“Izzat” is a phenomenon which confers status and respect, is fluid enough to shift from the individual to the collective domain, and which through its relationship with “sharam” (shame) commands conformity to acceptable norms of behaviour in Asian communities. A chronological approach in this thesis to the mining of research on Asian communities in Britain since the 1960s gradually revealed an emerging discourse on the concept and found that it was considered significant and yet given limited focus. Through empirical research this study uniquely places the concept at its centre. The research involved 25 in-depth interviews with young British Asian men and women who were also Youth and Community Workers, aged between 18 and 35 and explored how “izzat” and the equally important concept of “sharam” shapes their lives. This research identified the multi-layered and nuanced nature of “izzat” and discovered how young Asians learn about it through immersion in family and community-life. It discovered how it can be maintained and/or enhanced by members of Asian communities bygenerally ‘Conforming to Acceptable Norms’, and in line with established notions of ‘achieved’ and ‘ascribed’status, through ‘Achievement’ and by virtue of ‘Inherited Factors’. It explored how “izzat” can be lost through attracting “sharam”, and examined the close relationship between “izzat”, “sharam” and gender. It also demonstrated how both “izzat” and “sharam” are significant in curbing behaviour through the process of reflected “izzat” and “sharam” which in turn influence individual and familial reputations in Asian communities. The conclusion to the thesis also includes inferences drawn from the empirical research regarding implications for Youth and Community Practice.

The idea of cross-class families has been controversial over the last three decades. In class analysis literature, the debate was intertwined with issues on the cross-gender class comparison and women’s social class. This thesis will try to deal with the ambiguity in previous cross-class-family studies, which distracted a lot of energy from developing the knowledge of cross-class families. Through the social capital perspective, this thesis examines three key critiques to cross-class families: (1) All families are class homogeneous; (2) Sharing resources is equivalent to class similarity; (3) The occupations of the female and the lower-occupation partners have no empirically significant contribution to their own social class. Through the latest waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and an updated British occupational class scheme, National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) 2000, the thesis examines the three matters. It concluded that there are substantial amount of families where the male and female partners were different significantly in terms of social capital and social class. Couples share social resources may have significant difference in social class. This sharing may only suggest correlations. The occupations of the female and lower-occupation partners should not be ignored in the measurement of their own socio-economic positions.

This thesis explores co-production between citizens and third sector professionals (in community regeneration, parents’ organisations, and older people’s services) in Sheffield, England and Lyon, France. I employ an analytical framework of institutional logics to explore how the rules, practices and narratives of the organisations are specific to their contexts and how these shape co-production practices. The study finds that while the Sheffield organisations are characterised by an assimilation of the state, community and market logics, the Lyon organisations demonstrate a blend of a ‘Napoleonic state’ logic, and a ‘local solidarity’ logic. These combinations of logics illuminate two approaches to co-production. In France, co-production is informed by notions of citizenship, solidarity and participative democracy, leading to a greater focus on citizen involvement in organisational governance and influence of rules as an enabler and constraint to co-production. In Sheffield, co-production is seen as a way to improve communities, services and outcomes, and we therefore see more pragmatic attention to co-design and co-delivery activities. This thesis provides an important contribution to co-production theory and practice, by employing institutional theory to demonstrate some of the cultural and contextual subjectivity of co-production, and producing evidence of meso and macro level factors that influence co-production behaviour.

Theorists have argued that the effectiveness of dialogue about equality-related public policy has been limited by a range of factors (e.g. limited representation of minority groups or dominant discourses about ‘equality’ that prevent wider discussion). This study focuses on how we might create public dialogue more in keeping with what people really value around the topic of equality. The study does this by firstly mapping English local authority approaches to engaging ethnic minorities in public policy dialogue. This is followed by a ‘qualitative experiment’ which compares the effects of two popular models of public engagement (‘multiculturalism’ and ‘interculturalism’) on participants’ experiences. The study identifies important conventions of dialogue associated with ‘representative claim-making’ that can hinder critical deliberation of equality-related public policy issues. The study also highlights particular aspects of facilitation practice which appear to improve research participants’ levels of autonomy and the breadth of equality issues discussed through public dialogue.

Through interview generated narratives of subjects of three generations of urban middle-class Bengalis living in Kolkata, India and other auto-ethnographic narrative texts; this research seeks to examine generation, gender and class specific meanings of intimate heterosexual identities and relations. It focuses on the ways in which subjects negotiate institutionalized heterosexuality or hetero-normativity within everyday practices of intimacy. Subjects’ on-going negotiations that tell stories of multiple and contradictory subjectivities, are analysed to show how personal narratives of intimacy vary across a range of conflicting and competing colonialist, nationalist and trans-nationalist discourses of heterosexuality. Through analysing stories of homosocial intimacy, heterosexual coupling and expressions of intimacy; the research examines the power and vulnerability of ‘doing gender’, illustrates how ‘practices of intimacy’ overlap with ‘family practices’ and demonstrates that expressions of intimacy are socially ordered and linguistically mediated. The research critiques the ‘individualization thesis’ of reflexive modernization by showing how practices of intimacy are socio-culturally embedded within family relations, both real and imagined. By appreciating multiple meanings of power and agency, it also critiques a colonial-modernist notion of linear progress by illustrating the shifting meaning and the mutual co-constitution of the categories of ‘past’ and ‘present’, ‘tradition’ and ‘modern’, ‘East’ and ‘West’.

In 2002, the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act was passed which required migrants to demonstrate a ‘sufficient knowledge’ of English and ‘sufficient knowledge about life in the United Kingdom’ in order to become British citizens. This thesis investigates some of the linguistic practices during the citizenship process of a Yemeni migrant named W. This eleven month ethnographically-informed case study examines four forms of becoming. Firstly, becoming through the LUK (Life in the UK) test is analysed using Messick’s unified concept of validity. Secondly, Bakhtin’s ‘ideological becoming’ is used to capture the bilingual practices in engaging with the LUK test as well as offering an entry point to understanding notions of community and belonging. Thirdly, adult ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) is positioned as a ‘space of becoming’ (Baynham and Simpson 2010). W negotiates his way through the qualification framework and his sense of investment and identity is challenged. Finally, the citizenship ceremony as a moment of becoming is analysed through Foucault’s examination and Derrida’s shibboleth. The LUK test and ceremony represent two very different trials for W. Community life and ESOL education are characterised as gradual forms of development.

The thesis considers townscape change and the operation of conservation policies within two city centre conservation areas in Birmingham and Bristol during the 1970s and 1980s. The study combines character assessment of the two areas, from an urban morphogenetic perspective, and micro-scale examination of local authority planning application data to consider the impact of conservation management. Utilising the concepts and terminology developed by M.R.G. Conzen for the analysis of the townscape, the study identifies distinct units of townscape within the conservation areas. The use of an historical basis for conservation area character exposes the arbitrary nature of many conservation area boundaries, enclosing clusters of listed buildings rather than coherent areas of townscape. This approach also exposes the static nature of area character assessments based on architecture alone. These assessments provide an inflexible basis for character preservation and enhancement, one which under-values minor commercial and industrial heritage. While the influence of national economic trends, planning policies and architectural fashions produced a similar trajectory of conservation policy development in both areas, important local differences existed. Differences in the local office market and the extent of building listing produced contrasts in the 'success' of conservation policies. The high percentage of listed buildings in Bristol produced greater success in policy development and application than in Birmingham, by providing greater access to grant funds and the strength to sustain refusals at appeal. Consequently, in Bristol, contextual styles were used exclusively for new building from the mid-1970s onwards, and redevelopment using façadism was limited. This also aided the development of landscaping and building enhancement schemes, helping to tackle the erosion of character through minor change. In Birmingham, amid a pro-business climate and with limited listing of the Victorian fabric, the transition to contextual styles was more muted and façadism remained a key option for new commercial development. These circumstances also delayed and limited the development of enhancement strategies until the mid-1980s. In the late-1980s, rising commercial pressures exposed the weaknesses of conservation control in both areas. Limitations to their character assessments reduced the ability of the two areas to resist trends towards universal historicist styles for new building, and the use of standard 'corporate-heritage' elements for building interiors and exteriors. The lack of extra control offered by area designation for the regulation of interior and functional change reduced the ability of the local authorities to monitor and control the micro-scale processes of change, leading to further character erosion.

This thesis documents the researcher’s exploratory investigation into the effectiveness of community learning programmes, run primarily by local social welfare organizations, in building up the critical thinking capacities of Malay-Muslim youths in Singapore. The premise is that a lack of critical thinking competencies among members of the Malay-Muslim community at large has contributed to the many problems that they are currently facing such as negative stereotyping, the lag in educational attainment and the inability to match the socio-economic progress achieved by the other ethnic groups in the country. Essentially, this research points to such issues as resulting from the prevalence of negative mental models within the Malay worldview. Underpinned by an eclectic research framework based on the theories of Freire, Giddens and Bourdieu, the study begins by seeking Malay-Muslim youths’ perceptions of issues facing their community. However, what is more crucial is that it asks these youths to relate their personal experiences in participating in the activities conducted by these organisations and how they subsequently were, or were not, ‘conscientised’. The research sees such effects as an indication of capacity building for critical thinking. Based on the participants’ responses, this study has identified five experiential categories which, when encountered by the youths, played a role in conscientising and subsequently building up their capacities for thinking critically of themselves and their community. The findings of the research will now be shared with all relevant parties interested in such issues. Several recommendations have also been subsequently formulated.

This study explored how educational settings influence the experiences of students of Pakistani heritage in Birmingham. Research has highlighted the continued attainment gap that exists between White and minority ethnic students in Britain (for example, Gillborn, 2008; Strand, 2014). Public examination and National Curriculum assessment data in Birmingham demonstrated, despite improvements, gaps in achievement for Pakistani students, who were identified as a group at risk of underachieving (Birmingham City Council (BCC), 2012). The study took a phenomenological approach, specifically interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), to explore how educational settings influence the experiences, academic attainment and identity of a small sample of academically successful Pakistani students, who were currently studying at the University of Birmingham. Interview data were analysed using IPA and five emerging superordinate themes were presented: ‘multiple identities’, ‘gendered identities’, ‘learning contexts’, ‘others’ expectations and wider influences’ and ‘high status subjects and professions’. These findings were discussed in relation to extant literature and the initial research questions. Additionally, the study’s strengths and limitations were examined and areas for further research were identified. Finally, implications of the study’s findings were considered in relation to educational and educational psychology practice.

This thesis explores three topics within the broad area of urban growth and environment in China, city size distribution, city growth pattern and the environment impacts of city growth. The research is firstly motivated by two key stylized facts- the well-known Zipf's law for cities (which states that the number of cities of size greater than S is proportional to 1/S, i.e. the rank of a city is inversely correlated with its size) and Gibrat's law for cities (which states that city growth rate is independent of its size). Thus Chapter 3 and 4 examine the evolution of city size distribution by testing for Zipf’s law and Gibrat’s law in China from 1879 to 2009 (number of cities varies over time). Chapter 5 thereafter investigates the growth pattern of Chinese cities by testing for the sequential city growth (Cuberes, 2009). Given the concern of the environment impacts of city growth, Chapter 6 examines the impact of city size on local air quality using 30 major cities in China from 2003 to 2012.