What is 'orgasmic slavery". This study interrogates the meaning of the term by analysing the racialised sexual exploitation of Black women. I examine the historical changes, differences, under-currents and complexities of the social construction of Black sexuality from the inferior position of African female slaves to the conditions of Black women in contemporary Britain. Refuting the premise that Black women are primarily sexual beings, this thesis examines the origins and consequences of this assumption. Through a literature review, the dominant British portrayal of both Black women and Black men in terms of pathological and rampant sexualities is evident. My work assesses how the British and American film industries contribute to such misconceptions. Utilising the research method of participant observation, the perceptions of men and women from different racial backgrounds about images of Black sexuality are addressed. A questionnaire survey queried opinions about the sexual proclivity and relationships of Blacks, whites, 'mixed race' and gays. Building upon this data, a pilot study that was based on images of Black sexuality and their influence upon identity and experiences, provided more information. Central to this debate were semi-structured interviews on the issues of images, identity and relationships as perceived to be related to Black female sexuality.

In this dissertation, we present two major lines of numerical investigation based on a control-volume approach to solve coupled, nonlinear differential equations. The first model is developed to provide better understanding of the water management in PEMFC operating at less than 100ºC, under transient conditions. The model provides explanations for the observed differences between hydration and dehydration time constants during load change. When there is liquid water at the cathode catalyst layer, the time constant of the water content in the membrane is closely tied to that of liquid water saturation in the cathode catalyst layer, as the vapor is already saturated. The water content in the membrane will not reach steady state as long as the liquid water flow in the cathode catalyst layer is not at steady state. The second model is to optimize the morphological properties of HT-PEMFCs components so as to keep water generated as close as possible to the membrane to help reduce ionic resistance and thereby increase cell performance. Humidification of the feed gas at room temperature is shown to have minimal effects on the ionic resistance of the membrane used in the HT-PEMFC. Feed gases must be humidified at higher temperature to have effects on the ionic resistance. However, humidification at such higher temperatures will require complex system design and additional power consumption. It is, therefore, important to keep the water generated by the electrochemical reaction as close as possible to the membrane to hydration the membrane so as to reduce the ionic resistance and thereby increase cell performance. The use of cathode MPL helps keep the water generated close to the membrane and decreasing the MPL porosity and pore size will increase the effectiveness of the MPL in keep the water generated close to the membrane. The optimum value of the MPL porosity depends on the operating conditions of the cell. Similarly, decreasing the GDL porosity helps keep water close to the membrane and the optimum value of the GDL porosity depends on the operating conditions of the cell. / text

Men and black and minority ethnic (BME) clinical psychologists represent distinct minorities in a majority white and female profession. The literature on these minority and majority groups in professions was reviewed, and consequences of minority-majority power relations for personal and professional development (PPD) and identities were considered. Critical theory was used to conceptualise links between individual, professional and societal processes and to develop a method of narrative inquiry exploring those connections. The PPD of clinical psychologists has not previously been investigated. Interviews were conducted with six white British clinical psycholotgists (four women and two men) and four BME clinical psychologists (all women). No BME men were recruited. Interview transcripts were subjected to critical narrative analysis on an individual case basis. Constant comparison methods were then used to produce group analyses. Wider societal power relations were inscribed in the PPD narratives of all participants. White participants' identities were largely congruent with PPD discourses, characterised by integration and individual development. BME PPD narratives were cyclical, based on repeated discrimination and conflicts between personal/ethnic and professional identities. Gender patterns were ambiguous though white men's PPD was majority-discoursed. Class interacted with other minority-majority effects. Recommendations for more critical PPD were made.

This thesis is about a workforce in the midst of regional economic fragmentation. It is an ethnographic study of a commercial farm on South Africa’s border with Zimbabwe, where farmer-landowners are white Afrikaners, and workers black and overwhelmingly Zimbabwean. Fleeing the hyperinflation and violent state oppression of the ‘Zimbabwean crisis’, farm workers encounter South Africa’s neoliberal restructuring, contraction of labour-intensive industry, and land reform. Economic informalisation in both countries – a shift to short-term strategies of ‘making do’ – seems to hail the disappearance of southern Africa’s longer-term patterns of racialised migrant labour systems. This thesis, however, argues for a labour relations or ‘productivist’ perspective on current trends. Agricultural workforces on the Zimbabwean-South African border, with their established forms of everyday organisation and on-site residence, profoundly shape the local setting. Their highly structured arrangements bear the mark of the region’s labour history, yet also reflect the forms of fragmentation currently characterising southern Africa. The thesis begins by exploring white border farmers’ self-understandings through their notions of success. It then offers a wider historical account of the border’s settler capitalists, their struggles for control of land and labour, and the role played by their enterprises as hubs of settlement. Focusing on one border farm today, the study turns to the black workforce itself. It investigates how permanent workers consolidate their powerful positions in diverse areas of life, blurring spheres of work and non-work; how seasonal workers, many displaced from Zimbabwe, with diverse socio-economic backgrounds, engage with the hierarchies built around their permanent counterparts; and how, in the midst of all this, senior black workers struggle over status by means of contrasting models of authority, pitting established paternalism against idioms of corporate management. Together, these perspectives reveal how a workforce’s internal arrangements both reflect and refract the wider dynamics of the border and of Zimbabwean displacement. The thesis finally develops this central theme by addressing the position of farm work in a wider economy of trade and services on the farms and across the border. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on one border farm, and in the border area more generally (November 2006-April 2008), and supported by archival research, this thesis contributes to the anthropology of work. It shows how workplace dynamics act as a prism, refracting the meanings of work, movement and upheaval in an era of informalisation, and embed displaced migrant workers in dense webs of dependence and obligation.

Chapter one is a literature review of the psychosocial factors which influence alcohol use in British South Asian men. Critical analysis of fourteen research articles revealed differences between first and second-generation South Asian men. The influence of religion, parental beliefs and acculturation were reported within the literature to affect alcohol use. The literature highlighted the issue of stigma and lack of awareness of services as barriers for treatment seeking. Additionally, the effect of religious and cultural beliefs of alcohol use may also discourage support from services. Chapter two investigated the experiences of British South Asian women who accessed psychological treatment within a cancer service using in-depth semistructured interviews. Key informants participated in focus groups to gain experiences of staff who had worked with South Asian communities. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the findings elicited themes which illustrated that the South Asian women held pre-existing beliefs about psychological services. They also described their psychological journey of cancer treatment and the impact on their family, friends and differences between generations was reported. Analysis of the key informants' focus group data highlighted the theme of challenges faced by the South Asian patients and the staff. This article provided evidence for better education and awareness for South Asian communities and staff. Chapter three is a reflective article on the process of conducting the empirical research. The article addressed the reasons that influenced the researcher to conduct the study. Issues that had arisen were of the effect of 'sameness and difference' between the researcher and participants and the impact of qualitative research methodology and empowerment. A reflection of the impact from the interview accounts was also discussed.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate issues connected with planning urban futures from scratch and, conversely, with the development of long-term planning frameworks, by focussing on designs for the 'Legacy' transformation of the 2012 Olympic site. 2012 Games bid organisers claimed that Olympic-related investments would stimulate in east London - a region characterised by de-industrialisation and deprivation - the 'regeneration of an entire community for the direct benefit of everyone who lives there' (IOC, p. 19). The development of a long-term plan for the Olympic site post-2012 was said to be key in realising this objective, providing the basis for leveraging ongoing investment and restructuring east London's economy. I am interested in how conceptions of regeneration and legacy are formulated and evidenced in plans for the site's future and in what these mean for 'community' - historic, present and imagined constituencies of local residents and workers. Olympic sceptics argue that the problem with projected Olympic legacies is that there is all too little guarantee that they will actually come to fruition. Meanwhile, regenerations of other post-industrial sites in London are said to have produced unevenly distributed benefits, least advancing the prospects of those dispossessed by redevelopment and poorer, residual constituencies. This research considers how urban designs: a) frame future benefits connected with London 2012, and; b) mediate between the Olympic site as found, the needs and interests of local people and urban policy and planning objectives. Mixed methods and interdisciplinary perspectives are employed in examining conceptions and in empirically exploring the site's transformation from 2005 to 2010. Aside from the major themes of legacy and regeneration, chapters are linked through attention on how transforming relationships between authorities and owners influence forms of urbanisation and use. These transformations help to reveal both actual and potential outcomes of 2012's legacy plans.

Research has indicated that working with black minority ethnic clients, is an area that creates some uncertainty for health and social care staff. Although, policies and practices are changing and developing there continues to be some ambiguity and ambivalence around working with individuals from different ethnic groups. This thesis considers two situations on a clinical level in which working with minority ethnic clients might raise additional dilemmas and challenges. These include working therapeutically with an ethnically dissimilar adult in therapy and working with black minority ethnic children in domestic violence situations. The first paper is a review of literature on addressing race in cross-racial therapy. In particular this paper focuses on how clinicians might bring up the issue of race in therapy, the factors which influence a therapist in discussing race and outcome studies in which race has been addressed in cross-racial therapy. The second paper is an empirical study exploring health and social care professionals’ perceptions and experiences of working with black minority ethnic children who are in domestic violence situations. This paper examines professionals’ perceptions of these children's family and of the wider professional system and considers how these two factors result in ongoing challenges for professionals working in this field. The paper also examines how these perceptions and dilemmas influence practice. The final paper is a reflective account of the hidden stories that were uncovered within me as researcher, participants and children throughout my research journey. In summary, the three papers demonstrate the important of remaining open in working with black minority ethnic clients, taking the time to understand the multiple influences within their lives and considering them as individuals rather than labelling. The papers also indicated the importance of having the confidence to ask questions about racial difference and in domestic violence situations where stories may remain hidden.

The study will analyse how Anglo-American evangelicals' antipathy towards slavery spread and transformed in the context of the transatlantic evangelical network. Many researchers have treated antislavery sentiment as a spontaneous reaction, or as one of a number of background moods influencing those who started the abolitionist movement. However, this sentiment spread in the Atlantic world as result of evangelical activities throughout the eighteenth century. The formation of the transatlantic evangelical network is central to understanding the spread of antislavery sentiment. Stimulated by the Great Awakening in the 1730s and the 1740s, Anglo-American evangelicals began to travel between both sides of the Atlantic. Much evidence suggests that a religious and ideological sense of unity was being forged during this process. Importantly, the evangelical network offered a channel of transatlantic communication allowing Anglo-Americans to debate common issues. Although in itself not antislavery, it had the potential to develop antislavery sentiment among its members. Many historians have not traced the development of antislavery ideals in the mid-eighteenth century as there seemed no public self-identifying antislavery movement. However, close examination of 'proslavery' literature reinvents this period into years of transformation of evangelical attitudes to slavery, far from a 'dark age' of unquestioned proslavery expression. Below the surface, fledgling antislavery sentiment was spreading in the Atlantic world before the American Revolution. In the tense atmosphere of the American Revolution in the 1770s, antislavery sentiment became transformed into moral conviction. Many members of religious communities on both sides of the Atlantic lost their confidence in the imperial system, and were fearful for their moral health. As part of this process, ill-feeling towards both the inhumanity and religio-moral inconsistencies of slavery became transformed into a moral ideology. Furthermore, the Revolution stimulated evangelical abolitionism and participation in wider secular political activities. After the Revolution, the evangelical network seemed to be reinvigorated, responding to new territorial and economic circumstance. However, conflicts within the transatlantic evangelical community caused by disestablishment debates stimulated the process of division, and influenced the developmental process of the antislavery movement in the transatlantic evangelical network. Consequently, evangelicals in each area developed individual abolitionist movements, producing different outcomes. This reflects that the transatlantic evangelical network's mission for a transatlantic channel for the antislavery cause was finishing.

This thesis examine three distinct aspects of the labour market integration of immigrants and their children in the host country. The first chapter looks at the early careers of immigrants to shed light on the mechanisms driving the immigrant wage growth in the first years in the host country. I use a unique linked employer employee panel covering all wage earners in the private sector in Portugal to follow the careers of immigrant men. I show that in the first ten years in the country immigrants close one third of the initial immigrant-native wage gap and that one third of this wage catch-up is accounted for by immigrants gaining access to better paying firms. I then suggest an economic assimilation mechanism which highlights imperfect information about immigrant productivity and show that its predictions are in line with the data. The second chapter offers a longer term perspective of the economic assimilation of immigrants by turning to the labour market performance of the second generation. The chapter uses a unique survey of children of immigrants from Turkey, Morocco and ex-Yugoslavia, and children of natives in 15 European cities to closely compare their educational and labor market outcomes. Although the second generation performs on average worse than the children of natives in most outcomes considered, all differences are explained by differences in socio-economic background. While the first chapter focused on the dynamics of the wage gap over time, the third chapter studies the differences in the level of the wage gap across immigrant populations. The chapter provides a comparison of the wage gaps by country of origin in two major host countries, the UK and the US, in order to disentangle country of origin effects from immigrant selection. I show that the wage gaps by country of origin are strongly correlated in the two host countries and that virtually all the correlation is accounted for by differences in country of origin specific returns to education.

This study explores the popular politics behind the main milestones that shape Nasserist Egypt. The decade leading up to the 1952 revolution was one characterized with a heightened state of popular mobilisation, much of which the Free Officers’ movement capitalized upon. Thus, in focusing on three of the Revolution’s main milestones; the resistance to the tripartite aggression on Port Said (1956), the building of the Aswan High Dam (1960-­1971), and the popular warfare against Israel in Suez (1967-­1973), I shed light on the popular struggles behind the events. I argue that to the members of resistance of Port Said and Suez, and the builders of the High Dam, the revolution became a struggle of their own. Ideas of socialism and Arab nationalism were re-­articulated and appropriated so that they became features of their identities and everyday lives. Through looking at songs, idioms and stories of the experiences of those periods, I explore how people experimented with a new identity under Nasser and how much they were willing to sacrifice for it. These songs and idioms, I treat as an ‘intimate language’. A common language reflecting a shared experience that often only the community who produces the language can understand. I argue that songs capture in moments of political imagination what official historical narratives may not. Furthermore, I argue that these songs reveal silences imposed by state narratives, as well as those silences that are self-­imposed through the many incidents people would rather forget. The study contributes to an understanding of the politics of hegemony, and how an ideology can acquire the status of ‘common sense’ through being negotiated, (re)-­articulated, and contributed to, rather than enforced on a people suppressed. It also contributes to our understanding of popular politics, and the importance of exploring the experiences and intentions of people behind historical and political milestones; understanding politics beyond the person of politicians and the boundaries of the nation state.