Third sector organisations (TSOs) are facing multiple complex and challenging pressures from the shifting economic and political environment, undoubtedly creating an uncertain operating landscape. Although the sector encompasses a range of forms, shapes and sizes, policy and practice tend to portray the sector as homogenously experiencing and responding to the environment. This thesis undertakes in-depth case studies using a qualitative research strategy to investigate organisational change in three asylum seeker and refugee TSOs based in England. An ethnographic rationale is used to collect the data, using a range of methods, spending time immersed within the organisations, and a process of reflexivity. The research explores how organisations are affected by, and navigate, these challenging pressures, and what is happening within the organisational setting that influences the processes of organisational change. Drawing on a multi-level framework, including isomorphism, institutional logics, institutional work and emotional work, provides an insightful account of the different layers of organisational change. The case studies demonstrate significant pressures from negative immigration rhetoric and xenophobic attitudes, austerity measures, and changes in the funding environment that all fuel organisational responses. By moving on from being refugee community organisations to becoming established and formalised TSOs, each organisation further expanded into varying forms of hybrid organisation - family/professional, religious and entrepreneurial - depending on differing contextual factors and resources. Nuanced accounts grounded in empirical data are portrayed, of the challenges, tensions and dilemmas faced by the organisations whilst also illustrating the agency of actors’ responses. This not only distinguishes the heterogeneity of the sector but also demonstrates the actors’ ability to manage uncertainty through resilience and adaptability.

Sociological theories relating to collective forms of memory and forgetting have received little attention in Egyptological studies thus far with the work of Jan Assmann providing the primary source. Understanding these two processes, however, can support important insights into the lives and cultures of ancient communities; they should not, therefore, be viewed as peripheral theories but as central in developing understanding of societies below the elite. Consequently, this study looks at collective forms of memory and forgetting in the Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty, focusing on commemoration of deceased kings and queens (‘royal ancestors’). The first three chapters use case studies to highlight different memory stores; written, pictorial and active. The final chapter focuses on forgetting. The evidence is analysed using both Egyptological and sociological theory to facilitate discussion on the subjects of community, identity and legitimation, and to develop understanding of material culture as a site of memory. The study argues that collective forms of remembering, particularly cultural memory, played a key role in the construction of individual and group identity and the legitimation of the ruler. Furthermore, it concludes that existing studies of memory provide good frameworks to understanding Egyptian society, although they should not be used without careful consideration of context.

This thesis examines a variety of theoretical issues relating to ethnicity, multiculturalism and racism in New Zealand. It is argued that whilst the country’s history has been replete with anti-Asiatic racisms, it is necessary to transcend the timeless notion of racism as colour discrimination and to instead, situate past and present anti-Asiatic racisms within the nation’s temporally specific positions in modernity. Through an orientation to time and diachrony, the research considers if a liberal policy of multiculturalism is conducive for contemporary New Zealand society. In view of academic debates suggesting that a ‘practical’ version of multiculturalism exists alongside the country’s constitutional biculturalism, it is argued that the de facto version of multiculturalism exhibits the characteristics of commercial and conservative multiculturalisms which fail to address the problem of racism. A liberal form of multiculturalism, it is maintained, will not produce the best outcome for New Zealand because it is insensitive to indigenous rights and will remain mutually exclusive from biculturalism. This research then concludes with a discussion on the likely future of cosmopolitanism in New Zealand, both as a theory and how it might possibly work in practice without immolating the hegemony of biculturalism.

The thesis set out to investigate the politics of Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOs) engaging the Government in Tanzania. The aim of the study is to get an understanding of the context, ways and means in which NGOs in Tanzania engage (with) the government to influence its policies and decisions. The thesis also analyses the implications and role of NGOs in bringing about social change in Tanzania. The thesis shows the relationship of subordination that is constituted through the operation of NGOs within the social, economic and political institutions of Tanzanian civil society. It offers an insight into the neo-liberal views that informs the distribution of aid to developing nations, and the affect this has had on state-civil society relationships within the Tanzanian nation state. Theoretically, the thesis uses Gramsci’s notion of hegemony which applies both at national level and international level. The counter hegemony which Gramsci expounds in terms of war of manoeuvre and war of position has been highlighted in relations to works of NGOs and civil society development. The thesis examines the engagement of Tanzanian NGOs to influence the process of NGO Policy and Act making; and monitoring the poverty strategies through the Campaign Against Poverty-Tanzania (GCAP-T). The thesis posit the future of NGOs on how they could side and work with people to create a society based on people needs, vision and aspiration.

This thesis seeks to contribute to the literature on Walter Benjamin and Jean Baudrillard, but not to merely retread old debates. It is concerned instead with a re-evaluation of the work of both thinkers in a particular context: the experience of the new cultural spaces, of twenty-first century post-industrial cities, and in relation to each other. I argue, following Benjamin, that these spaces function as contemporary ‘dreamhouses’. Deploying a constellation of Benjamin and Baudrillard’s ideas to read such spaces illuminates the experience of the contemporary cityscape around the themes of spectacle, distraction, interactivity, simulation and consumption. The thesis examines how these iconic architectural projects, the technological body of the cityscape, mediate our experiences of art, nature, personal and collective memory, and notions of public culture. I argue that we must read Benjamin again after Baudrillard in order to assess the value of both thinkers’ contribution to the understanding of contemporary cities organisation of space and culture. The contingent proximity that is uncovered when reading the theorists both together and against each other, is one which ultimately argues for the persistence of certain ‘messianic’ moments; traces or interruptions which can be uncovered against the notion of Baudrillardian ‘simulation’. This is to take seriously, rather than dispense with, Baudrillardian ideas. Both Benjamin and Baudrillard, together, are necessary to understand the experience of contemporary urban culture. Taking the form of four empirical encounters between the theoretical concepts and the cultural spaces themselves, I set out to locate these messianic possibilities. Each of the analytical chapters focuses on a different cultural space: The Lowry, Salford; The Deep, Hull, The Sage, Gateshead; and The Public, West Bromwich.

This thesis seeks to develop a conception of the British Political Tradition as an idea of democracy and apply it to explain the constitutional development of the House of Lords. The British Parliament is one of the oldest Parliaments in the world and is characterised both by the stability of its governing institutions and its capacity to absorb change. Academic literature of the British Political Tradition offers a plethora of arguments aimed at explaining which idea(s) have underpinned governing institutions and sustained their longevity in the constitution. The objective of this thesis is to demonstrate how the stability of Britain’s governing institutions and its history of strong authoritative government emanate from a dominant though contested idea of democracy founded upon a limited liberal idea of representation and a conservative idea of responsibility. The House of Lords is examined from the 1688 Glorious Revolution through to the modern day House of Lords Reform process (2012). The aim is to demonstrate through empirical practice how the British Political Tradition has been the dominant idea shaping the development the constitution and defining the powers of the Crown and the Houses of Lords and Commons.

Most research into contemporary French West Indian literature focuses on writing that stresses the significance of the plantation and urban cultures of the islands in the early to mid-twentieth century or, more recently, on the desire of some writers to explore broader trans-national influences or environments. Despite the prominence of migration in post-war French West Indian history, however, less has been said about the engagement of French West Indian literature with migration to metropolitan France. Although commentators have recently begun to discuss the work of a handful of writers in connection with migration to the métropole, this thesis offers a full-length analysis of the issue, bringing writers, texts and literary and cultural theories together with the cultural and sociological context of migration to metropolitan France. I comment on a variety of well-known authors and texts, while also presenting writers and writing that have frequently been neglected in other studies. I also consider the reasons for what I believe to be both the slow development of a literature of migration, as well as the low profile of this issue within Francophone literary studies. Part One, ‘French and West Indian: Historical and Sociological Contexts’, considers the broad context of migration, reflecting on how that context impacts on the West Indians and their descendants in the métropole. Part Two, ‘Theory and the French West Indian Diaspora’, looks at colonisation, postcolonial criticism, and the current scholarship devoted to them, as these concern the issues of migration and identity in sociological and literary terms. Part Three, ‘Patterns of Discourse: Reflections of the Métropole’, takes recurrent themes that have appeared in the works of a variety of less well-known writers, including writers of West Indian origin born in the métropole. In Part Four, ‘Siting the Métropole’, I examine three successful yet very different writers and consider their contributions to the literature of migration, in the light of the reflections made and the patterns uncovered earlier in this thesis. My conclusion unites the themes of inclusion and exclusion that this subject brings to the fore, and suggests potential literary and scholarly developments for the future.

The ‘Academies Programme’ has been the subject of limited research and virtually none focusing on their ‘entrepreneurial’ nature. As an inaugural piece of research, the research methodology was that of a survey, based upon semi-structured interviews of Senior Leaders in academies. The theoretical basis of the research is drawn from the modelling work published by Woods et al (2007). Emerging from the research are a number findings about entrepreneurism in academies based on the perceptions of Senior Leaders. These relate to: the entrepreneurial differences between earlier and recent ‘convertor’ academies; the impact of ‘chain’ academies; and the almost unanimous perception by those interviewed that academies are primarily focused on ‘social entrepreneurism’. From an initial review of the Woods et al (2007) ‘Lens Model’, the findings lead to a revision of the model to express the apparent predominant perception of social entrepreneurism in academies and the postulation of additional conceptual models. With the number of academies already standing at over fifteen hundred it is now apposite to consider the implications of the findings of this thesis, This thesis will be of interest to current and future academy Senior Leaders, new academies, researchers wishing to take forward the limited historical research, and policy makers for whom there are some major challenges to be faced in re-defining the nature of the ‘academy movement’.

Background: Childhood obesity is increasing rapidly in China. However, research into environmental contributors to the problem is limited. Formative research that informs theoretically based prevention interventions is also lacking. Objectives and Methods: To inform the development of obesity prevention interventions among urban Chinese primary school students by: 1.exploring perceived factors contributing to obesogenic behaviours (17 focus groups and 4 interviews, n=99 including 42 males), 2. exploring preferred components and delivery strategies for future preventive interventions (17 focus groups), 3. examining the relationship of family and neighbourhood environmental factors, to child weight status as well as related dietary and physical activity behaviours (cross-sectional study, n=497). Results: Inter-related social, historical, regulatory, policy, knowledge and economic factors emerged as factors influencing attitudes, social norms and perceptions of control in relation to obesogenic behaviours. Among those, grandparents emerged as a dominant but relatively easy- to- modify theme. In parallel, the presence and role of grandparents were significantly correlated with child weight status and snacking behaviour. Conclusions: The family environment has important influences on childhood obesity and obesegenic behaviours. Drawing on the overall findings, potential targets, components and delivery strategies are discussed using a Social Marketing framework for future prevention intervention.

In the discipline of International Relations, scholars have recently drawn attention to how political actors use narratives to claim legitimacy for themselves, their actions, and their use of force. Whilst such work provides welcome insights, there has been little attention given to how these narratives are often told through visual media on digital social media sites. In light of this, this thesis argues that visual media are central to how political actors claim legitimacy for the use of force in the digital age. Theoretically informed by work on aesthetics, narrative, and visual global politics, this thesis provides an analytical framework for studying the visual politics of legitimation. This is then explored through two case studies of the British Army and the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces. In each case study I draw upon multiple methods to analyse the narrative and visual content of each actor’s official Facebook Page, as well as the contexts of media production and audience reception. This thesis contributes to studies of global politics by illustrating how each actor uses visual media to claim legitimacy for the use of force, and thereby provides the first empirical analysis of the visual politics of legitimation.