This is the first critical study in the history of Nelson Algren criticism and scholarship to focus on Algren’s representation(s) of women. The critical consensus is that his women are ‘sympathetically imagined’ yet Algren has a reputation for being ‘no feminist.’ In this thesis I unpack this dichotomy by performing radical re-readings of his four novels, Somebody in Boots (1935), Never Come Morning (1942), The Man with the Golden Arm (1949), and A Walk on the Wild Side (1956). In each case I demonstrate that these novels perform feminist and masculinity studies work in their documentation and problematisation of rape and prostitution. I also unpack the mythologisation of love in Algren’s work which is based on out-dated readings of his protagonists’ intimate relationships and on a too-close association of his life with his literature. As such, this thesis also foregrounds the role critical readings play in the construction of a writer’s reputation. The ‘second sex’ of the title signals a) the thesis’s focus on women and b) the personal connection between Algren and Simone de Beauvoir who met on the cusp of writing The Man with the Golden Arm and The Second Sex. Re-reading archival evidence, I argue that Algren’s reputation as ‘no feminist’ owes much to being cast as Beauvoir’s ‘macho’ lover in the mythology of their relationship. Putting Algren’s women at the centre of readings demonstrates that he brought an incisive awareness of gender issues to the table when he and Beauvoir met in 1947. Foregrounding the women in Algren’s work, the richness and sophistication of Algren’s writing comes more fully to light. This thesis aims to provide a clearer sense of Algren’s place in American literature and an assessment of his relevance to the international canon of work on human sexuality, prostitution, and rape.

The Women's Section (Seccion Femenina) of the Franco regime's bureaucratic framework was founded in 1934 as an offshoot of the small fascist party, the Falange. Its leader, Pilar Primo de Rivera, was the sister of the Falange's founder, Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera and remained in post throughout the regime. The present study is of Seccion Femenina (SF) as it developed following the death of Jose Antonio during the Spanish Civil War, becoming part of the regime's bureaucracy while retaining its original ideological base. The thesis examines the emerging role of SF in the Spanish Civil War as a supporter of the Nationalist cause and its mandate in 1939 to train and prepare the women and girls in Spain for life under the new regime. SF's influence on government legislation and its contribution to the nation's economic and social stability up to 1959 are examined in relation to the political events of the period as well as the compromises made as SF faced opposition from other sectors of the regime. The second focus of the thesis is SF's ideological base and inner identity, and particularly the degree to which it exhibited features of fascism. This is examined in relation to its elite members, whose belief system was so enduring that it survived the decline of Falangism in the regime. In the face of political realities, SF always saw its 1939 mandate as its own 'Falangist Revolution' and its elite members as capable of transforming society. The origins of these beliefs, the contribution of foreign influences and the transmission of SF ideology in SF's elite academy are analysed in relation to the work and self-image of the elites. The paradox of SF as a loyal supporter of Francoism while challenging the class and social base of the regime is also examined, and religion is shown as the most significant area where SF differed from mainstream opinion and practice. SF's programmes have been studied via primary sources, journals and archive materials. The major primary source, however, is the set of forty-five interviews, conducted principally in Madrid but also in Salamanca, Santiago de Compostela, Palencia, Medina del Campo, Zaragoza, Toledo, the province of Leon and Britain between 1994 and 1999. Interviewees are mainly former elite members of SF together with unaffiliated women, male Falangists and others with experience of SF's programmes.

Although a significant amount of research has reported the level of parental satisfaction with the disclosure of a diagnosis, little has documented their emotional responses after the diagnosis, their perceptions of the future, and the potential impact this has on the uptake of evidence based early interventions. The aim of this study was therefore to explore parents’ responses to their child’s diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in order to contribute to a greater understanding of parental experiences, to inform future practice and to help shape effective support services and intervention packages. Using a semi-structured format, 15 parents were interviewed about receiving a diagnosis of ASD for their child in order to obtain detailed first person accounts of their experiences. The data were analysed using a thematic analysis. Five main themes were identified. These were; (1) Positive response to a diagnosis; (2) Negative response to a diagnosis; (3) Perceptions of the future; (4) Factors possibly facilitating engagement with professional services; and (5) Factors possibly preventing engagement with professional services. The implications of these findings for professionals involved in the diagnostic process and support services are discussed. Suggestions for future research based on the findings and limitations of this study are also identified.

This is a socio-legal study of widowhood among the Baganda of Uganda. The thesis explores widowhood as it affects women within their local cultural context to determine the extent to which they pursue their rights in property and other family relationships. The thesis takes the position that to see them as ‘passive victims’ is to deny them a ‘voice.’ It homogenises them denying them their individuality. To this end the thesis explores the activities individual women undertake to pursue their interests. The study examines their perceptions of their situations as narrated through their own voices and what they have done or are doing about the situation. Widowhood flows from death in a marriage relationship. Consequently, the thesis begins with a woman entering into marriage, exploring how she is conceptualised through the giving of marriage gifts/bridewealth and the consequences that flow from that in a marriage relationship and its implications for widowhood. The study argues that there is need to understand the local cultural context in which women live and that within this context there are several regulatory regimes/semi autonomous social fields that regulate the society. This includes customs and cultural practices, the imported western law and in recent years the Resistance Councils which were created by the State to encourage democratic participation and popular justice beginning at grassroots. None of these regimes are autonomous from the other although each seeks to exert its own power. This has far reaching consequences for the extent to which a woman can assert herself. Within this the ‘family council’ or clan to which every person in that society belongs emerges as the strongest regulatory regime. The study reveals that the choice of regimes allows a woman to pick and choose where to assert her rights depending on her interests, location and resource position. Within these set of circumstances her self perception as an individual with rights is the strongest tool in driving her to pursue her interests. The study also reveals that in some cases the written imported law supports cultural practices but because it is perceived as foreign, there has not been openess nor understanding of the substance of the law thus resulting in conflicts with customary practices. This is most evident in rural societies where cultural practices find their strongest means of expression. However there is room for harmony where the law does not seek to impose itself on other regulatory regimes but recognizes the need for sharing of powers and working in cooperation with these other regimes. In this respect the creation of the RC system which encourages local informal dispute resolution and which has the capacity to respond to social factors and changing attitudes within the community and the wider legal system can be an effective tool for legal innovation and draw the women as a whole into decision making.

This thesis is an ethnographic study of the stepfamily that was conducted between May 1985 and July 1986. The main methods of social investigation were participant observation, unstructured interviews and documentary evidence. The study examines the role of myth and its importance in the stepfamily from the view point of the stepparent. Special consideration has been given to consider the gender implications of step-parenthood and remarriage and the place of myth in the structuring of gender and stepfamily experiences. An opening chapter surveys the theoretical background to the study. Chapter Two introduces the families who took part in the study and contextualises their concerns. There are further chapters which examine the myth of the wicked stepmother, the importance of reciprocity in stepparent-stepchild relationships, the gender experience of second marriage and myth construction in the stepfamily. Chapter Seven serves as a summary and concludes that myth has a dual function in stepfamily life. Specifically, myths impose constraints on the stepmother's freedom of action which is not evidenced for stepfathers. Nevertheless, through the construction of myths within the stepfamily, myths serve a legitimating role for both stepparents which form the basis of step-parental perception. Appendices A and B are concerned with the research process and, given the personal nature of the research to the researcher, stand as an integral part of the thesis. In Appendix A two issues are considered. The importance of biography in the research process and the methods employed. Appendix B sets out the aides memoires used for unstructured interviews. Finally, Appendix C contains stepfamily trees and serves as a presentation device to indicate the various stepfamily relationships.

Dietary habits change over the life-course and might be profoundly affected by changes in lifestyle. The transition from living as a dependent in the family home to independent living is a crucial stage in most young people's lives, and the initial diet and lifestyle choices adopted following leaving home may form the basis of dietary habits and health status in adulthood. Many young people leave home to pursue further education, begin employment and/or co-habit/start a family. However, some leave home involuntarily or due to family conflict, becoming homeless. The circumstances of a young person's transition into independent living are likely to have an impact on their health behaviour and dietary habits. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the diet and lifestyles of young people living at home or independently. In particular, the diet and nutritional status of young adults at various stages of independent living (students, homeless and working young adults) was investigated. Phase 1 of the study investigated the differences in diet and health behaviour of young people living independently or in the family home (n=219). Phases 2,3 and 4 investigated the diet and nutritional status of (phase 2) students during their first year of study (n=58), (phase 3) homeless young adults residing temporarily in hostels (n=24) and (phase 4) working young adults who have lived independently for more than 4 years (n=33). The study was based in Liverpool, and volunteers were recruited largely from Merseyside, although the `snowball' recruitment technique resulted in some volunteers from Leicestershire, the Midlands, Surrey and Kent. An age range of 18-30 years was used for this study. This was in order to include both young people who had recently left home (who were likely to be at the lower end of the age range), and those who had lived independently for more than four years (who were likely to be at the higher end of the age range). The dietary habits of working young adults, who had lived independently for more than four years, were closest to recommended nutritional intakes. Students and the homeless generally consumed diets that were high in fat and sugar, and low in fibre. Alcohol intakes were high amongst male and female students and female working adults. Anthropometric measurements (height, weight, BMI and skinfolds) were comparable between students and working young adults.

This thesis is situated across the fields of contemporary political philosophy, critical theory and feminist/gender studies. It argues that the notion of an ‘ana-aesthetic’ is required in order to provide a fuller sense of the conceptual nuances regarding pornography. The ‘ana-aesthetic’ is suggested as the ground and surface economy for this ‘unsayable something’ that is so much a part of the everyday common senses of contemporary life and art. Distinct from the ‘anti-aesthetic’, the ‘ana-aesthetic’ utilises a discursive methodology, and in sidestepping the usual moral entanglements found in attempts to analyse sexually explicit and often misogynistic pornographies, this thesis shows how the ‘ana-aesthetic’ surface of ‘the pornographical’ generates a mimetic and bodily ethics. ‘The pornographical’ is discussed in terms of its techne of comic humour, as a way of creating substance without lapsing into abyssal logics of lack; and the manner in which sexual meaning of fantasy is pleasurable, forming compressed data. The comic is suggested as something found, a cultural ‘ready-made’ gesture, of pleasure, produced through an economic expenditure of ideational mimetics (upon cathexis). This thesis suggests that through the comic, ‘the pornographical’ creates mimetic economies of witnessing. ‘The pornographical’ occupies a strange cultural position in its relationship to both the body and to technology. It is this relationship that gives ‘the pornographical’ its paradoxical ‘ana-linguistic’/’a-radical’ (without a ‘root’) structure, that generates a way of thinking that is related to and also embodies and mediates the body, without positing sexuality as an essentialism.

This research explores the decision making processes of individuals and groups engaged in child protection practice within social services departments in the UK. The emphasis of the research was to consider how the application of psychological theories and concepts might allow a descriptive and interpretative evaluation of decision processes in child protection practice. The research sought to elaborate upon much of previous social work literature in that it focused upon the processes of decision making rather than the outcomes for participants. Similarly it sought to elaborate upon literature in decision theory in that it focused upon real world, ongoing and naturalistic decision situations. The theoretical framework used in the research was an integrated model of decision making under conditions of risk proposed by Whyte (1989,1991). This model outlines circumstances under which individuals and groups may take decisions in the directions of risk or caution. The methodological approach was grounded in the principles of qualitative research. Drawing upon Forster (1994) and Yin (1989) documentary analysis was applied to case studies. The research considered documents in relation to two categories of child protection cases. Initially those where children who were already known to child protection practitioners had died, namely, child death inquiry reports. Ongoing cases within a local authority child protection department, where the outcomes and decision making were considered to be positive, were then analysed. The interpretation from the first stage of the research suggested that all the concepts outlined in Whyte's model could have explanatory value and that the deaths of children could be a consequence of the ways in which decisions are framed and which leave children in situations of risk. The second stage involved the analysis of documents in relation to eight ongoing cases within a local authority. The number of group meetings held in the eight cases was 38 and in 71% of these the operation of the certainty effect in the direction of risk was evident. In the remaining 39% there was evidence that the certainty effect operated in the direction of caution. Within the documents there was some evidence of group polarisation and groupthink. Resources were committed and escalated consistently in order to ensure the effectiveness of initial plans of action despite evidence that these were unsuccessful in terms of the overall well being of the children. The decisions were shown to be bounded by the 'objective' principles of the Children Act 1989 and Working Together (1991). However themes that emerged from the analysis of the cases suggest that there is a 'subjective' influence on decision processes. Evident within the analysis was a shared fundamental belief in keeping children with their mothers. Both these objective and subjective influences suggest that almost inevitably decision making in child protection practice will be driven in directions that result in courses of action that involve potential and actual risks for children. The findings emphasise how an explicit recognition of the multifaceted nature of decision making can assist in more reflective practice. The ways in which national and local policy impacts upon decision processes, at the level of the individual and groups, need to be monitored in order that the needs of children in situations that involve risk remain paramount.

This study explores the experiences of young people who have been 'looked after' during the transitional period in which they leave 'care', moving on to live independently. The emphasis is on making visible the way in which young people are active in their lives; interacting with, rather than submitting to the social environment they operate within. Drawing upon life course theory (Elder,1997) taking an interactional biographical approach (Runyan, 1982); historical time and place are considered, particularly in relation to the social timing of life events. Of paramount importance is the notion of 'linked lives' where developmental pathways and life course trajectories are seen to be located within past transitions. Drawing upon feminist empiricist and feminist postmodernist thinking, a multi-methods approach to data collection is used. Initially, aggregate data for the 150 young people, eligible to receive leaving care services within the Local Authority, was made available for analysis. Structured interviews with 38 young people were completed. Fourteen young people, aged 16-18 when the research commenced, were included in the biographical phase of the research. In this phase, in-depth information about their unique life experiences was documented over a period of 12-18 months. It was found, in line with previous research, that care leavers experienced a much earlier transition to independent living, continual accommodation moves and high levels of unemployment (60-70%). The Leaving Care Scheme's risk assessment showed the largest proportion of young people categorised as 'high risk (44%). However, leaving care provision was not accessed by 35% of those young people eligible to receive services. The 'stories' told in depth reveal the way in which past experiences and past transitions can be seen to shape and direct life course trajectories; progressing the view that outcome evaluation is limited in utility when not viewed as part of an integrated whole. An ideological account of independence had consequentiality in terms of 'social timing' also operating as a barrier which distanced young people from leaving care services. There is considerable evidence in the research of young people as active agents. Such 'agency was always located within personal and situational contexts where differing levels of personaVinterpersonal action and compliance can be observed. The findings suggest that outcome evaluations are of limited use, and a focus on studies which accommodate life as a continuum, a series of 'linked states' where beginnings and endings are not so clearly defined would offer more informative representations of young people's 'post-care' lives. Leaving care policy makers and practitioners should reflect upon the consequentiality of the ideology with which they engage; aiming to foster more comprehensively a favourable social environment but one where young people are not seen exclusively as submitting to social conditions.

This thesis details an empirical exploration of disabled peoples’ lived experiences of sexual and intimate life. Disabled people are predominantly desexualised and degendered and within ableist cultures; they are also, as Brown (1994: 125) states, assigned paradoxical social categories of ‘asexual, oversexed, innocents, or perverts’. Thus, this thesis begins from the position that disabled peoples’ access to and experiences of sexual life occur in the context of these dominant ableist constructions of disabled sexualities, and that the reclamation or formation of a sexual self requires resistance to, or strategic management and negotiation of such constructions. The research methodology worked to the central tenets of consultation, accessibility, empowerment and relevance. A Research Advisory Group made up of local disabled people was established, the purpose of which was to guide the research process, offer expert knowledge, and ensure that the research was accessible, engaging and empowering for the individuals who took part. Through a thematic analysis of the sexual stories told by twenty-five disabled people (and one non-disabled partner), in their own words and on their own terms, this thesis details the complex and variegated relationships between disability, impairment, sexuality, and gender. Findings show that heteronormative discourse had very complicated and contradictory implications for disabled men and women, but also empowered disabled men relative to disabled women. Moreover, analysis has illustrated the ‘complex invisible “work” performed by disabled people’ (Church et al 2007: 1) through participants regularly taking on the roles of teacher, negotiator, manager, mediator, performer, educator, and resistor within a variety of spaces in their sexual and intimate lives. While this work was evidence of sexual agency, the majority of participants’ labours were rooted in the oppressive and inherent inequalities of ableist culture. Furthermore, the majority of participants experienced extensive psycho-emotional disablism – ‘the socially engendered undermining of psychoemotional wellbeing’ (Thomas, 1999: 60) – as routine within their sexual and intimate lives.