically focussed on the effects of diagnosis on self-identity, and illness narratives used in adapting to life with chronic disease. While there have been recent studies looking at how general food cultures, obesity and diabetes are visualised on social media, there have been no studies about the visualisation of self-care and identity in relation to Coeliac Disease specifically. Current social research in Coeliac Disease is mainly focused on the psychological impact of being diagnosed with Coeliac Disease and the challenge the gluten free diet can put on individuals. There is little in the literature about how individuals self-manage Coeliac Disease or share identity across social media platforms, or how they use social media to navigate risk. Current literature in the field of Big Social Data and Health, mainly looks at how social media offers opportunities to socially share or disseminate public health information between organisations and the public, as well as how the use of wearable technology and apps are used to quantify health. It does not look at how the chronically ill share symptoms, identity and self-care across social media platforms. This thesis adds to the literature by bringing together the fields of SHI, Big Social Data and Health, and Social Science research into Coeliac Disease to understand and visualise the way Coeliac patients actively use social media platforms in the process of self-care and self-identity. It explores how social media can be used to tell a chronic illness narrative, and thus illustrate the process of diagnosis, and how individuals adapt to life as a Coeliac on the gluten free diet (GFD). In doing so, this research provides an illustrative example of how social media data can be used to both inform and complement research on Coeliac Disease specifically, and the fields of SHI and digital social science more generally.

INTRODUCTION: Having members within communities as ‘natural helpers’ may ensure good understanding of local health issues and better delivery of relevant messages. Lay Community Food Advisors (LCFA) may be an effective means to increase coverage of health promotion, empower individuals and communities, help to reduce social exclusion and address the gap in nutritional inequalities. LCFAs may increase awareness of healthy eating and help people translate advice into practice thereby positively influencing patterns of behaviour. However, there is limited evidence supporting these programmes, particularly from a Canadian perspective. Research objectives: To describe the context, drivers and (identify) strategic components of different programme models To determine the role of programmes in addressing healthy eating behaviour (across the socio-economic spectrum) To determine the wider role and impact of programmes in food and public health RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY: A qualitative, case study approach of three key LCFA programmes in Ontario with both exploratory and explanatory aspects. Data collection included key informant interviews using semi-structured questionnaires, overt participant observation and document review. Analysis: Thematic Analysis was utilised as an overarching approach to data analysis, NVivo qualitative tool was utilised for analysis of interviews. The Health Policy Triangle and Multiple Streams Framework were both used as frameworks for policy analysis. FINDINGS: Programme models have been shown to be able to deliver on policy priorities and enable increased capacity at multiple levels: individual, community, organisational and policy. Programmes show examples of being both universally accessible and targeted in their approach, addressing a combination of food literacy and community engagement strategies. Programmes raise tensions around lay helping and issues of access and utilisation of programmes. DISCUSSION: Programmes play a key role in meeting public health policy priorities. Programmes address food literacy set within a social and community context, but may be more challenged to address the underlying determinants of health and raise some tension around whether they can reduce or exacerbate inequalities. However, the absence of programmes can leave a greater gap. Though they remain for the most part downstream with some midstream activity, there are opportunities for more upstream effort. CONCLUSION: Though localised, programmes can address food and public health policy objectives beyond food skills alone. Programmes and their role need to be viewed more broadly, with connections to the wider food system and environment and how they can be both policy levers and policy influencers. As well, programmes should not be seen as the solution to a complex problem that needs more than behavioural intervention, they must complement other strategies to improve public health across the system.

This study explores the moral ethos of contemporary psychotherapy as represented in the psychoanalytic and systemic therapeutic traditions. It examines current moral/ethical debate in the field and presents a detailed critique of the individualistic normative orientation of this debate; its peripheral status within the discourse of psychotherapy; its restrictive focus on professional micro ethics; and the eschewing of engagement with wider macro level moral themes and concerns. The disjuncture between this individualistic moral ethos and the vigorously relational thrust of wider developments in psychotherapeutic theory and technique is highlighted. An argument is made for the reformulation of moral/ethical debate in terms that take account of these relational developments, which might in turn serve as a catalyst for the realization of what is arguably their progressive and democratizing potential. The failure of hermeneutical, post-structuralist and postmodernist influences in recent decades to move this debate forward and the entrenched modernist/postmodernist divide within psychotherapeutic discourse are also explored. Underlying the limitations of current moral/ethical debate is the restricted paradigm of individual consciousness within which this debate unfolds and which it appears unable to transcend. In this study the critical social theory of J!rgen Habermas serves as a touchstone for exploring potential for movement from the paradigm of consciousness to that of communication as a framework for moral/ethical deliberation. It is argued that key trends within psychotherapy are already straining towards a communicative ethical orientation which is implicit in current practice and that the theoretical vacuum around this subject is impeding recognition of its full potential. Alongside Habermasian theory, Axel Honneth's theory of recognition and Anthony Giddens's social theoretical perspective on psychotherapy offer key points of reference for the dialogue between critical social theory and psychotherapy which this study seeks to promote. Drawing on the work of Habermas and Honneth, it is argued that the underlying moral “grammar” of the psychotherapeutic encounter may be framed in terms of the struggle for understanding and agreement and the struggle for recognition. The theme of reflexivity emerges as an important organizing framework for this discussion and as a bridge for dialogue between psychotherapy and social theory. It is proposed that we can helpfully think of significant discursive moments in the therapeutic encounter as islands of heightened reflexivity in which the full communicative power of language is potentially unleashed. The study concludes with a view of psychotherapy as a reflexive resource and potential carrier of communicative reason helping people to develop and enhance cognitive and emotional capacities that may in turn help them participate in spheres of discursive communication and move towards genuinely communicative use of language.

The main argument developed in this thesis is that individuals are not only affected by their own experiences of intergroup contact, but also by the contact they perceive is occurring around them. A pivotal reason for this is a change in the perception of ingroup norms regarding intergroup interactions, which can shape intergroup attitudes and make future positive intergroup contact experiences more likely. Chapter 1 provides a review of the literature of intergroup contact and makes the case for the necessity of a normative perspective on intergroup contact research. I Chapter 2, I provide a brief overview of the literature regarding the effect of social norms in intergroup relations, and describe in more detail the theoretical model proposed. Chapters 3 and 4 provide some initial evidence for the model using cross-sectional studies, showing that ingroup norms are associated with attitudes and with the intention of having intergroup contact, and that direct and indirect contact rely on different mechanisms to improve attitudes towards the outgroup. The effect of indirect contact is of a normative nature while the effect of direct contact is more emotional. Chapter 5 focuses on the distinction between ingroup norms about contact and ingroup norms about expressing prejudice, and the evaluation of moderators of the effect in ingroup norms. Chapter 6 reports two longitudinal studies, providing some evidence in support for a causal effect of ingroup norms about contact on several outcomes; and Chapter 7 reports a series of experiments, including results showing that ingroup norms predict the success of an actual interaction with outgroup members. In Chapter 8, I summarise the evidence for the theoretical model proposed and discuss some promising directions for future research, as well as the implications of these results for the reduction of segregation and the improvement of intergroup relations in general.

A World of Their Own? The Novel and the Total Institution is an exploration of the sociological concept of the Total Institution with particular reference to its relationship with English literature, followed by the presentation of Chasing Elena, an original novel. The term ‘Total Institution’, attributed to Erving Goffman (1961) encapsulates an environment in which a large number of individuals participate in an enclosed and formally administered way of life. Chapter 1 of the critical text defines the Total Institution and sets the scene for Chapter 2, which examines selected literary texts that feature life in all-encompassing institutions and considers Goffman’s ‘moral career of the inmate’ in terms of the experiences of the fictional characters. Chapter 3 is a literature review reflecting upon Goffman’s work. It expands the model and metaphor of the Total Institution and includes my original interpretation of the concept called here the ‘New Total Institution’. Chapter 4 offers a close reading of contemporary literary texts in which this new interpretation is examined for strength and sustainability when applied to a belief system, a social structure and an isolated physical environment respectively. Chapter 5 considers the relevance of the (New) Total Institution, initially, in terms of the family. It then highlights specific groups of people who live in constrained and constraining circumstances: those affected by domestic abuse, and displaced persons such as refugees. Chapter 6 turns to the relationship between the (New) Total Institution and the novel, looking at the choices and experiences of the writer and the reader. It goes on to describe the ways in which the (New) Total Institution has informed the writing of Chasing Elena. Finally, this novel is presented in its entirety.

This thesis examines how the disruptive innovation of e-commerce took hold among small retailers in the South of England in the first decade of the 21st century. It describes empirically how a regional business-to-business market—providing e-commerce business services (EBS) to retail start-ups and small firms—emerged and operated, and how the goods traded in this market were evaluated. This market can be defined as an entrepreneurial market for an innovation because the market goods (EBS) constitute an innovation to be adopted by micro-enterprises as means of production to enable them to retail their own goods online to consumers. The study investigates two practical problems that concern the construction and operation of entrepreneurial markets for innovations: 1) how small firms as buyers of productive means evaluate complex, intangible market goods (such as EBS), given their lack of resources for conducting such evaluations; and 2) how policy makers and market makers address the market failure that is perceived to hinder the emergence of entrepreneurial markets. At the same time, this research also addresses the theoretical issues of how to define entrepreneurship, innovation, and markets and how to conceptualise the relationships between them, by empirically tracing and articulating the connections between the activities, objects, and places that constitute these phenomena. Actor-network theory (ANT) was utilised as a research approach to study an ecommerce community across two English counties, using ethnographic methods to collect data via participant observation, interviews, and documents between 2006 and 2010. ANT's material-semiotic method was deployed to trace the emergence, transformations, and workings of the socio-material network of institutions, policies, and technical artefacts that have enabled the functioning of this regional entrepreneurial market for EBS. Industry events such seminars, workshops, and conferences emerged as important marketplaces for establishing—through various trials—the qualities of buyers, sellers, and the EBS.

This thesis provides a new direction to studies of “gay masculinity”, examining the impact a consumerist approach has had on the two bestselling “gay” lifestyle(s) magazines between 1991 and 2011: 'Attitude' and 'GT' (previously known as 'Gay Times'). In both magazines over the period covered, the desire for a “successful” identity as understood through neo-liberal discourse is demonstrated through textual analysis of the aspirational discourse and images (re)presented in both publications, specifically assessing the importance placed on signifiers of consumerism and celebrity role models. In selecting the most-read lifestyle(s) magazines in Britain over the period under study, I was able to understand how mainstream forms of “gay masculine” identity had increasingly been underpinned by discourse pertaining to consumerism as opposed to campaigns against perceived homophobia and inequality. In arguing that a neo-liberal binary of “success” and “failure” has become increasingly prevalent since 1991, with signifiers (re)constructing the former as aspirational, this thesis also notes that 'Attitude' and 'Gay Times' have remained uniquely directed at an explicitly “gay” audience, with emphasis being placed on homonormative forms of “success” being an easily attainable norm.

Studies of interethnic integration in Central Eastern Europe have sought to account for the impact that institutional settings, structural conditions and elite-level interaction have on the accommodation of and conflict resolution between ethnic groups. Much existing literature has placed particular emphasis on the importance of institutional factors, both domestically and as a result of international pressure. Simultaneously, scholarship on the issue has left out of focus the contributions of non-dominant minority actors to the dynamics of interethnic relations. Where minorities are taken into account, this happens largely in terms of their failure to recognise structural opportunities for their inclusion into majority society. This study analyses interethnic integration in the Central Eastern European context from the perspective of structuration theory. Structuration theory provides a sound theoretical foundation in order to study non-dominant agency and its impact on the structures of integration, owing to its ability to reconcile dichotomies. The thesis comprises a comparative case study of interethnic interaction in Estonia and Slovakia, focusing on the Russian-speaking and the Hungarian minority respectively. A structuration approach is applied to the empirical findings in order to problematise practices of integration and their constraints that lie in the institutional and interaction context of Estonian and Slovak post-Communist society. I argue that although Russian-speakers in Estonia and Hungarians in Slovakia are constrained by institutional environs and majority-dominated structures, minority members actively participate in and shape institution-building and group formation in their interaction with majorities. Minority integration is analysed in terms of the minorities’ co-operation within, counteraction against and formulation of alternatives to the status quo structures of interethnic relations.