Background: Successful HIV prevention efforts among gay men have been linked to strong ‘community’ responses to HIV and adherence to safer sex practices. Research has found that gay men are increasingly ambivalent about ‘gay communities’, leading some to suggest that using the lens of ‘personal communities’ (PCs) may offer a more useful way of exploring gay men’s personal and social relationships. This qualitative research study set out to explore young gay and bisexual men’s PCs, and the role people within them may play in shaping men’s understandings of, and approach to, ‘safer sex’. Methods: The findings of this qualitative study are based on data drawn from 30 semi-structured interviews with young (aged 18-29) gay and bisexual men living in Scotland. Spencer and Pahl’s (2006) method of exploring PCs using ‘affective maps’ was applied. Two interconnected phases of analysis were conducted: 1) analysis of the ‘maps’ developed by participants; and 2) thematic analysis of interview data using principles of the Framework approach. Findings: The findings suggest that men’s PCs are complex and diverse. Patterns were observed in terms of overall composition of the men’s PCs. Many of the men had ‘mixed’ friendship groups in terms of gender and sexual orientation. Although the men’s PCs were not wholly shaped by connection to ‘gay communities’, men nevertheless articulated the importance of support around safer sex from their gay male friends. Understandings of safer sex were based primarily on the need to protect against sexual infection. A novel finding was that some men framed safer sex as the need to protect against non-sexual risks. Men drew on a range of resources, from within their PCs, gay communities, and beyond, in developing understandings of safer sex. Social norms of condom use among the men’s PCs shaped men’s responses to risk in sex, specifically their approach to condom use. Consistent condom use with new and casual partners was framed as ‘normal’, however many of the young men reported a desire to discontinue condom use in the context of a relationship. Condomless sex in this context was not generally framed as ‘unsafe sex’. A novel finding was that many of the men articulated the need for HIV testing prior to ceasing condom use, not only as a response to risk of infection, but also as a way of building trust within a relationship. Conclusions: The findings suggest that future community-level interventions need to take into account changing patterns of sociality among young gay and bisexual men, and suggest that HIV prevention interventions could capitalise upon supportive relationships between men and other people within their PCs.

This is a sociolinguistic investigation that examines variation in the use of two ancient features in the Tihāmi Qaḥṭāni dialect as spoken in two villages (al-Jawwa in the highlands and al-Farša in the lowlands) in ʿAsīr, southwest Saudi Arabia. The data are analysed within the framework of the variationist sociolinguistic paradigm and subjected to statistical testing using Rbrul. In addition to ‘linguistic environment’, ‘age’ and ‘gender’ as independent variables, the study analyses the effect of geographical location on the structure of variation and the trajectory of language change. The first linguistic variable is phonological, the Arabic sound ḍād, and the second linguistic variable is morpho-phonological, definite article m-. The Tihāmi Qaḥṭāni dialect preserves ancient realisations of these features. This is a dialect that traditionally has a lateral realisation of ḍād, and m- definite article, both of which are ancient Semitic features. A total of twenty eight speakers were sampled from the two communities. The data were obtained through sociolinguistic interviews. The results show that there is considerable variation in the use of both variables. The structure of this variation is influenced by social, linguistic and spatial factors. The incoming variants, emphatic interdental fricative [ðˤ] for (ḍād) and l-article for m-article, are koine forms. In the case of ḍād, the quantitative analysis shows that it is undergoing change towards [ðˤ]. This change is led by younger women in both communities, while men in general and older women lag behind. Analysis of m-article shows change in progress in the lowland community only (al-Farša). In this case too, the younger women are found to be in the lead. The qualitative analysis of the data shows that ambition, attitudes, tribal identity and mobility influence variation in the use of the traditional features. The analysis underlines the benefits of quantitative sociolinguistic methods towards understanding historical linguistic developments.

With the advent of facial transplantation some academic authors have suggested that faces are significant for humans and that identities are located corporeally within faces and therefore transplantable. However, there has been little evidence to support these claims, particularly from a qualitative, theoretically informed social science background. Responding to this hiatus, in this thesis I set two interconnected research objectives: • to examine socio-cultural values associated with human faces in predominantly Western societies using secondary sources; • to explore the relationship between acquired facial ‘disfigurement’ and embodied identity shift using a narrative methodology. The first objective was addressed in full through an analytical review of largely Western secondary sources. It has become clear that faces, as part of bodies, are imbued with a variety of socio-cultural meanings on multiple levels. Individually people experience the world through their body and their face, making it a significant site for perception and sense making. On a societal level, faces and facial appearance have been associated with social reproduction (Giddens, 1991). For example, inaccurate and harmful historical associations between facial appearance and moral character still pervade British society. And, utilising the concept of faciality (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p.168) Twine (2002), Dudley (2002) and Benson (2008) have illustrated that the faces of people in sub-sections of society, generally those with very little power, can be conceptualised negatively and used to serve the interests of powerful elites. In terms of the second objective, most facial ‘disfigurement’ research has been completed using quantitative methods, resulting in partial knowledge and the disconnection of persons. Through the use of a phenomenological epistemology, embodiment position and a narrative methodology I have put the experiences of the 13 participants at the heart of the research. The analysis chapters focus on the participants’ embodied identities before, during and after an acquired facial ‘disfigurement’. In terms of conclusions, I have found that faces are important however, identities are not located within them but created and reshaped through embodied life experiences. I have also found that the relationship between embodied identity shift and acquired facial ‘disfigurement’ is one of contested negotiation between wider socio-cultural facial values, transitional/liminal identity states during and after the event(s) and the aim of previous identity restoration.

Combating poverty in Saudi Arabia has become an important national target; this study researches poverty in Saudi Society and in particular, female poverty, focusing on poor female-headed households (FHHs) in Jeddah City. This is an exploratory study to highlight the social reality of the FHHs and their female heads, with a focus on the details of their everyday lives and their relationships with social support institutions, namely: the Social Security Department (SSD) and the Charitable Women’s Associations. The main aim of this study is to explore the social reality of these families and how, during their struggles to obtain or maintain a standard of living, they interact with these social support institutions. The study investigated a main sample of 112 FHHs represented by their female heads who were selected purposefully according to a matrix designed to ensure adequate representation across the main sample according to marital status, age group and place of residence (south or north) in Jeddah City. They were also selected by their marital status according to five sub-groups: widows’ families, divorced women’s families, abandoned women’s families, prisoners’ wives’ families and finally married women’s families. A further sample was 18 informants (called ‘elites’) who were selected purposefully from a range of experts, officials and decision makers from different governmental and non-governmental departments to explore and interpret issues raised during the women’s interviews. The interviews with the female heads were based on questions designed to achieve four main goals: 1- to study and identify the social, cultural and demographic characteristics of poor FHHs in Jeddah City. 2- to study and present the poor FHHs’ experiences and how they interacted with their social reality. 3- to study social policies in practice and highlight the relationship between the FHHs and the social support institutions. 4- to make recommendations for formulating an effective social policy for combating poverty among women and poor FHHs in Saudi society. The data and information was collected via different methods such as interviews, document searches, observations, field notes and digital recordings. The data was organized and analysed using a thematic approach to reduce the data, present it and provide conclusive statements. The main findings are organized in chapters 5, 6 and 7 and cover the study goals. The main findings are as follows: The typical poor FHHs were mostly large families and the male head tended to be missing from family life, thus the family was headed by the female. The women had suffered divorce, widowhood, imprisonment of their husbands, abandonment, or their husbands suffered sickness, old age or unemployment. These female heads were mostly uneducated or had a low or basic level of education. The families typically had no regular earned income because the head of the family was not in employment. The majority of the FHHs were tenants and lived in small flats. A significant number of FHHs was deprived of both official support from the SSD and from the women’s associations for various reasons. Some of the women were regarded legally and socially as minority groups because of their ethnicity, family backgrounds and/or nationality. These details provided an honest and clear picture of the lives of the poor FHHs and showed the inter-penetrated realms of these families and their heads that were: 1- public realms (society, culture, state, welfare systems and social support institutions); 2- private realms (women’s worlds, specific stories and experiences that had led the women to head their families such as divorce, widowhood, abandonment or the imprisonment of the head of the family). The details of everyday life showed how the sub-categories and their female heads had a similar experience in some aspects of the public realm but they experienced quite different private realms. The study concludes with some important strategic, public and specialized recommendations aimed at improving and reforming the current welfare system and social policies and suggests integrated social policies to eradicate poverty in general and among FHHs in particular.

This thesis explores the use of the Mental Health Act (MHA)(1983) with older people(65+) by providing a multi-perspective insight as expressed by those involved in the process. In particular, it focuses on the personal and social circumstances in which decisions to compulsorily detain older people are made. The thesis comprises two elements; one documentary, one qualitative. The documentary study was over a four year period (2000-2003) gathering demographic data around various themes including numbers of older people detained, gender, age, diagnosis and the relevant section used to detain the older person under the MHA(1983) This provided an insight into the scale of the phenomenon. Within the qualitative study, 58 semi-structured interviews were conducted providing fifteen case studies which were then thematically described and interpreted using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Semi-structured 1:1 interviews were adopted to allow participants the opportunity to express their personal experience. The thesis concluded that at times, some older people and their caregivers became passive recipients of mental health services, mainly through power inequalities, particularly at the time of assessment and discharge.

This work is an action research that deals with the theme of urban ethnic poverties, with particulare reference to the Italian phenomenon of the Roma encampments. The study is important because through the research on a single case study, the encampment of “Casilino 700”, I had the possibility of investigate and evidentiate the dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion through the analysis of both the encampments population and problematics. The long follow up of this research, which begun in 1992, allowed me to conduct an in-depth study and evaluate the policies enacted on behalf of statutory bodies and NGO’s who are entrusted with the duty of programming support and empowerment interventions toward Roma communities. In the course of this work I have shown how Roma in Italy have been for decades the object of a plan of spatial and social segregation which has had de facto state support and which has crystallised the conditions of social and economic exclusion of this minority. The research ends with a series of practical proposes for immediate integrate interventions that ought to be enacted at different levels in order to overcome the emergency and security-oriented approaches which have instead characterised the last twenty years.

Youth participation has gained increased prominence within recent policies and is expected to serve a number of agendas and aims including the empowerment of young people, the creation of future active citizens, the prevention of anti-social behaviour and the integration of youth into society. When young people’s involvement in participatory activities is discussed, it is often done on the basis of its expected outcomes, and more rarely in terms of how young people themselves make sense of and use existing opportunities. This study addresses this issue by focusing on how young people conceptualise participation, how they represent their experience within particular projects and how such experience relates to participatory policies. Drawing from different contexts - Greece and the UK - this thesis presents examples of how engagement with similar processes of participation is mediated through the environments within which young people shape their everyday lives. The particular values and strategies that the participants associated with their involvement allowed for commonalities to emerge across contexts. Such approaches to participation are summarised in three profiles, namely the professionals, visionaries and adventurers. In this study, young people’s perceptions of themselves as participants are often in stark contrast with policy frameworks which construct young participants as active citizens in the making in both countries. Processes within the explored spaces for participation were dominated by policy priorities, while minimal space was allowed for a type of deliberation which enables young people to affect the contexts within which their lives unfold. While young people were expected by policies to populate spaces for participation, there were examples of the participants making efforts to reinterpret/contextualise the meaning of participation according to their lived experience, to maintain a critical distance from funding bodies and to enlarge their repertoires.

This thesis is the first academic study of nineteenth-century artist and drawing master Samuel Lines (1778-1863) and his five sons: Henry Harris Lines (1800-1889), William Rostill Lines (1802-1846), Samuel Rostill Lines (1804-1833), Edward Ashcroft Lines (1807-1875) and Frederick Thomas Lines (1809-1898). The thesis, with its catalogue, has been a result of a collaborative study focusing on a collection of works on paper by the sons of Samuel Lines, from the Permanent Collection of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA). Both the thesis and catalogue aim to re-instate the family’s position as one of Birmingham’s most prominent and distinguished artistic dynasties. The thesis is divided into three chapters and includes a complete and comprehensive catalogue of 56 works on paper by the Lines family in the RBSA Permanent Collection. The catalogue also includes discursive information on the family’s careers otherwise not mentioned in the main thesis itself. The first chapter explores the family’s role in the establishment of the Birmingham Society of Arts (later the RBSA). It also explores the influence of art institutions and industry on the production of the fine and manufactured arts in Birmingham during the nineteenth century. The second chapter discusses the Lines family’s landscape imagery, in relation to prevailing landscape aesthetics and the physically changing landscape of the Midlands. Henry Harris Lines is the main focus of the last chapter which reveals the extent of his skills as archaeologist, antiquarian and artist.

This thesis seeks to better understand and evaluate the practice of Islamic finance. In order to do this, the thesis employs a practice-dependent, or constructivist, approach with the aim of identifying the principle or principles that inform, constrain and guide Islamic finance practices. The thesis proceeds by arguing that Islamic finance is a salient site of justice, with a clearly identifiable set of participants and shared set of aims. Having established this, the thesis goes on to demonstrate, through an analysis of the rules and operation of Islamic finance, that a distinct conception of justice can be identified as informing the practice. The central claim of the thesis is that the practice of Islamic finance is guided by a sufficiency-constrained luck egalitarian principle. This principle, it is argued, not only helps us to better understand Islamic finance, but can also help us to evaluate existing Islamic finance practices and, where they are found wanting, offer guidance on how best to reform those practices.

This thesis comprises of three papers. The first is a literature review that focuses on the positive impact on parents caring for a child with an intellectual disability. Fourteen themes pertaining to positive impact are derived from papers and the two main measures used to assess positive impact are The Kansas Inventory of Positive Perceptions and The Positive and Negative Assessment Scale. The relationship between positive impact of caring and parental wellbeing is explored. Wellbeing is raised when there are positive perception of caring. The empirical paper explores the relationship between parental stress, challenging behaviour and characteristics of autism spectrum disorder. When people with autism spectrum disorder show challenging behaviours, characteristics of adaptive functioning, pleasure and interest, and reciprocal social interaction are lower and impulsivity is heightened in comparison to people showing no challenging behaviours. Age also differs between groups. Negative correlations between adaptive functioning, pleasure and interest and social reciprocal interaction and parental stress are found. There is a positive correlation between impulsivity and parental stress. Impulsivity is the only predictor of stress. The third paper is a public domain briefing document, which gives an overview of the literature review and empirical paper for dissemination to the general population.