This thesis presents the voices of older workers in South Korea through their life stories and experiences in order to interpret how employed older people understand age discrimination in employment, by studying the following four areas: how older workers understand the value of work; theories and concepts of ageing; age discrimination; and South Korea’s policies and programmes for employing older people. In order to interpret in depth the understanding of age discrimination in employment amongst a sample of eighteen employed older Koreans, a biographical method was adopted which generated experiences of age discrimination within each person’s life story. These were analysed using biographical narrative analysis. These employed older people enjoyed working and chose to work both because they wanted to and because this was the only way of meeting their various needs. Others believed that they were people who liked to work and be active and yet others believed that it was their destiny to work, even though they felt more tired as they grew older. They strongly believed that their work performance was still good enough to be competitive. In terms of age discrimination, they revealed the dilemma between their hope of working and the consideration that younger people were currently unemployed. Nevertheless, they did not accept the effect on their working lives of age discrimination which disregarded their capacity to work. In this sense, some interviewees hope that the government will provide an environment and opportunity for older workers to show their ability to work.

This thesis explores the experiences and meanings that are attributed to kinship care by caregivers, young people of African descent, and social workers. It examined the meanings each group attached to kinship care and the risk and resilience they saw within it. The research was framed within the culturally distinctive theoretical framework of the Afrocentric paradigm which encapsulates cultural values. A qualitative approach was adopted for data collection, using interviews, and aspects of Grounded Theory for data analysis. The findings show that kinship care is a survival strategy that has historical significance for people of African descent, because it is linked to a tradition of help and a broad base of support. The study found that while local authorities were formally placing children with their relatives, there was a distinct lack of policy development to support kinship care as a welfare service. The absence of clearly identified support structures, tools for assessment, training and monitoring increased the risk factors for children who were placed in kinship care. Resilience was transferred through the Afrocentric cultural values, a key factor that led to family preservation and placement stability. The study concluded that there is an urgent need to reframe policy and practice.

This project is an ESRC CASE study of one of the largest housing associations in England. The aim of the study was to take a multi-layered view of the organisation to explore its changing identity, by tracking its evolving community investment strategy over a 2 year period as an examination of shifting sub-cultures and driving institutional logics. The underlying theme of a multi-layered approach led to a research design sub-dividing the organisation horizontally and vertically into management strata and functional and geographical sampling points. The focus on ‘strategy, culture, logics and community investment’ was derived from a research cycle which integrated both macro level issues and the organization’s internal agenda reflecting the inherent paradoxes characterising the hybrid third sector of social housing. The thesis builds on earlier work on competing institutional logics in social housing and links this to changing organisations cultures to show how hybridity is enacted over time. The author concludes that a dominant corporate sub-culture, tied into a commercial, customer-driven logic has been displacing more regional, local community cultures derived from the pre-merger organisations. This enactment process is exemplified by the centralisation and consumerisation of CI services depicted in the author’s logics-culture matrix.

Women’s perception of university education and professional life during the period 1900 to 1945 is the focus of this study. In order to examine these perceptions, the thesis undertakes a close textual analysis of autobiographical writings by two medical doctors, Rahel Straus (1880-1963) and Charlotte Wolff (1897-1986) and the aviator Elly Beinhorn (1907-2007). The images employed in these texts indicate the intricate ways that individual women in the professions define their sense of who they are in relation to their surroundings and how that sense may shift in different settings and at different times, or may ostensibly not shift at all. I have developed a differentiated language for the purposes of articulating the fluidity. This language allows me to take apart narrative levels and to examine the importance that is attached to gender in relation to religion, race, nationality, sexuality and professional identities. Through differentiating between narrative levels I am able to juxtapose life experiences that at first glance seem unconnected and to show this can be done without imposing binary classifications such as ‘emancipated’ or ‘un-emancipated’, as ‘political’ or ‘apolitical’ or ‘victim’ or ‘perpetrator’. The language that I have developed enables me to explore the articulation of self where it cannot be classified and where self should not be judged.

This research sought to examine the relationship between material and virtual space for Transnational Advocacy Network members in Manila, Bangkok and Jakarta. In the decade since the seminal work of Keck and Sikkink’s ‘Activists Beyond Borders’ there have been significant technological advancement and the ensuing literature has positively portrayed the possibilities for network members and other activists. Through extensive semi-structured interviews with members of Transnational Women’s Networks in Jakarta, Bangkok and Manila and thorough review of the literature it sought to establish the relationship between traditional, material spaces and emergent virtual spaces across four main themes; access to technology, relationships, freedom in virtual space and collective identity. These themes emerged from the fieldwork and presented themselves as trends within the literature which then led to their consideration within this research. This work argues that there is a continued relationship between material geography and virtual space and that an individual or groups physical location continues to have overriding implications on their online presence both in terms of their direct access, legislative obstacles and their perceptions of relationships and identity.

Collaboration has become closely linked with school improvement. Literature identifies elements which contribute to successful collaboration. This study identifies some of these elements. The study focus is collaboration of senior leaders in primary schools in a Midland’s LA. It identifies senior leaders’ understanding of collaboration and how the collaborative process is developed in contributing schools. The study is largely qualitative and based on the perceptions of primary school leaders. The methodology is that of survey, within this two methods were used to gather data – questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The questionnaire was designed to identify themes relating to collaboration which were then developed using semi-structured interviews to provide additional data and clarify specific areas relating to senior leaders’ perceptions and understanding of collaboration and their approach to collaborative working in primary schools. The findings show collaboration is perceived to be important to school improvement although the majority of contributors in this study have a ‘top-down’ approach. The study identifies if collaboration is to be successful there may be a need for reflection to be built into the collaborative process presenting a potential model for discussion on how reflection could be included in the collaborative process in primary schools. The study contributes to existing knowledge of collaboration of senior leaders in primary schools presenting a tentative ladder, based on literature and findings in this study, for different stages of collaboration moving forward from little or no collaboration to achieving successful effective equal collaboration, identifying how collaboration may be further developed in primary schools.

Many local churches in Britain have adopted a neighbourhood paradigm, in which the neighbourhood is seen as the primary locus of mission and ministry. Social change increasingly calls that paradigm into question. This thesis engages in a reflective conversation between the sociological context of neighbourhood churches in the United Kingdom and theological themes which resource the self-understanding of such churches. Beginning with action research, and then through a review of literature from ecclesial sources, the neighbourhood paradigm is explored and then critiqued. The critique comes particularly through the sociology of individualization. Alternative models of church are explored as they begin to address these issues. The action research, analysis of the neighbourhood paradigm, and the study of individualization all point to ambivalence and hybridity as key experiences in late modernity. Theological reflection on individualization and ambivalence develops an understanding of Christian freedom which can engage with ambivalence and social change. This provides a theological resource for relating to the sociological context of local churches. This resource recognizes the essentially mixed and hybrid nature of contemporary lives and contemporary neighbourhoods, and provides a foundation for a renewed hybrid paradigm for neighbourhood ministry.

This thesis analyses the effect of affirmative action policies on targeted groups in India. A robust analysis of the impact of public sector employment quotas for lower caste groups and women is estimated. Chapter 1 focuses on the effect association with these quotas has on lower caste groups and results show not all targeted groups benefit from the policy. Chapter 2 analyses the effect of women’s reservation policy in public employment and results show that there is some movement by women into the labour force. The biggest effect is the movement from private to public sector, putting into question the effectiveness of the policy in increasing female labour force participation rates. The final chapter then extends Chapter 2 to look at the effect of having a female friendly state, by using reservation policy as proxy for this, and women’s working status on incidences of domestic violence. Results show that women’s working status reduces incidences of domestic violence and more female friendly states have a lower likelihood associated with violence. Further to this, it is found that domestic violence increases when women earn more than men. Overall, results are mixed and possible policy recommendations are also outlined in each chapter.

Qualitative data from two sets of interviews are presented. One is based on semi-structured interviews conducted with Social Workers who work with asylum seekers and refugee families. The second deals with stories of African refugees who attend a Day centre in South London where I was a participant-observer. These “stories” are actual testimonies retold without being interrupted. By telling their stories from their own perspectives, refugees formed narratives, which are self-sufficient and integral (Karamelska and Geiselmann, 2010). Findings from this study indicate that multiple and sometimes contradictory narratives are confronted by social workers in their direct work with asylum seekers and refugees. Social workers reported the demanding and ethically challenging nature of their work with refugees. They also highlighted structural problems in the work place such as managerialism, bureaucracy, lack of supervision and training. Asylum seekers reported traumatic and life threatening experiences during the pre-migration and flight phases. Others narrated “heroic” stories of suffering and hope and how they had drawn on available resources to rebuild their lives in exile. Rather than simply using refugee stories as a guide to understanding the needs of refugees and asylum seekers, the study recommends that social workers focus on the “story” as a medium through which change can be effected. This process involves moving from uncovering or deconstructing the narrative to externalising and creating an alternative narrative (Fook, 2002: White 2004).

This thesis uses an area studies approach to examine the complex relationship between citizenship, disability and welfare provision. It does so through a bottom-up analysis of how the state welfare system affects the everyday lives of physically disabled adults in contemporary Russia. Drawing on thirteen months of qualitative fieldwork in the city of Kazan, I study how tensions between guaranteeing rights and providing care are balanced in social provision. My focus on physical disability offers a sharp insight into the socially constructed tropes of control and exclusion that can mediate experiences of citizenship and also seeks to rectify the lack of research on disabled people in non-Western contexts, especially the postsocialist region. My research is underpinned by a theoretical and methodological framework that sees ‘social citizenship’ as an explicitly relational, emotional and embodied phenomenon and therefore values lived experiences of welfare provision. Each of my four empirical chapters considers a particular dimension of citizenship: needs interpretation, livelihoods, mobility and personal agency. Together they highlight that welfare provision is not always empowering and can create powerful inequalities. At the same time, I show that citizenship is often reworked from below through actions and discourses that challenge official ideas about the capacities and needs of disabled people.